If you see an account that looks interesting, follow it!
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"Connections between servers are not necessarily a good thing."
I'm trying to encourage people to build connections between smaller servers instead of everyone going to mastodon.social.
A really important part of this is people on smaller servers building connections between each other through follows.
Most people are unware of how powerful their follows are. I'm trying to get across to them that a follow doesn't just connect you but all the people on your server too.
Agreed on encouraging people to build connections between smaller servers, and that people are unaware of how powerful their follows are. So, useful to help people understnad the impact of connections!
But that power is a two-edged sword, so I think think connections between servers aren't inherently a good thing.
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The "no harm" was about people worrying that following an account would affect an algorithm, that's what it leads into in the next part of the sentence. I was responding to people who thought that following an account would trigger some kind of hidden algo that adjusted their entire feed. (People are so used to this happening on Instagram etc.)
I've removed the "no harm" bit so that this is clearer.
@FediTips thanks!
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Agreed on encouraging people to build connections between smaller servers, and that people are unaware of how powerful their follows are. So, useful to help people understnad the impact of connections!
But that power is a two-edged sword, so I think think connections between servers aren't inherently a good thing.
Oh yeah, sorry, I see what you mean now. I didn't mean to imply that every connection was good.
Some accounts and servers should not be connected to.
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@FediTips thanks!
Thanks for flagging it! I hadn't considered that possible interpretation of the phrase.
EDIT: I've added a sentence to the end of that section saying people may want to check what an account looks like before following, and it leads into the next part which tells them how.
EDIT 2: I'll also try to phrase this topic better in future posts. Sorry for the mess.
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If you see an account that looks interesting, follow it!
Don't worry if it seems inactive or blank, it probably just looks that way because you're the first person to follow it from your server. (More info about why this happens and how to see the actual complete version of a "blank" profile at https://fedi.tips/why-does-someones-account-page-look-completely-blank-is-it-really-blank)
Once you follow an account, its posts will start showing up on your server too. Following accounts is a key part of building connections between servers.
@FediTips huh, I've been ignoring followers who have no posts. I didn't realize that they might appear to have no posts because no one from my server has followed them yet. Is it server :: user or server :: server? IOW, if any user on my server follows any user on their server, will the posts of any users on their server be apparent to me on my server?
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@FediTips huh, I've been ignoring followers who have no posts. I didn't realize that they might appear to have no posts because no one from my server has followed them yet. Is it server :: user or server :: server? IOW, if any user on my server follows any user on their server, will the posts of any users on their server be apparent to me on my server?
If at least one person on your server is following that account, then its posts will show up for everyone on your server.
If no one on your server is following that account, then it may appear blank.
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If at least one person on your server is following that account, then its posts will show up for everyone on your server.
If no one on your server is following that account, then it may appear blank.
@FediTips got it, so it's server :: user. Thank you. I'll try following back some of these no-post accounts.
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@FediTips got it, so it's server :: user. Thank you. I'll try following back some of these no-post accounts.
You can check what they really look like by clicking ... on their profiles and then "view original page" or "view in browser" or similar phrases depending on your app.
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@FediTips huh, I've been ignoring followers who have no posts. I didn't realize that they might appear to have no posts because no one from my server has followed them yet. Is it server :: user or server :: server? IOW, if any user on my server follows any user on their server, will the posts of any users on their server be apparent to me on my server?
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I think it was a decision not to overwhelm smaller servers by fetching every post for every discovered profile.
Mastodon can backfill profile posts, it already does so with pinned posts for every discovered profile, but these are more limited as only five posts can be pinned at a time.
Having said that, it looks like they've found a way to implement this for general posts in one of the current pull requests: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34597
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If you see an account that looks interesting, follow it!
Don't worry if it seems inactive or blank, it probably just looks that way because you're the first person to follow it from your server. (More info about why this happens and how to see the actual complete version of a "blank" profile at https://fedi.tips/why-does-someones-account-page-look-completely-blank-is-it-really-blank)
Once you follow an account, its posts will start showing up on your server too. Following accounts is a key part of building connections between servers.
@FediTips
Why do I get an 403 this action is not allowed for some servers if I want to follow someone?Is this a result of some block from my instance or the other one? Checked it on multiple accounts on a specific instanz.
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@FediTips
Why do I get an 403 this action is not allowed for some servers if I want to follow someone?Is this a result of some block from my instance or the other one? Checked it on multiple accounts on a specific instanz.
Are you able to see the profile you want to follow within your own server, or are you trying to follow by browsing the other server's website?
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Are you able to see the profile you want to follow within your own server, or are you trying to follow by browsing the other server's website?
@FediTips I just found the error and it was totally my fault.
For some reason I blocked the whole domain. Maybe I horrible misclicked in the past or did not pay attention. After unblocking the domain I could follow the account as it should be.
Still thank you for taking you time to help me out.
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@FediTips I just found the error and it was totally my fault.
For some reason I blocked the whole domain. Maybe I horrible misclicked in the past or did not pay attention. After unblocking the domain I could follow the account as it should be.
Still thank you for taking you time to help me out.
Brilliant to hear it's working now! And thanks for taking time to explain what happened, it is really useful to hear this as it helps when other people have similar problems. It means I know what to suggest they try first if they ask for help
