I also still see lots of confusion and questions from many new users flooding into Mastodon, and then wondering whether they must also have an account on Pixelfed, etc. The other issue is, that you can't just use a handle on it's own, as you must also identify which instance it belongs to, much like a street address is associated with a town it belongs in. The Fediverse is much bigger than just Mastodon, and you may only need one account in one place, to connect to everywhere else, and that account need not be on Mastodon, or even the one big original Mastodon server instance.

Fediverse is shorthand for federated universe. But what does federated really mean in this context? It's important to remember that the vast majority of applications in the picture (in linked article) can be installed thousands of times over and each of these instances, or servers, be of many different sizes. Each of these have their own rules and ownership, and make up their own corner of the Fediverse.

It is good for all users of social networks to realise there is a bigger picture context, and to understand more about their options going into the Fediverse one day, if they so wish. Some good FAQ at the linked article below.

See https://axbom.com/fediverse/

#technology #fediverse #socialnetworks #mastodon