If someone can explain the difference between Local and Federated in 500 characters or less that would be great because I find it completely baffling.
@locks Ah ah, a byproduct of the decentralization then. Very helpful, thanks.
@profcarroll Different instances are like different email hosts; separate, but in communication with each other. "Local" means on the same instance, so like this one is mastodon.social. "Federated" means this instance and all the posts that this instance knows about (because someone on this instance follows their author on another instance)
@brunodias Gotcha, a necessity of decentralization. Thank you.
@profcarroll Local is anyone on your instance. Federated is local plus everyone followed by anyone on your instance, minus any people on instances your admin blocked.
@khoover3 Thanks for the additional clarification in terms of follow-overlaps because of decentralization.
@profcarroll I can't do that, but I can say hi, other person named David Carroll. #thisnewnetworkisnowfordavidcarrolls
@profcarroll @ruth Just did. :smile:
@profcarroll What I mean is check out @ruth timeline. She just explained it.
Maybe 'local' is whatever instance you're on, and federated is the firehose stream @profcarroll
@profcarroll Local: people go to the same website as you. Their posts get uploaded to the same server.
Federated: Local, plus people going to other websites with compatible software. The site you're on and those sites have an agreement to share toots between each other.
@tindall Thank you. Many are answering my question and everyone adding another nuance to the decentralization effects.
@profcarroll I'm glad!
One thing to note is that federation is not mandatory; for instance, the flagship Masto instance has been catching some flak from some... people... for refusing to federate with a server that's run by and for people who draw underage characters having sex; Gargron has also said he won't federate with instances which promote or are gathering grounds for white supremacists.
@tindall Will be fascinating to observe the governance of these issues play out.
kɜ:ʳ 
Local timeline: all public posts by people on your server
Federated timeline: all public posts by people on your server and the people who you & they follow on other servers
@chr Decentralization requires a level of necessary complexity but I can how people will adapt to it.Thanks!
@chr @profcarroll Does federated really involve any follows? I had content on my federated timeline even before following anyone. I think federated is just all public posts on servers that agree to connect to each other.
@BarryBadrinath @profcarroll it draws from all people that people on your server follow, as well as a few extra posts involved in resolving things like boosts and threads
if you run a single-user instance, the federated TL is pretty much the same as your Home TL.
@profcarroll local = same server; federated = different servers that talk to each other https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/master/docs/Using-Mastodon/List-of-Mastodon-instances.md