Here's the thing I don't really get about Mastodon (and by reverse extension ActivityPub):
Say I'm interested in Video Games, so I join a Mastodon instance all about video games. Also, I'm interested in FPV Drone Racing. Should I join a second Mastodon instance about FPV drone racing? If I do, then I have to switch back and forth to use them (and for every other interest I might have). Which isn't too difficult, but seems to defeat the purpose of federation. If I just follow FPV drone racers from my Video Gaming account, then I am polluting the federated timeline of the Gaming instance with stuff other people on it might not be interested in. Also I have to follow each account on the FPV Drone instance manually and don't get the local timeline of that instance.
It seems like federation would be more useful if accounts were federated as well - like once I have an account on one instance I can use that account to join other instances as well. Or if it were more like email where the server you're on doesn't really make you part of that 'community' - it's just a place to store your stuff. Maybe I'm using it wrong?
This is exactly how the XMPP network is made and how the social features that we are building around are designed :) You use the same XMPP account to login to different instances and everything is synchronized from the server your account is on.
You can try it on https://movim.eu/, we propose several instances across the world and you can login with the same account between them (it's still better to pick the one that are geographically closer to you to have a quicker load time).
Comments
Here's the thing I don't really get about Mastodon (and by reverse extension ActivityPub):
Say I'm interested in Video Games, so I join a Mastodon instance all about video games. Also, I'm interested in FPV Drone Racing. Should I join a second Mastodon instance about FPV drone racing? If I do, then I have to switch back and forth to use them (and for every other interest I might have). Which isn't too difficult, but seems to defeat the purpose of federation. If I just follow FPV drone racers from my Video Gaming account, then I am polluting the federated timeline of the Gaming instance with stuff other people on it might not be interested in. Also I have to follow each account on the FPV Drone instance manually and don't get the local timeline of that instance.
It seems like federation would be more useful if accounts were federated as well - like once I have an account on one instance I can use that account to join other instances as well. Or if it were more like email where the server you're on doesn't really make you part of that 'community' - it's just a place to store your stuff. Maybe I'm using it wrong?
This is exactly how the XMPP network is made and how the social features that we are building around are designed :) You use the same XMPP account to login to different instances and everything is synchronized from the server your account is on.
You can try it on https://movim.eu/, we propose several instances across the world and you can login with the same account between them (it's still better to pick the one that are geographically closer to you to have a quicker load time).