How Does the Fediverse Work?

Question

I've been reading a bunch about decentralized networks and communities lately. I don't really use much social media now. A few forums and stuff, hn, but that's about it.I've been looking into the decentralized social networking options lately. The idea of being sble to make an account that spans multiple social media types and interconnects to them all seems pretty awesome.Being able to connect with with random people who share interests over multiple platform types, microblogging, macroblogging, facebook style stuff, even music sharing, the funkwhale article was on the front page recently.My problem is, i can't really seem to figure out how to join any communities, how to connect to any of the disparate communities i have managed to join to any wider communities or any other accounts i've made or how to really connect to people through it in general.Reading things, it seems pretty straightforward. Pick a platform, pick either a host or host it yourself, make an account and connect with anyone across any platform that can connect to the fediverse.In practice, i can't seem to even be able to find a few people on one platform let alone all these supposedly interconnected ones.How does this all work?

afarviral · Accepted Answer

I've tried to use social media on the fediverse on multiple occasions but given up or felt let down multiple times. I come from a tech background. If I cant figure out how to set myself up in/on the fediverse then its doomed to be very, very niche...therefore not a good platform for _social media_. I hope it gets easier to understand/use/benefit-from. What are the specific barriers? Like not being able to figure out where to sign up for anything. I might be missing the point or maybe its just in its infancy and the software that will run the big social network or other service that could become ubiquitous just hasn't been made yet.

fsflover · Answer

Not sure what exactly your question is. You could try to formulate it more precisely...
You don't know which buttons to click? Then try this: https://mastodon.help/#HowFederationWorksPractice.
You don't know how to find interesting people? Try this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16741116 (or ask it again).