@firewally If you want more ppl to follow, check out the Local and Federated timelines :-)

@hfrazey so Local gets me everything on mspsocial.net - is federated all Mastodon instances everywhere?

@firewally I believe Federated is all the people followed by all the people on mspsocial . @lawremipsum correct me if I'm wrong. (Did I mention how great it is to have a local moderator who knows things and makes custom emojis and isn't a corporate overlord?)

@hfrazey @firewally that sounds approximately correct. I don't know if, once someone is federated, they become unfederated if they are unfollowed... I'm sure eventually just such a detail will be important to know for some bizarre reason.

@firewally @hfrazey oh, federated will also include users that are RTd on those instances by other federated users? You know what, let me look it up.

@hfrazey @firewally Ok here's the official word:

"The Federated Timeline shows all public posts from all users "known" to your instance. This means the user is either on the same instance as you, or somebody on your instance follows that user."

https://github.com/tootsuite/documentation/blob/master/Using-Mastodon/User-guide.md#the-federated-timeline

However! There are people on the federated timeline that currently have no local followers, so the universe is at least slightly bigger than that.

@lawremipsum @firewally sounds like they stay on the federated timeline if they are unfollowed then...

@hfrazey @firewally I think it's even more than that... One user specifically: unlikely they have ever been followed by anyone here, but they have been RTd by someone I follow. ??

@firewally also check these custom emojis @lawremipsum made

@hfrazey @lawremipsum SAINT PAUL FLAG

@firewally @lawremipsum YUP!

@firewally also you can't search keywords here (like you can on Twitter) BUT searching hashtags lets you find people who want to be found...and including hashtags lets other ppl find you! You could try doing a hashtagged introduction post if ya wanted.

@firewally content warnings! Come for the toot button, stay for the content warning.