@m3t00@mstdn.party @fediverse@lemmy.world Are you talking about hashtags or groups?

@jwcph@helvede.net @fediverse@lemmy.world @Coolmccool@mastodon.au To be blunt, “it’s like email” is probably good enough for 95% of casual users in terms of an explanation for how the Fediverse works.

It’s all just email. Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Lemmy are really all just email.

But the moment you ask, “Well, actually, how does it all work? How is it possible to use Lemmy with Mastodon?”

The answer is: actors.

And maybe that is abstract, but I assure you that’s the practical reason you’re able to do it. Once you understand that the Fediverse is made up of actors/activities, a whole new world of possibilities opens up—even for regular users. It’s why you’re participating on Lemmy right now, even though it still looks like “Mastodon” to you.

Now I’m sorry that you may perceive this as “beside the point,” but people ask how it works and I’m telling you. However, if this is too abstract, remember: it’s all “email”.

@jwcph @fediverse @Coolmccool No, those concepts aren’t for everyday users. It’s for developers. For the same reason a homeowner doesn’t need to know the ins and out of architecture, an everyday user does not need to know about the architecture of the Fediverse.

Nevertheless, it’s how ActivityPub works—and I will go more in depth in a future thread for those who want to know.

@LibertyForward1 @fediverse Not only can you follow, you can post to a Lemmy community from Mastodon by mentioning the Lemmy community. In fact, you just mentioned a Lemmy community, so your using Lemmy right now—but from you’re perspective, it looks like Mastodon.

@jwcph @fediverse @Coolmccool The best way to understand the Fediverse is not as a collection of servers but instead as actors that implement activities.

You are an actor. A Lemmy community is an actor. A bot is an actor. An app is an actor.

All these things do certain activities. One activity is to like a post. Another activity is to repost.

And all these apps like Mastodon are just presenting these actors/activities in a certain format.

Hope that explains things.

@m3t00 @fediverse Give me more context and what you specifically mean.

@BenDoubleU@lemmy.radio But again, a big reason I recommend groups over hashtags is because you can remove spam from a group, whereas with a hashtag, you cannot.

So… will that increase spam? Not if moderators actually do their jobs.

@Coolmccool@mastodon.au @fediverse@lemmy.world The best way to explain #Pixelfed is that it’s an Instagram-like front-end for the Fediverse. But practically speaking, it’s Mastodon if pictures were a requirement on Mastodon. You interact with a Pixelfed account from Mastodon in much the same way you interact with another Mastodon account, or how you’re interacting with my Akkoma account right now. It really is just like email.

Regarding group topics, the best way to find them is to do a search on a place like lemmy.world or lemmy.ca. For example, uiux@programming.dev is one. And you can find the URL here:

https://programming.dev/c/uiux