Hey y'all! I posted this in a conversation re: differences between instances; I just thought I'd go ahead and make it its own post from the perspective of a user - there's other technical differences for instance admins, but this is an end-user perspective.
So, different instances might have:
Different features (different character counts that may be higher than 500; emote reactions/favourites, different themes, markdown formatting for posts). From experience, different features from different instances have varying compatibility - i.e. Mastodon user favouriting Misskey/Firefish post shows as ❤️ reaction, Misskey user reacting to (vanilla) Mastodon posts counts on Mastodon as a favourite ⭐, Glitch-Soc Mastodon is inter-operable with both.
They may have a specific topic in mind. For example, hachyderm.io and tech.lgbt are tech and LGBTQ+ related; urusai.social and sakurajima.moe (my home instance 😉) has a focus on Japanese media discussion; mastodon.art is dedicated to art; kolektiva.social is political, anti-colonialist, left-wing.
Moderation and rules may differ. Some instances might have bigger moderation staff and/or have small userbase to moderate, and some may have different or additional rules. Some may be more strict on stuff (prohibiting AI unless tagged, no NFTs, stricter NSFW culture, etc), some may ban certain instances for whatever reason (mastodon.art is infamous - for better or for worse - for having strict defederating policies with the rationale of protecting their users). You can choose an instance you're comfortable with and makes you feel safe.
An extension of the previous point; the level of federation between different instances are different too, depending on what they're comfortable with handling. Instances can be completely blocked off, or they can be "silenced" and not appear on federated timelines (but can have people from different instances interact if they follow each other), have media rejected but other posts allowed through.
That's what I can think of off the top of my head when it comes to the differences between mastodon.social and other instances.
One more thing, DO NOT FORGET - this is a FEDERATED social network, that's why we call it the #Fediverse.
For example, if you have someone you know on mastodon.social or firefish.social or misskey.io; you WILL Be able to talk with them (unless your instance has completely blocked those instances). You may have to jump through a few hoops (putting the person's handle suffixed with @mastodon.social, or pasting a URL into the search box), or use extensions like FediAct (https://github.com/Lartsch/FediAct); but barring any restrictions or defederation, you shouldn't have any issues.
APOLOGIES FOR ANY ERRORS THAT I'VE MADE IN THIS POST! I'll give corrections when necessary!
@tobleh I mentioned this point on bluesky, but I'll repeat it here too. There's this concept called 'the fold', which is basically the point where someone won't bother to scroll. :meowthinking:
Big players on large servers like mastodon.social may get their posts flooded below 'the fold' by others, unless they get boosted a lot or amass a lot of followers. In a smaller (but not too small) and focused instance, posts tend to stay above 'the fold' for much much longer, which tends to result in more interactions IF YOUR POSTS ARE INTERESTING.
So the ideal situation is to post relevant topics on a server that's not too big to get drowned out, and not too small that there is nobody to interact with your posts.
#Hashtags and #Boosts are also important for getting cross-server interactions, unless your server has 'friendly visitors' :ablobcatreachflip: (i.e. OCD users like me) who often browse other servers, like how we have sister servers in https://sakurajima.social, https://urusai.social. If you feel that you're not getting enough interactions on your current server, you can comment on posts on other servers. You can even migrate your account if you feel that other servers are better for you.
I'll give a shoutout to https://blorbo.social as well, browse their local feed if you're free.
@anianimalsmoe I had this problem when I was searching for a Japanese instance to practice and meet native speakers. If you're on like misskey .io or something like that, it feels like every post gets drowned immediately, and it stressed me out to even try and read anything. It's so much more enjoyable to be in a small to medium sized instance.
@tobleh As an example, the first like on the post above came from someone on another server who probably found it from one of the hashtags :blobfoxthinksmart:
@anianimalsmoe@tobleh
On a firehouse server, anything you add is instantly below the fold. Gone.
Hashtags help.
If you take the time to write up a detailed/Interesting intro on urusai, sakurajima, etc, there are people who will boost it just to help you get started.
Having something on your profile might help too.
Interact. Ask questions. There's no algorithm, but de-lurking may help.
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