Hi there! So I understand that federated systems can speak to one another and interact. My question I guess is should I be using my Mastodon account to log into PieFed, and PixelFed, and Bookwyrm? Or do I need to create specific accounts for all these services, just as I did before?

I understand that someone on Mastodon could potentially follow my PixelFed account and see my posts. But wouldn’t it make sense to have one single identity (if one wished) so it collected all of my stuff in one place? Just wondering if I am missing the point?

Sorry if I sound like an idiot here. I really love the idea of federated services, just want to make sure I am “doing it right” so to speak.

  • gon [he]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    9·
    2 days ago

    You don’t sound like an idiot at all.

    You create an account on an instance/server. Your account is on piefed.social, which is a PieFed instance. However, you should really think of this as your piefed.social account, not as your PieFed account. You cannot login into PieFed with your Mastodon account, because you don’t have a “Mastodon Account”; You may have an account on a particular Mastodon instance (or server, whatever they call it), which allows you to login to that particular instance.

    Mastodon, PieFed, Lemmy, etc. are more like the filter through which you interact with the Fediverse. To a Mastodon server, every post is independent, for example. On Lemmy, you may post to a community, but on Mastodon a community is just a group that boosts posts made to it.

    The way I do it, and the way I think is best, is that you should pick a way you prefer to interact with the Fediverse. Do you prefer threads like Lemmy or PieFed? Do you prefer single posts to the void like Mastodon? I don’t really know how Bookwyrm works, exactly, but it’s also just a way to interpret the same underlying stuff so that it can be understood as books and book ratings and reviews.

    There may be features missing or not implemented here and there, depending on the instance or the software.

    I only really use my Lemmy account (the one I’m using right now), because I prefer threads. Some people even call Lemmy and PieFed (and some others) the Threadiverse.

    There’s no wrong way. Just have fun. But be warned that any account on a different server is exactly that: a different account! And each account lets you interact with a server, meaning that you see the Fediverse thru the eyes of the software it’s running, be it Mastodon or Lemmy or whatever, and everything will be filtered that way.

    That’s my understanding of it, anyway.