I don't use it either, but I guess someone from your instance has to follow someone on another instance before you see content from there…? Maybe someone else can chime in. I just get this stuff third-hand from reading things other people say and listening to nerdy podcasts.

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you use the official Mastodon app, or an instance that has disabled it - you are unable to see the Federated timeline, which is why you would only see the Local timeline - IE things the people on your instance are sharing or following.

The federated timeline is a chronological stream of everything. A bit fast, but kinda magical in a way because I discover so many people just by spending 10-15 minutes combing through it during my visit each day.

I've also started following the same celebs/orgs that I used to follow on other social media.

And most importantly, I control what I see - not some algorithm funneling me into a partisan view of the world, which is a massive part of the issue with Twitter and Facebook and their relationship to current political situations.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks for clarifying!