I'm not sure if there's a way to get trending hashtags (or other things) to automatically show up from other parts of the Fediverse or if we individually have to follow such things. We can definitely follow people from elsewhere manually if we already know the @ handle @ host. It would be nice to be able to choose to get some external content in a more automated way, though.
some good info on the basics:
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/network/
from there:
"There are various ways your server may discover posts, but the bulk of them will be from people that other users on your server follow.
There is a way to filter the federated timeline to view only public posts created on your server: The local timeline."
gotta find out what other ways our server can discover posts from other servers...
Just an update:
I have yet to add any relays*, but we'll grow our `Federated` content as we follow users from other instances. It will even pick up more than just the specific people we follow. I'm not sure yet how exactly it picks up posts from people none of us are following, so it might be magic.
*see follow-up
*Relays are still a bit of an enigma, and there don't seem to be very many, let alone ones that are open. I've found some mentioned on reddit, etc, but w/out knowing what one should look like when accessed directly.
I'm also not sure yet if I want to add any. There seems to be some amount of reciprocity in that our *public* posts would be shared w/ other instances connected to added relays, and there may be additional management to block any instances we don't like.
@headthicko I’m connected to NASA. Are you able to see those feeds come in?
@mbjack I followed one of the NASAs, too. I don’t think they have an official one, but the one I followed at least wasn’t clearly not official
@headthicko I’m following @nasa
@mbjack Well, I thought I followed one of the NASAs. Maybe I still have that tab open. I am seeing posts from the one you followed.
just being `@nasa` doesn't mean it's actually NASA, unfortunately :P
In fact, that one says, "Inofficial NASA -> Mastodon Bot" :)
@mbjack @NASA` is the one I mentioned that at least isn't clearly not NASA (maybe being a bot gives it away), but it hasn't been updated since June.
You'll notice on some accounts that some details are highlighted in green (usually a site, e.g. `HOMEPAGE` on @Mastodon). That seems to be the best way to confirm if an account is actually the entity represented, though I haven't seen a lot of 'em.
I recall seeing another method, but search for `cross-references links` on https://mashable.com/article/how-to-get-verified-mastodon
@mbjack Be sure to hover over the @ tag to see the full name+domain in posts
*Relays continued:
None of the relays I've found seem to have any available information about which instances they have connected, so it seems to be a very blind process.
At least for now, I may just see how we grow naturally. So, go forth, and follow others! 😁