From eabe971d809ab19c7090a73b3d826f0113e0ecdf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eugen Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2016 17:10:37 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Created FAQ (markdown) --- FAQ.md | 31 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 31 insertions(+) create mode 100644 FAQ.md diff --git a/FAQ.md b/FAQ.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b18e11f --- /dev/null +++ b/FAQ.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +Frequently Asked Questions +========================== + +#### What is a Mastodon? + +A prehistoric animal, predecessor of the mammoth. + +#### Why the name Mastodon? + +There's a progressive metal band with the same name that I'm a fan of that brought the animal to my attention. I thought it's a pretty cool name/animal. + +#### How exactly is it decentralized? + +There are different ways in which something can be decentralized; in this case, Mastodon is the "federated" kind. Think e-mail, not BitTorrent. There are different servers (instances), users have an account on one of them, but can interact and follow each other regardless of where their account is. + +#### Technically, how does the federation work? + +We are using the OStatus suite of protocols: + +1. Webfinger for user-on-domain lookup +2. Atom feeds with ActivityStreams, Portable Contacts, Threads extensions for the actual content +3. PubSubHubbub for subscribing to Atom feeds +4. Salmon for delivering certain items from the Atom feeds to interested parties such as the mentioned user, author of the status being replied to, person being followed, etc + +#### What is mastodon.social? + +The "flagship" instance of Mastodon, aka the server I run myself with the latest code. It's not supposed to be the only instance in the end. + +#### What else is part of the federated network? + +Let's call it the "fediverse". It has existed for a longer while, populated by GNU social servers, Friendica, Hubzilla, Diaspora etc. Not every one of those servers is fully compatible with every other. Mastodon strives to be fully standards-compliant and compatibility with GNU social is higher in priority than the others. \ No newline at end of file