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2023-03-16 15:20:19

AlisonW@fedimon.uk

@david @ada @Gargron @davetroy @supernovae @Bluedepth @markearnest @paul @darren @juneussell @HistoPol @fediversenews @Qazm @fediversereport
Mastodon is the motorways, instances are the junctions, people access the motorway via their chosen junction.

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2023-03-16 16:27:22

AlisonW

alisonw@hachyderm.io

@jupiter_rowland
I'm intrigued. Instead of your reply going to the account which posted the comment in the thread it actually went to an account on an entirely separate instance.
Did you use 'reply' or did the instance you are using pick up the alternate ID some other way?

2023-03-16 16:46:00

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@AlisonW @AlisonW ♿?️‍? Okay, mea culpa, I somehow didn't pay enough attention to which instance you posted from.

Thing is, I'm using neither Mastodon nor a mobile phone. I'm on Hubzilla in a Web browser on Debian GNU/Linux on a desktop computer. And I had to enter your handle manually.

Explanation:

The post I've replied to was presented to me on my stream as a stand-alone post (bug that I hope will be fixed in Hubzilla 8.2), and since Hubzilla has a different discussion thread model (think blog post + comments) than Mastodon (stand-alone posts tied together), it doesn't have a reply button for stand-alone/start posts and a text field for comments right below instead.

Unlike on Mastodon, you don't have to mention users in a thread for them to receive your comment, not unless you either want to reply to another comment rather than the start post or want to reply to someone in private.

In order for my posts to reach Mastodon users, however, I have to mention them. But since I didn't have a reply button (which, if it was there, would only mention the author of the post I reply to rather than everyone else mentioned in the post), I had to type your handle by hand. Or rather type "@alisonw" for a list of four accounts starting with this to pop up. Then I mouse-hover over your handle above your post to see which instance you're on. Aha, hachyderm.io. Then I select the account to mention from the pop-up list. The post editor enters your handle in the typical way that's compliant with Hubzilla's extended BBcode scheme which makes your name clickable.

It rarely happens that I reply to the wrong account, usually when multiple accounts have the same profile pic (they are shown on the pop-up list, too).

2023-03-16 17:32:19

AlisonW

alisonw@hachyderm.io

@jupiter_rowland
Ahah! Interesting, and thank you. I'd been trying to work out how it could happen without manual intervention (and failing) but that makes a lot of sense.
It's certainly an aspect of how federation can work very differently when the access is via different routes.