I made a flow chart of which Mastodon posts end up in which timelines!
So, you can see how each instance will have a different local timeline, and even a slightly different federated timeline - and you can see why the federated timeline moves so much faster than the local one, too.
Full disclosure, this diagram is not complete. For example:
- If someone followed by someone on your instance replies to a public toot, that public toot will end up in your federated timeline.
- If someone on your instance follows someone who boosted Foo's public toot, Foo's public toot will end up in your federated timeline.
... but I didn't want to make the diagram too 🙃 , you know?
It also explains why smaller instances have quieter federated timelines.
People on smaller instances really benefit from the people they follow boosting good posts. It gets new people into their federated timeline, giving them more interesting folks to follow, which gets more people into the federated timeline... and so on!
See also: this alternative diagram by @devurandom! https://i.imgur.com/WiEh1Cm.png
@devurandom I've put my original diagram on Wikimedia Commons CC0 (public domain) so that people stop asking me questions. :D https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mastodon_timelines.png
