>>1027932
>I think the thing about these 'fedivese' things is that it's too abstract and confusing for people to really understand it.
Anon users can't differentiate between a search engine and a web browser. Or even a search engine and the internet.
>I sign up for an "instance"? so is that a social network?
yes.
> but wait I can communicate with other networks?
yes
>Well what is the point of having multiple?
Decentralization.
> Is mastodon an instance or an entirely different fediverse?
It's part of the fediverse and the creator of the software is a duchbag because he tries to kill the fediverse.
>Can I communicate across gnusocial, mastodon, and plenorma?
Yes.
>Can I be on a mastodon instance using one of the others?
You haven't understand the concept of instances, software and protocole.
Protocol = Roads
Software = Cars
Instances = Brands
> If so, why do they market themselves as different things and not frontends to a common protocol, like irc or xmpp having different clients?
Ask yourself this question: why do people consume the brand of milk X instead of consuming the brand Y ? Why did manufacturers made the brand Z too you already had the brand X and Y ?
>Why is this system so limited?
Define limited.
> Can I change my instance on the same account?
What you are asking for is account migration. Yes it exist on gnu social, mastodon did not implement it.
>What the fuck is going on?
People create a replacement for twitter, other people tried to subvert that and created twitter 2.0 instead and the people who still want to replace twitter did not compromise.
>Legacy social media like Twitter, and alt-tech social media like Gab and Minds are understandable.
Anything is understandable as long as people make the effort to understand it.
>I've seen people I know using Gab, and it apparently has nice, convenient little categories like technology, politics, science, humor, etc
For that on the fediverse you need to have people who will respect the subject of a thread otherwise you need moderators which you either pay them or they volunteer.
>unless the instances could be used for that purpose
Creating specific purpose groups are possible.
> If I ever end up falling for the social media meme, I'm much more likely to sign up for Gab or Minds
aka reddit.
>>1027944
>It's like email,
This