The metaphor I'm going for is that Mastadon is like some weird cross between e-mail and a shared mailing list with everyone on the provider (the local timeline).
Everything flows from that. Yes, your provider can read your DMs. If you're on a very small provider there might be weird shit going on. People kinda self-identify to the domain they're on. Huge domains will not really have a feel beyond being big.
And of course you can just go into your own little corner of the internet and do your thing. There are loads of instances that are pretty chill. And if you know someone on a different instance you can just follow them!
You can choose to be outside of nonsense if you want. And unlike other forms of social media, while there is _some_ homogeneity through social spread, the fact that there are these varied instances and people kinda sticking to their own corner of the fediverse for the most part, you can just have a localized experience.
Every social network doesn't need to be everything for everyone at once.
Of course if you're going onto instances that are, like, built around being Extremely Online All The Time, yes people will be annoying.
Everything flows from that. Yes, your provider can read your DMs. If you're on a very small provider there might be weird shit going on. People kinda self-identify to the domain they're on. Huge domains will not really have a feel beyond being big.
And of course you can just go into your own little corner of the internet and do your thing. There are loads of instances that are pretty chill. And if you know someone on a different instance you can just follow them!
You can choose to be outside of nonsense if you want. And unlike other forms of social media, while there is _some_ homogeneity through social spread, the fact that there are these varied instances and people kinda sticking to their own corner of the fediverse for the most part, you can just have a localized experience.
Every social network doesn't need to be everything for everyone at once.
Of course if you're going onto instances that are, like, built around being Extremely Online All The Time, yes people will be annoying.