I imagine it like being in a building (fediverse) with many rooms (instances) that will open up doors or pathways (federating) to each other to allow for free movement between the rooms. Your account might be based in one room, like you have your own cubbyhole, but if the door is open you can go somewhere else.
It’s sort of like email. There’s enough commonality in form and function that different versions of the same thing can talk to each other but you can pick where you have your account.
Awesome! And if I may: What does it mean to “federate”?
I imagine it like being in a building (fediverse) with many rooms (instances) that will open up doors or pathways (federating) to each other to allow for free movement between the rooms. Your account might be based in one room, like you have your own cubbyhole, but if the door is open you can go somewhere else.
That was a good analogy.
Basically it means to connect, to form a relationship with each other, in this case specifically to make one’s content visible to each other.
It’s sort of like email. There’s enough commonality in form and function that different versions of the same thing can talk to each other but you can pick where you have your account.