@rands I'm on a different instance, so I guess by default I only have 2 columns here

@ryanmr How does one end up on a different instance and does it matter?

@rands You're on .social and I'm on .cloud -- when I made my account, .social was full.

Many instances are themed, so you could make an instance around a topic/theme and people could chat about it. But you can also connect among instance like we are - which is the federated part.

@ryanmr That's kind'a awesome.

@rands it is! the idea is that if you don't like the policy / rules of your instance, you can go to another, or make your own. I like to think of it like WordPress for blogging but for Twitter

@rands sorry, it's hard to describe! the wiki entry describes the federation part a little better https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)

@rands @ryanmr You might want to try out https://pinafore.social as an alternative web client. Closer to the birdsite UI

@georgeh @rands As a Tweetdeck user, I feel right at home. 😉

@kblin
I also use tweetdeck on computer - columns are good for me! Still look for a smooth Android client, using Mastalab for now.
@georgeh @rands

@ryanmr
Same. Looks nice, some UI actions feel a bit slow.
@georgeh @rands

@georgeh
Thanks for the suggestion!
@rands