Oh, ok, I get it. I can set up an account on this instance, but follow people on other instances, and they show up in the "Home" timeline.

Which means instance don't really matter (if you don't mind the @name@instance format). They more like email providers.

@korvys yes, that's what follows are like. But no, it matters. The local timeline is a collection of local people's posts or any from users people in your instance follow on other instances. So each follow kind of 'brings them in' to your instance.

@rateldajer Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Interesting.

I haven't really looked at the local/public timelines, since I'm looking at this with a twitter-centric view, where I only see people I follow anyway.

@rateldajer Hmmm, actually, are you sure this is how it works? I had a look at the local timeline, but it's only posts from people from this instance.