On GNU social, you can see an instance's public timeline, while that doesn't seem to be the case with Mastodon. Is that intentional or just yet to be implemented? It seems to me like a good way for people to get a feel for an instance, while instances that want to stay more private could easily turn it off.
@pybyte you mean something other than the local timeline? That includes some* toots from other instances but it's predominantly your instances' toots.
*As a conjectured qualification, if someone on your instance boosts or favorites something from another instance I think it can show up on the local timeline... potentially following does that too.
@wspurgin I mean if someone who hasn't joined an instance wants to check out recent posts from that instance, it doesn't appear that they can do so.
@pybyte Ah I understand what you mean. You're right. The most you can do is use the URL
https://octodon.social/web/timelines/public/local
But that (as you noted) is only visible if you have an account on that instance.