It works like email. All instances talk in the background between each other.

@sting here’s me trying to figure out how activity pub works. https://beehaw.org/comment/188913.
The entire thread that follows is very useful for understanding how this works, in a simple way.

Edit: markdown wasn’t working.

I joined just a few hours ago so I might be somewhat off, but the way I think about it is: every instance is a server with its own set of communities and moderation rules. You can create an account on any instance but can interact with communities in that and in other instances. That is why you will see communities such as gaming in more than one instance. Is this close enough?

Same lol. But I’m glad it send to be working. I’m getting used to this slowly but surely.

And it seems to be improving fast enough, and I’ll try to contribute soon, too, once I get used to how this all works.