What is the scope of something I just toot into the ether with no recipient or addresses within? Just maybe a #TwitterMigration hashtag?
@hwestiii
If you mean who sees it, people like me who check out the Federated timeline out of boredom/curiosity.
And people in your instance see it on the Local timeline.
And there's probably people who follow that hashtag or check it out from time to time to help people with the migration.
(And your followers of course.)
@digital_carver you said the magic word “federated timeline”. How does that work? It just goes out to any other instance that my instance synchs with?
@hwestiii
I used to think that, and that would be simpler to explain 
In reality it's more like: it goes out to any other instance where at least one person follows you. That is, if one person on qoto.org follows you, then your posts or boosts will be visible on #Federated here. If let's say none of your followers are from Fosstodon.org, then the Federated timeline there won't show your posts - even though your instance (I assume) federates with it - because the server then doesn't know your account exists.
In this case, I think it's probably the case that someone on qoto.org follows the @local account that boosted your post. That's why your post appeared in the Federated timeline here for me.
