

I mean if on Pixelfed you @pics@lemmy.world, what happens if there’s a user with that name. Does it post to the community or send a message to the user somehow?
On lemmy communities start with !
while users start with @
… but it looks like you used @
to reference the community
Both. The text data is in the database of all instances that are federated. Your account credentials are only stored on the instance you’re registered to.