What is the 'federated' section?

Don’t worry about it.

The Federated section, as I understand it, was a now-defunct attempt to integrate Fluther in a semi-partnership with other sites. That meant that Qs would be shared on the basis of their appropriateness to the content of that site.

Therefore, if it was a Q about food or cooking, the content would be shared with other cooking websites. If it was a Q about movies or TV then it would appear on whatever media sites Fluther had arrangements with.

This whole Federated idea never really got off the ground before the Founders were offered jobs with Twitter and any further development of Fluther was stopped due to their time limitations.

That’s it in a nutshell. If there is anything innacurate in what I posted, I’m sure someone will clear it up.

^ That is it, in a nutshell. The federated section is inactive now – or rather, used to discuss moderation issues but no longer linked with any other sites.

I think I’m the one to blame for the notifications you received. I had some issues with my mobile recently, and I remember having moved a Halloween thread to the federated section accidentally.

It sounds like the Fluther version of Area 51.

@Buttonstc Thanks a heap for the explanation
@longgone That’s probably what happened :)
@Kardamom haha, yes it does sound like that: “Fluther 51”