OK. What with all the discrimination now allowed on #Facebook and other #Meta platforms, I thought I’d talk about a place that I’m on that I quite like.
Disclaimer: It’s not for everyone; I know that people have valuable groups and spaces on FB and I respect that; This isn’t a ‘you must come here’ post – it’s an explainer; As far as I know, groups don’t work on this platform – but there are federated places it’s connected to that might (but I don’t know about those).
I’m talking about #Mastodon.
This is my take on it.
Mastodon is a space that has many different places that allow people to talk to each other. You sign up to one of these places (these are called instances, or servers). There are many, many to choose from, and from personal experience, it can be difficult to know which one to sign up to. This seems to be the biggest problem for people wanting to use Mastodon.
I’m on two instances – vivaldi.social and expressional.social.
Some notes about instances:
– choose one that is not based in the US (I think vivaldi is based in Iceland, and expressional is Germany – could be wrong.). I didn’t want to choose a UK-based one either.
– these instances have their own moderation rules. I chose mine based on no queerphobia/homophobia/transphobia tolerated.
– each instance can set the maximum amount of characters per post (or toot) – vivaldi is 1,337 characters and expressional is 1,000.
– you can quite easily change instances if you wish; there are guides for this. I’ve done it twice – and you can get your followers to follow you to the new profile – and those you follow, too.
– some small instances sometimes shut down. They should give you notice to find another instance.
– some instances block other instances. For example, many are blocking Threads – some Threads users can set up to show their posts on Mastodon.
Using Mastodon:
– Hashtags are key. You can follow hashtags you’re interested in, as well as mute (block) those you don’t wish to see. You can also mute entire instances. I’ve muted Threads – I’ll see how effective this is.
– you usually can’t see people’s followers – unless you’re on the same instance. This is where hashtags are key – you can follow people from different instances by checking hashtags.
– reposts are called boosts. You can also favourite a post, but this doesn’t do much except you can search your favourited posts. You can see people you follow’s boosts.
– alt text on photos is expected
– if you sign up, make a post including the hashtag introduction – then you can pin this to your profile.
– yes, there are bigots there. There are bigots everywhere. I just block them.
– you can use the Mastodon app, or a client app. I use Ivory, and I pay for the premium version so I can use it on phone, ipad and desktop.
– there is a home tab with posts, boosts from your following and posts from your followed hashtags.
– there is a local tab, with posts from your instance.
– there is a federated tab, which is kind of posts from all over
There’s also explore, where you can search for hashtags and names.
Fedi tips is a great place for info:
https://fedi.tips/