Introduction to Mastodon

This post is NOT about our path towards our Family Oasis.

But after my article on how you can now follow us on Mastodon (@paulschoe@familyoasis.eu), I received several questions about how to get on Mastodon and how to make friends on Mastodon. In this post, I will therefore give a short introduction about how to explore this social media platform so that you are not a complete stranger when you arrive at Mastodon.

At the end of the article, you find a link with which you can make your own Mastodon account.

Short history

Mastodon is not new, it was launched in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, a German software developer and Eugen still continues the development. Mastodon is also not one platform or one server. It is software that runs on thousands of servers that are all connected. They call this a ‘federated system’.

Each server has its own content moderation and most servers have a main topic, for example astronomy, legal, hip-hop music or architecture.

The benefit of this is that you can join a server that focuses on a topic that interests you while you can still follow posts from any of the millions of Mastodon users that are on other servers.

Entering Mastodon is like entering a new country.

In the beginning, it may seem like a weird place. A place where everything works differently than what you are used to. Therefore this post gives you some guidelines on what you can expect and how to explore Mastodon like you explore new countries. How you find nice places and how it becomes a pleasant haven for you.

For me, the best of Mastodon is that, unlike the social media that many of us are used to, Mastodon does not work based on algorithms. My timeline only shows the people and organisations that I want to follow! A breath of relief after constantly being overwhelmed on other social media by posts that algorithms have decided that I should see.

And if I want to explore more, then I can see all the public posts on the Mastodon server where I registered or even those from any of the other millions of Mastodon users on other servers. In chronological order and unfiltered*.

* The only filters are filters that you have set yourself (mute or block of posters, and the muting of #keywords that you do not want to see) and the content management from the administrator of the Mastodon server where you registered.
For example: if you registered on a server that is focused on photography, then it is possible that the admin of that server has decided to not show any posts that have no picture attached.
If you are not happy anymore with the topic or with the content management of your Mastodon server, then you can move your account to another Mastodon server. You can even move all your followers and everybody that you follow to the new server! That is freedom.

Exploring Mastodon

Just as there are many Mastodon servers, there are also several Mastodon apps. Both for the web and for mobile phones. Each app has its own benefits, but the general functionality is similar. For this introduction, I use a standard web version of Mastodon and that you can reach in your internet browser at mastodon.world.

Exploring Mastodon is like entering a new country. The rules might be different than those that you are used to, the traffic signs can be different, and in different countries, they often have different customs on how to do things.
You have to become familiar with them before you can fully settle in your new surroundings.

Do you prefer to watch a video?

Then watch ‘Mastodon in 180 Seconds‘ on Peertube, a Fediverse platform for videos.

https://tilvids.com/w/wx2iLhD3pTipbKFJKLyx5t

Mastodon in 180 Seconds

Let’s see what you can expect when you enter Mastodon.

When, as a member, you arrive at Mastodon.world, you will see the 4 columns that are characteristic of the standard Mastodon interface.

If you do not see the 4 columns, then then your default view is not the Advanced Web Interface. Click on ‘Open in Advanced Web Interface’ in the right top to activate:

or go to ‘Preferences’ and select the ‘Advanced Web Interface’ there.

The 4 columns of the Advanced Web Interface from Mastodon:

1. In the first column, you can post your own messages and this column is also used to write your replies to other posts.
   You can add images, video, sound and even a poll, and you can set the privacy mode for each of your posts.:
   Public – published all over the world
   Unlisted – everybody can see it, but it can not be searched. Unlisted is mostly used for replies in a thread that are only interesting to other people in that thread.
   Followers – only your followers will see it.
   Mentioned – only people who you mention in your post can see it (this is a Direct Message to one or more persons).
   
2. The second column shows your own timeline. In this column, ONLY posts appear from people or organisations that you follow.
   When you are a new user, it is the same as arriving in a new city, you have no friends there yet, so not much appears (see below on how to find interesting people and organisations to follow).
   When you click on a post, then the complete thread of that post, with all the posts before and after, will appear in the 4th column.
   
3. The third column shows all the replies and likes that you received on your posts, every time when somebody boosts your post to their own followers, and all the posts that mention you: the Direct Messages to you.
   
4. The last column shows the threads of posts that you clicked on or, in chronological order, the public posts on the Mastodon server you are logged into, or the public posts from any of the thousands of Mastodon servers worldwide that your server is federated with (is connected to).

Finding interesting people and organisations to follow

As I mentioned above, what I really like about Mastodon is that there are no algorithms that decide what I will see. I decide myself whose messages I want to see.
You can compare that with visiting a new city. Are you taken by the hand by a tour company, and they decide what you will see, or not see, or will you explore the city by yourself?

Most social media platforms are like the tour company. Immediately when you arrive they provide you with things to see and do. Even when you do not like them. They take you by the hand and decide what you will see next depending on how long you look at something and whether you ‘like’ it.

Mastodon isn’t like that. It lets you free to explore the social platform. But that gives you the same problem as that you have when you arrive in a new city, finding out what there is to do in that city.

When you arrive in a new city, there are a few things that you can do to become familiar with the place and know what you will like to do there.
Let’s have a look at how we translate those activities to Mastodon.

1. When I plan to arrive in a city that I have not been before, I always start by contacting any friends that I may have in that city. I call them and I ask them what good places to visit are.
   In Mastodon, that will give you a good start: see if any of your friends are already on Mastodon and ask them for their Mastodon account. You can then follow them as their interests will most likely be similar to yours.
   
   You can follow somebody on Mastodon by
   a. entering their Mastodon account in the search box in the 1st column
   b. click on ‘Go to profile’
   c. click on ‘Follow’ when their account appears in the 4th column.

2. If I don’t know anybody in the city or if my friends do not have enough suggestions of what to do there, then I start looking around to see what interests me.
   In Mastodon, you do that by looking in your own timeline at the posts of people that you follow, by looking at the timelines of the Mastodon server that you are a member of, or by looking at the worldwide timeline.
   
   You can look at the timelines of the Mastodon server where you registered by clicking on the group icon in the first column.
   To look at the posts from the rest of the world, all servers that are federated (connected to) with your Mastodon server, you click on the globe icon.
   The timelines then appear in the 4th column. (see the 1st picture below)
   
   You can even look at what is trending on your own server, by clicking on the hamburger menu in the left top corner to go to ‘Getting Started‘ and then clicking on #Explore in the 4th column (2nd picture).

3. If I see something in the city that interests me, then I go there to see if it really is to my liking. If it is, then I will return there more often.
   In Mastodon, you do that by looking at the posts. When, in any of the three timelines, you see a post that you like, click on the person’s or organization’s name or picture.
   Their profile then appears in the 4th column and you can see items that they have posted earlier. If you like them as well, then click on ‘Follow‘ and from then on their new posts will appear in column 2; your personal timeline.

Tip: Quickly finding interesting accounts to follow

In a city that you do not know, you often go out with friends who know the city and go to interesting locations. That way you get to know the place and visit those locations yourself.

IN MASTODON YOU CAN DO THE SAME.
When you see somebody on Mastodon whose posts you like, you can see where she or he gets information from: who they follow. You can then look at the posts of these people and decide to follow them as well.

You can do this as follows:

1. In any column, click on the picture or the name of the person whom you find interesting.
2. In the 4th column, click on ‘Following‘ to see the accounts that she or he follows
3. From the listing, click on an account and scroll down through their posts to see if you like what is being posted.
4. If you like the posts, you can scroll up and click on ‘Follow‘ to see their future posts in your personal timeline.
5. Click on ‘< Back‘ to look at other people whom your person of interest follows

This way you can quickly build your own selection of interesting people whose posts you like to see.

News

For many of us, staying up-to-date with news is an important reason to be on a social media platform. And Mastodon does not disappoint.

As one Mastodonian posted:

“I can reliably trust my Mastodon feed to break news.
It’s basically equal to the old Twitter at this point in that respect,
and that’s all I need. Really makes me happy.

To quickly get your news fix, search or follow the hashtag #news, or you can use this link that provides more than 1,400 journalists who will keep you informed in their respective fields: Mastodon Journalists.

Hashtags for when you don’t know anybody

Without friends in a new city, you often look around at the neon advertisements from shops, or you look at maps to see where there are things to do or to see or when you can make new friends. In Mastodon, you can do the same: with #hashtags.

Hashtags are amazingly powerful to find, and staying informed, about topics that you are interested in. One reason for this is that the hashtags are not limited to Mastodon but they reach out to the full Fediverse.

This means that when you follow a #hashtag, then you do get the posts from your own Mastodon server, but you also get posts that mention that #hashtag from, among others, the following platforms:
#Mastodon (a Fediverse equivalent of Twitter)
#Lemmy (a Fediverse equivalent of Reddit)
#Calckey (a Fediverse equivalent of Twitter. Like Mastodon but with longer posts and some HTML formatting)
#Kbin (another Fediverse equivalent of Reddit)
#Pixelfed (a Fediverse equivalent of Instagram or Flickr)
#Friendica (a Fediverse equivalent of Facebook)
#Peertube (a Fediverse equivalent of Youtube)
#Pleroma (a Fediverse equivalent of Twitter that allows more HTML-formatting and more filetypes than many other platforms)

When following a #hashtag, the Fediverse shows its power: you will receive posts with that #hashtag not only from the server or platform that you are logged into, but from many different platforms all over the Fediverse.

Following a #hashtag.

To follow a #hashtag, in column 1, you first enter the name you want to follow in the search box (1), then you choose ‘Go to hashtag’ (2).
In the 4th column, you will now see posts that have included this #hashtag in the text.
In column 4, you can then decide to follow this #hashtag by clicking on the + icon in the topline.

And if you see an interesting author, you can click on the author’s name and then follow that author, irrespective of on which platform that author is registered. To build your circle of friends on Fediverse, you are not locked into one single platform 🙂.

How to register at Mastodon

As we have seen, one of the attractive aspects of Mastodon is that there are many servers that are focused on a particular topic. There are servers that are focused on a city or a country, or whose interface is in a specific language. There are servers for specific professions and, of course, there are some generic servers.

The benefit of a server that is specialised is that you will find there many people that are also interested in the same topic or the same region, or that work in the same industry. The discussions there might be very interesting for you.

On this page (joinmastodon.org/servers), you can find an overview of many servers that you can register to. There are thousands more Mastodon servers but most of them belong to organisations such as cities, universities, and companies, that do not allow registration by third parties.

Be aware that when you choose a Mastodon server that is specialised in a certain topic, the owner of that Mastodon server might want to evaluate your application (manual review), which might take one or more days instead of having ‘instant’ access.

The easy and quick way to get on Mastodon

I have chosen Mastodon.world because they have fast servers and connections as well as an outstanding reputation for content management. In addition, it is one of the largest Mastodon servers, therefore its own community is lively with people posting from all over the world.

If you want to get quick access to a good Mastodon server, then you can use the link below to go to their registration page:

https://mastodon.world/invite/AapbkrsZ

Make Mastodon Great.

And with ‘Make Mastodon Great‘ I do not mean that Mastodon needs to have more users. By ‘Make Mastodon Great‘ I mean that Mastodon should be a pleasant place to be for everybody. The easiest way to do that is by treating other people with respect.

Do you feel that you are not treated with respect or do you see posts that you do not want to see anymore? Then Mastodon has two very useful tools for you: mute and block.
Mute – with mute you will no longer see any posts from the user you mute.
Block – with block, those posters will also no longer see any posts from you.
With mute and block*, you can make Mastodon the place to exchange information with existing friends, to make new friends and to get access to new worthwhile information, all in a pleasant environment.
* I have used mute and block twice until now, it is really worthwhile to have and use.

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I end with one more message: Make generous use of the STAR Button.
Although Mastodon (luckily) has no algorithms, so it won’t use your given stars to send you more of the same information (for that you have to follow people), using the star button does tell writers that you liked their post or that you appreciate their effort in collecting the information of their post. Therefore, use that star button generously.
It is a sign of recognition that will be appreciated and that will result in more similar quality information.

Let’s together Make Mastodon Great.

PS (post scriptum):