![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Mastodon
I have been on holiday - one week in Portugal (Porto specifically), which was basically perfect. 7 days of sun and 25 degrees and beauty and interesting things to do and see. We came home to Cold and Rain and wanted to turn around and go straight back. :(
I might post holiday pictures, but for now I figured I might just write the Mastodon post I keep meaning to, since Twitter is continuing its downward trajectory (even if it was working great, the fact that Elon is happy to welcome nazis is something I personally find myself unable to accept, hence leaving for good in November). Also generally it's just bad that a place for talking and dispersing information is being destroyed. :(
A couple of articles:
Twitter is being rebranded as X
Money quote: The letter “X” has been on just about everything Musk has touched for the last two-plus decades. X.com was the original name for Paypal; it’s in his SpaceX company name; it’s in the name for the Tesla SUV; it anchors X.Ai and his kid X Æ A-12; and he has said he wants to turn Twitter into “X, the everything app.” Now he’s finally doing something with the X.com domain he bought back from Paypal in 2017.
Elon Musk Wants to Relive His Start-Up Days. He’s Repeating the Same Mistakes.
~
ANYWAY. Mastodon might be a bit more complicated that ticking a single box, but I am finding it a good Twitter alternative and have managed to more-or-less recreate what I had on the bird site (minus the drama!)
How to Mastodon/What is the Fediverse?
The Fediverse is an alternative way to 'do the internet'. The idea is very simple - the net is decentralised: that is, no one place 'owns' everything (there are no adverts, and no billionaires behind the scenes trying to turn you or your content into a product) and you can follow people across platforms, as long as they are part of the fediverse. That is, you wouldn't need to check 10 different sites if they were all federated, everything would be collated on your 'Reading List'.
To illustrate, imagine if LJ, DW and InsaneJournal were federated - so you could follow people across all three sites, and friending someone made their posts show up on your flist. And if the site you were on (say LJ) did something you did not like, you could just move; not *import* from one platform from another but move wholesale, bringing your friends etc with you.
To start on Mastodon you have to pick a server - or 'instance'. There are many many instances, which some people find bewildering. However the upside is that:
a) You can pick an instance that aligns with your interests. If you like anime, or vintage cars, or archeology or care about climate activism or want LGBT+ content, there will probably be an instance with like-minded people. And when you join you will have access to the instance feed, which is all the other people on that instance - essentially a built-in reading list of people with similar interests.
b) You can move. You don't have to figure everything out straight away - you can pick a big general instance and then, if you find a smaller place that is just right, you can move. And as said before, you keep all the friends you have already added.
Your username will be @ [yourhandle] @ [mastodonserver name] - a bit like how you will be called 'your username' @ dreamwidth.org.
You can find a (curated) list of servers here:
https://iexplainers.com/best-mastodon-servers/
And HERE is a very simple website that will help you set up an account quickly and easily:
https://spreadmastodon.org/
Finding people to follow is obviously the thing to do. Back when I emigrated from Twitter is literally went through my whole list of people I followed and noted down if any of them had a mastodon account (in their name or bio). I'm not particularly recommending this, as it was very time consuming, but if there are people you want to keep following it might be worth checking to see if they have an account.
- Note: You have to go to a person's 'home page' to follow them. And (such a handy feature), you can add a private note about someone's account.
- Mastodon does not have trending topics and you can only search for people if you know their whole 'address'. This is by design. (You do not get drama and pile-ons.) The way to find stuff is hashtags. Search for stuff you are interested in, follow people, see how things shake out. You can always unfollow if someone's not your cup of tea.
- You can block people or even whole instances.
- Tip: A few good follows. I have added a gap between the first '@' and the rest of the name, because otherwise DW turns it into DW username. But copy & paste into your searchbox (deleting the gap) and you will find the people. :)
@ mastodonmigration@mastodon.online <- Useful tips and news from around the fediverse
@ lisamelton@mastodon.social <- This woman singlehandedly collates and disperses interesting stuff. Follow Lisa, and you are set.
@ NoctisEqui@mastodonapp.uk <- One my favourite follows. Not as eclectic or all encompassing as Lisa Melton, but between them they seem to cover most stuff I'm interested in.
@ wdlindsy@toad.social <- American centric political and activist stuff
@ stavvers@masto.ai <- All hail. Funny, sarcastic, great content
@ SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to <- Memes
@ garius@mastodon.me.uk <- Author of the Brexit Tapes. Also much cat content
@ TheRaDR@mstdn.social <- Everyone's favourite rabbi
@ AstroKatie@mastodon.social <- For Science!
@ whatthetrans@journa.host <- Trans content and news
@ CEMedia@union.place <- UK politics
@ Number10cat@mastodonapp.uk <- Larry the Cat (he has good opinions on politics)
@ auschwitzmuseum@mastodon.world <- Painful, but so very necessary
A few famous people:
@ gretathunberg@mastodon.nu
@ georgetakei@universeodon.com
@ neilhimself@mastodon.social
@ godpod@universeodon.com <- surely you will want to follow God?
General info - Mastodon works very much like Twitter. You post 'toots' rather than 'tweets' (or x's or whatever they are called now), and can 'boost' toots. There is no facility for 'quote tweeting', something people are forever arguing about. The upside is that all engagement goes to the original author.
Moderation is good. Every instance has an admin who looks after stuff. If you have a problem you can ask them to look into it, and they will fix bugs, block instances full of trolls or racists etc. They also have a tip jar, if you feel like thanking them for what they do. (No one is paid, and there are no adverts! The place is what the users make it, not what some marketing executive decides.)
Sidebar: On the browser/web version (apps can be different) you have a sidebar on the right with different links, it's all pretty straightforward:
- Home: This is your feed where all the posts from people you follow show up, chronologically. There is no algorithm.
- Notifications: What it says. If someone follows you or likes or boosts a toot - or if someone edits a toot you have liked or boosted - you will be notified.
- Explore: Fairly self-explanatory, you can look for stuff that is 'gaining traction'.
- Local: This is the timeline for your instance.
- Federated: This is THE WHOLE OF MASTODON.
- Direct Messages: What is says on the tin.
- Bookmarks: Stuff you have bookmarked.
- Favourites: Stuff you have favourited.
- Lists: I have not used this, but many people find it useful in order to curate their reading.
Home: On the left there is a search box (for finding people and hashtags), below that a link to your home page and one to edit your profile, and a box for posting toots.
... I am genuinely struggling to think of anything else. It's easy to use once you have poked around a bit, and there are many cats (check out the CatsofMastodon tag) and beautiful photos and random silly things and interesting threads and politics and... *waves hands* Many of the things Twitter is, but with less drama.
It's not perfect of course, because it's still people, but for me (as a place to mostly lurk and keep tabs on stuff that interests me), it works very well.
I hope you found this useful. If you have questions, just ask!
ETA: Re. other platforms. Threads is just another Facebook extension (eat the rich, don't feed them your content), and Bluesky might seem a nice alternative, but Jack Dorsey is backing RFK Jr.'s campaign... And yeah, I still have a facebook - to keep in touch with family overseas - and an Instagram, so I'm not a paragon of virtue. However I am trying to make better choices. And I know that a lot of people use Twitter for their work (esp if they are freelance) and it sucks that their way of reaching customers is being destroyed.
I might post holiday pictures, but for now I figured I might just write the Mastodon post I keep meaning to, since Twitter is continuing its downward trajectory (even if it was working great, the fact that Elon is happy to welcome nazis is something I personally find myself unable to accept, hence leaving for good in November). Also generally it's just bad that a place for talking and dispersing information is being destroyed. :(
A couple of articles:
Twitter is being rebranded as X
Money quote: The letter “X” has been on just about everything Musk has touched for the last two-plus decades. X.com was the original name for Paypal; it’s in his SpaceX company name; it’s in the name for the Tesla SUV; it anchors X.Ai and his kid X Æ A-12; and he has said he wants to turn Twitter into “X, the everything app.” Now he’s finally doing something with the X.com domain he bought back from Paypal in 2017.
Elon Musk Wants to Relive His Start-Up Days. He’s Repeating the Same Mistakes.
~
ANYWAY. Mastodon might be a bit more complicated that ticking a single box, but I am finding it a good Twitter alternative and have managed to more-or-less recreate what I had on the bird site (minus the drama!)
The Fediverse is an alternative way to 'do the internet'. The idea is very simple - the net is decentralised: that is, no one place 'owns' everything (there are no adverts, and no billionaires behind the scenes trying to turn you or your content into a product) and you can follow people across platforms, as long as they are part of the fediverse. That is, you wouldn't need to check 10 different sites if they were all federated, everything would be collated on your 'Reading List'.
To illustrate, imagine if LJ, DW and InsaneJournal were federated - so you could follow people across all three sites, and friending someone made their posts show up on your flist. And if the site you were on (say LJ) did something you did not like, you could just move; not *import* from one platform from another but move wholesale, bringing your friends etc with you.
To start on Mastodon you have to pick a server - or 'instance'. There are many many instances, which some people find bewildering. However the upside is that:
a) You can pick an instance that aligns with your interests. If you like anime, or vintage cars, or archeology or care about climate activism or want LGBT+ content, there will probably be an instance with like-minded people. And when you join you will have access to the instance feed, which is all the other people on that instance - essentially a built-in reading list of people with similar interests.
b) You can move. You don't have to figure everything out straight away - you can pick a big general instance and then, if you find a smaller place that is just right, you can move. And as said before, you keep all the friends you have already added.
Your username will be @ [yourhandle] @ [mastodonserver name] - a bit like how you will be called 'your username' @ dreamwidth.org.
You can find a (curated) list of servers here:
https://iexplainers.com/best-mastodon-servers/
And HERE is a very simple website that will help you set up an account quickly and easily:
https://spreadmastodon.org/
Finding people to follow is obviously the thing to do. Back when I emigrated from Twitter is literally went through my whole list of people I followed and noted down if any of them had a mastodon account (in their name or bio). I'm not particularly recommending this, as it was very time consuming, but if there are people you want to keep following it might be worth checking to see if they have an account.
- Note: You have to go to a person's 'home page' to follow them. And (such a handy feature), you can add a private note about someone's account.
- Mastodon does not have trending topics and you can only search for people if you know their whole 'address'. This is by design. (You do not get drama and pile-ons.) The way to find stuff is hashtags. Search for stuff you are interested in, follow people, see how things shake out. You can always unfollow if someone's not your cup of tea.
- You can block people or even whole instances.
- Tip: A few good follows. I have added a gap between the first '@' and the rest of the name, because otherwise DW turns it into DW username. But copy & paste into your searchbox (deleting the gap) and you will find the people. :)
@ mastodonmigration@mastodon.online <- Useful tips and news from around the fediverse
@ lisamelton@mastodon.social <- This woman singlehandedly collates and disperses interesting stuff. Follow Lisa, and you are set.
@ NoctisEqui@mastodonapp.uk <- One my favourite follows. Not as eclectic or all encompassing as Lisa Melton, but between them they seem to cover most stuff I'm interested in.
@ wdlindsy@toad.social <- American centric political and activist stuff
@ stavvers@masto.ai <- All hail. Funny, sarcastic, great content
@ SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to <- Memes
@ garius@mastodon.me.uk <- Author of the Brexit Tapes. Also much cat content
@ TheRaDR@mstdn.social <- Everyone's favourite rabbi
@ AstroKatie@mastodon.social <- For Science!
@ whatthetrans@journa.host <- Trans content and news
@ CEMedia@union.place <- UK politics
@ Number10cat@mastodonapp.uk <- Larry the Cat (he has good opinions on politics)
@ auschwitzmuseum@mastodon.world <- Painful, but so very necessary
A few famous people:
@ gretathunberg@mastodon.nu
@ georgetakei@universeodon.com
@ neilhimself@mastodon.social
@ godpod@universeodon.com <- surely you will want to follow God?
General info - Mastodon works very much like Twitter. You post 'toots' rather than 'tweets' (or x's or whatever they are called now), and can 'boost' toots. There is no facility for 'quote tweeting', something people are forever arguing about. The upside is that all engagement goes to the original author.
Moderation is good. Every instance has an admin who looks after stuff. If you have a problem you can ask them to look into it, and they will fix bugs, block instances full of trolls or racists etc. They also have a tip jar, if you feel like thanking them for what they do. (No one is paid, and there are no adverts! The place is what the users make it, not what some marketing executive decides.)
Sidebar: On the browser/web version (apps can be different) you have a sidebar on the right with different links, it's all pretty straightforward:
- Home: This is your feed where all the posts from people you follow show up, chronologically. There is no algorithm.
- Notifications: What it says. If someone follows you or likes or boosts a toot - or if someone edits a toot you have liked or boosted - you will be notified.
- Explore: Fairly self-explanatory, you can look for stuff that is 'gaining traction'.
- Local: This is the timeline for your instance.
- Federated: This is THE WHOLE OF MASTODON.
- Direct Messages: What is says on the tin.
- Bookmarks: Stuff you have bookmarked.
- Favourites: Stuff you have favourited.
- Lists: I have not used this, but many people find it useful in order to curate their reading.
Home: On the left there is a search box (for finding people and hashtags), below that a link to your home page and one to edit your profile, and a box for posting toots.
... I am genuinely struggling to think of anything else. It's easy to use once you have poked around a bit, and there are many cats (check out the CatsofMastodon tag) and beautiful photos and random silly things and interesting threads and politics and... *waves hands* Many of the things Twitter is, but with less drama.
It's not perfect of course, because it's still people, but for me (as a place to mostly lurk and keep tabs on stuff that interests me), it works very well.
I hope you found this useful. If you have questions, just ask!
ETA: Re. other platforms. Threads is just another Facebook extension (eat the rich, don't feed them your content), and Bluesky might seem a nice alternative, but Jack Dorsey is backing RFK Jr.'s campaign... And yeah, I still have a facebook - to keep in touch with family overseas - and an Instagram, so I'm not a paragon of virtue. However I am trying to make better choices. And I know that a lot of people use Twitter for their work (esp if they are freelance) and it sucks that their way of reaching customers is being destroyed.
no subject
Very informative post. As I never saw a need for Twitter in my life, I don’t really have a need for a Twitter replacement either, but yay open web *\o/*
no subject
*slightly hysterical laughter* Yeah, no. But - considering that I am NOT a tech expert in any way, and yet managed to figure this out without any help (except for helpful guides) I figured I'd do my bit. Also getting people to leave Twitter is SUCH a good motivator.
Very informative post. As I never saw a need for Twitter in my life, I don’t really have a need for a Twitter replacement either, but yay open web *\o/*
Yay open web indeed! I like the idea of it so much, especially considering the way everything else is being monetised & siloed. Eat the rich, power to the people.
no subject
I keep thinking X is fitting because it's clearly not the same site (and not in a good way) and X seems like a good burial marker to me.
no subject
It was SO LOVELY! I want to move to Portugal.
I keep thinking X is fitting because it's clearly not the same site (and not in a good way) and X seems like a good burial marker to me.
LOL! I have seen a lot of puns and remarks, but that one might be my favourite.
no subject
no subject
But I know people get put off by something appearing difficult, so thought I could share my knowledge!
no subject
no subject
It was so, so perfect. Warm enough to be lovely the whole time, but never sweltering, and there was usually a bit of a breeze.
My garden is so happy with all the rain...
We returned to a GROWING garden! :D
no subject
no subject
it was possibly the best holiday I've ever had. I will try to post pictures...
What's your Mastodon account name so I can follow you?
I'm @ upon_the_shore@mas.to, but I lurk and boost stuff, rather than talk to people. Also no fannish stuff. You can scroll through & see if it's your jam, but if not don't worry - it's a completely separate online presence.
no subject
no subject