Two days of non-techy Mastodon knowledge (FAQ)
I find myself telling people the same nuggets of information over and over, so I thought I’d put it all in one place!
However, due to the nature of the internet but especially weird free-and-open-source internet, this may change swiftly - for reference, I wrote this in April 2017.
Context: Until recently, stuff has been largely the domain of techbros. That’s starting to change. I’m blogging now because I’m feeling like this is really starting to be a place for non-techy-coders to hang out. It’s all from the point of view of someone who has zero technical knowledge and just knows enough to function, and that’s sorely lacking because until Mastodon you had to be kind of techy to get into it.
Is this the hot new thing?
So how does Mastadon fit into the big picture? Why is Mastadon so popular?
Which instance should I join?
Mastodon –> Twitter for noobs?
Twitter –> Mastodon for noobs?
What’s the local timeline?
What’s the federated timeline?
Where are you? How do I tag you in a post?
Are people actually using it? How do I find my friends on there?
How do I find nice people?
Mastodon. Federated social network system thing based on OStatus. Here’s a nice intro by Sarah Jeong:
“Mastodon Is Like Twitter Without Nazis, So Why Are We Not Using It?” (April 2017)
So like, you can’t send a tweet and have it appear in your friend’s Facebook inbox. Those systems are closed, and not federated.
But you know how someone with a gmail account can send an email to someone with a yahoo account and it still works and gets through? That’s federation!
It’s that, but with a Twitter-like social network thing instead. Each provider is known as an instance. Here’s an article by the creator with a nice description of this.
IS THIS THE HOT NEW THING?
Noooo. But also yes? It’s actually been around for years. Kind of.
It’s based on a framework of code called OStatus that has been around for a long time, and it gets reincarnated periodically by some enterprising cool person. Mastodon is both hot and new - but it uses OStatus, which is much older.
The nice thing is that because they all use this free-and-open-source federation framework, the instances of the very oldest most retro versions can federate with shiny new Mastodon - and anything new that gets created in future.
Other words to google, off the top of my head: OStatus, GNU Social, Quitter, Qvitter, Friendica. Here’s a good pile of information with no context, which will make sense once you’ve researched a bit more maybe?
SO HOW DOES MASTODON FIT INTO THE BIG PICTURE? WHY IS MASTODON SO POPULAR?
I’ve been following this federated social network majigger for a few years, and I even tried to help it take off a couple of years ago with GNU Social. But the thing that’s really making it popular now is Mastodon - because it’s very user-friendly, it’s very Twitter-like, it’s easier to install if you want to make your own instance, etc. You don’t have to be a coder to get by with it as a basic user.
I think a big part of it is that Mastodon has one “main instance” and one lead developer (Gargron), who’s getting sufficiently funded to work on it full-time, due to the glory of Patreon. This means that development is active and ongoing and (hopefully) sustainable.
Mastodon also fills a niche. It has rules and tools that make things more comfortable for users. Like, Twitter are notoriously terrible for letting nazis and TERFs roam free, harassing whoever they like, right? But Mastodon’s default rules (and the rules on the main instance) include banning racists, transphobes, etc. Mastodon also has built-in features that let you hide things behind a Read More with a little content warning (CW), and hide pictures that are NSFW, making timelines much more cordial and safe:
WHICH INSTANCE SHOULD I JOIN?
Complicated place to choose a Mastodon instance.
Minimal decisions way to choose a Mastodon instance.
Anyone can make an instance, which means any instance can fail. Choose one with an admin you trust to keep things running smoothly, if you can - and choose one with lots of uptime to avoid frustration! Also choose one that has rules you like, and if you are inclined, go for one that has an admin that you think can uphold those rules well.
You can’t really get a feel for individual instances and admins without joining, and the communities and rules and admins and number of members on each instance vary a lot. So if you join one, you might quite soon discover that there’s another one that suits you better and then move.
Also maybe you will choose the instance that most of your friends are on. Once you’ve got a Mastodon account you can use Mastodon Bridge to find where your Twitter friends are, and then move instances.
(It varies from instance to instance; it’s best to post asking about it, and someone will respond with helpful assistance!)
Android: Tusky. (I use it; it’s decent!)
These may stop being the best apps, but at the moment these are the best apps.
MASTODON –> TWITTER FOR NOOBS?
If you want an IFTTT mastodon -> twitter crossposter:
1) make a new applet
2) Select Feed
3) enter “https://your.instance/users/username.atom”
4) Make the “Then That” post entityContent to twitter
5) Note that if you have over 140 characters it won’t tweet
TWITTER –> MASTODON FOR NOOBS?
If you use Tweetdeck in Chrome, the extension Tooter may meet your needs.
If not, and you have Python3 skillz, this may help??? (I have no idea, I do not have skillz, but someone in my Mastodon timeline tested it before my eyes just today and it worked.)
If not, and you have no skillz… I have no idea. Sorry.
WHAT’S THE LOCAL TIMELINE?
All the posts from everyone on your instance.
WHAT’S THE FEDERATED TIMELINE?
That, plus… everyone followed by anyone on your instance. (So, not everyone on every instance ever.)
WHERE ARE YOU? HOW DO I TAG YOU IN A POST?
My instance is cybre.space. My username there is @cassolotl.
So, since the instances are all separate, there could be a cassolotl on another instance. How do you make sure you’re definitely tagging me? Again, it’s like email: you tag my username, and then you attach the tag for my instance on the end. So I would be: @[email protected] (If you just type @cassolotl it’ll default to the cassolotl on your instance, and if there’s not one it won’t tag anyone.)
You can type this into search and try to find my profile that way. But if that doesn’t work, you can just click here: http://cybre.space/@cassolotl
Here’s where my instance is on a very cool map! The little blue circle marks cybre.space:
ARE PEOPLE ACTUALLY USING IT? HOW DO I FIND MY FRIENDS ON THERE?
Well, there have been tens of thousands of people moving over in the last few days. Whether any of them are your friends, I do not know! I’d guess I’ve had about ten or so of my friends in various online places (Telegram and Twitter mostly) open accounts there in the last 48 hours.
You can use this Twitter-friend-finding thingy, Mastodon Bridge, to find your Twitter friends on Mastodon. It requires them to have used the tool previously, but I found it helpful!
HOW DO I FIND NICE PEOPLE?
This at first seems harder than Twitter in many ways. Federation means you can’t automagically search THE ENTIRE NETWORK. It’s designed to be decentralised, so that instances can stay a bit separate if they want to.
Additionally, in order to reduce the chance of harassment, the search box only works for hashtags, usernames, and URLs of specific posts. Because of the way hashtags and federation work together, hashtags reach the most people.
If you want to connect with and follow a lot of different people you don’t know, choose an instance with as many members as possible. The local and federated timelines will be much busier, and you’ll get more results in a hashtag search.
So here are my recommendations, in order of goodness descending:
Post a new #introductions post. You get probably like 500 characters. Start with #introductions; the hashtag is important. Then say hi, say a little bit about yourself. Include some interests, and turn them into hashtags so that other people can find you later. People will repost your post, and hey presto.
Ask a question, or ask for help. People really like to help, even if they don’t already follow you! And they will see your post. Including the #help hashtag is good.
Search for hashtags you’re interested in. (Non-hashtag searches won’t work.)
Peruse the federated timeline, and do some following and reposting of things that fit your interests. People will use them to judge whether or not to follow you and strike up a conversation.
For some reason there is no automated account deletion process. There is an open issue on Github for this, but the lead dev doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about creating the feature because it has wide-reaching implications.
Usually when someone wants to abandon an account they change their username to “abandoned account” or something, deletes their avatar and bio, unfollows and blocks people if they feel inclined. It’s even possible to manually delete all posts one at a time, but if your account has been very active that could be an awful process!
If you want to be more thorough you can ask your friendly local admin to delete your account for you.
That’s all I can think of for now, but I might add things later if I find I have to explain or point a couple of times!
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