BunNICKula🇨🇦@LibertyForward1
I worry about the famous website which sold pens. They purported to be on an island and, before Camel Font, was hard to pronounce safely.
ticho
Kaito@JeremyMallin you can't take me away from #PenIsland !!!!111
Michael Hanscom@Fractalzend Howdy! And welcome to Mastodon!
A few tips to get you started, since you said that Mastodon was all new to you:
One of the things I really like about this place is there's no algorithm shoving engagement bait from people you don't know in your face; you only see things from people you follow. The flip side, of course, is that when you're new and not following many people yet, it can seem pretty quiet and boring. So! When you have time, find people to follow and build your feed.
How to do that, though? See what the people you are following post, link to, and boost, and follow more people that look interesting; that part's pretty self-explanatory.
The "live feeds" section has three tabs that will show you posts from people you don't know: People on the same server you're on ("this server"), posts from people across the fediverse that people on your server follow ("other servers"), and...I'm not sure of the last one ("all"), but I think it's a combination of the two. It's pretty random, and I don't use these much, but they're options.
Off the top of my head, a few recommendations that you might find interesting:
- @FediTips - tips on how to get the most out of Mastodon
- @tychotithonus - my old friend Royce; pretty sure you met him a few times
- @norwescon and @SeattleWorldcon2025 - the two cons I'm involved in here (okay, maybe not _super_ interesting for you, but I'm going to plug them anyway)
- @dilmandila - a filmmaker and author; I met him when he was nominated for the #PhilipKDickAward, you may be more interested in his filmmaking posts
- @todayonscreen - posts daily important events as seen in films
- @Jyoti - the musican behind White Town ("Your Woman")
- @macrumors - Apple and macOS news
Hashtags are used a _lot_ here. Use the search field to look for terms around areas you might be interested in (#film? #audio?), or follow hashtags that look interesting in other people's posts. If your hashtag contains multiple words, it works best if you use #CamelCase so that screen readers know where the word breaks are and read them correctly (for one classic example, is #penisland "Pen Island" or "Penis Land"?).
You may want to post an introduction post saying hello and letting people know who you are and what you're interested in. Here's mine as one example; you can find more by skimming the #introduction tag: https://tenforward.social/@djwudi/109377489172323601
If/when you post photos, adding #AltText to describe the image for screen reader users is highly recommended and a large part of the general fediverse culture. If you'd like help, you can use the #Alt4Me tag to ask for alt text suggestions.
Another part of the culture here is using "Content Warnings" (or sometimes called "Content Wrappers") to give a brief subject line for a post that readers have to click through before reading the entire post. People might use them in addition to hashtags to flag subjects that others might not want to see (like political, NSFW, possibly controversial content, movie/TV spoilers, etc.). I've used one for this post because it's so damn long. :)
Since Mastodon (and the wider fediverse) is federated across multiple servers, the server you choose can have an effect on what you see -- and whether you're seen. While mastodon.social (your current server) is one of the largest servers out there, it has a questionable-at-best reputation, has had issues with problematic users and moderation, and is even blocked (defederated) by many other servers. As you get more used to Mastodon, you may want to keep an eye out for other servers you could move to. I'm on tenforward.social, which (if you hadn't guessed) tends to attract #StarTrek fans, and is very well moderated; it also has some other benefits, like a 10,000 character post limit instead of the default 500 (which is why I'm able to put all of this in a single post).
There's probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment, but hopefully this will be enough to get you started and sticking around. Enjoy, and toss me questions if you ever want or need!
Michael Hanscom (@[email protected])
Here’s my #introduction / #introductions post (updated 5/25/24): Hi! I’m Michael, but can frequently be found online as “djwudi”. Grew up in #Alaska, now exist just south of #Seattle most of the time. Currently work in #HigherEducation #a11y #accessibility as the #AccessibleTechnology Program Manager at Highline College. I’m a #ScienceFiction / #SciFi fan. #StarTrek is my home fandom, and I volunteer for @[email protected], a local regional fan-run con, and for @[email protected] #SeattleWorldcon2025. I read a lot of SF #books. Trek novels are my go-to “comfort food”. I’m slowly working my way through all the #HugoAward Best Novel winners, and every year read all of the nominees for the #PhilipKDickAward before the annual award ceremony at Norwescon. Speaking of the Philip K. Dick Award and #Norwescon, as of #nwc45 (2023), I am the award ceremony coordinator for Norwescon. This means I oversee the award ceremony and work with nominated authors and their agents as we invite them to attend the ceremony. I’m one of the many Seattleites who “used to be a #DJ”. For me, it was about a decade in #Anchorage in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, primarily at The Lost Abbey and Gig’s Music Theatre. Focused on alternative genres: goth/industrial/synth pop/ebm/techno/etc. These days I occasionally pop up on Twitch, and semi-regularly DJ the Thursday night dance at Norwescon. Though recently more on the fringes, I try to be part of the #SeaGoth (Seattle #goth / #gothic) community whenever possible. I used to be a regular at The Vogue (on 12th), and these days try to get out to the Mercury once every month or two. #Apple #macOS / #iOS user by choice, Windows user if paid. Oh, and: 51, white, cis, male, statistically straight, healthy, white-collar employed, not rich but comfortably not poor, married, homeowner, neurotypical (as far as I know). In other words, living with a lot of #privilege that I try to be aware of and use for good. #IDIC - #LLAP - 🖖🏻
mathewI've just learned that Pentel now make an aluminium P205. Also some in 80s neon colors, I might get one of those so I don't lose it in my bag.
And if you're still using the classic Pilot V5/V7 as an everyday pen, you owe it to yourself to try a Uniball Jetstream RT. #pens #PenIsland
lertsenem@girlonthenet Also it can avoid misunderstandings. For example if you want to thank https://penisland.net/ for the excellent pens they sent you. #PenIsland
Judge Yuri 👩🏻⚖️Ermm... I mean #PenIsland
Nuki's Old AccountOne of these days I'm going to make up one of these insane hashtags and find out that it's actually being used for something else. Like, watch #PenisLand is actually some website for buying pens on an island or something...
Μπίλιας@tsimpouklano @jonGhull @sang_froid @panos @Sotost επίσης κεφάλαιο στην αρχή κάθε λέξης γιατί δεν φταίνε σε τίποτα οι κάτοικοι του Pen Island #penisland #PenIsland
bettybarcode (she/her) 🚲@feditips
Camel case is easier for *everyone* to read. And avoids the kind of embarrassment that happened to the people of Pen Island:
#penisland
Camel case is easier for *everyone* to read. And avoids the kind of embarrassment that happened to the people of Pen Island:
#penisland