Apologies for the long post, but I haven't seen one of these floating around in a while so I thought I'd make my own!

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Newbs to #Mastodon and the #Fediverse, hear me!!

Here are some tips and tricks for your new arrival:

1) It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you write a post about yourself and what creatures can expect when following you. Tag this post with the hashtag #introduction and pin it to your profile. A lot of creatures here look for these posts when considering following someone!

2) Be ridiculously nice to everyone you meet here because they'll give you the same treatment. On the rare chance that they don't, block them without remorse.

3) Don't be afraid to follow/interact with different people in the various timelines from your server and federated servers. It's a great way to find accounts to follow!

4) Follow hashtags of interest. They are widely used here!

5) If you need help, ask for it here in the replies and I'll make sure you get the answers you need, or make your own post with the hashtags Help and FediHelp. (Don't forget the #!)

6) The Fediverse may seem overwhelming at first. I can almost guarantee it'll be worth it if you stick with it!!

7) Write alt-text for your images. Accessibility is important here (and everywhere) and all images, if possible, should have descriptive text. It should be as detailed as possible, but something like "a photo of a black and white cat with a calm expression. The cat is sitting on a table and looking out the window" should be fine. Just describe what's important!

8) If you are looking both for creatures to follow as well as followers for your own posts, it's a good idea to write a post with as many of your interests as hashtags as possible, and in the post, request that creatures boost it. Usually creatures here are happy to help!

9) When using hashtags, capitalize the first letter of each word (i.e. HashtagsLikeThis) to allow screen readers to better process them.

10) Use CWs liberally. Use them for lewd posts, use them for politics, sad posts, everything you think could be triggering for folks. It's kind to do and many servers have rules against certain content not being under CW.

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That's all from me for now, but check the replies to see if anyone else may have #NewbieTips for you!!

Please #Boost so this post can find those who need to read it! Thank you!!

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Dear new #Mastodon users, please do what I want. 🤡

#newhere #newbietips #newbiehelp #twittermigration

Everyone is talking about various iOS clients for Mastodon, but if you, like many people, are on #Android and want an app rather than the web (which is also quite good), give #Tusky or #Fedilab a try. Both are robust and offer an experience not unlike Twitter.

I prefer Fedilab because it has more features, but the learning curve is a little steeper because of that. It costs money on Google Play but can be had for free on F-Droid if you want to give it the old test-toast. It's open source and under active development.

Tusky was my first app after the "official" app and it's quite similar to Twitter's app. I'm not sure whether it has editing yet, but that's in the pipeline if it hasn't already made it to release. Speaking of releases, some people like Tusky Nightly for the bleeding edge features, so if you're an early adopter you might want to check that out.

But really, there are all sorts of other apps out there including the "official" ones. Give them all a try until you find one that works for you. Don't be intimidated by the choices. It's liberating to be able to pick an experience that works for you. #newbietips #fedihelp

Hallo Mastodon! Freue mich über Austausch/Tipps/Tröts.

#newbietips #firstpost

Now that I'm settling in over here (🐘), I'm reflecting on what got me set up so quickly to make this recreate the experience of 🐦

1. I only followed 100 people over there. If I found someone new and awesome to follow, I had to unfollow someone else to make room. There's something about the right "information per minute" that makes 100 right for me.

2. Reverse chronological order was the way I browsed 🐦, so it being the same way here is perfect (for me). (cont)

#Newbie #NewbieTips #FediTips