FediTips has moved!Nov 5, 2022

Hey new people and those thinking of joining, you do NOT need to sign up on huge servers!

You can follow and interact with people on any server from any server, the servers are connected.

It would really, really help the network right now if you could sign up on medium or small size servers. You will still be able to follow and interact with whoever you want, and the network as a whole will work much better.

A good safe place for beginners to find servers to join is https://joinmastodon.org/servers

Show threadFediTips has moved!Nov 5, 2022

You also don't need to be on the same server as your friends.

You can find each other from different servers by exchanging account addresses, here's how it works:

https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#WhatsMyAccountsAddress

It's a bit like exchanging phone numbers!

Show threadFediTips has moved!Nov 5, 2022

p.s. By the way, a lot of the servers on https://joinmastodon.org/servers say "get on waitlist" but this phrasing is misleading.

A lot of these servers don't have a waitlist at all and will accept you pretty quickly, within a few hours in some cases. It's just the server admin is screening out spammers by switching on the "why do you want to join?" form, because spambots find this form harder to cope with.

Show threadJonobieNov 5, 2022
@feditips what happens if you join on a server that the owner later decides to just delete?
Show threadSofie 🇺🇦🇹🇼🇨🇦🇬🇱
@Jonobie @feditips As long as you get a warning in advance, you can export and import your account into other servers. If you do not trust the server, a monthly export as a backup might be a good idea - or moving to a trustful server.
Nov 5, 2022 at 12:09pmWeb
Show threadJonobieNov 5, 2022
@sofiii @feditips thanks, sounds like there aren’t really any software guardrails though if someone just decides to drop a server? That feels faintly precarious as this all gets bigger, although it’s good to see things like covenants for not doing it. (I started to look at running my own server, though the one in English I saw seems like everything is “temporarily unavailable”, I’m guessing due to the current surge? https://masto.host/pricing/ )
Show threadSofie 🇺🇦🇹🇼🇨🇦🇬🇱Nov 5, 2022

@Jonobie @feditips Yes, it is worrisome (with every Internet service). It is enough to when an account gets deactivated.

I expect that one of the apps will provide an automated backup function. I will do it manually from the website until I figured something out:
https://mastodon.social/settings/export

Maybe someone else knows more about an automated backup? #mastodon #backup #help