HollieNov 18, 2022

HEY HEY FRENZ on mastodon.social! You may want to MOVE to a new instance, very soon.

Why?  

Mastodon is a bunch of islands that can talk to each other. The smaller and more spread out we are, the easier things are to moderate. Horizontal scaling FTW!

All of you who fled that one site šŸ¤ ended up at mastodon.social for likely a few reasons. It was obvious, it was big, and it's where you saw a bunch of folks going.

But it has a long history of being poorly moderated, which means a LOT of instances are silencing or blocking it. Which means you're on the big island that SEEMS like it's "where everyone is", but in fact, it's a giant island unto itself (momentarily trending toward turning into a post-bird-site echo chamber), and huge swaths of the Fediverse don't talk to it, or even see it.

If you want the quality of interaction (and moderation!) Mastodon is known for, move thy funky buns to a smaller instance of cool folks you enjoy. 

#feditips #fediverse

Show threadKristin KellyNov 18, 2022
@hollie Is there any way to find out more about the community you joined? Like how you knew about the community that it was poorly moderated. I didnā€™t know anything when picking, and picked based on the rules, which seemed good. It is a German and English platform, likely out of Germany. Just trying to figure things out. Thanks.
Show threadHollie

@kristinkelly Great question! It can be rough at the start, for sure!

When I was new, I had a friend who had been on Mastodon for a long time, and I asked her how she navigated, and she explained why I ought to leave mastodon.social. When I moved, it was like the world opened up! I was able to see so much more of the Fediverse, and began making more friends.

When I look at new instances, I'm looking to see:

- What are their guidelines?

- Do they have moderation objectives in place, and do they seem to have a plan for dealing with folks who go against the guidelines?

- Is it one person running a large instance alone, or is it a team that helps each other?

- Also, feel free to ask! You can say, "I'm thinking of joining this instance, have folks heard anything about this place?"

- If you know of an instance you do like and trust, many times those instances will have lists in their About section on which servers they avoid. Those lists can be illuminating!

Nov 18, 2022 at 9:49pmWeb
Show threadKristin KellyNov 19, 2022
@hollie thank you!