If you are new to Mastodon coming from the Twitter, here are a few amazing Mastodon features that are NOT ON TWITTER. Enjoy! 🐘​

1. Content Warnings CW ⚠️​

It allows you to display a warning but hides the content of your post. Here’s a short guide I wrote about it: https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/109282181601490676

2. Slow Mode 😌

In Preferences > Appearance, you can select the option “Slow mode” to hide automatic feed updates. You will then have to click at the top of the timelines to see new posts (ex: “10 new items”).

3. Custom Emojis 

When you write a post (called a toot here), you can select emojis that are custom to your server (called an instance here). In the toot field, click on the 😃 button labelled "Insert emoji" at the bottom (this will vary on mobile apps) to see what’s available there. Some are really neat! 

4. Mastodon is different 

There is no suggestion algorithms here, no promotion, no ads. This is a community. You can be more of your true complex and unique self. Engage with others genuinely. Follow others you like no matter their followers count. Describe yourself and what interests you in your bio, you are not as limited by characters count here.

Be yourself. Leave the toxicity out, it is not valued here. Respect others. Be a kind human. Share what you love. Make friends 

#TinyMastodonTip #Mastodon

Em :official_verified: (@[email protected])

Tiny Mastodon Newbie Tip 🐘: Content Warning (CW) is used quite liberally here. It’s an amazing Mastodon feature! Use it as often as it might be helpful. You can use Content Warning to hide a toot (post) your are writing that: - discusses or displays topics that might disturb other users (ex: violence, nudity, mental health, food, etc) ⚠️​ - discusses or displays topics that you think could be annoying or irrelevant to other users (ex: twitter, local politics, very long post, whom-who-shall-not-be-named, etc) 🔕​ - discusses spoilers of a tv show, movie, video game, or book 🤯​ - hides a joke you want to create a special surprise for! :awesome:​ HOW TO❓​ 1. On desktop, below the toot writing field, click on “CW” in the menu. The button’s icon and label may vary for mobile apps, but it should be there! 2. This will add an extra title field above with “Write your warning here” (or similar label). 3. Write the warning (what people will see) for your toot (ex: “Spoiler Star Trek Discovery Season 10!” or “Discussion of violence:” etc). 4. Write your toot normally in the field “What’s on your mind?” (or similar label) and Publish! 5. People will have to click on “Show More” to see the content of your toot. 6. Magic!✨ #TinyMastodonTip #Mastodon

Infosec Exchange
@Em0nM4stodon thanks! Brand new here. This was a helpful start.
@Em0nM4stodon FANTASTIC primer. Thank you for writing it!
@Em0nM4stodon thanks for making this list, #4 is so important
@Em0nM4stodon l used an actual edit button 😁 That's something!
@Em0nM4stodon where is the news?
World events?
Give me a clue how to find things like my favorite TV show chats.
@rmecheeya @Em0nM4stodon it’s all networking effect, searching and following hashtags. Unless you specifically have a link to a particular news organisations profile.
@Em0nM4stodon Thank you for these very helpful pointers!
@Em0nM4stodon the custom emojis alone are making swapping platforms worth it:kirby_fly:  
@Em0nM4stodon thank you for the information. I was fully onboard until the last sentence posed a problem. Im a professional toxicologist. Please let me stay regardless. I'll not talk 'shop'. 😌

@stijntjes @Em0nM4stodon no way, you're gone, NO EXCEPTIONS!!!1!1

Maybe you should have been a paleontologist if you wanted to be welcome here on mastodon.

@Em0nM4stodon people on Twitter use sensitive content warnings to obscure spoilers or solutions for games.
@Em0nM4stodon This is so refreshing... especially the 4th bullet point.
@Em0nM4stodon Still getting used to #nsfw versus #cw. I’ve been cautioned that warnings often just get deconfigured in client or people become accustomed to auto-tapping then. So for now I’m sticking with #nsfw when appropriate. What’s most confusing is that rules vary by server and content can be reposted almost anywhere. Interesting but adds to the confusion and need for care.
@Em0nM4stodon Editing toots is the most amazing feature that's different from Twitter imho.

@Em0nM4stodon

Genuinely like the idea behind this. Thanks for the breakdown

@Em0nM4stodon not sure it makes sense but if it does can you steal/borrow/ resurrect the G+ feature where if you are somewhere down you feed and new posts come in, you can go to check the new messages and then return to where you were up to down in your feed?
@Em0nM4stodon I don’t see where I can do content warnings in the iOS app.
@Em0nM4stodon thank you for explaining CW.. I was just saying earlier that I am very interested in discussions of politics and climate change.. Do I have to put warnings on all that?😲
@Em0nM4stodon all valid points. But part of me wished that Mastodon would implement some kind of curation system. Because I actually liked using Twitter's recommendation algorithm. I follow way too many people to use a chronological timeline. I'll miss so many mor posts I might be interested in, just cause I'm not actively opening the app every 30 minutes.. or you know... Sleeping. While Twitter actually caught me up on good tweets I might have missed
@Em0nM4stodon how to make recommendations to active base developers? - be great to have "slow mode" options readily available near feeds (like a toggle)
@tedwardall I am not at all in charge of this, I’m just a regular user :) But since this is an open source software, I believe feature suggestions can be done on Mastodon’s development page here: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/discussions?discussions_q=feature+request
mastodon/mastodon

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community - mastodon/mastodon

GitHub
@Em0nM4stodon if I may quote my favorite show: “This is the way.”
@Em0nM4stodon This is really helpful, thank you!!😀
@Em0nM4stodon CW is AMAZING for talking about a newer game without spoiling it for people who haven't played yet!!
@Em0nM4stodon Thank you! I've just arrived, and this sort of thing is exactly what I was looking for.
@Em0nM4stodon I love this - Be yourself. Leave the toxicity out, it is not valued here. Respect others. Be a kind human. Share what you love. Make friends ​
@Em0nM4stodon thank you 🙏🏼 for this list:mstdn:
@Em0nM4stodon this tool can be useful to determine which custom emoji your instance supports: https://emojos.in/
Mastodon instance custom emoji list

@Em0nM4stodon thanks, I was quite low key on the bird site. This place reminds me of the old school chat rooms and the communitys built there.
Looking forward to make new friends 😁
@Em0nM4stodon Thank you for the crush course! I kinda got on bad tearms with Twitter a while before *the event*, and now we broke up for good. And finding this app was so refreshing. I feel like I got into a secret society of rebellions. 
@Em0nM4stodon thank you so much for the tips! Good stuff.

@Em0nM4stodon One big thing Twitter doesn't do is connect to any other instances. That's a huge fail!
We take that for granted here. But newbs from the centralised networks have never had the freedom.

Other things both are missing are:
- Special interest groups (coming soon)
- Rich text.
- Bottom up scrolling. Here you see the bottom of the post first. then read downwards. Then jump up to the next post. Crazy!

@Em0nM4stodon thanks!

Q: when I use a custom emoji, like
 
or

do readers on other instances see them, or only on my instance?

Thanks 🙂

@Em0nM4stodon My first reaction was "why did they send me this? I've been here longer than they have" ::checks notes:: Yeah, a whole day longer.
@Em0nM4stodon Thirring has floofmojis of the buns on the server    and floofamaticians (floofy mathematicians!)
:hilbert: :pythagoras: 
Also thank you for this. Great stuff for the newcomers!