Lesley Carhart Nov 24, 2022

For your first day on Mastodon, just a few humbly suggested steps! Welcome to the party!

1) Consider if you're on the server for you, your hobbies, and your moderation desires. You can always migrate your account, later. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/

2) Make a profile! These can be longer than Twitter ones - and you can format them with line breaks, italics (using asterix), and loads of emoji if your server supports markup. Check the emoji on your server, here! https://emojos.in/

3) If you liked who you followed on Twitter, use https://debirdify.pruvisto.org/ and/or https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ to create a csv of all the people you followed there to upload into Mastodon, using the web menu option Preferences > Import. Now you are following the same folks!

4) Using https://debirdify.pruvisto.org/, you can also export your Twitter blocklist, and import it using the same function in Mastodon.

5) Create an introduction post! Use lots of hashtags to help people find you and your interests, as there's no algorithm or string search function here. Make sure to add the hashtag introduction!

6) Get used to using hashtags in your posts regularly, so that people can find them manually or using the hashtag following function, or the rss feed function.

7) Use CWs liberally, to help people decide what to see. Follow your server's guidelines, but definitely CW those movie spoilers!

8) Use alt text in your images whenever possible, to help people with screen readers enjoy it here, too!

9) Enjoy your new community, and have a lot of fun!

#MastodonTips #MastodonNewbie

Moving or leaving accounts - Mastodon documentation

Take your information and do what you want with it.

Show threadSpiritcaatNov 25, 2022

@hacks4pancakes

I had no idea what any of the servers were for, I just closed my eyes and picked one. I just don't get the whole server thing.

Show threadLesley Carhart 
@Pawstalker it’s okay! You can change later on. Think of it like we are all in different schools but we meet for events and games. We can talk to one another but our servers have rules and themes and expertise.
Nov 25, 2022 at 12:47amWeb
Show threadSpiritcaatNov 25, 2022

@hacks4pancakes

So, do is there an advantage to being on one server over another? How would one even choose? I didn't see a whole lot of explanation of any of them.

Show threadLesley Carhart Nov 25, 2022
@Pawstalker some of it is vanity, but some is their moderation policies and general community of practice (could be a hobby, culture, or career like mine is).