With each new surge of Mastodon users, I feel the need to point out:
1. Welcome!
2. There is a learning curve here, but most people find it short and not very steep. Play around, explore. You'll get it.
3. Lots of people are willing to help.
4. Yes, it's different than Twitter. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes not. But you'll figure it out.
5. With surges especially, things sometimes get slow/glitchy, but they usually get fixed pretty quick.
Be patient.
i haven’t looked into that because the way that anyone can pull someone else in seems like a wonky UI 🥲 but hold on, brb …
here, this looks like a good explainer https://gizmodo.com/mastodon-how-to-dm-send-messages-twitter-1849759852
6. It takes a little effort at first. The more you post, boost, and follow right from the jump, the better it will get.
@mmasnick this perfectly reflects my #TwitterMigration experience.
Some things are better. Some things aren't. Instead of getting hung up on not being able to do something like quote tweet, focus on experiencing it as it is for all of its differences.
And have fun
@mmasnick I worry about how well the federated architecture will respond to bad actors. When Russian intelligence starts up tens of thousands of bot accounts on different federated servers, I hope the admins will be able to keep up. The moderator to user ratio should be better than on Twitter, so hopefully it'll come out positive.
As with email, I worry about spam accounts. If I were a spammer, I'd be thinking about transient accounts that follow a few thousand people, send a couple messages.
12. Civility is the name of the game. We're all here to make this work, and you'll find most people are kind and good-intentioned, even if you disagree with them.
13. Listen to the people (minority groups, especially) who point out the problems of hatred and/or denial of problems that still exist across the Fediverse, and do your part to make it a better place. Just because we have a new place to gather doesn't mean everyone's prejudices have disappeared.
@MaxPow3r11
Well, Elon Musk (green verified) - as I said, there are arguments about the pile-on nature of what this can cause. There are rational arguments opposed to that, but the longer I've been here the more I've managed to get used to it. Simply comment on a post and then THEN boost it. Not the same, but people who follow you still get roughly an equivalent opportunity to engage...
I agree, why make something more difficult and less effective to approximate the same result?
Here's the explanation. Which to me makes sense.
Quoting something and commenting on it is the essence of blogging. A "microblogging" platform without it will always feel unfinished, IMHO.
@vlvtelvis
I keep repeating myself. You can still do that here. It's just DIFFERENT from the way it works on Twitter...
I'm sure some of the Mastodon apps will find a way to simulate this more closely in the future.
This is one of the original explanations: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/99662106175542726
@coralsncaves @dirkhh the belief (which many people, including me, strongly disagree with) is that it leads to "dunking" and brigading and other harassing activity more than anything useful.
I think it's a useful tool. But The community feels strongly about it.
There ARE some instances that have implemented it however.
The Happy Heretic
Mike Masnick ✅
eleanorina
BoredBaguette
Schizo-Materialist
Ateriath
Dangandblast
Francesco Gabaglio
Sheldon
AnthonyUplandpoetWatkins
Kyle Woodley
Daniel Wurzbacher
Adam Fields
MidLifeBroad
Ed Bott
Andrew Guy
Ugfonyb
Alaric
Rob Bos
Amy Lundy
Dirk Hohndel
Emil Protalinski
underoak
Dunstan
Kevin Gamin
Confiscated Pillow Phone
🌲🧿 "Max"t💽d🏵️n 🔎🍄
R Provost, PhD
J Neal
ToSkinADonkey
Dr. Kim Cobb