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.

@hacks4pancakes
CW as in content warning, in this context
@GuillaumeRossolini @hacks4pancakes I did wonder what that meant - thank you!
@GuillaumeRossolini genuine question - what else does it stand for?
@hacks4pancakes are there any tools to help import Twitter follows from a local backup? Near as I can tell the online tools don’t work with a suspended account but I have a recent-ish backup on a hard drive.
@icassassin I’m very sorry but I haven’t seen one yet- but as long as you can make a simple csv…

@icassassin I have simply been creating .csv files and using Preferences | Import and Export | Import | Merge (that last is very important)

HTH

@planetscape what are you putting into the .csv files? Just the Twitter ids? I guess my issue is that what I have is a .json file that has Twitter urls and IDs but no, like, usernames.

@icassassin Oh, I am sorry! I misunderstood. I have been importing usernames like "@planetscape@mastodon(.)social" [parens added so it doesn't link]. One username+instance per line.

Tho I believe, per:

https://mastodon.social/@[email protected]al/109309590004656679

that #debirdify (https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/) may do what you want?

Again, my apologies for misunderstanding.

Debirdify

This is a web app that helps you find out which of the people you follow on Twitter are on Mastodon/in the Fediverse already and follow all of them easily.

@icassassin Ah, more apologies are in order. #Debirdify also requires user names, not IDs.

Do you have access to the Twitter API?

@planetscape yeah I’m starting to think I’m going to have to whip something up myself. I don’t JavaScript but I do Python and I’m going to start looking into ActivityPub after the holiday.
@hacks4pancakes I saw this on the bird app and totally the reason why I decided to start here. Thank you!
@hacks4pancakes thanks, that answers a lot of my questions all at once!

@hacks4pancakes Are we not also getting into the habit of using, what's it called, #CamelCase when we do hashtags, to make them more accessible to folks using screen readers 😁

Cheers eh!

@hacks4pancakes Oooh long time no see, same handle I note. Still doing martial arts?
@Valheru I test for master next spring
@hacks4pancakes Ohh? Massive gratz, I'll keep everything crossed for you!
@Valheru I’ll stay hopeful! Hope you are well.
@hacks4pancakes No Batto-do for me these days sadly, pandemic + children has kinda killed that. It must be 3 years since I've practiced, next summer!
@hacks4pancakes thank you so much for this. I finally figured out how to import my contacts from the bird.
Step one down.
@hacks4pancakes Really appreciate the advice and hints #thankyou
@hacks4pancakes thanks! Website, official app, or 3P app?
@hacks4pancakes Are there good resources on what different servers are like?
@AlexandreZani if you go to their root domain you can see server info, including the owner and server rules, and look at the live feed of what people post there
@hacks4pancakes I was more trying to figure out if you know of someone who is familiar with the ecosystem and recommends/reviews servers. (More a map from interests to servers than a map from servers to interests).
@AlexandreZani sounds like it would be a useful endeavor!
@hacks4pancakes Recently on the bird site the algorithm worked against accounts who posted more than one hashing. Is there a suggested number of hashtags I should use to maximize exposure?
@LakeErie there’s no algorithm at all here. Stuff is shown in chronological order by initial post or boost. So if people want to see posts about a topic, hashtags are essential - else posts are very ephemeral. No specific number- just consider what people might search for or follow to find your post!
@hacks4pancakes this is a really great tool to findvyou twitter follower on Mastodon without having to upload a CSV.
https://mastodon.social/@Tibor/109394876821157578
@hacks4pancakes Thank you for doing the work I've been too lazy to do.
@lythander my pleasure!
@hacks4pancakes Going on my list of ways in which being married was not like the internet. 😂 But if you ever need the washing up done, just let me know.
@hacks4pancakes This was really helpful. Thanks

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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).
@hacks4pancakes
Just getting started and this is extremely helpful, thanks!
@hacks4pancakes i@ on the mastadon ios app and cant figure out how to subscribeto or follow a hashtag. Did I misunderstand your post or is that supposed to be possible?
#mastadontips
@SgtPooki it isn’t on the default one. There are tons of apps, though. It’s easy to do on the web.
Great tips on getting started with Mastodon
@hacks4pancakes thanks for the info. What if I want to follow several topics (servers). Is not possible?
@hacks4pancakes #3 for following was so helpful, thank you! I tried manually doing it a few days back and gave up after a while! 
@manisitdas happy to help, a pleasure
@hacks4pancakes @manisitdas thanks for all the info! I'm ready to go to sleep so I emailed a copy of your post so I can read up tomorrow! 👍💙
@hacks4pancakes Thanks for this. very helpful. I had no idea I could export blocklists and import here. Getting right on that.
@hacks4pancakes
Also gotta recommend https://fedi.buzz for surfacing #trends in the #Fediverse as well.
FediBuzz

Trends in the Fediverse

@hacks4pancakes Can you help a novice to the site-why won't my images laod after I post? They are personal images on my phone? Mist be something Im not getting-I'm a fast learner from doing once or twice of explained.
@KathyOFord I'm sorry, that will depend a lot on which Mastodon app you are using, on iPhone or Android, and what permissions you gave the app to access your photos.
@hacks4pancakes thanks for that advice it guided me where I can begin searching-permissions it looks like somedo show. Ill get it. Still dont get toot boost but it will come-