Oh my goodness... a LOT of new people... 😮 Welcome! 👋
If you need help with using Mastodon and the Fediverse, have a look at:
It's written for a non-technical audience, and hopefully answers most beginners' questions.
If you're looking for accounts to follow, there are lots of ways to do it summarised here:
If you have any problems, ask me and I'll try to help!
...also:
-You only need to sign up on one server. The servers communicate to form a single network. People from different servers can follow and interact with each other.
-Don't sign up on mastodon.social, it's way too overloaded. You will have a nicer experience on a different server. You can find well-run reliable servers at https://joinmastodon.org/servers and https://fedi.garden
-You can always move and keep your followers/follows if you ever change your mind about being on a particular server
...and, if you're totally lost, or you have friends who are totally lost, this is a really short video that explains Mastodon in really simple terms. It's a good starting point:
Yeah, that ought to be very fixable too as tag lists don't take up much room. Hopefully it will be in a future update.
If you just choose one of the general servers from those two sites, you should be okay. All of the servers on those two sites have promised to uphold specific standards (listed at https://joinmastodon.org/covenant).
On https://fedi.garden there's also the founding date listed, which gives you an idea of how long they've been going. If a server has been going for years, that's a good sign too.
And you can always move your account to another server if you don't like the one you chose.
The reason this place works and is safer than Twitter is because people are spread out on many servers. If people all crowd onto one server, it can be dangerous for the network as a whole.
It also makes mastodon.social harder to moderate if everyone is on there. Moderation tends to work better on smaller servers.
Also, servers are all independently owned and set their own rules, and some have nice extra features (like higher character limits etc),
p.s. If you want a more detailed answer there are several reasons why this place is on many servers:
https://fedi.tips/why-is-the-fediverse-on-so-many-separate-servers/
If you have a telephone, there might be different terms of service for different phone providers, but they all make calls to each other. It's a bit like that.
You don't need to know what is from which server most of the time, but if you want to check just look at the account address of the person posting. You can see it underneath their name on posts and on their profile:
1/2
There are themed sections on here, but most of the time they are cross-server so things like hashtags (which you can follow) or discussion group accounts (which you can also follow).
Each server does have a "Local" timeline, which on large servers is just a random firehose but on smaller servers is a fun little community feed.
Also, there are non-Mastodon servers on the Fediverse which you can follow such as the Reddit-style Kbin (example server: https://kbin.social).
2/2
Yeah, it is a bit different to what people are used to. But it does make more sense once you've been here a while :)
For example, if you experience a problem with how one server is run and you're able to move to another without losing your friends, it is really REALLY nice to be on here. On centralised networks like Twitter or Facebook it's "my way or the highway" if they run it badly because they have no choice of servers there.
Thread 🧵 for new folks on here. #Welcome! First off let’s be clear: no one gets to tell you how to Mastodon, culture here and everywhere is dynamic and we re-make it together by posting everyday. but in the interest of maximizing pleasure and minimizing frustration, I wanted to offer a few tips for having fun and finding friends that you can take or leave… 1/x
Hello Peter 👋
Yeah, there are many ways of approaching this!
Do you know the person? Is it possible to ask them for their account address?
The address will have two parts, and looks a lot like an email address, but it is actually their account address on here. You can use this to make their profile appear on your server, where you can click "follow".
I've done an article about this method here:
Are you using an app or your server's website to change your language settings?
There are three language settings to adjust.
One of them is the interface language which is at the top of the settings page. That changes the language used on the interface itself.
The other two are buried a bit deeper, if you go to Preferences > Other (on the desktop web at the left of the screen, on the mobile web at ☰)
In the Other section, choose English from the "posting language" menu, then tick the English box in the "filter languages" section. Then click "save changes".
I think the language filter depends on people choosing their own correct posting language.
So, they perhaps have it set to English because that was the default on the server they signed up on, but they're actually posting in another language, which means it doesn't get filtered out :(
This is another reason to avoid the Federated and Local timelines if you're on a large server. You'll get a lot more from Home and Explore.
@usualdays @probablynotthemessiah
Sorry I can't help further, I hope it works out!
Aww, cheers! (blush)
4.16K Posts, 4 Following, 74.3K Followers · Recommending interesting accounts to follow on Mastodon and the Fediverse 🌐 You can see past recommendations organised into categories on my website at https://fedi.directory I am a volunteer, you can buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/fedithing or become a patron at https://liberapay.com/FediThing Maintained by @[email protected] 🎂 Account originally joined mastodon.online on 11th June 2020
I get sort of nervous promoting my own accounts 
It is listed in the "finding people to follow" section though :)
Yes, they do, if your server's admin has paid for a translation service to be installed.
There is no translation built into Mastodon, but there are features to integrate open source third party translation services like https://libretranslate.com. These third party services charge a certain amount for their API, to cover their costs.
Basically, ask your admin about it :)
Yup, that's another approach! 👍
Hey there, welcome! 👋
There used to be tools to help people find their follows/followers from Twitter, but unfortunately Musk's shutdown of the APIs broke these tools.
The nearest I can suggest is asking ex Twitter people's account addresses, then pasting them into the search box so you can make their profile appear. I've done an article about this here, it explains how to do it: https://fedi.tips/whats-my-accounts-address-how-do-i-follow-other-peoples-addresses-how-can-people-follow-my-address/
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