A few thoughts for people who are new due to #twitterdown #riptwitter
Currently mastodon feels like early Twitter: growing fast, rough edges, evolving norms, not everyone is here yet.
Don't instantly give up because it's different. Give it time.
Your follow(ing/er) count is not a scoreboard.
Chances are you've gone from a fire hose to a trickle, but is that actually bad? You don't have to frantically recreate your old feed. Maybe just slowly add content that makes you happy.
Some other things:
Edit a post. Oh yeah, it feels good hey? No more delete and republish just due to a typo.
Pay attention to your instance's rules about CWs (content warnings). If you find the instance you're on is a bit fussy (or a bit lax) for your liking, transfer to a new instance with rules that suit you.
Be a good human and put alt text on your images. You should have been doing that on Twitter too, people just weren't reminding you as much.
Understand that you can unfollow, mute, block and report as appropriate. I mean that whole sentence including the "as appropriate" - if you just don't like someone, mute them. But do report actually-shitty behaviour - mods can and do take action. That includes defederating instances that are wretched hives of scum and villainy.
In other words, this is a community. Welcome. Be a good human and you'll be fine here :)
Ben Buchanan
Andi H