How to use Mastodon:
Step 1: Sign up.
Step 2: Do regular social media stuff.
Journalists: Only those with advanced degrees in computer science should even attempt to navigate Mastodon, the frustrations of its complexities will drive the average user to a state of hysteria.
And yet:
"Unlisted has a slightly complicated behaviour pattern in the Home timeline, and this isn’t officially documented for some reason. Here’s how it works:
Unlisted posts and replies from people you follow WILL appear in your Home timeline, unless they are a reply to someone you don’t follow. If they’re a reply to someone you don’t follow, they WILL NOT appear in your Home timeline."
Why should anyone care about this?
I can explain why I care: I've been seeing the occasional toot in my timeline (or is it notifications) that is clearly a response to another toot, but I don't and can't see what it's replying to.
And then I wonder if I'm doing the same thing, and at the same time feditips drops some info on setting visibilities. As a result I do change my default visibility, but I'm still not sure I'm doing it right .....
... and that thing I posted was part of the page explaining visibility.
It's not like I give much credit to journo's saying "it's too hard". (I suspect the real reason is "my colleagues aren't there, and the audience isn't big enough.) But people who dismiss new users genuine issues aren't helping us much either.
Yeah, I see those too sometimes, but I just chalked it up to a quirk of federation and the dissemination of posts.
It's confusing. Very, very confusing.
So first, thank you for offering to help.
Second, that's from fedi.tips, at the bottom of here: https://fedi.tips/who-can-see-my-posts-in-mastodon-how-do-i-send-dms-in-mastodon/
Third, I think I'm not going to bother to figure this particular thing out. I've written an HTTP parser, and Perl scripts that munge PostScript directly, but Mastodon is where I enjoy cats and flowers, and I don't even know what a "public timeline" is, and I'm fine staying that way. (cont'd)
The only thing that I let get my goat is people pooh-poohing other's difficulties. (You didn't do that, but the top toot did.) I want to get my non-techie friend off Twitter, so I complain when people comment dismissively. God knows if it'll actually change anything, but it's what I'm going to try for a while. Again, I do appreciate the offer to help.
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Jonathan Hendry
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