Mastodawn

June Blender Jan 19

If you know someone who wants help using this place, feel free to ask, I can answer their questions directly. This account aims to be an unofficial help desk, especially for new or non-technical people.

If they're having trouble signing up, they can email me at email@fedi.tips

Also, please tell new people about the website at https://fedi.tips (especially the Quick Start section at the top). This has lots of non-technical advice for beginners and will help them get started.

Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

eLearningTechie Jan 19

@FediTips Thank you for all that you do. 🫶

@FediTips Yesterday I discovered tons of new interesting accounts thanks to your site💯

Clément Latzarus Jan 19

@FediTips Have you ever considered translating the site in other languages?

Fedi.Tips Jan 19

The text on the site is available under Creative Commons By SA licence, and some people have made their own versions of the site in other languages.

These are linked at the bottom of this page:

https://fedi.tips/what-do-i-do-next-are-there-any-other-guides-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

If you want to do your own version of the site in other languages, feel free as long as you link back to the original 🙂

Are there any other guides to Mastodon and the Fediverse? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Clément Latzarus Jan 19

@FediTips I see there already a French traduction here https://enthalpiste.fr/index.php/fedi-trucs/ so I’m good. Thanks for your hard work!

Fedi trucs – La cabane de l'enthalpiste

@FediTips can I drop a Question here? How do I link to BlueSky. I know there’s a way but I can’t seem to figure it out. New to Fediverse. Thank you.

Fedi.Tips Jan 19

I'm sorry, I don't provide Bluesky support, the people who run it seem a bit dubious (https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/113364985280012085) 😦

Fedi.Tips (@FediTips@social.growyourown.services)

This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky. BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board: https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-24-2024-series-a The board member is a bitcoin researcher involved with NFT analytics. BlueSky describe the tie-up with Blockchain Capital as a "natural partnership" and says the blockchain company has "a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation". (via @jwz@mastodon.social)

social.growyourown.services

Stein Arne Brekke Jan 19

@moonandbaboon Just follow @bsky.brid.gy, and you'll be good to go! Easy as that. :)

@brekke so…whatever I post here will show up on BlueSky? I’m not sure if that will merge with my existing account over there. Or will it go through a bot feed as Mastodon account lurking on BlueSky… I have an active account on there already. Someone posted a link. Maybe I need to read that. Thank you.

Stein Arne Brekke Jan 19

@moonandbaboon Your account here is now also visible on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/moonandbaboon.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy

If you post something on Mastodon, it will also pop up there. If bridged users comment, it will show in both places. Unfortunately, if non-bridged bluesky users comment there, you will see nothing here.

If you already maintain a Bluesky account, you might see few benefits to this. You can block the Bridgy profile to deactivate the bridge. :)

Sasi (@moonandbaboon.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy)

Following the breadcrumbs to Mastodon, currently still human, trying to defy gravity and find soul tribe through the Internet, current mothership is in […] [bridged from https://mastodon.social/@moonandbaboon on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]

Bluesky Social

@brekke I think you are right. I’ve maintained a BlueSky account and now it looks like there is a fake me on there. 😂 they don’t merge. It would make sense to have done this at the very beginning. Like the ship has sailed and now it seems confusing to me and for people. That sounds about right. Right?

Stein Arne Brekke Jan 19

@moonandbaboon I'm not sure how often people search for you specifically, but of course, there's a risk they'll follow the "wrong" profile. And if you post the same things both places, it's effectively pointless.

If you decide one day to abandon one site or the other, enabling the bridge is a nice service to whoever is left on the other site. But as long as you're using both, there's indeed no need. :)

@brekke totally tracking. Thank you sooooooo much. People start to complain about bots. I don’t think anyone will bother to read. Oh. This is a bridged account. Many don’t know what it is. Myself included. Seeing the same profile photo twice is a red flag. I thought bridging will simplify things but for my case, it will complicate things. For now anyways. Thank you again.

Ted Johnson Jan 19

@moonandbaboon @FediTips

Not sure what you mean by "link to BlueSky" but if you follow this account, your Mstdn account will be "bridged" to @bsky.brid.gy

https://fed.brid.gy/

Bridgy Fed

@HalfHeartedFanatic @FediTips thank you. I know so little to the point that I can’t even word my question clearly. 😂 @bsky.brid.gy

Ted Johnson Jan 19

@moonandbaboon @FediTips

Bridgy Fed allows you to have a BlueSky presence without having a BlueSky account.

It doesn't "link" your Mastodon account to a BlueSky account you might already have.

@HalfHeartedFanatic totally tracking now. Thank you so much.

@HalfHeartedFanatic so, it does look like I have my original BlueSky and the bridged profile account.

Elischeva Jan 19

@FediTips
How can I see all the accounts I already follow both on Mastodon and Pixelfed?

Fedi.Tips Jan 19

You can see the accounts you follow from your profile page. Click on your profile picture or username to go to your own profile.

Once you're on your profile, click on "Following" to see who you follow.

CautionWIP- don’t follow me - (he/him) 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🕎Jan 19

@FediTips @Elischeva91

Note, if you're keeping the accounts separate (as in you have a Pixelfed account and a Mastodon account), you'll need to use a web-interface like https://phanpy.social or an app that allows you to stay signed into multiple accounts and switch between them. Some apps are even playing around with blending multiple accounts from Fedi and even some other platforms into a consolidated timeline/feed. YMMV ofc.

Phanpy

Minimalistic opinionated Mastodon web client

CautionWIP- don’t follow me - (he/him) 🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🕎Jan 19

@FediTips It's appreciated. I try and pass it around whenever folks on other services talk about finding masto/Fedi too difficult to get started on.

Alexandro Lacadena 📷Jan 19

@FediTips Do you know of any app/website that searches for people you follow on Twitter/X on Mastodon? There were a couple but none of them work.

Fedi.Tips Jan 19

There used to be lots of them, but Musk shut them all down at his end when he took over Twitter 😞

There's nothing that can be done about this unfortunately.

Alexandro Lacadena 📷Jan 19

@FediTips Damm 😭 and what about an app to schedule toots? ☺️

Fedi.Tips Jan 19

Ah that's much easier! Mastodon has a built-in scheduling system supported by many third party apps and sites (though weirdly the official apps don't yet support it).

There's more info here: https://fedi.tips/scheduling-posts-on-mastodon/

Scheduling posts on Mastodon | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Alexandro Lacadena 📷Jan 20

@FediTips thanks! I'll take a look

@FediTips Thanks for all that you do! I just supported you on #Liberapay – I figure I recommend your accounts and site so often I should help with the running costs.

Fedi.Tips Jan 20

Aww, thank you so much! 🙏 That is really generous and greatly appreciated, it makes a huge difference in keeping these all going! 👏 Thanks!

Grey Liliy Jan 20

@FediTips Thank you so much for this resource! 💖 This site has been so helpful!

@FediTips
Is there an android client where you can reverse the scroll direction?
It doesn't make sense seeing the very end of long posts first. Quite peculiar.
Thanks for the really helpful work.

Fedi.Tips Jan 20

I'm not sure, I'm going to boost your question in case others can offer suggestions.

By the way, when you say "end of long posts first", do you mean the final posts of threads?

@FediTips On the timeline or home, posts appear bottom first. In a thread, it's OK. Newer posts are at the bottom.

Fedi.Tips Jan 20

You mean the newest posts appear at the top?

@FediTips Yes. You need to scroll them downwards to read them. It's the opposite to the thread direction.

טליה (לשון את) 🎗️Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips
there is a setting for this in @Tusky .

@yuvalne @FediTips @Tusky
Thanks, but no, that only changes where you are in the main list. It doesn't reverse the direction of the list.

טליה (לשון את) 🎗️Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips @Tusky I see, my bad

@FediTips @ianp5a I think this is what they're asking for: chronological vs. Reverse chronological.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/22667

@rspfau @FediTips No this does not specify whether chronological should be upwards or downwards.

@ianp5a @FediTips Are you on Android? If so...https://pachli.app/pachli/2024/08/30/2.8.0-release.html

Pachli 2.8.0 released

Pachli 2.8.0 is now available. This release introduces experimental support for reading the timeline in reverse order and significantly improves notification reliability, as well as the usual bug fixes and other small improvements.

Pachli

@rspfau @FediTips
Thanks. That looks promising.
Sadly they confuse the option by saying "newest first" and not newest at top or bottom. As First could be anywhere.

@ianp5a I'm curious...do you sort emails newest on bottom?

@rspfau
It's because I read from top to bottom. (weird!).
Imagine reading a Kindl or a long web page. I will scroll it upwards, so the text moves upwards. more text appears from the bottom of the screen. Chat clients do it that way too. So does Mastodon inside threads.

Maybe very short posts don't have an issue. But people post long posts a lot.

@ianp5a Oh, I wasnt being critical. It has me wondering why things are the way they are and what is optimal.

@FediTips
No. If a post in the timeline is, say, 20 rows of text, the last line at bottom of the post appears first, at the top of the screen as you scroll it downwards.
You will read "... the butler murdered him. The End" first.

@ianp5a @FediTips I'm on the extended web interface (whatever it's properly called), and I don't think I see that! It's always the first lines of a post that appear at the bottom of the page as I scroll downwards from "just posted" towards "posted an hour or so ago".

@ianp5a @FediTips Aha, I think I see the difference. You're starting at past posts and working towards the present. I think I used to do that years ago, when there were fewer posts and I was more completist. But for some time, most social media seems to have defaulted the other way: the place you start is now, and you scroll back towards the past. It's weird when you think about it, but seems to be The Way Things Are!

@carusb @FediTips
Time to fix it then. Never follow the mob without a rational reason.

@carusb that sounds good.
I wonder if there is a setting on the mastodon web client?

punIssuer Jan 20

@ianp5a I haven't tried it, but I'm using @Tusky which has a reading order setting
@FediTips

Rachael Ava 💁🏻‍♀️Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips On Tusky, newer replies are put at the bottom.

@RachaelAva1024 @FediTips
Inside a thread the direction is OK. The main timeline has the problem. Even in Tusky

Rachael Ava 💁🏻‍♀️Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips I see. My bad.

Cathy Holroyd Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips I use Tusky set to oldest post first. I also have it set to stop at where l was last reading.

@miniosiris @FediTips Thanks I set Oldest first. But cant see the "last reading" option.
Even with oldest first, the timeline did not change direction.

@ianp5a I don't know of an app that does this, but if you run across what is very obviously a thread, you can go into the first one you come across (which would be the last one in the series) and then I think that it will show the thread in order from old to new. That's how it looks for me in a browser. (If it doesn't look that way for you, it may be because my server is running "Glitch-Soc" which is a slightly different flavor).

Timo Ewalds Jan 20

@ianp5a @FediTips I use the default Mastodon android app and read posts in post order. Because new posts show up at the top, I start a session where I left off last time, with some number of new posts above, then scroll up until I run out of new posts. Because I'm scrolling up I see the bottom text of each post before I see the start of it or the author's name/picture, then scroll back down as I read it. It'd be nice if new posts were below so I didn't have to constantly switch scroll direction.

@tewalds @FediTips
Yes this is the problem I'd like to find a solution to.

Fedi.Tips Jan 20

@ianp5a @tewalds

I think this is because a lot of people don't read every post, so they just want whatever is randomly latest at the top, whereas other people do read every post so they want to start where they left off (i.e. the oldest first).

I guess there ought to be options for both groups?