Shel For The PublicNov 13, 2017

#Welcome new users I'm so glad you're here that's great! If you joined mastodon.social like, that's fine and stuff BUT you should know that that's just ONE server running Mastodon. You could also join one of thousands of other options. A server with lots of people with shared interests creates a stronger sense of community and public timelines that self-curates to stuff people you like also like; on your server or others

A list of servers can be found at instances.social

Show threadShel For The PublicNov 13, 2017
If it helps to understand, you, reading this, are seeing a post from me. I'm on the server "cybre.space" (which we call an "instance"). it's run and owned by an entirely different person from mastodon.social. We have our own community norms, moderators, and communities. But our posts still travel to your server and so you can read our posts too. We call this process "federation." Likewise, I can see your posts even if you're on a different server from me. This way, we can all have mods we like and trust
Show threadShel For The PublicNov 13, 2017

I know a lot of the new people are from Comics Twitter so if you want suggestions on instances for you lot:

mastodon.art: a community of artists, illustrators seem to be most prominent

wandering.shop: a community of scifi/fantasy fans, a lot of writers and book lovers
writing.exchange: community of writers

octodon.social: general purpose instance with a good community

instance.business: instance by and for people of color, and also parody brands

cybre.space: a lot of creative queer furries

#welcome

Show threadCurli @Tablet Hell™Nov 13, 2017
@shel From what I'm gathering, joining a new instance requires creating a new acct for that specific instance, is that right?
Show threadShel For The PublicNov 13, 2017
@curlyqueued precisely. You can export your lists of who you're following, blocking, and muting under the settings menu; and then import it on the new account. Right now there's no way to import follows though you just have to aggressively tell all your followers to go follow the new account
Show threadCurli @Tablet Hell™Nov 13, 2017
@shel Alright, thank you! It does seem a little time consuming to make a new acct for every instance, but I can see why. More of a closed community that way+what happens in the instance stays in the instance.
Anyways, thanks for making the list! Time to make like 30 different accounts l o l
Show threadShel For The PublicNov 13, 2017

@curlyqueued oh! no! I think there is a misunderstanding

*every instance is connected.* It's like email. gmail emails still communicate with yahoo emails.

I'm on cybre.space, you're on mastodon.social. I have a different moderator, theme, and local community; but we can still connect and see all of each other's posts.

You only need to join ONE instance; and then you can talk to Everyone (who isn't banned by your instance admin for violation your local TOS)

Show threadCurli @Tablet Hell™
@shel Oh I kinda see what you mean? When I was searching for new instances on instances.social I clicked on one and it directed me to make a new acct for that instance so I got rly confused. But yeah I get that they're all interconnected now :)
Nov 13, 2017 at 6:21amWeb