Kristoffer Lislegaard


How to get started on Mastodon / The Fediverse

The internet is changing again, and many people are now wondering if they should switch out their corporate social media use with a platform in the Fediverse (left logo) – an open network of many platforms talking to each other, like Mastodon (right logo). There are too many things to cover in this quick blog post, but if anyone wants to get started here are some of the questions I most often get met with when I tell people I like Mastodon.

This is not the ultimate guide or anything, just some tips from a fedi enthusiast!

BTW. My Mastodon profile is here.

Where do I sign up?

When describing Mastodon we often use e-mail as an analogy. Let’s think about how you sign up for e-mail. Everyone who doesn’t have an opinion about it either gets one handed out to them by their work / school etc. or they make a Gmail account. Then you use that to email people who tells you their email address. In the future you might change to a different e-mail provider and then you either tell people this, set up an auto reply or just send an email to your contact list that you are changing address.

On Mastodon if you don’t have an opinion you either know someone or are part of a group that have a server (called instance) or you go with Mastodon.social (the Gmail of Mastodon). Then you follow and interact with everyone who tells you their Mastodon handle (plus the discoverability point above). If you later want to move to a different instance, you can move your profile and your contacts will automatically be moved over to the new profile.

I have signed up! How do I get to know people here?

My biggest analogy here would be to think of it as visiting a bar. You go there and you don’t know anyone. You maybe say hi to a few people on your way in, talk a bit to the bartender etc.

If you know somebody you start talking to them, they introduce you to their friends etc. Or you might overhear someone talking about something interesting and you politely add to the conversation and see if they want to talk to you or just want to hang out among themselves.

So on Mastodon, follow your friends, go see who they follow and follow a few people with similar interests.

Most importantly talk to people. Mastodon / Fedi is in my opinion a place where many people want to have more human interactions. Many people come there to avoid the robotic, numbers lottery that is corporate social media. There is of course a big influx of people coming here every time something even worse happens with the corporate mainstream platforms, but the original culture here is built up by people who wanted to create a nice space that was different from those platforms in the first place. So I suggest you treat people like you would in a social situation in real life.

Sure, give them a like, similar to giving them a confirming nod / smile in real life, but I would suggest try to add to the conversation.

Introduction post - people want people not incognito users

Once you are on there, make sure you have a profile picture (can be an avatar, but at least have something) and something in your bio. Tell people who you are.

Then make a post with the hashtag #Introduction. Heck, pin it on your profile. Tell us you are now in the Fediverse. Tell us why you are here. We WILL boost (repost / share) it.

Do I have to post in English? - Choose your language preferences

Mastodon is not perfect, but it has some tools for languages. In your preferences (Preferences -> Other) you can select which languages you are able to read. Then when you make a post you can select which language it is written in. Only people who have selected that they understand your language will get the post in their feed. If you reply to a post your language will automatically be selected as the same language as the original post.

Filters - aka what you don’t want to see

In your settings you can use keywords to ban stuff you don’t want to see. Tired of orange-man-politics? Type in his name to your keyword list and all posts that use this word will disappear from your feed. Want to get involved again? Just remove the keyword from your list.

It is not perfect, but it helps! We need you with good mental health ❤️.

Be a good fedizen

Many people in the Fediverse are pretty active on unfollowing, refollowing people etc. because there is no algorithm. So your behaviour will be reflected on other peoples action. Annoying person? People unfollow. Friendly, funny, interesting whatever? People follow and interact. It is not like someone breaking up with you is they unfollow you. They are simply cleaning up their feed. Maybe they will follow you again later if you end up in the same conversation.

Also many people turn off boosts (reposts) from their feed either permanently or temporarly to have a more calm feed. So if you want to spread the word of your friends, as well as boosting their post, write replies to them! Write how you feel about it. Share a link to your friends new album and tell them how much you like it instead of just pressing like and boost on their post.

Be patient - Instant gratification = eventual doom

Fedi is slower to get started, “grow” and get connected. This is a feature not a bug. Embrace it and use it as an opportunity to invest energy into making thoughtful replies to people and get to know them, you will have enough people that you decide you have to unfollow, for various reasons soon enough.

Did I mention you can follow me here? Oh yes I did. But if you do, please send me a hi! Tell me something about you maybe?

See you in The Fediverse!

Bonus - Me trying to explain the Fediverse with no preparation

I will leave you with a clip of my trying to explain the Fediverse (without preparing) to my friend Captain Credible on the Talking with The C.O.U. talkshow.

You can watch the whole episode on Center of the Universe’s Youtube channel here.








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