Some, maybe many of them, won't use the same exact software platform as you. This may seem strange. We got trained we can't use TikTok to make friends on Youtube, or Facebook to make friends on Twitter. To pick a box to be in.
But it's really not that complicated. You don't change cars to change motorway, use 5 different phones to text or call 5 different friends, 5 different post boxes to send 5 letters, use 5 different clients to email 5 different people, open 5 different browsers to visit 5 different websites.
Things are meant to work together, it's just better for everyone.
Your friends here stay your friends. Even if you use the new things that are evolving all the time here, there isn't that....
✊I Follow liberally!
More follows has zero algorithm penalty here. There is no algorithm (spoon). The more people I follow, the more interesting my feeds get. There are good tools for management of everything, so be adventurous & follow lots of different folk.
🤛I can look at different feeds like local, federated, home, and more.
Ch.7 #Likes vs #Boosts / #RePosts
⭐(& other reaction buttons) are the❤️button but this only tells the author I like their post, nobody else. It does not make the post more visible.
🔁Boost🔁Repost etc moves info around. That shows the post to my followers home feed.
There is no algorithm deciding for us. We choose, not some algorithm under corporate control. We choose by 🔁boosting🔁 posts and by using #hashtags. More things get seen here. Wider ranges of conversation topics happen here. It's more organic, much more human.
Be kind, take the extra moment. Fediverse has a solid reputation for inclusion, for thinking about others, we must keep it going. #Fedi#FediTips#new#Help#Newbies#Welcome
Ch.9 #AltText
When uploading images try and describe the images in the alt text box, this is good for people using screenreaders, blind, partially sighted etc. Try to remember to include ppl.
Ch.11
I can think of #Fediverse being like a fleet, with many types & sizes of ships. Different social platforms. Different sizes of servers. But all communicating & co-operating across the Fediverse. We're a fleet.
Multiple feeds reflect different ways of seeing posts from across the fleet. They can have different names but broadly they fall in to 5 categories.
🛳️Home includes everyone I follow. Whatever ship they currently call home. Posts from multiple social platforms, any servers.
⛴️Local, my server =everyone local on this ship (my current account server location).
🚢Federated, other servers = 1 step beyond, people that my locals are connected to, have followed or are searching.
#Hashtag feeds = posts using the hashtag you are interested in.
🎏Custom feeds = feeds with criteria I can define & refine over time.
Ch.12 #BeKind
This place is built on kindness, on respecting each other, on listening, on benefit of the doubt, on not trying to 'win' conversations but learn from them. Humans beings are varied, that makes life interesting.
I must not leap to be be negative back. Maybe they just have too much stress today. If I have to I can block. If troll servers turn up, it's a couple of clicks to block an entire server if I need to - but probably the mod heroes will be on it already anyway. #Welcome#Newbies#New#NewHere#TwitterMigration#Help#FediTips
Ch.13 #CW Content Wrapper / Warning
Emails have a subject line & then we click to expand the body of the message.
Fediverse has the same thing. A content wrapper [CW] button when posting that adds a title to our post, then we click to expand that post. We can even automate opening all by default for those who prefer that.
It takes very little extra time to add a title. The Subject line doesn't prevent you sending email! It's good for really long posts or stuff that people might not want to see.
Ch.14 #Content
If there are subjects I don't want to deal with I can set filter words in my profile settings which will stop certain topics.
#Fediverse & it's different platforms + software have masses of clever tools, & different ways to adjust access & content.
We can communicate with people all over the Fediverse platforms seamlessly. Crucially we have masses of control over how & who we interact with. Block words, turn off boosts (eg by account), mute accounts, block accounts, block whole servers, shift servers ourselves.
We own this place, we control our experience. Nobody is inserting stuff in our timelines because someone paid them to modify what we see & find.
Ch.16 #Visibility
Having more followers does not make my posts more visible.
Following fewer people does not make my posts more visible.
Receiving faves does not make my posts more visible.
Ch.17 #Design
Some very clever people have been building this place, and they did not build it to monetize us, but to make people's connections better.
The code here is all open source. Without advertisers, shareholders, CEOs, venture capitalists.
There is no reason to make us anxious or aggressive. To make us click more, scroll faster or argue with each other. There is no1 to trade clicks & scrolls & posts to for ad$.
Everything runs on donations & volunteer time + skills.
@ArtBear Lately I've also heard of several tumblr-esque software. I've tried #Wafrn (My account there is relatively active) and I know of another one in development.
CH.20
I realise #Fediverse is an evolving co-operating culture with it's common underlying protocol (#ActivityPub) linking many things. No 1 platform is trying to lock up all my attention in their walled garden to see their ads.
I can have several accounts, I can use several platforms. I can keep my circles, but I'm also free to move around & try new things as they emerge.
On phone or tablet or desktop, I can have many apps, but also a simple browser window will let me access the #Fedi in it's different flavours.
Ch.21
If we are after a particular feature that maybe we liked elsewhere, just ask if that feature is available! People are super helpful here and someone will come along to tell us all about options. #FediHelp is a great tag for that.
There are a lot of different front ends to use with your account/s. Some are apps we install to use with our Fedi accounts, some are browser based. Many of the Fedi's platform have all kinds of cool things in the settings too. #Help#Welcome#New#NewHere#SocialMedia#TwitterMigration#FediTips#Newbies
Ch.22
The different platforms work together, they communicate and evolve together.
It's more than fine to play around in the different platforms. It's actually a liberating thing, to not be locked to one platform as we were before.
Having all these options might sound complex, but using Fediverse community social is not like choosing a corporate social media platform. Your friends messages and communication spread across the community of platforms in the Fedi. It's not choosing 1 platform over another or getting stuck.
This site is a nice overview for some of the different Fedi platforms and what they do in co-operation, which corporate sites do apart.
Ch.23
There are huge numbers of devs on the Fediverse, they're always building things and making things. For a long time you could auto re-follow your twitter people using (actually several) great tools that were built. Elmo shut that down recently.
There's a lot of cool people & communities on here. You choose who you follow, it's a tiny bit more work, but frankly its better, healthier and ultimately far more satisfying than the corporate anger farms. Follow wide, varied & many.
There are lots of ways of expanding and populating your timelines & finding accounts by areas of interest or expertise. Here's a few examples.
Ch.24
On the #Fedi a far greater variety of topics of conversation happen. This is because there aren't algorithms trying to 'drive engagement' by click-baiting us toward a narrow set of extreme takes about today's small range of topics/conversations.
There are various ways of seeing trends of conversation, on our local server, various trending hashtags access, like explore sections or trending widgets in our chosen front end.
I waited a decade & half? for an edit button on a major corporate media silo (#Twitter). When it finally arrived it required a monthly fee, and by then I had already left some time ago!
There are tons of clever people making things all the time on the #Fedi. This is part of it's strength. The #Fediverse actually innovates much faster and also in more interesting iterations and directions than the monetization driven corporate social media silos. Decisions made for users, are better for users, than decisions made for shareholders.
There are a lot of different interesting front end projects. These let us access our home servers via an app or an alternate webpage front end.
#Icecubes#Mona#Tusky#Elk are a few examples of #Mastodon front end projects. Many of these have some unique features that vanilla webpage Mastodon doesn't yet.
We can always access our servers by just typing their address in to an internet browser to get the regular webpage frontend too.
Everything is all connected, these are just a few examples of additional ways of navigating & experiencing. So we can use several routes, depending on need, mood or device. Regardless of which frontend we use, our account(s) remain the same so it's safe to experiment and try things out. #Help#HelpThread#Welcome#New#Newbies#NewHere#FediTips
⭐(& other reaction buttons) are the❤️button but this only tells the author I like their post, nobody else.
🔁Boost🔁Repost etc moves info around. That shows something to my followers.
There is no algorithm. We choose & not some algorithm under corporate control. We choose by 🔁boosting🔁 posts and by using #hashtags. More things get seen here. Wider ranges of conversation topics happen here. It's more organic, more human.
Ch.8
I can think of #Fediverse being like a fleet, with many types & sizes of ships. Different social platforms. Different sizes of servers. But all communicating & co-operating across the Fediverse. We're a fleet.
Multiple feeds reflect this eg:
🛳️Home includes everyone I follow from multiple social platforms, any servers.
⛴️Local=everyone on my ship (my server).
🚢Federated=1 step beyond, people that my locals are connected to, have followed or are searching.
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