Tiny Mastodon Tip to Verify Yourself :verified:🐘:
The checkmark icons on Mastodon are not official. They are simply custom instance icons people add to their name, like I have on mine, usually for fun :official_verified: :verifiedpurple: :verified_flashing: :blobcatverified:
But, there is a way to verify
yourself on Mastodon! And it’s completely free! :awesome:
It works by providing a proof of ownership of a website you control. This is especially important for organizations to show followers their account is official.
HOW TO ❓
On desktop, go to Preferences > Public profile, then click on the “Verification” tab at the top ✔
Click on “Copy” to copy the HTML code containing a link to your Mastodon profile.
Go to the website page you control and paste the code somewhere in the HTML code of the page.
In the HTML code, you can keep the hyperlink on the “Mastodon” word as it is per default, or you can attach it to a social media icon for example :mastodon:
Alternatively, you can make this link invisible (like I did on mine) and simply place this code within your website's head: <link href="FULL-LINK-TO-YOUR-MASTODON-ACCOUNT" rel="me"> :blobboo:
Once your website is up and updated, copy the full link to the page where you pasted your Mastodon account link.
Back to your Mastodon account, go to Preferences > Public profile, and here look for the section "Extra fields"
Paste your page's link in a “Content” field and “Label” it as you wish. It could be labelled “Website” or “Personal Page” or anything you like!
Click on the “Save changes” button at the bottom :blocky_white_cursor:
Your verified link(s) should appear in green on your Mastodon profile page once it is validated (this could take a few hours to resolve so be patient).
If you are looking for a Mastodon feature you've heard about and cannot find it 🔎
Keep in mind that Mastodon mobile apps (yes, plural) are all different and integrate Mastodon's features differently. This is why in my guides I always use the web interface as a common baseline.
If you can't find a feature in your Mastodon mobile app, login to your account from a browser instead. You might very well find what you were looking for right there! 🌐✨
Many people, like myself,
might feel uneasy about this. There are many reasons to be:
Whether it is due to Meta's (mal)practices when it comes to moderation, disinformation, politics, or problematic privacy, to say the least, your discomfort with this is very valid :valid:
On Mastodon,
know that you can pre-block a whole domain at the account level ⛔️
Now, this is not a complete solution and might not prevent all of your data from passing through, but it should prevent Threads accounts on these instances from following you and seeing most of your posts, and you theirs.
HOW TO ❓
On desktop, go to "Preferences" > "Import and export"
On your computer, create a text file and copy the 2 following lines in it:
threads.instagram.com
threads.net
Change the ".txt" extension of this file to ".csv"
Go back to Mastodon's Preferences and go to the "Import" section in the left side menu.
There, for "Import type" select "Domain blocking list"
5.1. On the right, make sure to select "Merge" and not Overwrite in order to keep your previously blocked Domains, if you had any.
5.2. In "Data" on the left, click on "Browse" and select the ".csv" file you just wrote.
5.3. Click "UPLOAD" at the bottom.
You will then see a message to confirm. Click "CONFIRM" :blocky_white_cursor:
Please remember Fedi-Friends
that you are talking with the whole world here! 🌍🌏🌎
If you talk about a topic that is only relevant to a specific location, do not forget to specify where it is to save your fellow Fedi-Friends from complete confusion :blob_confused:❓
A few examples:
👍 The US Supreme Court
👍 The King of England
👍 I lost my cat in New Zealand
👍 Looking to hire in CA USA
👍 Looking for remote work from Canada
👍 I hate this beach on Mars
👍 Etc etc.
Alternatively, you can also use a Content Warning with the region you are referring to in the warning message.
Tiny Mastodon Tumultuous-Time Tip :mastodon::blobcatfearful::
Considering Meta’s Threads is getting released tomorrow,
and considering its intention to connect with some of us at some point :2001:
and considering how divided the Fediverse is on this :geodesic: :geodesic:
👉 It is a good precaution to make a backup of the people you follow :blobcheerbounce:
If some instances (servers) decided to defederate (disconnect) from some others, but changed their minds later on, you would still have lost all the people you were following on that instance. This has already happened at least once, and it could happen more in the coming weeks.
If you have a backup,
this will facilitate the task for you to find back the people you were following there :blobcouple:
HOW TO ❓
On desktop, go to Preferences > Import and export > Data export
From there you will see a list of data from your account you can export (or backup basically)
Find the “Follows” line and click on the “CSV” on the right. Save this file somewhere safe.
If you open this “following_accounts.csv” file, you will see a list of all the account handles you follow. You could search this file by instance name for example to find back the follows you had lost.
Magic!✨
NOTE: While you are in this menu, I also encourage you to safe the other files that are there and request (and download) a copy of your account's archive.
If you like me are a fan of using Lists on Mastodon, know that with the Mona App you can create custom icons pinned to the menu bar for each of your lists!
You can even do the same to browse Local timeline of instances that aren’t yours! 🏠✨
I think this is my favorite @MonaApp feature. Truly awesome! 🗒✨
Growth on the Fediverse is fantastic!
But growth costs money! :blobcatbusiness:
Since there are no ads to support our wonderful free-to-use connected World,
If you can afford it, supporting the administrator(s) of the instance (server) you use with a donation is very important to keep our social media thriving and ad-free :ablobsmile:✨
If you cannot afford it, support in time can also be very helpful to your instance’s administration team!
HOW TO ❓
You can generally find out who your instance’s administrator(s) is by visiting your instance's main website page. Just type its domain name in a browser without the (at) sign.
Most instance administrator(s) will have a donation link on their profile page. If not, you can ask them directly.
Be kind, be generous, and be supportive with your Fediverse instance admin(s)! :blobcatheart:
If you want to follow a specific topic in your Home timeline, know that on Mastodon you can follow hashtags! :awesome:
HOW TO ❓
On desktop browser (this will vary for mobile apps), type the topic you are looking for in the upper left “Search” field without space (ex: StarTrek) 🔍
In the “Search results” select the tab “Hashtags” #️⃣
Click on the hashtag closest to what you are looking for 🖖
At the top right of the hashtag feed, click on the “Follow hashtag” button that looks like a human figure with a plus sign 👤+
You will now see toots (posts) using this hashtag within your Home timeline (repeat this operation to unfollow a hashtag) 👀
For my fellow Filipino peeps who are new here at Mastodon like me, I do recommend you to follow the hashtag #TinyMastodonTip for tips and tricks of using this platform.
Remember, Mastodon algorithm works differently from Twitter, and Mastodon has multiple instances. We're making a PH Mastodon instance soon, so stay tuned 🇵🇭
Saturday is a wonderful day to start decentralizing your social media!
If you are new to this,
and wondering what the hell I’m talking about, reading this short section can be a good way to start learning about the Fediverse!
Hey Wonderful People of Mastodon Old and New! :rainbowdance:
To celebrate #JoinMastodonDay :mastodon: today, here’s a list of links from my blog’s The Mastodon’s Guide to the Fediverse for you to share with people you want to bring in!
Let’s get all of your friends here with us! 🐘 🐘 🐘 🐘 🐘 ✨
If you wish to have a regular data cleanup of your Mastodon toots (posts), which I strongly recommend, you can use the wonderful Automated Post Deletion feature!
HOW TO ❓
On desktop, go to Preferences > Automated post deletion.
Select “Automatically delete old posts” on the upper left :nes_fire:
Adjust the “Age threshold” on the upper right according to your preferences.
Select the “Exceptions” and “Exceptions based on interactions” below according to your preferences.
Click “Save changes” on the upper right.
NOTE: This does not guarantee that your toots will be completely deleted from the entire Internet. There are various ways in which there might still remain copies of your data online. HOWEVER, this is a FANTASTIC way to reduce your digital prints and improve your privacy overtime.
If there are some topics you would rather not see in your timelines anymore, for example a certain Birdsite, you can use Filters! :birdsite:
HOW TO ❓
On desktop, go to Preferences > Filters.
Click the “Add new filter" button on the upper right.
Then you can add things like “twitter.com/” or “Twitter” or “Birdsite” or something else or all of the above! And of course, you can do this with any topics/words that you would like :nes_fire:
You can set an expiration date in the “Expire after” section on the upper right if you think you will want to hear about it again later on.
You can choose where to apply your Filter in the “Filter contexts” section.
In the “Filter action” section, you can select either “Hide with a warning” to see posts containing your filtered word(s) hidden and replaced with one line saying :
“Filtered: {NameOfYourFilterHere}. Show anyway”.
You can then click on “Show anyway” to see the filtered post. (This message might vary if you use a mobile app.)
OR you can select “Hide completely” to not see anything at all in your timelines.