feditips

feditips, 1 year ago to random

I don't think people are realising the danger the Fediverse is in.

The only thing stopping corporations and VCs taking over this place is that the Fediverse is spread out on many different servers, which makes it very difficult to purchase.

If most of the Fediverse ends up on mastodon.social, which is now a strong possibility, there will be nothing to stop most of it being sold to Musk or Zuckerberg or whoever.

The bigger mastodon.social becomes, the more likely a buyout is to happen.

(1/4)

feditips, 10 months ago to random

You don't need to use the official Mastodon apps, they're not the best way to use Mastodon. The official apps only arrived last year, and they were intended as "Fisher Price My First Mastodon" things with a restricted set of features.

Third party apps have been around longer than official ones, and include way more features. You can sign in with the same account on all apps.

:android: On Android try Tusky, Fedilab, Megalodon, Tooot

:apple_inc: On iPhone/iPad, try Toot!, Ice Cubes, Ivory, Mona

feditips, 7 months ago to random

Is there something about Mastodon and the Fediverse that you need help with?

Reply to me or send me a DM and I'll try to help if I can, or put you in touch with someone else who can help.

Don't worry if a question seems silly or obvious! The idea of this account is to especially help new people.

#FediTips

feditips, 10 months ago to random

Oh my goodness... a LOT of new people... 😮 Welcome! 👋

If you need help with using Mastodon and the Fediverse, have a look at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips

It's written for a non-technical audience, and hopefully answers most beginners' questions.

If you're looking for accounts to follow, there are lots of ways to do it summarised here:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-find-accounts-to-follow-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-how-do-i-find-my-friends/

If you have any problems, ask me and I'll try to help!

feditips, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to kbin

#Kbin update:

• The https://kbin.social server is now federating with the Fediverse. You can follow/interact with kbin.social magazines & users from other Kbin servers, Mastodon & rest of the Fediverse. For example the TIL magazine is at @TodayILearned, the lead dev of Kbin is at @ernest

• There's a new Kbin server at https://readit.buzz which is run by the same people as the Universodon.com Mastodon server. It's open for signups, just click "log in" and then "register".

feditips, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

(Fediverse survey post, asking people to click on a web link to a Mastodon post and say what their app does with it.)

UPDATE: Aaaarrgghhhhhhh! 😱 I had a number of people asking me for clarification of the poll, so I edited option wording, but this caused it to reset the responses to zero. I am so sorry! 🥴

The latest figures before I messed this up were this:

About 75% of people clicking on a link to a Mastodon post saw it displayed a normal post, 25% saw it displayed in a browser window.

feditips, 10 months ago to random

Do you want to see more posts about interesting topics in your Home timeline? And do you want your own posts to be noticed by others?

Here's how to do both these things:

1. Search for a hashtag you're interested in
2. On the results page, click the + or Follow button in the top right corner
3. Posts with that tag will start appearing in your Home timeline
4. Follow lots more tags
5. Include hashtags in your own posts, tag followers will then see your posts

More info at https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-follow-hashtags-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

feditips, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

One of the most under-used features of Mastodon is audio. You can attach audio files to your posts, they can be in MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, AAC, M4A or 3GP formats. They can be any length, as long as the file size is under 40 megabytes (some servers may have even higher limits).

I've attached an example audio file to this post, you should be able to play it on most interfaces and apps.

(Music is "Modern Technology" by Mokka Music, used under Creative Commons Attribution licence)

#FediTips

feditips, 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to random

Hey there! 👋

This account is here to help answer questions about Mastodon and the Fediverse.

If you have any questions, feel free to reply or message me and I'll try to find you answers.

Especially interested in helping beginners and non-technical people, there is no such thing as a silly question 👍

(By the way, as someone just asked, I do have a website full of tips and help for beginners at https://fedi.tips)

feditips, 7 months ago to random

Many, many people have asked about error messages when using mastodon.social.

Mastodon.social is far too large. Its massive size causes errors, and threatens the long term safety of the whole Fediverse.

I strongly encourage people on mastodon.social to move their account to another server.

You can find reliable servers on the official site at https://joinmastodon.org/servers or my own recommended list at https://fedi.garden

Here's a step-by-step guide for moving: https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/

feditips, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

How do you access the Fediverse? :fediverse:

If you use more than one method, choose the one you use the most.

feditips, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to internet

WIth Reddit self-destructing, many have been wondering about alternatives on the Fediverse.

I do NOT recommend Lemmy. I have serious long-standing deep concerns about the developers, see here: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106835057054633379

As far as I know, nothing has changed since then and Lemmy's issues remain.

Alternatively there's Kbin (https://kbin.social & https://kbin.pub) which seems less problematic. Regarding cryptocurrency issue: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fediparty/pulls/97#issuecomment-663170

#Reddit #Kbin #Lemmy #Fediverse

feditips, 9 months ago to random

In case you missed it, all links on Mastodon count as 23 characters towards your limit, no matter how many characters the link really is.

So, you don't need to use link shorteners on Mastodon as they won't actually affect the link's length.

Mastodon does this because it's better for everyone's privacy to avoid link shortener services, it means people can see what they're clicking on, and the link won't stop working if the shortener service shuts down.

More info at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/you-dont-need-link-shorteners-on-mastodon/

feditips, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

There is a strong rumour that some Fedi developers and admins have held secret discussions with Meta/Facebook under NDAs.

The Fediverse is supposed to be an alliance of open projects built by a broad grassroots base. Its devs/admins are not supposed to hold secret backroom discussions with people who have a horrific track record (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/06/rohingya-sue-facebook-myanmar-genocide-us-uk-legal-action-social-media-violence).

Facebook/Meta is in effect a sociopathic corporation (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/growth-at-any-cost-top-facebook-executive-defended-data). Nothing good will come of talking to them.

feditips, 1 year ago to animals

When you write hashtags that contain multiple words, make the first letter of each word a capital letter, for example #DogsOfMastodon. This will make the tag readable to blind people.

Blind people use the internet through screen reader apps, which read text out aloud. By putting a capital at the start of each word in a hashtag, you are telling the screen reader how to say the tag correctly.

In the non-techy world this is generally known as "CamelCase".

(Techy people may call it PascalCase)

feditips, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

There are lots of interesting group accounts you can follow on here, they work like this:

1. Follow a group's account to see discussion of its topic
2. @ the account if you want to post to the group
3. The account boosts anything @-ed to it, be careful when you @ them so that you don't spam the group (spammers tend to be reported and blocked)

More info, incl. how to create groups, at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-groups-on-the-fediverse/

I've listed some active and friendly groups at:

➡️ https://fedi.directory/tag/fediverse-groups/

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feditips, 11 months ago to fediverse

Apparently Reddit has now banned a subreddit dedicated to the Fediverse Reddit-alternative Kbin:

https://sakurajima.moe/@chikorita157/110517156242412322

If you're on a centralised platform like Reddit, this is what they can do. Centralised platforms have all-powerful leaders who can do whatever they want, and you have no alternatives if you disagree.

The point of the Fediverse being on lots of servers is that each server's power is limited. If you disagree with one server's actions, you can move.

#Fediverse #Reddit #Kbin

feditips, 6 months ago to wordpress

Okay, big news for everyone with a WordPress blog, including people with a free blog on wordpress.com!

You can now turn any WordPress blog into a Fediverse server which can be followed from Mastodon etc.

I've updated the instructions on how to do this at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server/

Just to repeat, this is now available to ALL WordPress blogs including free tier ones. The free tier has slightly different instructions, but effect is same.

(via https://wordpress.com/blog/2023/10/11/activitypub/)

#WordPress #Fediverse

feditips, 7 months ago to random

The latest version of Mastodon (4.2.0) brings full text search, so you can search by words instead of hashtags.

However, for privacy reasons this only includes posts by people who have actively opted into full text search.

If your server is updated to 4.2.0 and you want to opt into full text search:

1. Log into your server's website
2. Click your profile icon
3. Click "Edit Profile"
4. Click tab "Privacy & Reach"
5. Tick box "Include Public Posts In Search results"
6. Click "Save Changes"

feditips, 10 months ago to random

Hey new people! 👋

A guide to some Fediverse terms:

Toot = Post (named after the Mastodon mascot, in theory)

Favourite = Like (there's a separate Bookmark function if you really want to keep track of posts)

Boost = Re-Tweet, shares a post with your followers

Instance = Server = The site you signed up on, each server is independent

Birdsite = Hellsite = Twitter

Fediverse = This place you're on right now, reading this. Mastodon is one kind of server on here, but there are many other types.

feditips, 6 months ago to mastodon

If you follow someone who boosts way too often, and you want to see their posts but not their boosts, you can do this:

1. Go to their profile page
2. Click on the menu button ︙
3. Select "Hide boosts from..."

If you change your mind later, go back to their profile and select "Show boosts from..." instead.

#FediTips #MastoTips #Mastodon

feditips, 10 months ago to random

Did you know that each Mastodon server has its own custom emoji?

Each server admin can upload images :cate: or animations :rickroll: which are available to anyone on that server. Ask your admin if you want a particular emoji added to your server.

To access them on an app, click the app's own emoji button (usually a smiley 😃 ). For normal emoji, click the picker on your phone's keyboard.

To access them on the web, click the emoji picker in the post writing box (which looks like this 😂 ).

feditips, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to wordpress

If you have a WordPress-powered blog, you can turn it into a Fediverse server and people will be able to follow the blog from Mastodon etc.

More info on how to do this here:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/wordpress-turning-your-blog-into-a-fediverse-server/

This works through the AcitvityPub for WordPress plug-in, which has just been updated to version 1.0.0:

➡️ https://wordpress.org/plugins/activitypub/

The plug-in is by @pfefferle in association with #Automattic, one of the major players behind WordPress itself.

#WordPress #Fediverse #FediTips #ActivityPub

feditips, 10 months ago to random

You can attach audio, video or photos to Mastodon posts. To do this click on the attachment logo (which is a paperclip 📎 on the web, apps will usually have a photo icon).

Attachments can be:

-Up to four PNG, JPG or GIF images of 8 megabytes

OR

-One MP4, M4V, MOV or WebM video of 40 megabytes

OR

-One MP3, OGG, WAV, FLAC, OPUS, AAC, M4A or 3GP audio file of 40 megabytes

There is no length limit on audio or video, only a file size limit. Remember to add text descriptions for attachments! 👍

feditips, 8 months ago to fediverse

As YouTube seems to be going increasingly ad-heavy, have had many requests to do posts about how to get into #PeerTube.

PeerTube is an ad-free video platform on the Fediverse. You can follow and interact with PeerTube accounts from Mastodon etc. When a PeerTube account posts a video, it will appear in your Mastodon timeline just like any post, and you can like, share, reply etc.

I just did a long thread of good PeerTube accounts to follow over on @FediFollows (https://social.growyourown.services/@FediFollows/110917302291902468).