[NFB-Mastodon] Tips And Tricks For New Mastodon Users

David Andrews dandrews920 at comcast.net
Sun Aug 20 14:01:09 UTC 2023 

>
>
>https://blog.allthingstech.social/tips-and-tricks-for-new-mastodon-users/
BY 
<https://blog.allthingstech.social/author/allthingstech/>ALLTHINGSTECH 
IN <https://blog.allthingstech.social/tag/mastodon/>MASTODON ­ MAY 10, 2023

Tips And Tricks For New Mastodon Users

Tips And Tricks For New Mastodon Users




What Is Mastodon?


----------
Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software 
developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, 
Instagram or most any other social media site, 
Mastodon is a nonprofit, meaning that it's not 
owned or run by one individual or an individual 
company like the sites listed above.

Mastodon might look like a clone of Twitter at 
first glance, and in some ways I guess you can 
say it is, but those similarities don't go very 
deep at all. In fact, the underlying system 
behind Mastodon is way more complex than that of 
something like Twitter. Mastodon is considered a 
"decentralized platform" and is defined as a 
"federated network which operates very similarly to email."

When you first create your account, you choose a 
server; similar to how you choose to open an 
email account at Gmail or anywhere else, which 
generates your profile’s address. So, for 
example, if you sign up for Mastodon via the 
<https://allthingstech.social/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>allthingstech.social 
server, then your Mastodon address will be @[your 
username]@allthingstech.social. For example, my 
account is 
<https://allthingstech.social/@cliffwade?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>cliffwade at allthingstech.social 
or 
<https://allthingstech.social/@cliffwade?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>allthingstech.social/@cliffwade 
Both links point to the same URL, so you can click it and see my profile.

But no matter which server you sign up with, you 
will be able to communicate with users from any 
other server, just like how Gmail users email 
Hotmail users and vice versa. However, some 
servers might have blocked other servers (perhaps 
if it’s an unsavory group), which would mean you 
can’t communicate with anyone from the blocked server.

But all of this is for a completely different 
post as I want to focus on tips and tricks for 
new users that will help get you started and 
hopefully get you connected with others in a better, quicker way.


Tip 1: Upload A Profile Picture


----------
This should be common sense on any new social 
media platform that you go to assuming the site 
allows you to. It doesn't have to be a selfie or 
a picture actually taken of you. It can be 
something that helps others quickly identify your 
posts. This can be anything you want it to be. 
Just pick something that you enjoy, that you feel 
represents you or that has a story behind it.

People associate profile pictures with a name, 
and they get used to it. This will help you build 
an audience quicker and make it to where anyone 
you follow or interact with more likely to click 
on your name to read your bio and possibly follow you back.

To enhance this a little further, I strongly 
recommend you add a profile banner as well like 
you see at the top of my profile in the image 
below. Again, make it what you want. Just 
remember, little things like this show other 
users that you've taken a bit of time to let others know a bit about yourself.
[]


Tip 2: Fill Out Your Bio


----------
This and tip 1 likely go hand in hand. Without a 
bit of information provided in your bio to let 
others know who you are, what you do, what you 
like or anything else of importance, you're less 
likely to get interaction or follows from others. 
While this certainly doesn't guarantee that 
you'll get interaction or follows, it's the best 
place to start when it comes to Mastodon, or most 
any social media platform for that matter.


Tip 3: Make An Introductory Toot (Post)


----------
Again, just like on every other social media 
platform, introducing yourself helps others get 
to know a bit about you. There's no specific 
guidelines as to what you need to say in this 
introductory toot (post), so feel free to say 
what you want. Make it serious, make it funny, whatever you feel is best.

This introductory post is something that can be 
shared every couple of weeks so that the newer 
users to Mastodon might get a chance to see it as 
well. It's also recommended that you pin it to 
your profile as you can have up to 5 posts pinned 
on your profile. That number may however vary 
depending on what instance you are on.
[]


Tip 4: Follow Anyone On Mastodon That You Followed On Twitter


----------
There are several websites out there that can 
check your Twitter following and follower list 
and find out who of those have a Mastodon 
reference in their profile there, leading you to 
find their account on Mastodon itself. This is 
obviously a great way to start off your Mastodon 
journey by following some familiar people.

A couple of websites you can use for this are 
<https://fedifinder.glitch.me/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>FediFinder 
as well as 
<https://mastofind.net/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>MastoFind. 
There are likely many others but I've personally 
used both of these with good success when I first 
came over to Mastodon several months ago.

This doesn't necessarily mean you need or should 
follow everyone that you followed on Twitter, as 
you might very well want to start fresh and only 
follow new folks you find on Mastodon. However, 
most of us have people we have become really good 
friends with or interact with regularly and if 
some of those have moved over completely to 
Mastodon, then it's often important to keep those relationships going.

Using the sites above will help you find others 
who have added a Mastodon link to their Twitter 
profile and you should add your Mastodon profile 
link to your Twitter profile for this same reason.


Tip 5: Use Hashtags When You Toot (Post)


----------
Since there is no algorithm on Mastodon, the best 
way for users to find things they like is via 
hashtags. Using hashtags in your posts gives 
everyone the ability to not only search for 
keywords of things they like or want to see, but 
you can also follow hashtags within Mastodon 
which can really add to the overall experience of the platform.

Some people say to only use up to three hashtags, 
others say to use as many as you want. I'm not 
sure if there is a "correct" way to do this or 
not, but I'd say use what you want and judge 
changing it based on interaction or lack of interaction.

Another thing I did to enhance this when I first 
joined Mastodon was to create a toot (post) with 
regards to the hashtags I like to use, view and 
search for. This too allows others to know a bit 
more about you, who you are, what things you like 
and what things you might be posting or commenting on around Mastodon.
[]


Come Join Us On 
<https://allthingstech.social/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>AllThingsTech.social


----------
With all of this said with regards to how to 
setup your profile and make the best impression 
from the get go, and you're looking to join the 
Mastodon platform, we at 
<https://allthingstech.social/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>AllThingsTech.social 
would love to have you!

Regardless of which Mastodon app you choose to 
use, or if you decide to create your account on 
the web version of Mastodon, you can enter the 
instance name above and then click Ok/Enter or 
whatever, and then you should be able to create 
an account on the 
<https://allthingstech.social/?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>AllThingsTech.social 
instance.


Final Thoughts


----------
These are just five of the first tips and tricks 
that I learned and preached about when I first 
came over to Mastodon and I feel it helped and 
still helps me greatly today even after 3+ months of being on the platform.

There are many, many other things you can do to 
make your experience better and to possibly grow 
quicker and I'd be more than happy if you would 
share those with me if you'd like. Maybe if I get 
enough suggestions of other tips and tricks for 
new users, or even experienced users, I could 
make another post here and list them and give you credit for your suggestions.

Feel free to use the contact form here: 
<https://allthingstech.social/contact?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>Contact 
Us if you'd like to submit something and I'll 
certainly save it and take a look at it.
<https://fo.llow.social/share?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>Share 
This Post To Mastodon

<https://fo.llow.social/u/cliffwade@allthingstech.social?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>Follow 
Cliff On Mastodon! 
<https://fo.llow.social/u/kylewritescode@allthingstech.social?ref=blog.allthingstech.social>Follow 
Kyle On Mastodon!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfb-mastodon_nfbnet.org/attachments/20230820/b748df5f/attachment.html>

More information about the NFB-Mastodon mailing list