A new post!

I knew I hadn't posted in a while but I didn't know that I averaged a post a year and didn't do any last year. That's not good.  Also I wanted to do a follow-up to my lengthy post about Mastodon.

I'm still enjoying it a lot. Tried Bluesky which is fine and I followed a great many accounts that deal with history (useful, right?) but they don't post very often. I can't be bothered to pop in there lots and build up a better timeline.

Which brings me back to Mastodon.  I ended up not staying on writing.exchange and went with a UK based instance after trying several others. The yesterweb instance does not seem to get monitored much or had much upkeep done, I'm not sure if someone in charge is still active there. I liked that the character limit there is 5000. For when I want to write a literal essay. Then repost from my main account. There seems to be some issue with the Zirk.us account or instance, I should check if I closed that account.

I still haven't closed my old writing.exchange account - I dip in every so often to delete a few more posts of mine so I can easily find the ones that I haven't looked at in a long time. Then I might repost one that I want in my current timeline (listerally copying the text and posting as a new toot), follow some links to see if I want to save a bookmark offline, that sort of thing.

I have gone off Facebook majorly, their anti-diversity stance is atrocious, I just don't want part of it. Unfortunately there are a few people I don't have other contact info for. I intend to see if I can get an email or number. I am very close to finally deleting my instagram account. I had already unfollowed all the sewing, crafts and other accounts and only stuck with people I actually know, but the algorithm of what Instagram puts into your timeline is scary: it seems to know me incredibly well. I don't like that. With all the AI nonsense going on (even the MS Notepad suddenly contails an AI feature offering to help me rewrite!! Well F off you stupid thing. Definitely not needed, let alone wanted), that's too intrusive, too much, too way out of my comfort zone. So yeah, getting close to closing that.

If you are looking to try out Mastodon or want to know more about migrating from one community to another: you can take your followers with as I mentioned, and also your bookmarks (you save followers and bookmarks in a file each, and then import them in your new place) but I think I have not yet mentioned that you can't take your favourites with you. I tend to go back and remove them after a while to keep fewer of them. I haven't looked into Lists yet, that's meant to help you filter your timeline.

What I would like to find is a good RSS reader, and a balanced news site. I obviously access the usual but I am not fond of the BBC site (they were horrible during the time before we finally got Equal Marriage in the UK and I will never forgive them for it), and might access the Guardian more often but it keeps nagging you to pay. I'm not convinced that it's the site for me.

A lot of other websites I used to like have gone, it's the way of things: the world doesn't stop - it's constantly changing. I'd love to hear about useful new sites that make me feel that I'm able to dip into current things, the world's affairs. I'll keep an eye and ear out.

That Elephant site with the nice community

So, I joined Mastodon and I really love it!!

I went looking because his muskness was threatening to buy Twitter (that makes me part of the previous wave in April 2022), but this threat wasn't the direct cause, just the trigger. I had been looking for an alternative to the Birdsite for years but didn't come across Mastodon. It was an article that discussed what people might do if Elon bought Twitter, and the writer doubted that people would make the step across to Mastodon - and my ears perked up!

Masto... what?  I took a look immediately. Got a bit confused about this "instance" business, didn't get much further straight away. Looked into it again another day, okay that's the same as a server, got it. Hang on, there are really small servers, does that mean you get stuck with just a few people?  Oh no, actually those servers can all talk to each other so the exact instance isn't all that important. Right-hoe.

Which one?

I got stuck on that again. To cut a not endlessly long story (but not the shortest one either), short into concise form: I found one that I liked the sound of, writing.exchange, because that promised to feature writers and I was following quite a few on Twitter already. And Zirk.us also looks like a good community if you want to try somewhere else that's open to sign-ups (at time of writing).

It proved a good choice because Writing.exchange is not a huge instance like Mastodon.social or Mastodon.online - that's good because the ratio of moderators/admins to users is better on a small to medium sized server and they will react quicker if you were to run into trolls or harrassment.

I have not encountered any of that so far, at all. Mastodon is actually a nice place that prides itself on a community culture. For example by keeping posts accessible by adding descriptions (captions or alt text) to images and other visual items so sight impaired people can also enjoy those posts; and also by applying something called a CW that I want to explain further.

A CW on Mastodon (or the Fediverse) applies a 'Read More' or 'Show More' label to anything below the line in your post template. You can put whatever you want above the line, like a headline, subject or teaser - I must say CWs are great for jokes! You don't want to give the punch line away from the word go, right? So hide it for people to click through when they want to see it.

Think of a CW as a Content Wrapper, it gives so much more control to the people scanning their timelines: they get to decide if they want to see and engage with your post if it is about something that not everyone is keen to encounter.  That could be politics or health issues; food, mental health, direct eye contact, NSFW, or anything else where you wonder if you want to just blurt this out into your TL or if you want to give your followers the opportunity to decide that perhaps they're not up to having to scan by your post.

A CW is also great for truncated really long posts. The best reason for using CWs is to avoid people unfollowing you. If you feel that a photo with pronounced eye contact isn't something to get excited about, that might be true for a great many others too, but there will be those who find it really difficult. Just think of an issue that you don't want to encounter, and you'll get the gist. My personal bug bear is food photos, I can really do without those. And yes, a CW is actually short for content warning, but that's not to say that it has to stay being called that.

You get lots of other ways of shaping your timeline to your satisfaction. You can mute phrases, mute people (for varying lengths of time), you can block and unfollow - you can keep to your home timeline, spend most of the time in your responses, and you can even filter those reactions. You can also switch off seeing boosts by specific accounts, again for varying lengths of time if you think they just need to get something out of their system. You can follow posts in only those languages you specify (if you want to) or leave the default to all. You can set all CWs to expand automatically so you don't have to click through. There is a huge amount of functionality that I seriously appreciate. All this is brilliant. Take a while to get to know, but so worth it.

Here's more info: Boosts are re-tweets, they show the post to your followers and anyone who clicks through to your profile/timeline, and increases the reach of that post. It's a nice thing to do for others. You can also favourite or like a post - this will tell the poster that you enjoyed what they posted, and puts it into a favourites list in your profile. Likes/Favourites do not get shown publicly, this does not increase a post's reach. You can also use Bookmarks to keep a note of posts. If in doubt favourite or bookmark because timelines are now moving much faster (with the huge Nov 2022 incoming wave) and you might not find this post again. Oh yes, Mastodon posts are referred to as toots (that compares to tweets), but you don't have to use the expression if you don't want to. Up to you.

Timelines are chronological, there is no algorhythm that keeps you from seeing some posts - and that gives you full control. And did I mention the very best thing about Mastodon? It is free of ads!! No advertising, no sponsor message, no nothing like that. Such a relief.

And that means that the owners and admins of your instance are paying for that community's use of the instance. That in turn means that it's a really good idea to give them some money once you're happy that you want to stay on that instance. We want them to be able to keep the lights on, right?

 

Yes, this is an actual mastodon, the image above is of two mammoths.

 And if you try one server but find you're not so keen on the Home timeline (which is posts from people on your server), then you can move. You can take your followers with you (check the guidance on the two options so you pick the one that's best for you), but not your posts.

When you first start to use your shiny new account, the place will feel rather empty: search by using hashtags (there is no text search), and follow anyone who sounds even slightly like a likely prospect. Then look at the followers of the accounts you like best, and follow more people. Check out replies to posts you enjoy, follow those. Lots of short sesssion to build up your timeline of what you want to see.

Publish an #intro post, include some hashtags of your own to allow people to find you. It is slow going at first, but you will get there. If you want to have a look at posts from outside your own instance, there is the federated timeline but it can depend on the time of day (time zones!) of what you get to see.

What I love about Mastodon is that people are respectful towards each other, and often kind. The culture is great - and even though I didn't get it straight away (they want me to use content warnings, seriously?), it all grew on me. I really appreciate it now.

There are other ins and outs about Mastodon and the Fediverse. When you ask on Mastodon you often get an answer, you can also ask me here if you like - I'm happy to help.