@midzer i usually do a small comparison on how different platforms work in normal use case vs. in extreme use case.

ppl "usually" understand how to use mastodon in a normal way (as if it's similar to twitter or whatever)

the extreme use case as being when bad things happen to a walled-garden platform. its users "may" realize they actually don't have the freedom to choose a different instance without losing communication to their connections (followers & following)

@Tony_Meredith I suppose one could say that values can make you join a new platform, but the fun is needed to keep one coming back?

I tend to sign up for all the new platforms (I'm a social media manager, so I want to stay on top of it all) but only the ones that really engage me keep me coming back.

Oh, an active community, that's important. Impressed with reactions here so far!

Awesome! Should probably move right to the top of the sharing options. 😅

Maybe it would make sense to migrate to using the term "fediverse" as well. Away from the product Mastodon, because there are also other products available and competing with their commercial counterparts like Friendica (alternative to Facebook), Pixelfed (alternative to Instagram) and Loops (alternative to TikTok).

(Not to mention various smaller projects and forks or alternatives to Mastodon as well)

@der_schrank as you're learning about Mastodon and Fediverse, I *highly* suggest checking out some of the resources that @FediTips has released. They're how I learned most of what I know about fedi.

fedi.tips/

Best of luck!

@riverpunk @der_schrank
Hi Hannah, welcome!

About your question, Mastodon is part of a much larger social network called the Fediverse.

I've done an easy-to-understand guide about this at fedi.tips/what-is-mastodon-wha…

There are also lots more guides on the front page at fedi.tips and feel free to ask if you want help with anything specific. I am trying to provide unofficial tech support on here 🙂

@dalcacer I'm loving my first day on Mastodon!
Did not expect this much reaction and now feeling a little shy.

I'm here because we need more people who understand Mastodon / the Fediverse. I know noting, but I'm keen to learn.
And quite frankly, we owe it to Europeans to promote European tech solutions.

I’m glad you’re having such a good start!

My point is that others struggle with the concepts/software for whatever reason.

There are dedicated pages for onboarding, but I feel a broad coherent campaign with sane defaults would be a greater pull factor.

@dalcacer Mastodon is a higher barrier for me to clear currently, I need to either write a client myself or start using something that is light and either runs outside of a web browser or is compatible with more than just a few browsers. Sadly, Mastodon upstream not only requires JS, it's also using features that greatly restrict the amount of browsers one can use.

(Now a good thing here are the open specifications, meaning that like IRC, USENET and e-mail, one's not tied to some client, my usual example of this is pointing Microsoft Comic Chat, I think that client illustrates the idea of a significantly different interface built on top of an open protocol. I do like this aspect, but it might be less relevant to attract more users globally;... but it should be quite relevant and important for elected officials and EU institutions, of course, just like you'd not publish official documents only in proprietary formats.)

The thing is: the content makes it worth it. So even if it's currently more difficult, I try to have a look at Mastodon, in spite of that.

In another account I follow a bunch of hashtags and I end up having a lot of interesting content (sadly, sometimes overwhelming, I'm eagerly waiting for the ability to put hashtags in lists).

Thanks for the comment, @totientfunction!

I'm enjoying Mastodon so far because it reminds me of a different time on social media.
There was a time I was to taken with social media, I loved it enough to make it my whole career. It's been 10 years since I started working with social media, and I've seen a lot of... change, much of it for the worse. Still believe that social media can be harnessed for good though.

"social" is less obviously something for a government to Do, but I bet a government could help translate popular client software into all the national languages, or sponsor "how to host a small instance" the same way there are community classes in gardening or any adult pursuit.

One of my hobbyhorses is that "hosting" is TWO important jobs, the computer side and the human side -- in English it's the same kind of "host" that might run a regular salon, or a friendly bar, etc.

2/2

it's usually called "moderation" online, but IMO it's like parties!

You welcome new people, you have a sense of both the agreed beliefs and the issues that are going to be touchy for your group, you do ongoing organization so people can find the good stuff...

and sometimes you have to throw somebody out though in a good system that's RARE and it always involves some people feeling it was too early and some people feeling it wasn't early enough.

Familiar???

YW. Small steps, ya know?

I forgot to mention in the tips that you can edit your posts after sending them. That's a godsend. Anyhow, it's great to 'meet' you and welcome to the party. Hope the rest of your day is fantastic.