A flock of elephants (which is the closest we get I guess) can be called a herd, sure, but it can also be called a parade!

Join the parade! Find your parade! Your new friends awaits you at the parade!

I think we should call it a parade!

✨PARADE✨

#Parade #MastodonParade

yeah, the collective noun "pack" is used for wolves, dogs and hyenas (and hounds, cards, cigarettes, lies and thieves).

If you want something for elephants, try "herd" or "parade".

(Source: britannica.com/science/Animal-…)

Animal Group Names | List, Collective Nouns, & Facts

Discover the names for groups of animals, from alligators to zebras.

^{Amy Tikkanen (Encyclopedia Britannica)}

Great post, wonderful Idea!

I suggest
recoons: recommended onboarding sets

#recoons #StarterPacks #raccoons

How about the ability to add hashtags to starter packs too?

People will not know all the common hashtags for the subjects that they are interested in, e.g. Defaidodon, LichenSubscribe,...

Please, please just let me turn off the boost/quote menu.

I can't remember seeing more than a single quote toot so far and have never used (or wanted) it myself.

That's it. Please fix this before I can't stand it any more.

80% of the time the only option on that menu is boost. This is an awful #UX fail.

Thanks for listening.

It's a good idea that we can control to be added or not! 👍

What I think about Bsky: mastodon.online/@NatureMC/1153…

Their way of pumping up the already big influencers would be a danger for Mastodon's organic structure.

For me, it was quite easy to build my timeline with subscribing to my favourite hashtags. But most people don't know that they *can* subscribe! Why not making that more public? It's already a structure to find like-minded people.

Petra van Cronenburg

2025-10-08 10:11:58

@tomw Exactly my experience on #Bsky! There, it's a horrible elitist system that favours influencers and gives them even more votes. No chance for people who cover multiple topics (packs prefer one topic only-people) or are unknown. And you have to annoy people begging so that they give you a chance.
At least on B., connected to the algorithms, it's on the way to #enshittification.
I would like to consider this danger.

@Mastodon

@pluralistic I propose gangs.

Or cults.

Oh, or polycules.

If not “packs” then maybe “sets?” I’d be hesitant to obscure the meaning too much for the sake of thematics, the simpler the better.

Something else that they did that helped with onboarding was to create shareable lists (called feeds) that are for certain topics based on words and tags within posts. I know we can search topics via words or tags, but a topic of interest being a click or two away vs manually entering the search terms is powerful, almost like a subreddit but not.

For the quick start part of it, maybe users during onboarding (say in the app) could pick starter packs first, and then be recommended instances partly based on what the people in their chosen starter packs are using?

You're interested in anarchist starter packs, here's some anarchist instances for you. Of french lierature or cycling or whatever.

It has some matthews effect potential, but I don't think it's a terrible idea.

I hate this idea. I like Mastodon because it's NOT like corporate social media.

Having an empty timeline until you find people to follow is not a problem that needs solving; people are just too used to being spoon fed by the algorithm.

If you add this feature, please allow people to opt out of being added to starter packs.

Cool concept.

Some trust and safety suggestions:

Finer grained controls around packs than an all or nothing "I can be in packs" or "I can't be in packs". Especially that "I can't be in packs that someone from a limited or blocked instance or user created.

Also, a user is notified when they get added to one. If I get added to a "People you should harass" pack I want to be able to get out of that one.

@Mastodon

This is a good idea in principle but how will you safeguard against spamming?

On a server like social, which has open signups with no verification or human checking, it would be a spammer's delight. Create an account, follow all the "packs" and let rip.

This has to be a "user curated" feature. You could potentially do something automated like add the accounts with the most followers, but you can't determine how legitimate the follower count is. It could be an account followed by a bunch of crap accounts.

I think there should be a button on every user's public profile that people can click if they think the account should be recommended in a pack. Maybe limit the vote to instance members, or send suggestions to the admins for submit.

"Firstly, it’s important to us that users have control over whether they appear in Packs on Mastodon."

Thaaaaaaaaaank you.

How about calling it 'Aisles'

As in, what you are looking for may be in the next aisle.