How to join Mastodon

You might’ve heard from your friends, people on social media, or news headlines about Mastodon, or the fediverse, which Mastodon is part of. After spending almost two years actively using it, I’d like to share a few tips on how to get started and get the most out of it.

Even if you tried it out in the past, there have been so many big improvements that it’s always worth another look.

Choosing a server

Having to pick a server, sometimes referred to as instance, or community, for your account, is where many people get stuck. My advice is: don’t overthink it. It’s pretty common for people to switch servers and you can easily migrate to another server and keep all your followers. (Not so much your posting history though, so keep that in mind.)

Consider joining a server where your friends already are, or even pick one at random, just to try things out, and make your decision later. (You can even create your own server for a few bucks a month later!)

A few beginner-friendly servers I’d recommend are:

• mastodon.social and mastodon.online are two servers run be the same people who created Mastodon, and that’s where most folks head to
• hachyderm.io is a community primarily comprised of tech industry professionals, but aims to be a safe space for everyone, with a strong focus on moderation
• universeodon.com is a space for all humans who have a little curiosity
• and if you’re up to spending $20/year for a fediverse account that comes with your own website, email service, and other neat service, check out omg.lol and their “lighthearted social hangout” at social.lol

Websites instances.social and fedi.garden will help you narrow things down by various criteria that are important to you.

Federation

I won’t get into the technical details about how the fediverse actually works (you can find some links for that on jointhefediverse.net), the important part for you to know is that you have your server, perhaps mastodon.social, where you sign up and where you log in to post, and other people may have their accounts hosted on the same server, or another one, and may not even be using Mastodon at all.

Occasionally you might end up viewing a post on someone else’s server, so if you’re not able to interact with it, copy the link, go back to your home server, and paste it into the search bar. The post will come up right away.

Web interface and mobile apps

There’s a lot of great apps for Mastodon (here’s one curated list) and much like with picking a server, you can just go with the official ones to start, and then try out some of the others later.

The default web interface will look familiar to anyone who used Twitter and other social media sites. For power users, there is also a built-in multi-column interface and third party web clients, like Phanpy.

A few quick tips as you start posting:

• set the visibility of your post, and the language (this helps with translation)
• adding image descriptions to the images and photos you post is highly encouraged
• you can also add content warnings when discussing national politics and other sensitive, or phobia-inducing matters
• many servers add their own custom emoji that you can use in posts

As for some of the the lingo that’s commonly used:

• posts are just posts (although some still call them “toots”)
• a repost is sometimes called a boost
• likes are favorites, or just likes (some fediverse platforms have even more types of reactions)

Private messages are a bit confusing at first, as everyone you @-mention will be included, so watch out for that. And be sure to check your settings for things like notifications, and whether your profile shows in search.

Verification

With no central authority, verification works a bit differently on Mastodon. Here you prove that a website, that you run and others may already know and trust, belongs to you or is associated with you.

This works particularly well for larger organizations, like newspapers, or government agencies, but also for people who are already connected with their friends or fans through their own personal website. This also work with some services like Threads, GitHub, Gravatar, and Wikimedia.

And if you have your own blog, you can add an author tag that show up when your article is shared.

Culture

Fediverse has a rich history. The culture is diverse and built around consent and empathy, hence importance of features like content warnings and image description. Joining a server is typically free, but someone still has to pay the bills, so if you have the means, be sure to support your admins and moderators.

The fediverse is by no means perfect, but as a community we all work together to make it more inviting and safe. And with tools like blocking whole servers that host offensive accounts, you have a lot more control over your own experience.

More resources

• fedi.tips (@FediTips) is an unofficial non-technical guide to using Mastodon and the wider Fediverse
• The Future is Federated newsletter, run by Elena Rossini, with in-depth deep dives into the the different fediverse platforms
• The Fediverse report (@fediversereport): for all the relevant news on the Fediverse
• We Distribute (@hello): independent news publication dedicated to user empowerment, decentralized communication, and the future of the Internet

And some of my own work:

• here’s a longer introduction with some fun polls
• with jointhefediverse.net: I aim to gently introduce you to how the fediverse works, and some of its platforms
• on Fediverse Explorations I publish studies, research papers, and informal polls that explore the fediverse (including some of my own work)
• go follow some of my creative bots
• and I wrote a separate article for government agencies interested in joining the fediverse

And to round things up, here’s a short list of my favorite discovery tools.

I hope this quick overview was informative, and please do reach out if you have any questions!

Image credit: Mastodon gGmbH