What is Mastodon & The Fediverse

For all questions/suggestions/complaints regarding this guide, please contact @[email protected].

Welcome to the DFTBA Mastodon instance! Despite being very similar to other social media sites, Mastodon has its own set of things to learn while you dive in.

(This is to cover the basics. More in-depth documentation can be found at docs.joinmastodon.org. If you'd like a different Getting Started guide, try this one. We at DFTBA.Club use a modified version of Mastodon, more information about that at the bottom of this page.)

Let's start out with some terms:

• Fediverse means federated universe, a decentralized social network made of instances which share posts and profiles with each other. When you join Mastodon, the social network you're actually joining is the fediverse.
• Instances are servers, like your email provider. You might notice your handle is formatted similar to an email, that's because email is also a decentralized federated social network, in a way.
• Mastodon is software for running an instance on the fediverse. It is some of the most popular software, but it is far from the only software.

Other fediverse software includes Pixelfed (like Instagram), PeerTube (like YouTube), KBin (like Reddit), Friendica (like Facebook), and many, many more (BookWyrm, Akkoma, Firefish, Hubzilla, and so on). They all talk to each other, so you can go on Mastodon and follow someone on PeerTube. It's like if someone were to go on "X" to subscribe to a YouTuber, except in this case it actually works.

• Q: How does following from another instance work?
  A: When you see a profile you want to follow, but you’re not viewing their profile from your own instance, clicking the “follow” button will provide instructions on how to follow them. A way which often tends to work is copying the link to the profile (e.g. https://mas.to/@hankgreen) or the handle of the profile (including the domain, e.g. @[email protected] or @[email protected]) into the search bar on your instance, and clicking the follow button. There are browser extensions to simplify this, such as MastoBridge and Mastodon - Simplified Federation!
• Q: How do these instances know about other instances?
  A: For the most part, they don't immediately. When someone from your instance follows someone from a different instance, then your instance will know their instance exists, and it will occasionally receive posts from that user on that instance, to put on the home feed of the user who followed them. That user will also go on the federated feed of the entire instance, and so will every post they boost or reply to.
• Q: I've signed up for one instance but I think I like a different instance better. What do I do?
  A: On Mastodon, you can migrate your account between instances! Here's a link explaining how to migrate. Keep in mind, your posts do not migrate with you, but you will be able to boost them to your new instance before moving your account. If you'd rather stay active in multiple instances, you can have a separate account for each one.
• Q: Why do I keep seeing people CW things like food, eye contact, threads, and long rambles?
  A: "Content Warnings" here aren't always used to actually warn of content. They're used on threads and long posts so that they take up less space on other people's feeds, as a courtesy. They're used for food and eye contact because there is a sizable neurodivergent userbase on the fediverse, who may not appreciate things like pictures of food or eye contact because of autism, ARFID, etc.. Using CWs in this way is a courtesy, not a rule.
• Q: How do I get verified?
  A: You have to have your own website to do it properly. Here's how.

You may notice the distributed nature of this all creates a silo effect in Mastodon, which can happen algorithmically in "X", but is more conscious and manual here. You can keep your friends close by having them on your instance and seeing all their posts on the local feed whether you follow them or not, while on the federated feed, you have a view out into the broader social network, through the lens of who your peers are following. This is why instances tend to have niche topics: so that people can get more of what they want and less of what they don't.

Check out fedi.directory and fediverse.info to get ideas of who to follow, and if you're just migrating over from "X", you can use Fedifinder to look for which of your "X" follows use Mastodon. If you're interested in following and being followed by people on Bluesky, take a look at Bridgy. If you're looking for journalists to fill your feed with news, check out this spreadsheet! If you would like to follow and contribute to groups, check out Guppe Groups! You're also able to follow communities/magazines on KBin and Lemmy, which are kind of like subreddits, but on Mastodon may feel similar to Guppe Groups. (Big Guppe groups and Lemmy Communities/KBin Magazines may spam your home feed quite a bit, so another option is to simply follow relevant hashtags.)

If you're on the fence for who to follow, lean toward excess. Check out who other people follow, check the Explore (Trending) section, and check the profile directories on other instances. You can use extensions like StreetPass to find Mastodon users across other parts of the internet as you browse. Following a hefty handful of people and hashtags to start out with is the only way to get your home feed moving, and it adds to the federated feed too!

Also worth noting:

• You can change settings to adjust how visible you are to others (found at this link for people on our instance).
• Favourites don't make content much more visible to other users, as feeds here are completely chronological. Don't stop clicking favourite on things you like, but please boost posts you think others would want to see.
• If you can't see someone's entire profile, or their post replies, view it from their instance. Your instance will only show the posts and replies which it knew about ahead of time. If you want to view all replies on a post without having to navigate away from your instance, try the browser extension Substitoot.
• The fediverse tends to have a culture of taking accessibility seriously, including adding alt-text to images, and using CamelCase on hashtags so that they get read properly by screen reader software. It is strongly recommended to keep up habits like these.
• Filters can be useful for words associated with things you're not interested in, or subject matter you may not want to engage with. There is no algorithm to filter that out for you, so don't hesitate to take it into your own hands. Our instance does not remove content unless it violates our instance rules or US laws. Our instance rules can be found here.
• The official mobile apps lack many features (such as the federated feed), which can make the experience especially confusing for newcomers. For iOS we recommend Ice Cubes, Ivory, Toot!, tooot, or Metatext (note: Metatext is no longer maintained), and for Android we recommend Pachli, Tusky, Megalodon, or Moshidon (which is a fork of Megalodon, while Megalodon is a fork of the official app, and Pachli is a fork of Tusky). We advise against paying for Fedilab, as they condone bigotry. Many of the Android apps only support push notifications through ntfy.sh, so consider installing that as well.
• If you like a layout similar to TweetDeck, then go into Preferences, and under Appearance, check off "Enable advanced web interface".

Now, about the modified version of Mastodon we run here at DFTBA.Club. It's called Glitch Edition, or Glitch-Soc. Documentation on it is available here. If you prefer a more normal, classic feel to Mastodon, go into Preferences, click Flavours, and under Flavours in the sidebar two options should appear: Glitch Edition, and Vanilla Mastodon. Click "Vanilla Mastodon" and then click "Use This" in order to switch to the classic, non-glitch Mastodon feel. With that out of the way, what is Glitch and what does it do? Well, it mostly gives you access to more settings. Everything in the Preferences tab with "glitch-soc" written next to it is only an option in Glitch Edition. The "App Settings" menu is also entirely from Glitch Edition. Alongside settings, it gives a few extra features, such as local-only posts, and post formatting in HTML or Markdown. If you see a post ending with 🏘️, that's a local-only post.