Notices by Fedi.Tips (feditips@mstdn.social), page 7

People new to Mastodon, are you confused by all the different sites and servers you can sign up on?

Don't be, it's really easy!

You know email, right?

With email, you go to an email provider, sign up and they give you an address. Then, when someone wants to email you, you tell them your address. It doesn't matter if they use a different provider, because all the providers talk to each other.

Well Mastodon is the same, but with social media!

You can sign up on any Mastodon server and you'll get an address with that server's name at the end, something like @ username @ server

For example, I signed up on mstdn.social and my address is @ feditips @ mstdn.social

People who signed up on other Mastodon servers can interact with you by @-ing this full address. You can see people's addresses on their profile page (see the attached image for an example).

Mastodon servers are also known as "instances". It doesn't matter which word you use, they are the same thing.

#MastoTips #Mastodon

Just to make clear, you can interact with users from other Mastodon servers by putting their address into the search box and pressing enter.

Their profile link will appear in the search results, click on it to see their profile. You can then follow them, read their posts or interact in any other way. Click on their profile's "..." button to see even more options.

See the attached image for an example.

You only need one account to interact with people, even if they are on another server. The whole point of Mastodon is that people on one server can interact with people on thousands of other servers.

#MastoTips #Mastodon

Mastodon is part of the Fediverse.

The Fediverse is a collection of alternative social networks which are connected together through a common technical standard called ActivityPub.

People on the Fediverse can follow, comment, like or message each other seamlessly.

For example, the account @craftykat is on a video platform called PeerTube, but you can follow them, watch the videos, give them a like and comment on them without leaving Mastodon. Try it yourself!

Another example you can try interacting with is @Picturavis, which is on a photo platform called PixelFed.

When you use Mastodon, a lot of the accounts you talk to are actually not on Mastodon!

It can take a bit of time to get your head round this, because centralised social networks like Twitter or Facebook deliberately stifle interoperability.

The Fedi is different, no one owns it so there's no restriction on what people do with it. The ordinary user is all that matters on the Fedi 💪

#FediTips #Fediverse #MastoTips

Some Fediverse alternatives to "big tech" social media:

Twitter ➡️ @Mastodon

Instagram ➡️ @pixelfed

YouTube ➡️ @peertube

Twitch ➡️ @owncast

Goodreads ➡️ @bookwyrm

Facebook Groups ➡️ @mobilizon

Medium ➡️ @writefreely

You don't need an account on all of these in order to interact with them.

Because they all use the ActivityPub open protocol, you can (for example) use a Mastodon account to follow someone on PixelFed or vice versa. That's why they are collectively known as the Fediverse, because they federate together at a technical level.

Also, this is an incomplete list, there are many other Fedi projects out there such as @funkwhale or @inventaire that are not direct alternatives but are their own thing.

#FediTips #Fediverse #Fedi #ActivityPub

You can (sort of) create draft posts on Mastodon by writing a post, then set the visibility to "Direct" to send it to yourself as a DM and click "Toot!". It will be stored in your Direct Messages folder but will not be visible to anyone.

When you're ready to post, just go to the DM, select "delete & re-draft", edit it until you're happy with the contents, then set the visibility to public and click "Toot!".

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon

Some of you may have noticed a new option "Explore" appear on your Mastodon instance.

Clicking on Explore brings up these four tabs:

"Posts" - The most shared recent posts as seen from your instance

"Hashtags" - The most shared recent hashtags as seen from your instance (trending hashtags are moderated by your instance admin to prevent spam/abuse)

"News" - The most shared recent news items (trending news sources are also moderated by your instance admin to prevent spam/abuse)

"For You" - Recommended accounts to follow, based on how many people from your instance follow these accounts

This feature is brand new and may not be visible on Mastodon instances running slightly older versions of the software.

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Explore

Do you speak a language other than English?

You can help get people onto the Fediverse by translating its interfaces into your language.

Here are some official translation projects for the Fediverse's many different platforms:

BookWyrm
https://translate.joinbookwyrm.com

Friendica
https://www.transifex.com/Friendica/friendica

FunkWhale
https://contribute.funkwhale.audio/guides/translate

Mastodon
https://crowdin.com/project/mastodon

Mobilizon
https://weblate.framasoft.org/projects/mobilizon

PeerTube
https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/support/doc/translation.md

PixelFed
https://translate.pixelfed.org

WriteFreely
https://poeditor.com/join/project/TIZ6HFRFdE

The Fediverse Observer site listing Fedi instances is also looking for help with translations at https://crowdin.com/project/poduptime

#FediTips #Fediverse #Localisation #L10n #Translation #Translations

Okay, something a bit different today:

The internet grew up relatively unrestricted, but now governments are blocking it ever more tightly. Putin blocks Tor, for example.

We perhaps need a "Plan B" for following world events, just in case things go really bad.

I'd like to introduce you to #ShortwaveRadio

Before the internet and satellite, #shortwave #radio used to be the most popular way to follow the whole world's media in real time. Every country had its own transmitter, and the dial was full of place names (see the attached photo).

Most services shut down due to the internet, but some are coming back. The BBC just reactivated its shortwave Ukrainian service, for example.

Shortwave radios are very simple and low power, they need just a couple of AA batteries, some even have handcrank power. A basic model costs about €30 / $30, and lets you pick up broadcasts from around the globe.

I'd suggest getting one and putting it in storage. You never know when it might be useful.

The Fediverse has lots of blind and partially-sighted users who rely on audio screen reader software to tell them what is going on.

Here's how to make your posts more suitable for screen readers:

-Use CamelCase on hashtags, where each new word has a capital letter, for example #DogsOfMastodon instead of #dogsofmastodon. CamelCase makes it much easier for screen readers to see the different words and read them out properly.

-Don't use long groups of emoji all next to each other, these are really irritating to hear read out loud.

-Add text descriptions to images and videos before you post them. Do this by attaching the file and clicking "edit" before you post it, then add the description.

p.s. The Mastodon bug where CamelCase hashtags were being accidentally replaced has now been fixed (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/16460).

#FediTips #MastoTips #Accessibility #A11y

You don't need to use your real name on the Fediverse. Call yourself whatever you want, and the rest of us will be happy with that.

Interestingly, a very long time ago YouTube used to carry a warning specifically telling people not to use their real name online, as it could allow unwanted intrusions into people's privacy.

Then, strangely, the warning disappeared after Google purchased YouTube... 🤔

#FediTips

You don't need to use link shorteners on Mastodon. All links count as 23 characters no matter how long they really are.

Also, links on Mastodon stay in the form you wrote them. This is much better for privacy than Twitter.

Twitter quietly changes all posted links to go via Twitter's domain t.co so they can track people. This doesn't happen on Mastodon or the Fediverse.

You can see this hidden conversion in Twitter by hovering your mouse over a link there, the link appears to show a normal address but Firefox and other browsers will indicate the true t.co address in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you try this same check on Mastodon or the Fediverse, you will see your links stay just as you wrote them.

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Fediverse #Privacy #Twitter #LinkShorteners

Mastodon and most other Fediverse platforms display posts chronologically, without any algorithms.

On your feed you will see all the posts from all the people you follow, in the order they posted them.

Because of this, if you post something important you may want to boost it again later in the day so that people in different time zones have a better chance of seeing it.

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Fediverse #TimeZones

Interesting, a new "explore" tab just appeared on mastodon.online, which means it will probably be rolled out to stock Mastodon soon.

It has a much longer list of trending hashtags, a list of most discussed news site links and a list of suggested accounts to follow.

#Mastodon #MastoDev

Do you wish the Fediverse had its own alternative to Twitch?

There's one called @owncast . It already works as a self-hosted alternative, and is currently testing Fediverse support:

https://owncast.online

The Fediverse support is only on test accounts at the moment, such as @wesley . You can already follow these test accounts from Mastodon etc and you will see posts in your feed when their streams are live.

Fediverse support will hopefully be on the release version of OwnCast soon 🤞

#OwnCast #Fediverse #FediTips #Twitch #Alternatives #ActivityPub #FOSS #FLOSS #Libre #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #Video #LiveStreaming #LiveStream

The Fediverse is more than just Mastodon! :fediverse:

If you like to share photos you might want to check out @pixelfed, an Instagram-style photo sharing network on the Fediverse.

You can find out more and sign up at:

https://pixelfed.org

PixelFed uses the same federation protocol as Mastodon, which means Mastodon users can follow people on PixelFed and vice versa. You can try following a PixelFed account right now such as @Iancylkowski or @JoseMel or @connyduck

You can use PixelFed through a web browser, and there are also free open Android apps like @PixelDroid and FediLab (@apps).

#Fediverse #FediTips #Instagram #Alternatives #PixelFed

If you love books, the best part of the Fediverse is probably @bookwyrm, a GoodReads-style social reading network.

More info and sites to sign up on are at:

https://joinbookwyrm.com

Because it uses the same ActivityPub protocol that powers the rest of the Fediverse, you can follow BookWyrm accounts from Mastodon etc.

For example, the lead developer of BookWyrm has an account at @mouse

#Fediverse #FediTips #BookWyrm #Books #Book #Literature #Novels #Fiction #NonFiction #Reading #GoodReads #Alternatives

You can help translate the Fediverse's platforms into your own language:

Bookwyrm
https://translate.joinbookwyrm.com

Friendica
https://www.transifex.com/Friendica/friendica

Funkwhale
https://contribute.funkwhale.audio/guides/translate

Mastodon
https://crowdin.com/project/mastodon

Mobilizon
https://weblate.framasoft.org/projects/mobilizon

PeerTube
https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/support/doc/translation.md

PixelFed
https://translate.pixelfed.org

Write Freely
https://poeditor.com/join/project/TIZ6HFRFdE

#FediTips #Fediverse #Localisation #Localization #L10n #Translation #Translations

On Mastodon, you can Favourite (⭐) and/or Bookmark (🔖) a post. These do similar but slightly different things:

Favourite - Adds the post to your Favourites list, tells the post's author about your favourite, and adds your name to the post's list of people who have favourited it.

Bookmark - Adds the post to your Bookmark list, but doesn't do anything else, and doesn't tell anyone about it either.

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #Favourites #Favorites #Bookmarks

Been asked, is there a Fediverse alternative to Amazon's Goodreads?

Yes, yes there is :blobhappy:

@bookwyrm is a Fediverse-based social reading platform, you can find out more from the official site at:

https://joinbookwyrm.com

There are lists of instances you can join at https://joinbookwyrm.com/instances and https://fedidb.org/software/bookwyrm

If you want to help translate BookWyrm into your own language, there's a translation project at https://translate.joinbookwyrm.com

#FediTips #Fediverse #BookWyrm #GoodReads #Alternatives

You can create your own Fediverse instance to give yourself total control over your social media accounts.

There are self-hosting options for people of all skill levels, from totally non-technical to highly skilled.

The easiest option is managed hosting, where someone else does all the tech installation and maintenance, but you own the instance and control it:

https://masto.host - Mastodon managed hosting

https://federation.spacebear.ee/ - HomeTown, Mastodon, PeerTube & PixelFed managed hosting

https://writefreely.host - WriteFreely managed hosting

https://cloud68.co/instances.html - FunkWhale & WriteFreely managed hosting

#FediTips #Fediverse #ManagedHosting #SelfHosting