Hey Blind mastodon users. I have a totally blind friend looking to join here. I've recommended them disabled.social, but wondering if anyone has any mastodon tips for totally blind newbies. They use IOS.
For those unfamiliar with it, Lemmy is basically a federated version of Reddit, distributed across multiple servers like Mastodon. (For anyone who wants to delve further, lemmy.ml, beehaw.org, and aussie.zone are three popular Lemmy instances.)
From Mastodon, you can follow any Lemmy group by following its handle, exactly the same way that you would follow a Mastodon account. Any new posts to that group will then begin appearing in your Mastodon feed.
Even better, if you start a thread on Mastodon, you can also post it to a relevant Lemmy group just by including its handle in your post. (Please note this only seems to work with the first post of a thread.)
Hey y'all! I posted this in a conversation re: differences between instances; I just thought I'd go ahead and make it its own post from the perspective of a user - there's other technical differences for instance admins, but this is an end-user perspective.
So, different instances might have:
Different features (different character counts that may be higher than 500; emote reactions/favourites, different themes, markdown formatting for posts). From experience, different features from different instances have varying compatibility - i.e. Mastodon user favouriting Misskey/Firefish post shows as ❤️ reaction, Misskey user reacting to (vanilla) Mastodon posts counts on Mastodon as a favourite ⭐, Glitch-Soc Mastodon is inter-operable with both.
They may have a specific topic in mind. For example, hachyderm.io and tech.lgbt are tech and LGBTQ+ related; urusai.social and sakurajima.moe (my home instance 😉) has a focus on Japanese media discussion; mastodon.art is dedicated to art; kolektiva.social is political, anti-colonialist, left-wing.
Moderation and rules may differ. Some instances might have bigger moderation staff and/or have small userbase to moderate, and some may have different or additional rules. Some may be more strict on stuff (prohibiting AI unless tagged, no NFTs, stricter NSFW culture, etc), some may ban certain instances for whatever reason (mastodon.art is infamous - for better or for worse - for having strict defederating policies with the rationale of protecting their users). You can choose an instance you're comfortable with and makes you feel safe.
An extension of the previous point; the level of federation between different instances are different too, depending on what they're comfortable with handling. Instances can be completely blocked off, or they can be "silenced" and not appear on federated timelines (but can have people from different instances interact if they follow each other), have media rejected but other posts allowed through.
That's what I can think of off the top of my head when it comes to the differences between mastodon.social and other instances.
One more thing, DO NOT FORGET - this is a FEDERATED social network, that's why we call it the #Fediverse.
For example, if you have someone you know on mastodon.social or firefish.social or misskey.io; you WILL Be able to talk with them (unless your instance has completely blocked those instances). You may have to jump through a few hoops (putting the person's handle suffixed with @mastodon.social, or pasting a URL into the search box), or use extensions like FediAct (https://github.com/Lartsch/FediAct); but barring any restrictions or defederation, you shouldn't have any issues.
APOLOGIES FOR ANY ERRORS THAT I'VE MADE IN THIS POST! I'll give corrections when necessary!
That depends on what you mean. If you mean like forums, then no. But if you mean like G+ Groups, i.e. lists of people you follow, then yes it does. They're called Lists, and you'll find them in the Getting Started tab at the far right of Mastodon's web interface. So, how do you use them? Well, here's the thing…
Have you ever seen the 👁️element in the mastodon UI and wondered what it meant?
It’s actually quite simple and useful!
When you see the 👁️, it means your webcam is active and streaming images directly to Mastodon HQ, where Eugen (@Gargron ) is watching. He reaches up and gently touches the screen, whispering “what are you going to toot next, my lovely?”
This feature is pretty handy, but if you prefer, it can be switched off simply by clicking 👁️—> 🚫👁️
Pixelfed - Wie Mastodon, aber mit schönen Fotos - GNU/Linux.ch
Wer keine Lust auf Instagram hat, weil es dem Meta-Konzern gehört, sollte sich mal Pixelfed anschauen. Denn Pixelfed ist Teil des Fediverse – so wie Mastodon. Nur dass sich bei Pixelfed alles um schöne Fotos dreht.
Was ist das Fediverse?
Wer neu bei Mastodon ist, wird die Belehrung schon bekommen haben: Mastodon ist keine Plattform, sondern nur einer der Dienste, mit denen man am „Fediverse“ teilnehmen kann. Das Fediverse besteht aus einer ganzen Reihe Dienste, die alle das gleiche Protokoll benutzen – also kompatibel untereinander sind.
Was ist Pixelfed?
Pixelfed ist ein Dienst, bei dem Fotos im Mittelpunkt stehen. Während man bei Mastodon mit dem Text anfängt und gelegentlich ein Foto anhängt, fängt ein Post bei Pixelfed damit an, dass man ein Foto hochlädt und man dann vielleicht noch etwas dazu schreibt.
Okay #FediTip community: I need a vernacular term for “ok, I’m taking your question honestly and reply, with the unspoken text that your question feels like it could be a troll, so you’re on notice.”
One word, maybe 2 word phrase.
Anyone?
Example usage: “ok, I’m gonna raw dog* your question”
It turns out that one can change a poll from radio buttons (single select) to check boxes (multi select) by clicking on the radio button icon next to a poll entry, when creating a poll.
So people have been noticing that you often don't see replies to posts on Mastodon. This is especially true if the post originated from a user who's on another instance from your own.
How to rectify the situation? Go to the source. On Mastodon, in the "three dots" menu next to each post there's an option to "Open Original Page". This will open up the post directly from that other instance and you'll see all the replies there.
Liebe #Neuhier und auch die, die schon länger dabei sind.
Das Fediverse ist nicht Mastodon und Mastodon ist nicht das Fediverse.
Solltet ihr Funktionen in Mastodon vermissen, dann schaut euch andere Dienste an. Noch mal, ihr seid im Fediverse nicht zwingend auf einen Zugang mittels der Software Mastodon angewiesen, ihr könnt auch eine der anderen Softwares nutzen, die alles das implementiert haben, was hier immer als "zwingend notwendig" erachtet wird.
Mastodon ist nicht der einzige Microbloggingdienst im Fediverse, ihr könnt auch Pleroma, Akkoma, Misskey, Sharkey, Firefish oder Iceshrimp nehmen und außer das ihr auf einmal viel mehr mit der Software und eurem Konto machen könnt (na gut, schöner sind die auch noch), werdet ihr kaum einen Unterschied merken.
Schau hier ruhig mal in die Artikelserie über Dienste im Fediverse nach.
#FediTip If your account requires you to manually approve follow requests, be sure you're actually checking your follow requests. They don't show up in your regular notifications. If you're using a computer, they will appear below the notifications button. I hope this is useful to someone!
Mastodon is built differently. Just like the birdsite, you won't see every toot in existence but the 'why' is different. On birdsite, an #algorithm decided. Here, it's your #social connections that truly, organically determine what you see.
It works because it gives you control over who you interact with, and the people you interact with shape the timelines of you and all your neighbors.
Keep your current handle, but look into #SelfHosting any #Fediverse instance. Keep your current #Mastodon and add on a unique experience that you control completely.
Hell, even #Pixelfed if you're really into pictures. F Instagram.
Reminder: if you wish you recommend tags for post visibility, it's better to suggest the tags for be added without actually putting the hash sign in front of the word. This gives the OP the choice on whether to add the tag or not, while putting the whole tagged thing forces their thread into a discoverability the OP might not want.
Is there a Mastodon client, or plugin of some form, which could auto #translate other languages? I'm one of those mono-lingual Americans. I can halfway figure out some of the Spanish or French toots, and can of course cut-n-paste if I'm really curious. But it would be lovely to have a "translate" button right in the interface. Does such a thing exist?
The only #feditip that you actually need when you're new is: to interact with a particular post or user on a different instance, just paste the URL directly into the search bar on your own instance. This is definitely the most user-unfriendly aspect of mastodon.
My own personal #FediTip is aimed more at experienced users than the newbies.
It's simply this: follow the #introduction hashtag. It's an amazing way to find so many new people who are discovering this platform.
And then of course follow them, interact with them and encourage them to follow and interact back. There's no better way to be made to feel welcome here.
Nie wiem, czy można to uznać za #feditip czy nie, natomiast bardzo w budowaniu na mastodonie miejsca, w którym dzieje się dla mnie coś ciekawego pomogły mi... dzwoneczki.
Gdy już znalazłem osoby, których treści mnie interesują, dostaję powiadomienia, gdy coś publikują. Dzięki temu nie dość, że nie przegapię ich tootków na głównej ścianie, mam kolejne powiadomienia, które przynajmniej u mnie zwiększają poczucie, że coś tu się dzieje.
Dodatkowo, mam nadzieję, działa to motywująco dla tych osób, że ich wiadomości ktoś widzi, lajkuje, boostuje... Ot, pomyślałem, że o tym tutaj napiszę. :)
Dość powiedzieć, że na mastodonie korzystam z tej opcji dużo swobodniej, niż na ptakoportalu. ;)
Here's a #FediTip for you.
Not only can you follow a hashtag, but in the web interface you can also pin it to a column. And then you can add additional hashtags to the column. And if you set Local Only to On, you'll see only your own toots with that hashtag.
If you want your posts to be visible, use hashtags. This is more important here than anywhere else, because there is no cross-instance full-text search. And people do follow hashtags.
In my experience well-hashtagged posts get half of their interactions from people who don't follow me.
Verlinkungen auf Songs, Alben und Interpret*innen 🎵 🎶 sind in den sozialen Netzwerken noch immer etwas anstrengend und wenig inklusiv. Denn viele posten nur die URL eines Streaminganbieters, den sie selbst nutzen, schließen damit aber viele andere aus, die ihn nicht nutzen bzw. woanders sind.
Eine Alternative, die ich sehr sympathisch finde, sind Webdienste, die eine Art Brücke schlagen: Auf Landingpages wird zu diversen Streamingdiensten wie Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Amazon Music oder Deezer verwiesen.
Es gibt einige dieser Smart Links, darunter #Songwhip und #songg, für die keine Registrierung erforderlich ist. Einfach Song, Album oder Interpret*in eingeben und eine Landingpage erstellen.