FediTips has moved!
Do you need help with using Mastodon and the Fediverse? Especially if you're a beginner or unsure about techy things?
You can ask by messaging me or replying to this thread, and I'll try to help or find someone else who can help. Don't worry if a question seems silly or basic!
You can also look things up on the guide at https://fedi.tips, which has an "essentials" section at the top and a complete list of answered questions below that.
FediTips has moved!
There are lots of ways you can discover accounts on all kinds of topics, I've tried to list all the methods at https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-find-accounts-to-follow-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-how-do-i-find-my-friends/
michaelwplant
@feditips I have a question how do I find other professional photographers who are on Mastodon?
FediTips has moved!
Hey there, sorry I missed it first time!
Fedilab provides trending posts and hashtags.
Tusky provides trending hashtags, though it doesn't yet provide trending posts.
Hope this answers it?
Johannes Hentschel
Thanks for offering, @feditips ! Would you be ok with looking at my question here in an older post of yours please? https://hostux.social/@johentsch/111443840080028747
"Do you or anyone happen to know any Andoid apps other than Mastodon that give access to the trends on the instance where I have my account? Or even to that of any instance that provides it?"
FediTips has moved!
You don't have to ask them, but you can only add people you follow.
So, if someone blocks you from following them, then that also prevents you adding them to a list.
Lists aren't visible to anyone but the list maker.
Cavyherd
What's the custom when adding people to a List. Is it customary to ask them first? (Are Lists visible to anyone but the list-maker?)
Nathan Schneider
@feditips in the part on running a server, it would be great to develop materials on cultivating a healthy, co-governed community.
FediTips has moved!
That might be more to do with the legal structures available in a person's country?
There's nothing to stop a co-operative setting up a server with joint legal ownership. They could use official meetings to vote on who would be assigned admin accounts etc.
As far as software goes, the owner account of the server has lots of options for assigning roles to other accounts on the server. There are premade roles, but they can create custom roles too. I'll try and add an article about it!
RolandOfGilead
@feditips using the official app for Android. Whenever I check for new posts, the app jumps up to the latest post, and then I have no idea if it just loaded 2 or 20 posts that I haven't seen yet. Don't they understand the concept of a cursor, and they should load the new posts ABOVE where I am currently looking so I can just scroll up through the new ones? Instead, I have to scroll down and try and find my place where I was reading before they added the new ones. Even Musk's sw got that right
FediTips has moved!
I'd strongly recommend using third party apps instead of the official app, they tend to work better.
On Android you might want to try Tusky, Fedilab, Toot, Megalodon, Subway Tooter, Trunks etc.
The official apps were only introduced last year because new people expected there to be an official app, but for most of Mastodon's life it has used third party apps.
RolandOfGilead
@feditips sorry, I am not a fan of 3rd party apps. Too many people have been hacked by random 3rd party apps. I am sure the geeks love 3rd party apps, but I don't love Mastodon enough to risk ransomware.
FediTips has moved!
There is no more risk from those apps than there would be from the official app. The official app doesn't have any kind of special status or special abilities.
The apps I listed, and the official app too, are free open source software, so people can inspect exactly how it works. If there was something suspect going on, it would be obvious to the outside world.
FediTips has moved!
Mastodon's official website lists them, scroll past the official app:
FediTips has moved!
I've just done a short piece on how to assign roles, is this any use?
https://fedi.tips/how-can-organisations-or-groups-run-a-mastodon-server/
Was there something more specific you wanted?
Neo-Rodneyite ✍🏿📖
@feditips I think @ntnsndr might be speaking _beyond_ the legal facets of it, no?
FediTips has moved!
There is an official app if you want it, it is in Google Play and Apple App Store.
RolandOfGilead
@feditips well then there is another reason Mastodon will not catch on with the broader communities. If the primary app is not on Android Play Store and the Apple site, and if it's not really aggressively supported, then Mastodon is not targeting the larger web audience and Musk's BS will persist.
Nathan Schneider
@feditips @jalcine thanks, yes, it's good to see this. A few other topics perhaps of interest around community and servers:
- Developing transparent contributions and expenses with Open Collective
- Using Announcements to communicate with members
- Conflict resolution among members
- Cultivating a diverse and welcoming community
Nathan Schneider
@feditips @jalcine FWIW, here is a guide a few of us at Social.coop did: https://wiki.social.coop/wiki/How_to_Make_the_Fediverse_Your_Own
We are a cooperative, but actually not quite legally; we operate democratically through our bylaws and member contributions. Legally our parent is a different co-op.
FediTips has moved!
I think that would be beyond my remit, as those would apply to anyone running an online community with any kind of software? I'm trying to focus on the Fediverse specifically.
I volunteer in various orgs but I don't have experience running a co-op, so I'm not sure I'd be right person for writing about this.
Wendell Bell
@feditips how does one respond to this? https://bsky.app/profile/joshuafoust.com/post/3kf6vj2iuyn2i
FediTips has moved!
Bluesky is a centralised service run by Jack Dorsey and his friends.
It has no connections to the Fediverse or anyone else, so there is no way to respond to it from elsewhere.
Nathan Schneider
@feditips @jalcine Fair enough! I'm exploring the idea of doing an incubator for new fediverse communities, and hopefully we'll produce some docs to share there.
I do think that the fediverse has unique challenges with diversity and inclusion, and these issues deserve more focused attention. But maybe "tips" isn't the right place for that.
Thank you for all your great work! You have done so much to make this space more friendly and accessible.
Nathan Schneider
@jalcine @feditips ascending:)
Though I guess it depends on one's perspective
Neo-Rodneyite ✍🏿📖
John Bloor Printmaker
@feditips is there any way to block boosts on replies to posts I am not following? I find these replies out of context to be meaningless.
FediTips has moved!
I'm not sure there's a way to block boosts of replies specifically. I assume you mean the Home timeline?
You can hide boosts, and you can hide replies, but as far as I know you can't narrow this down to just boosts of replies.
On your server's website, you can hide boosts or replies by clicking the slider icon in the top right corner of the Home timeline. You will still get notifications of replies that mention you, and you will still be able to see replies in threads.
FediTips has moved!
If you've got something together that relates to the Fediverse, I could give it a shout out if you like? There might be others in similar situation who would appreciate your work?
Ed Rogers
@feditips Niche question for you: is chirp.social still open to creating new groups?
I really appreciate your guide on groups ( https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-groups-on-the-fediverse/ ) and used it last summer to create a chirp.social group for a conference I was organizing. I'd like to do it again, but this time, the new group isn't boosting any posts (as far as I can tell).
Here's the group: @scientific_python
Do you see the above group boosting any posts?
Do you know if chirp.social is still creating new groups?
Ed Rogers
@feditips @scientific_python
lol, after 3 weeks of refusing to boost any posts in which it was mentioned, the group finally boosted its first post: my question to you just now! 😅
Here's hoping the issue is resolved and I can use the group for our upcoming conference 🤞
$8Troll
@feditips Howdy! Why do some fediverse sites (cough, pixelfed, cough) limit user name length? I can't use my Mastodon name on that space.
I would have thought federating meant taking everyone.
FediTips has moved!
I'm not sure why Pixelfed's would be shorter than Mastodon's, maybe someone at @pixelfed can answer?
There's usually always some kind of limit though?
Federating just means the servers can cope with linking up to other servers, they may not necessarily have identical features. (For example some servers have character limits in the thousands, and these will display correctly on Mastodon, but Mastodon usually restricts posts to 500 characters.)
$8Troll
I couldn't figure out how to get Pixel to use my Mastodon name......
FediTips has moved!
It sounds like you'll just have to use a shorter name?
They'll still be two totally separate accounts by the way, even if they had the same name.
$8Troll
It should be about federating people, not just servers.
FediTips has moved!
Federating just means there are lots of providers who connect to each other, like phone companies. You can call people on other phone companies because even rival phone companies are federated together.
The idea on here is if one provider is bad, you can switch to another provider without losing your followers and follows.
pnwpetey
@feditips I remember you posted about migrating instances a while ago. Wasn’t ready to do it then, but I am now. Would you mind, please, reposting that toot? Many thx.
FediTips has moved!
The guide to migrating your account is here:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/
(By the way, all my guides are on the site at https://fedi.tips! 😁 )
pnwpetey
@feditips beaucoups thanks!
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.