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Wow... a lot of servers are being very slow right now! I guess more even more people are signing up on here ?
Mastodon.social and mastodon.online are being hammered especially hard.
Don't panic if your server seems unresponsive, this isn't normal on here, it's a temporary thing due to the influx of new members continuing to grow.
Normally there's a steady stream of new members and the servers work fine. This is an unusual unprecedentedly large event ?
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I'm not a sysop, but think the most crucial thing with Mastodon is number of simultaneous processes server can cope with.
If too many requests come in (such as unusually large number of people joining all at once) then it starts to form a backlog and the server has to delay stuff so it can work through the backlog. This is why messages start showing up late in timelines for example.
If you're techy, official documentation on scaling a server might be useful?
Michael Veale
@feditips is there a good resource for a new small server admin on what dynamics affect Mastodon server load the most?
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? PSA: If people you know are signing up to Mastodon, please tell them not to sign up on mastodon.social or mastodon.online!
The only reason mastodon.social is in so many people's minds is because it was the first Masto server, but there is nothing special about it. You can interact with just as many people from other servers including the smallest servers. See https://joinmastodon.org/servers
(For example, my @homegrown account is on a server with no other members, but has over a thousand followers.)
Jen Rohrig
@feditips I just signed up here because I couldn't figure out where else to sign up.. would it be better to move to another server? If that's something that can be done easily? Delete and resignup elsewhere? or just stay now that I'm here?
FediTips has moved!
You're on mstdn.social so you're okay, that's a different server to mastodon.social (yes, I know it's not the clearest difference in name ? ).
But if you want to change servers, yes, you can move your account to other servers if you want (here's how: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#TransferringYourMastodonAccountToAnotherServer).
However, if you've just got started on here and haven't posted anything yet, it might would be a lot easier to just sign up on another server and delete your current acccount.
FediTips has moved!
Yes!
You can move your account and take your follows and followers with you. There are instructions for it at https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#TransferringYourMastodonAccountToAnotherServer
(It's a bit complicated because I've combined several different processes into one set of instructions. For totally new people who haven't posted anything, it's probably easier to just sign up on another server and delete original account.)
Ralph Crützen
@feditips @homegrown Is is possible to move from one instance to another?
Jen Rohrig
@feditips I was interested in the climate justice one BUT I wasn't sure if it was meant ONLY for people who are officially/actively in the movement working on getting things done rather than people like me who are interested in the movement but not sure what to do yet....
Jen Rohrig
@feditips And yeah I only saw the social part not the rest of it.. oi maybe I should just delete and start over. I'm working on figuring all of this out.
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It's totally up to you and your preferences :)
If the server is doing okay and you're happy there then stay if you want.
I'm mainly warning people so they don't overload one server while other servers have spare capacity.
Also, longer term it's healthier for the Fediverse if its members are spread out on lots of servers, it makes it a lot harder for anyone to try to control or buy it.
Gibbalicious
@feditips @homegrown is it a good idea to switch to another instance? I joined yesterday and didn’t really know any better.
FediTips has moved!
As long as you follow the full procedure to migrate, you can keep all your follows and followers. (Instructions are here: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#TransferringYourMastodonAccountToAnotherServer)
The transfer procedure is slightly complicated though, so if you're just getting started and don't have any followers you might want to just sign up elsewhere and delete the old account.
Rodrigo Peñalba
@feditips @homegrown
Twitter exile over here:
If you migrate your account to a different server, do you lost all your follows/followers?
How do I search for users within other servers?
FediTips has moved!
You can find people to follow on here by lots of different methods:
https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-basic-tips/#HowDoIFindPeopleToFollow
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That happens if no one on your server followed that account when they last posted. There's (currently) no backfilling of older posts if you're the first person on a server to follow someone.
If you want to see older posts, log in through the website and then go to that account's profile. Then click on their profile picture, and it will open their profile on their own server, which will display all their public posts ever made.
Jochen Fromm
@feditips @homegrown what can you do to avoid the message "older posts from other servers are not displayed"? How can you see the older posts from other servers, especially from the people you follow? #newhere #neuhier
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It's a consideration for any site on the internet.
There are lots of tiny servers which have been well-maintained for years, and big servers which have closed down. Most important thing is if closure happens, you are able to move your account and followers elsewhere.
All the servers listed at https://joinmastodon.org/servers have committed to giving warning (I think it was three months warning?) if they shut down, which gives people lots of time to move their accounts if necessary.
nkrishnan
@feditips Is it at all a consideration / worry that smaller instances might shut down requiring a migration?
FediTips has moved!
Yes!
Every person on here has a unique address visible under their profile name. Yours is:
@ Word_Whiz @ mas.to
(but without the spaces)
If you give people that full address, and they put it in their search box, either on the app or on the website, it will make your profile appear for them and they can then click follow there.
Exchanging addresses is the most reliable way of finding each other on here.
Word_Whiz
@feditips So I’m having trouble with my #Twitter people finding me on https://mas.to. Any suggestions on how we can find each other?
FediTips has moved!
Not automatically. But if you want, you can force a post to appear.
1. Go to the old post on your web browser, and click on the datestamp within the post (the part that says the date). This will cause the post to appear on its own, or as part of a thread.
2. Copy and paste the web address of this old post and paste it into the search box within Mastodon. When you search for it, this will force your server to look for it and display it on your server.
Jochen Fromm
OK thanks, but new posts will appear, even if the account is on a different server?
Rye
@feditips but.... I came over here... I guess I will have to figure out how to change servers at some point then... cause I came here BECAUSE it was the biggest. I am the first of my friends to come over and I am trying to learn as much as I can before I talk about it on my stream tomorrow....
Seth G.
@feditips Thanks for all the hard work you're doing.
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Yeah, there may be a delay, and I am guessing that the current huge wave of new members is going to slow things down even further.
Give it a bit more time and see if it works later?
John Ferra
@feditips @m4th31st @homegrown When I went to configure the move from the old account, it said my new account "is not an alias" or something like that. Is that because I didn't wait long enough after setting up the alias on the new account?
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Even if you can't find one that fits you exactly, there are many smaller general Masto servers you can join. https://mas.to is well run, for example, and has been around for years.
xenogon
@teledyn @feditips @homegrown
funny you say street cred - I perceive our mastodon.social addresses as a little uncool.
I'm all for specialised instances in principle - just commenting that I couldn't find one that was a good fit for me when I joined and I suspect this is a common experience.
teledyn ?
Just like on the good old bbs/forum days!
I did the same, plus I wanted to squat a space on The Original for the street-cred ?
Joining an alternate server can depend on price, on site features, but also the value you perceive in their Local feed. I envision libraries, schools, campus groups, clubs etc, local news and municipalities, there's value in a "safe space" all their own or, like some now, by invitation only.
xenogon
Many instances are invite only or actively discourage newbies.
Some others listed are defunct.
When I joined I spent half a day trying to choose an appropriate instance for my interests and still ended up on mastodon.social
teledyn ?
Please also advise nodes who expect subscribers fill out their About page so folks know who they are, what they stand for (or won't) and why they are different. So many just have the default.
FediTips has moved!
Hm... that's sort of what the General category on https://joinmastodon.org/servers is meant to be, but looking at it now it does have a lot of seemingly-specialised servers listed in that category.
I guess they should prune that category down a bit? Or ask the server owners to change their descriptions to match their general nature if they are general servers?
xenogon
Maybe there should be foregrounded somewhere a list of general instances with open registration suitable for people who can't find a specialised instance that suits them.
But better discovery overall is a need I think across the whole fediverse.
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@dcsohl @homegrown @penalbatoday
No, sorry.
If you're comfortable using Github you could suggest list following as a feature request in the Issues section? https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/
Daniel Sohl
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@ggmartin @homegrown @xenogon @teledyn
Genuine question: why not, for example, sign up on mas.to or mstdn.social?
(I'm curious about the process that people use to discover servers.)
ggmartin
@homegrown @xenogon @teledyn @feditips i did exactly the same…
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You can follow and interact with your friends from other servers, and the experience is identical.
For example, you and I are having a conversation now and we are on different servers. If we were on the same server, the conversation would be identical.
It's like email: it doesn't matter if your friends use a different email provider, the experience of exchanging emails is identical.
bitbonk
@feditips @homegrown
But most of my buddies from twitter seem to be on those servers, isn’t is a good idea to join the server with most of my buddies?
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That was wrong, especially if you're talking about people you follow.
After you follow someone you will see exactly the same thing whichever server you're on.
bitbonk
@feditips @homegrown
I know things also work when people are on other servers but one advice I got is to choose a server based on where my peers are because they will be closer or something. Was that wrong?
bitbonk
@feditips Yes, that what I was trying to get at.
The way to get a diverse unified "inbox" that matches my interests is through curating an interesting follows list (and maybe hashtags).
But there is no good way to make the local or even federated timeline feature useful in any way if you have many diverse interests.
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Well... the Local and Federated timelines are sort of useless on mastodon.social, they're just random firehoses.
FediTips has moved!
You don't have to use the Local or Federated timelines at all. Just follow who you follow and follow/search hashtags?
bitbonk
@feditips I don't see how I can have a (one) less random local timeline if my interests are diverse. Even if I would join many small but focused instances, I will have a zoo of many local isolated timelines (and a zoo of different accounts).
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