There are lots of guides explaining Fediverse and Mastodon, but most of them go into way too much detail. With this post, I would like to try and cover all, or at least most, of the basics you’ll need to know to get started. You can then gradually learn the rest from elsewhere.

The fediverse is NOT f**king twitter !!

The fediverse is very different from twitter, and that’s by design. It’s made for building communities and bringing people together, not dividing people or for boosting celebrities. Things will certainly work differently from what you’re probably used to. Just give it some time, and ask for help if you’re not sure why something works how it does! People on the fediverse are usually happy to explain, as long as it’s a genuine question. People on the fediverse expect you to talk to them like they’re real human beings, and in return they will do the same.

There’s more to the fediverse than Mastodon

The name is for the thousands of servers that connect together to form a big “federated” social network. Every server is its own community with its own people and “vibe”, but you can talk to people in other communities as well. Different servers will run different software with different features. Mastodon happens to be the most well-known option - but there is alternative options for interacting with the fediverse.

The server doesn’t matter (or does it?)

Different servers will have different communities, so have a look “here at the server list” to find a sever that seems right for you. Really you could pick any server, but you may have a preference.

You can always move to a different server later Your followers will move with you :)

Over time, you may want to switch to a smaller server with a closer tight knit community, but again that’s up to future you, and it’s totally okay if you start your fediverse journey on a big server. I’m sure there will be people on your server that would kindly help you if you ever decide on switching.

Please do always keep in mind that the fediverse is run by volunteers !!

The only two servers, I would avoid are mastodon.social & mastodon.online. I say this only because they’ve had a ton of moderation issues, and are very frequently overloaded.

Culture of the fediverse

Culture on the fediverse can be split into two important parts:

1. Content warnings..

Content warnings are a bit subtler, but also very important. There is a strong culture of using content warnings on the fediverse, so when in doubt, you should errm always use them. Because they are so widespread, people are kind of used to them now. You don’t need to worry that people won’t read things behind a content warning. Content warnings, help people to keep control over what they see.

Rules for content warning, may vary across communities..

2. Alt text for images..

When posting images, you should always be sure to give your images a useful piece of descriptive alt text. This is to help the various blind and vision-impaired users on the fediverse. This can also help people to understand memes or jokes that they may not always get. There is a lot of people that will never “boost” (retweet) images that don’t have an alt text.

Following the right people

The fediverse isn’t like twitter or other social networks. It’s not built around algorithmic feeds, so by default you won’t see much happening. What you see is entirely determined by who you follow. It will take some time to find people you like. Your feed will liven up once you start following and interacting with people.

Introducing yourself

I personally think it’s a good idea to make an introduction post, tagged with the #introduction hashtag, and any other hashtags for your interests. Posts on the fediverse can only be found by their hashtag, so they’re important to use if you want people to find you.

You can search for hashtags to find interesting people you may want to follow..