New User's Guide
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon isn't a single social media website like Twitter or Facebook - it's a network of social media websites. An instance of Mastodon can talk to another instance of Mastodon. So, a Mastodon user can follow another user and like or reply to their posts, whether they are on the same instance or a different one. A Mastodon instance can also see videos from PeerTube or images from PixelFed, and a Mastodon user can follow, like, and comment on all of these.
Getting Started
Finding An Instance
If you are new to Mastodon you'll need to join an instance.
If you already have friends on Mastodon, you can sign up for their instances by going to their account in your web browser and clicking on "Create Account" in the menu on the right.
Alteratively you can join a public instance. The choice may seem overwhelming, but it doesn't actually make that much of a difference which one you sign up for.
You can also create your own instance but it is a good idea to test the waters with an existing instance first. You can always migrate everything but your posts to your own instance later, once you're more familiar with how Mastodon works.
Social Media Algorithms and Mastodon
Recommendation Algorithms
Conventional social networks now use "smart" recommendation algorithms to feed you content they think you want to see (or they want you to see). They see what you engage with and feed you more of what holds your attention and gets you to react. This makes it easy to find new content and your posts have more reach.
The problem is this ease comes at a very high price. It can lead to doomscrolling, overuse, inaccurate political messaging, and hateful or threatening content.
Mastodon
Mastodon has a low-algorithm approach similar to the early days of social networking sites.
By default posts are shown chronologically and are specifically what you choose to follow.
The Timeline
On a standard Mastdon instance you have three timelines of recent posts.
- Home - Accounts you follow including posts they have boosted (reposted).
- This server - Posts from accounts on your instance.
- Other servers - Posts from accounts that people on your instance follow.
Finding People
Since an algorithm isn't monitoring your behaviour and recommending you content, you're in charge of finding interesting posts. On a brand new instance, you may have to look for people you know of by searching for their profiles on the internet (not on Mastodon) to follow them. On an established instance, on the other hand, you can lean on the other users on the instance to find interesting content.
Remember: you won't see anything on your home timeline unless you follow people, so following people is key to seeing things! Also, boosting posts for visibility is good practice so that other people can also find interesting users to follow.
Hashtags
Hashtags are extemely important on Mastodon because they can also be followed. Following a hashtag is like casting a net to look for posts from accounts you may be interested in. These posts will then be integrated into your home timeline.
Finding hashtags
On the explore tab, you can view trending hashtags that your instance knows about.
The website Feditags monitors the current tags being used across the fediverse and is a great resource for finding new tags to follow.
Posting with hashtags
You should also post with hashtags to return the favour and help people find you. If you put hashtags at the end of your post, they won't show up in full size or disrupt the flow of your post.
Mastodon App
Some Mastodon apps have a layer of recommendation built on top of them. Installing one of these may also help.