Things I have learned after coming back to Mastodon three times

[pearwaldorf]

[insert whatever fuckery Muskrat is doing that is making people uneasy about staying on Twitter because I can't keep up anymore]

I take no joy in this. The breaking of communities is always an awful thing, and I very much dislike that it is a thing that has happened, and is going to keep happening.

I really do think the most viable alternative to the birdsite is Mastodon. It is the only platform/wev that has survived and in fact gets better the more people join. The technology has never been the sticking point, but rather accumulating a critical mass of people so you'll want to keep hanging out. I think it's coming.

1. It's really not that technically complicated

Can you sign up for an email address? Can you email someone not on the domain your email is hosted on? Congrats, you have all the knowledge you need to navigate Mastodon. There are guides to help you out, and if you need something specific and can't find it I'll dig one up for you.

2. Your instance doesn't really matter

An instance is a launchpad. It can also be a town square if you want it to be. You can interact as much or as little as you like on it. And if you don't like it, you can always move. The only caveats I have are:

• Don't join a big instance. They're overloaded.
• Make sure you're willing to abide by the rules of your instance. For example, this is for the one I hang out on. Usually it's stuff like content warnings or how to post nudity/gore/other nsfw stuff. The don't be an asshole stuff is presumed, but please read through the terms of use and make sure it's stuff you're willing to do/not do.

3. Find an alternate UI you like

I'm gonna be blunt: if you rely on the vanilla Mastodon UI, you're going to have a bad fucking time. It is designed by engineers and FOSS people in the worst ways. If you want a mobile app, use Tusky or Megalodon (Android). (I do not have any iOS devices but Ivory is made by the people who did Tweetbot, which Twitter took a lot of cues from. And I'm sure there are others.)

For web interfaces, I can highly recommend both Elk and Phanpy. (Also have responsive modes if you want to use them on your phone.) They function like skins on top of the vanilla interface and abstract a lot of things I found infuriating. Phanpy also has a Tweetdeck-like interface option and has helped so much with the current transition. Here is how you enable it.

4. Hashtag subscription is cool

You can follow hashtags like an account, which is a genuinely delightful feature. I am subscribed to #fountainpens, #mosstodon, #lichensubscribe, #bloomscrolling, and #silentsunday. For cats, there is #caturday and #catsofmastodon.

If you have any other questions, hmu in the comments or wherever and I'm happy to answer or point you to somebody who might know.

Comments

[marianas]

possibly dumb question: how do you get Phanpy to do tweetdeck-like view? I haven't been able to figure it out

[mmeg]

It's not totally intuitive, but it's "Shortcut Settings". Then you choose multi-column and add all the columns you want as "shortcuts". (You can also make them menu buttons, if you prefer a single column view but like to jump back and forth.)

[marianas]

ty ty

Android app alternative

[mmeg]

I just discovered Trunks for Android. It's brand new, but I'm really digging it so far.

[nonelvis]

I've been using Toot! on my iPhone and iPad and like it. I've heard good things about Ivory as well but at this point am comfortable enough on Toot! that I see no need to switch if I don't have to.

What I really want but haven't found yet, possibly because it doesn't yet exist, is a Tweetdeck-like UI that will allow me to be logged into multiple Mastodon accounts at once. There is someone working on a web app that will do this, but it's not ready yet.

[lovelythings]

I do miss Twitter, but I got blocked/banned from my last instance even though I'd never posted and I don't want that to happen again? I don't even know if I can rejoin Mastodon now.

[pearwaldorf]

That's definitely an instance-only thing. You can sign up for another account elsewhere.

[sophia_sol]

oh wow I had no idea there were other web interface options! I have definitely had some uhhhh frustrations with the standard mastodon interface. both elk and phanpy look promising and I will have to play around with them!

[pearwaldorf]

Yeah using the vanilla UI is absolutely infuriating. I didn't really start settling in until I found Elk. The amount of friction it removes is incredible, and what I think people really should push new Mastodon users towards.

[bluedreaming]

(Here via being linked to this post)
On iOS; Toot! is a great app; Ivory is quite alright but does require a paid subscription.
And I meant to say that I really like how you’ve distilled it to four points. So much more approachable!

[chocolatepot]

Thank you for the Phanpy/Elk recs! I'd been using the regular web view and it was so eh and clunky.

[glitteryv]

Here via a link from a friend. Thank you so, so much for the UI alternatives! I'm enjoying my experience over there a lot more now that I'm using Phanpy. :DDD

And the fourth suggestion is a good one too.

[silveradept]

I don't fully understand about the different web interfaces. Are those things to ask your instance admin to install on their servers to offer, or things that somehow let you use their interfaces with your own accounts? (And if so, how security-sketchy is that?)

[pearwaldorf]

The alternate interfaces are their own website. You grant them permission via an API to do things on behalf of your Mastodon account like send and receive messages. It's like using a Twitter or Facebook account as an alternate login method, but on steroids. It will tell you what permissions it needs before you accept or deny.

And safety-wise, I would say it's way less dangerous than Facebook, which leaks data all over the damn place when it doesn't actively sell it.

[silveradept]

Ah, okay, it's API stuff, that I know how to work with and how to revoke if it starts getting squirrelly or otherwise improper. Thanks for explaining.

Life changing info

[jesse_the_k]

thanks so much