large full screen shot of the one column view of mastodon browser interface. identifying information (posts, usernames, etc) have been erased
there's the home timeline! as you can see, i have filtered out and identifying information from users who are not me. this is the standard one-column view of mastodon. you can see posts on your home timeline from people you follow, things they may boost or reply to, and on the right hand side you'll see other places you can go. we will get to all of those parts eventually.
what is mastodon?
mastodon is a FOSS (Free or Open Source Software) micro-blogging social media platform. this platform is one of many that can all connect and communicate with one another or "federate". you can think of it as a combination between twitter with a larger character count and email.
it is similar to other social media in some ways (it connects to many other platforms to interact with or share content with, but without the privacy invasion of facebook; you can connect to anyone in the fediverse even if they're not on the same server or server as you, like email), but different in others. different aspects of the fediverse even have different functions and features, so not all parts of the fediverse look or act the same.
the "fediverse" is the online 'universe' where all other websites that connect the same way come together. people on other platforms or servers still within the fediverse can contact you and reach you, similar to how you can email someone at yahoo from a gmail account. your username in full, will even look similar to an email address: @username@website.com
for folks not on your section/server, or your instance, of the fediverse, you'll need their full address to contact them, but the search bar above your username and posting section allows you to search by username, even if you don't have the full address. replies to users automatically populate the full username.
as far as mastodon goes, which is one of the parts of the fediverse, will all look and act the same unless it is forked (the code used to create mastodon is copied) and made into something different by someone else.
it is similar to other social media in some ways (it connects to many other platforms to interact with or share content with, but without the privacy invasion of facebook; you can connect to anyone in the fediverse even if they're not on the same server or server as you, like email), but different in others. different aspects of the fediverse even have different functions and features, so not all parts of the fediverse look or act the same.
the "fediverse" is the online 'universe' where all other websites that connect the same way come together. people on other platforms or servers still within the fediverse can contact you and reach you, similar to how you can email someone at yahoo from a gmail account. your username in full, will even look similar to an email address: @username@website.com
for folks not on your section/server, or your instance, of the fediverse, you'll need their full address to contact them, but the search bar above your username and posting section allows you to search by username, even if you don't have the full address. replies to users automatically populate the full username.
as far as mastodon goes, which is one of the parts of the fediverse, will all look and act the same unless it is forked (the code used to create mastodon is copied) and made into something different by someone else.
how to toot
screen shot of just the posting interface of mastodon
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to my left is the main posting area. your posts are called "toots" which you can love or hate, but that's what it is. there are a lot of features here that are helpful to everyone on the fediverse, but may seem complicated or tedious at first.
you can type in the textbox labeled "what's on your mind?" and can access emojis when you click on the little grey laughing emoji in the top right corner. instances can upload their own custom emoji! for example: stardew.city, my instance, has many of the sprites from the game as emoji. donphan.social, a pokemon themed instance, has all of the pokemon available as emojis! some admins even create their own custom emojis other instances can use: check out dzuk's mutant stadard emojis here. |
continuing on, you'll see four icons and a number on the bottom of your posting box. the number, which is 500 on standard mastodon instances, is your character count for your posts. other instances have higher or lower character counts. your sys-admin (who handles the code part) can likely change this.
the paperclip icon is where you can attach media to share to the fediverse. music, video, or images are all welcome. the thick hamburger menu is actually a polling option! polls can run for a certain length of time, and can have more than four options. you can set the poll to only allow one answer, or multiple.
the lock is your posting privacy setting: locked means only those following you can see the post, and it cannot be boosted by others; an open lock means it is not posted on the federated (public) or local (your instance) timelines, but can still be boosted by others; a world icon means it is posted publicly on the local and federated timeline and can be boosted; the letter or envelope is a direct message, which only you and the people mentioned/tagged can see. it shows up on the timeline or in their notification or DM section as a slightly darker shade than standard posts.
the CW is the content warning feature, which is used as a subject line of a post to warn about a multitude of different things that may be within the post so that users can choose not to click on it/interact with it/read it if they so choose.
it is important to know the difference between the posting privacy settings, and the timelines, as it is not the clearest and can be confusing especially coming from other social media sites.
the federated (public) timeline is huge. i will be honest and say i am not entirely sure how it is populated, but from my understanding it is everyone that is federated with your instance. i am unsure if this means they follow people you follow, or just interact often with an instance you already federate with. regardless: this timeline contains any and all other known connections your instance has to other places within the fediverse. you can see all public (world icon) posts here, even from people you do not follow.
the local timeline is just your instances timeline. all public posts go to both here and the federated timeline. some instances have local-only posting, which i think is an amazing tool and i hope mastodon adds this feature eventually, or i hope that other instance forks have hosting options.
the home timeline is where your follows reside. this timeline is populated by posts from those you follow, and your own posts. you can see toots, boosts, and replies from everyone you follow on this timeline. this is the only place (except on your profile) where you will see your followers-only posts. you can turn off seeing other peoples' boosts and replies fairly easily:
the paperclip icon is where you can attach media to share to the fediverse. music, video, or images are all welcome. the thick hamburger menu is actually a polling option! polls can run for a certain length of time, and can have more than four options. you can set the poll to only allow one answer, or multiple.
the lock is your posting privacy setting: locked means only those following you can see the post, and it cannot be boosted by others; an open lock means it is not posted on the federated (public) or local (your instance) timelines, but can still be boosted by others; a world icon means it is posted publicly on the local and federated timeline and can be boosted; the letter or envelope is a direct message, which only you and the people mentioned/tagged can see. it shows up on the timeline or in their notification or DM section as a slightly darker shade than standard posts.
the CW is the content warning feature, which is used as a subject line of a post to warn about a multitude of different things that may be within the post so that users can choose not to click on it/interact with it/read it if they so choose.
it is important to know the difference between the posting privacy settings, and the timelines, as it is not the clearest and can be confusing especially coming from other social media sites.
the federated (public) timeline is huge. i will be honest and say i am not entirely sure how it is populated, but from my understanding it is everyone that is federated with your instance. i am unsure if this means they follow people you follow, or just interact often with an instance you already federate with. regardless: this timeline contains any and all other known connections your instance has to other places within the fediverse. you can see all public (world icon) posts here, even from people you do not follow.
the local timeline is just your instances timeline. all public posts go to both here and the federated timeline. some instances have local-only posting, which i think is an amazing tool and i hope mastodon adds this feature eventually, or i hope that other instance forks have hosting options.
the home timeline is where your follows reside. this timeline is populated by posts from those you follow, and your own posts. you can see toots, boosts, and replies from everyone you follow on this timeline. this is the only place (except on your profile) where you will see your followers-only posts. you can turn off seeing other peoples' boosts and replies fairly easily:
mastodon browser interface on the home timeline, a red arrow points to a drop down hamburger menu that allows to turn off replies and boosts
posting etiquette and features
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i'd like to take some time here to go over a little bit of common practice in the fediverse regarding some of these functions. not many websites at all have a content warning function, and out media posting allows us to caption our media or provide alt-text, which is new to many people.
this is what a post looks like with a filled out CW bar, and a described image. you can also see there is a blue, highlighted "mark media as sensitive" button. i usually mark all of my media as sensitive, just so it is covered, but this is mostly used for images that may contain gore, nudity, etc. that may be best hidden from the public timeline's immediate view with a choice to consent to interaction. many people use the CW function like the subject to an email, and it is best specific but not descriptive. for example, if i were to post about united states politics, and included a picture of a recent ICE detainment i would put as my subject: "US pol, ICE, racism, police brutality" or something similar, depending on what specific things the article or image were discussing or showing. |
mastodon posting UI with the CW subject line and image caption shown
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a filtered post on the timeline
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CW subjects are not a science by any means, and triggers will slip through on occasion. for that reason, i'd suggest becoming familiar with the filter feature. you can filter out words or phrases forever, or for a certain amount of time, and they will be removed from your timelines. you can access this feature: preferences --> filters
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CW are very common, and you'll see them used for a multitude of reasons from triggering topics, to jokes, to warning for spoilers. different instances will have different rules and etiquette for how the CW function should be used. some users post and pin a toot with common subjects or abbreviations of subjects they use in their CW title often, so followers can know and interact or filter accordingly.
the CW subject is shown on the timeline with a "show more" button that opens the remainder of the post. what you type in the CW subject takes away from your character count, but a nice little tip is that links only ever take up around 20 characters or so. hashtags don't work in the CW subject, but will work accordingly within the body of the toot.
common subjects to CW include:
you'll also see other additives to the CW subject such as "positive", "don't @", "boosts +", etc. to indicate the tone of the post, consent to interactions, or something else entirely.
the CW subject is shown on the timeline with a "show more" button that opens the remainder of the post. what you type in the CW subject takes away from your character count, but a nice little tip is that links only ever take up around 20 characters or so. hashtags don't work in the CW subject, but will work accordingly within the body of the toot.
common subjects to CW include:
- gore, violence, blood (images or descriptions)
- mental health subjects that may trigger others (trauma, suicide, disordered eating, etc.)
- news articles, links to other websites (twitter, youtube, etc.), bots
- longer posts or threads
- spoilers
- eye contact with images
- bugs, snakes
you'll also see other additives to the CW subject such as "positive", "don't @", "boosts +", etc. to indicate the tone of the post, consent to interactions, or something else entirely.
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media descriptions are less of a common practice than they should be, in my opinion, however we now have a great tool for making the fediverse more accessible. you will see an image i took out of a plane window, blown up with another text box beside it. you have 1500 characters to describe the media, but you may not need all of that. something simple like: "picture taken from a plane window, wing visible.", or adding more detail to the end: "sun is starting to rise but the sky is otherwise clear". this, too, takes practice and will never be perfect, but i encourage you to do your best with this as it impacts the usability of the fediverse for many people when images are not described. so please: describe your images, memes, screen captures, etc.
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the new image captioning UI
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using hashtags on the fediverse is also pretty helpful for exploring and discovering! again, i am not quite sure of the specifics of how it works, but i believe hashtags federate with/to all instances you also federate with, so if you search a hashtag you should be able to see many users you may not follow talking about the same topics you enjoy!
hashtags on the fediverse operate similarly to other websites, with the exception of tumblr that allowed for spaces or dashes. like other websites, it is helpful to use Camel Case or other capitalization techniques so that hashtags are readable for screen readers, or folks whose letters get a bit jumbled in their brain. this means #DoHashtagsLikeThis instead of #likethis
some moderation teams even use a hashtag to let other admins know who is being blocked, and why, so all communities can see possible bad actors or other malicious users and strike before they're even federated. one started by @ArtistMarciaX and myself is #FediBlock, for the reason listed above, but you can also look into #astrology, #pigs, #florespondence, etc. to check out other things on the fediverse you might be interested in.
check out #MastoTips for more mastodon tips!
hashtags on the fediverse operate similarly to other websites, with the exception of tumblr that allowed for spaces or dashes. like other websites, it is helpful to use Camel Case or other capitalization techniques so that hashtags are readable for screen readers, or folks whose letters get a bit jumbled in their brain. this means #DoHashtagsLikeThis instead of #likethis
some moderation teams even use a hashtag to let other admins know who is being blocked, and why, so all communities can see possible bad actors or other malicious users and strike before they're even federated. one started by @ArtistMarciaX and myself is #FediBlock, for the reason listed above, but you can also look into #astrology, #pigs, #florespondence, etc. to check out other things on the fediverse you might be interested in.
check out #MastoTips for more mastodon tips!
preferences
there are also many useful tools or functions sort of hidden in the preferences section. here, you can approve followers, change the appearance of your profile or interface in general, filter out words, change account information, and because i am an admin you can see those functions too.
i highly suggest going through the preferences section thoroughly and becoming familiar with how much control you can have over your space.
i highly suggest going through the preferences section thoroughly and becoming familiar with how much control you can have over your space.
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when you first click on the "preferences" cog, you'll be taken here to appearance. you can change between light and dark themes, high contrast theme, change your interface language, and more.
you can change back to mastodon's classic three-column theme by checking the "Enable advanced web interface" box. it looks like this: |
user and admin preferences, on the "appearance" page
three column mastodon browser UI
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with this layout, you can see your home timeline, your notifications, and your posting area all at once. you can even pin your local, and federate timelines as other columns to keep nearly everything open at once, if that's your thing.
continuing on with preferences: the notifications tab allows you to turn off notifications to your email, but you can also turn off notifications from users you're not following, or users not following you.
other covers some privacy issues such as search indexing, hiding your network, and you can choose what languages are visible to you on the timelines.
the account section allows you to change your email, password, and delete or migrate accounts.
as far as your profile goes, mastodon has a decent set up. you can add a header, an icon, multiple clickable links, a bio that i am unsure of the character count of, and you can have up to five pinned toots on standard mastodon. many people use pinned toots for introductions to expand upon their bio, for boundary posting, for posts about what abbreviations they use in their CW, or just funny or clever things they said. the green check marks next to some of the links are because mastodon as a verification code you can put into websites to show that it is indeed you/the same person on the mastodon account runs or is part of that website.
continuing on with preferences: the notifications tab allows you to turn off notifications to your email, but you can also turn off notifications from users you're not following, or users not following you.
other covers some privacy issues such as search indexing, hiding your network, and you can choose what languages are visible to you on the timelines.
the account section allows you to change your email, password, and delete or migrate accounts.
as far as your profile goes, mastodon has a decent set up. you can add a header, an icon, multiple clickable links, a bio that i am unsure of the character count of, and you can have up to five pinned toots on standard mastodon. many people use pinned toots for introductions to expand upon their bio, for boundary posting, for posts about what abbreviations they use in their CW, or just funny or clever things they said. the green check marks next to some of the links are because mastodon as a verification code you can put into websites to show that it is indeed you/the same person on the mastodon account runs or is part of that website.
my mastodon profile page
as you can see on my profile, i have a tiny lock next to my full username. this indicates that my profile is "private", which means only people who follow me will see my followers-only (locked), and i will approve followers are they come in. this setting is also found in preferences.
i would highly recommend utilizing a locked profile, for a variety of reasons. some instances have follow bots, or archive bots, some instances that are malicious or full of bad actors or can evade blocks, etc. or you just may not want everyone to have the ability to follow you.
the really amazing thing about having a private account that most other social medias do not have is you can still post publicly even if your account is locked, simply by changing the post privacy. so you can still signal boost posts, or just post something to the entire fediverse because you want to, even if you're a private account, and folks who do or don't follow you can read and interact all the same.
i would highly recommend utilizing a locked profile, for a variety of reasons. some instances have follow bots, or archive bots, some instances that are malicious or full of bad actors or can evade blocks, etc. or you just may not want everyone to have the ability to follow you.
the really amazing thing about having a private account that most other social medias do not have is you can still post publicly even if your account is locked, simply by changing the post privacy. so you can still signal boost posts, or just post something to the entire fediverse because you want to, even if you're a private account, and folks who do or don't follow you can read and interact all the same.
picking an instance
stardew city homepage, without logging in
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the fediverse is a large and expansive place, and because it is free and open source, anyone with a right knowledge (and time and some money) can set up an instance that federates with everyone else. while this sounds cool and great, this means that folks with malicious intent can (and do) operate instances, can interact with your instance, etc.
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like other social medias, we have blocking and muting. we can block (suspend) and mute (silence) users, but also entire instances. this can be done on both the user end, and the admin end. suspending a user or an instance from the admin level means that no one can interact or follow that person, or anyone from that instance. silencing at an admin level allows for the user or instance not to be seen on the timelines, but if users follow that user or people from that instance they can still be seen and interacted with.
when picking an instance, it's important to know and trust your admin and moderation team. their values will show by how they filter out users and instances from interacting with theirs. when you open a new instance page, where you are not a member, you'll see the basic login screen. instances that have open registrations will allow any and all users to sign up for an invitation. stardew.city, and other small instances, often use closed registrations or invite-only registrations to allow for less spam or malicious users.
down on the page and to the right, you will be able to see who the admin of the instance is, how many users and how many active users. you can also "Learn more" about the instance, which will lead you to their "about" page. this page usually contains some sort of code of conduct, and admins can also show their suspensions and silences on this page.
this is a great way to get to know the community before joining! different instances have different themes, rules, etiquette, etc. if there is not anything on their about page, or an admin isn't listed, it may be a sign that this community isn't well staffed or moderated and you may want to find another instance.
there are websites to browse instances, such as instances.social where you can look through instances of different languages, moderation settings, themes, etc. fediverse.network is another tool for exploring instances, but mostly shows the technical side of things, and allows you to see just how many different instances federate!
when picking an instance, it's important to know and trust your admin and moderation team. their values will show by how they filter out users and instances from interacting with theirs. when you open a new instance page, where you are not a member, you'll see the basic login screen. instances that have open registrations will allow any and all users to sign up for an invitation. stardew.city, and other small instances, often use closed registrations or invite-only registrations to allow for less spam or malicious users.
down on the page and to the right, you will be able to see who the admin of the instance is, how many users and how many active users. you can also "Learn more" about the instance, which will lead you to their "about" page. this page usually contains some sort of code of conduct, and admins can also show their suspensions and silences on this page.
this is a great way to get to know the community before joining! different instances have different themes, rules, etiquette, etc. if there is not anything on their about page, or an admin isn't listed, it may be a sign that this community isn't well staffed or moderated and you may want to find another instance.
there are websites to browse instances, such as instances.social where you can look through instances of different languages, moderation settings, themes, etc. fediverse.network is another tool for exploring instances, but mostly shows the technical side of things, and allows you to see just how many different instances federate!
how to report
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reporting and moderation tools on mastodon aren't mind blowing, but they are a great way to help keep track of malicious instances / bad actors. posts the violate your instance's Code of Conduct / guidelines, regardless of if they come from your instance, can be reported.
to report a user, you would go to the offending toot or user profile and click on the ellipses icon (...), from there you'd click "report" and you can also block or mute the user in the same space. in addition, on a user level, you can hide all posts from the offending instance by clicking "block domain" near the bottom of the list. users can report any user or individual toot (or even multiple toots) to their moderators, and to the offending instances moderators. users can also add additional comments to the report, which is great for expanding on the report or adding clarity. where the red arrow is pointing is how to send the report to the offending instance's moderators, as it automatically goes to your instance's moderators. |
mastodon reporting UI
the moderation interface for viewing reports on mastodon instances
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from the moderation side, additional comments are helpful to understand the full context, or give us a quick idea of the full report before we are able to open it. i have a few reports left in my folder for the image above.
the text shown is the "additional comment", the user image and name in the top left is who has been reported, and below it is the instance or user who generated the report. i've also included an image of the open report below, so you can see what a moderator would see.
the text shown is the "additional comment", the user image and name in the top left is who has been reported, and below it is the instance or user who generated the report. i've also included an image of the open report below, so you can see what a moderator would see.
what an open report looks like for moderators on mastodon instances
need more help?
fediverse guides:
other tools:
- joyeusenoelle's (@noelle@ellek.xyz) english mastodon guide on github
- @numen@weirder.earth's spanish guide to mastodon
- @tykayn@mastodon.cipherbliss.com's french guide and discovery tool
- wedistribute.org "a blog about technology designed to empower individual people to cut out the middleman" which reports on fediverse happenings/other fediverse projects
- fediverse.space "a tool to visualize networks and communities on the fediverse" (visual tool of federated instances)
other tools:
- standford's guide for image descriptions in their online accessibility program
- living with disability's long a detailed post about image descriptions
- american anthropological association's guide to image descriptions
- diagram center's image description guide
