Graham Dunning

Mastodon is a decentralised social network with no adverts, algorithm or creeping enshitification. It can be a bit tricky to get up and running so I’ve put together a basic guide and some info about how it works, as I understand it from a user perspective. If I’ve been excitedly inviting you to join recently, this blog post is for you.  First I explain a bit about how Mastodon works, then there are some instructions on how to get started. Note that I’m not a technical expert so some of the way I explain it might not be 100% accurate. This is how I understand it works, and how it works for me.

What is Mastodon? Commercial vs federated 

When you’re using it, Mastodon feels like a simple and understated social media app, a bit old school perhaps. People post text, links, photos and sometimes short audio and video clips. You can share other people’s posts (like retweeting), post threads, reply in threaded conversations, send direct messages, tag people into conversations, and use hashtags. Two main differences with commercial platforms are that there are no adverts at all, and there is no algorithm pushing content into your feed. The feed is entirely chronological, in real time (more on this later).

Mastodon is one of the many interfaces which lets you access the federated web, a collection of independent platforms that can interact with each other. I’m going to focus just on Mastodon for this post, but it’s worth knowing a bit about how it fits in the broader federated ecosystem. There are other platforms which use the same kind of architecture for other things. For example, PixelFed is a bit like a photo-focused version of Mastodon (which is mostly text focused). There are other things which are like blog platforms, or analogous to sites like GoodReads. There are federated video sites as alternatives to vimeo and youtube, like PeerTube and MakerTube. To some extent these can all interact. So, through Mastodon you can follow PixelFed or PeerTube accounts, and they show up in your Mastodon feed as normal. 

The “federated” part is the main difference between Mastodon and mainstream/commercial social media. All instances of the latter (eg, Facebook, Twitter) aim to create a large but closed platform. You create an account which grants you access to the connections and communities which exist there. The system is really big and it’s closed off from the rest of the internet (for example, you need to log into Twitter to read most posts; Instagram does not allow external links in post descriptions or comments). This is by design – the companies are vying for your exclusive attention to maximise their profits. There are a few consequences following from this type of arrangement. The rules and organisation are all top-down from the system’s owner. They decide things like: reducing moderation, allowing/banning bots, which posts get boosted most, how many adverts you see, who your data gets sold to. All aspects of the user experience, the socio-political direction of the platform and the commercial decisions are imposed by the owners, and your only options are to stay and lump it, or to leave and lose the network you may have become dependent on.

Federated social networks work differently. Rather than signing up to one big closed platform, users each sign up to a smaller node and those nodes interact with each other to form a network. When using Mastodon these nodes are called “instances”. Each instance might have different rules regarding content and moderation, a different code of conduct you need to agree to, and different ethical considerations emphasised by the person or people who run it. Instances can choose not to interact with other instances if they are deemed hazardous, full of bots or trolls, or will fully hosting hateful content, for example. Because it exists in many different small parts, the fediverse cannot be sold. If an instance turns to shit for some reason (perhaps the owner’s politics change, there’s a change of ownership, or it is about to close for financial reasons) you can easily switch to another instance and pick up your existing network again. You’re not locked into one big, exploitative system, but free to jump ship whenever and whyever you feel like.

A post last year from a user called gatesvp summed up the difference very well: “The old platforms are social media. They are entertainment platforms that nominally connect you to friends. But their actual customers are advertisers… The new federated platforms are social networking. They’re community-owned and operated for the sole purpose of serving a community. They don’t have customers, they have members. They are collaborative efforts run by individuals and not-for-profits.”

One way to think about Mastodon that’s commonly cited is as analogous to email. There are lots of ways to have an email account. A free account on a big platform like gmail or hotmail. An account with another organisation like a university. Or your own email server, perhaps linked to your website. Whichever people use, all the emails can speak to each other. You log onto your gmail account but you can interact with anyone on outlook or with a personal server. All you need to know is someone’s email address and you can connect with them. It’s similar with Mastodon (but the username looks a bit different: @person@instance.domain)

Getting started

One of the things that commercial social media does really well is to make it easy to sign up and get started. It’s in their interest to get you on board smoothly and hook you in as soon as they can. The old platforms have simple sign-up processes and use their algorithms to spoon-feed you content it thinks you will like (and occasionally hate), to get your feed full and keep your attention. With Mastodon it’s a bit more difficult to get started, and takes some amount of work to populate your feed and make using it feel worthwhile. I’d suggest going through these steps to get started.

1. Choose an instance
2. Get an app (or stick with the browser)
3. Find people to follow
4. Introduce yourself
5. Follow hashtags
6. Bonus: Tips on posting

1. Choose an instance

Choosing an instance can be the biggest hurdle. There are lots of options, lots of considerations and it’s hard to know immediately if you have made the right decision. The good news is it’s easy to switch if you change your mind: most instances will have a process that transfers things over and links across.  Different types of instance could be categorised by scale. Some are very large, with many thousands of users. mastodon.social is perhaps the biggest. Others are deliberately kept smaller. My current instance is capped at 666 members, only recruits periodically, and requires a recommendation from a current user. Some people run a one-person instance, in order to have full control over their data and information (I’m not entirely sure how that works, in honesty). Often smaller instances will have a particular focus. It could be related to geographical location, interest (electronic music, photography, etc), there are LGBTQI+ servers, and other options. 

On Mastodon you have various options for what feed to look at. My standard “home” feed shows posts by people and hashtags I follow. I can instead choose to see a “live feed” of three different types. Helpfully, my instance explains what these are:

• This server: These are the most recent public posts from people whose accounts are hosted by (my instance).
• Other servers:  These are the most recent public posts from people on the fediverse that people on (my instance) follow.
• All: both of the above.
  So one reason to choose a particular server is the ability to see the live feed of everyone on that server. Potentially, it’s a ready-made community you can jump into. Or a source to find new people to follow and connect with.

The general advice used to be to join a big server to get up and running, and switch to something smaller when you know where you want to live longer-term. However, big servers tend to have more problems similar to the old social media platforms: There are lots more bots, a few people trying to run scams, more anonymous accounts without a stake in the community, potentially more trolls. Big servers are also more likely to be the target of hacking and DDoS attacks – while the federated nature of Mastodon means it’s not really possible for the whole thing to be down at the same time, bigger instances are more vulnerable to this by the fact that the perpetrators want to make a big impact. As such, my advice would be to find a smaller, more specialised instance. You can still always switch later if you come across a better one.

Here is a random selection of working instances from people I follow:

• http://ravenation.club  – “instance for all the ravers in the universe. Anyone who listens to electronic music (or not) is welcome” (377 active users)
• https://mastodon.green – ” Plant trees while you use Mastodon. A server originally for people in the EU, but now open for anyone in the world” (970 active users)
• https://infosec.exchange – ” instance for info/cyber security-minded people” (11k active users)
• https://mastodon.art – “Your friendly home on the fediverse for all things creative” (3.6k active users)
• http://icosahedron.website – “a mastodon instance and part of the ActivityPub network / the Fediverse.” (133 active users)

The good thing is that, visiting a server’s page, you can typically see the local feed to get an idea of the kinds of post you’ll likely see, and get a feel for the vibe of that particular instance. You should also be able to see the code of conduct and get an idea of how active/pro-active the moderators are.

Aside from word-of-mouth recommendations for specific servers, there are various directories listing instances. 

• This one allows various search criteria like language and user count: https://instances.social/
• The official Mastodon sie also has a big list: https://joinmastodon.org/servers
• FediTips is an excellent resource for everything Mastodon related, and their FAQ guide to finding a server is really comprehensive: https://fedi.tips/which-server-should-i-join-how-do-i-find-out-more-about-a-server/

To sign up to an instance, just open it in the browser and follow the links. Signing up is much like registering for any platform or message board.

2.Get an app (or stick with the browser)

Once you’re signed up you can login to your instance via the browser. As far as I know, different instances can present a slightly different user interface. I’ve always found it fairly intuitive to navigate, though it’s somewhat unusual. In my version there are four columns:

• Navigation, where I can select feeds and send posts
• Home, updating live with posts by everyone I follow
• Notifications
• And an active column that changes depending what I’m looking at (eg, a specific post or different feed)

Unlike old social media, you aren’t limited to the one recognised/official smartphone app to engage with away from your desktop. You can of course use the browser, which will typically show a portrait-mode streamlined interface.
There are many other apps for Android, and I assume for iOS too. I tried the main Mastodon app for a while but found it a bit lacking in features. Currently I’m using one called Tusky, which I mainly chose for the option to see a feed of hashtags I follow more easily. Again, FediTips has a really useful FAQ about how to choose a Mastodon app: https://fedi.tips/which-apps-can-i-use-should-i-use-the-official-app-or-a-third-party-app/

3. Find people to follow

When I first signed up for Mastodon I found it very underwhelming, lacking in stuff to read and low in opportunities for interaction. I was coming from Instagram and Twitter accounts where I was following a couple of thousand people each. It seemed to take ages to build up anything I wanted to regularly interact with. This was really the main hurdle for me, and it’s worth thinking about before giving up if it doesn’t work for you straight away – you do need to put time into it to get up and running.

One thing that helped me was a tool that searched your twitter account for people on the Fediverse. Unfortunately, according to FediTips, “as of December 2023 Twitter has now blocked all services that allowed people to discover their friends on other networks.” Though it’s a moot point now, I mention this tool because it found me 200 people to follow – and after this my feed became more recognisably social media-like. So, 200 follows is perhaps worth bearing in mind as a target.

Some suggestions for ways to find people:

• Use your existing social media (if you’ve not deleted it yet) to seek out others on the fediverse
• Keep an eye on your local feed for folks whose posts you’re interested in
• Follow hashtags (see below) to find people posting stuff relevant to your interests
• Check people’s followers via their profile for others you might know
• Ask people for recommendations

Growing a list of people to follow can still take a while, it’s incremental and slow. But worth persevering with.
Because the timeline is unfiltered and linearly chronological, prolific posters can sometimes overwhelm your feed. Two things I’ve done to counter this were to ban posts tagged with “LongThread” (typically you’ll still see the first post and can follow it anyway) and to make use of the “hide boosts” button on each user’s profile. It’s also worth knowing you can hide posts containing certain words, which can make sure you see less posts relating to certain political figures, for example.

4. Introduce yourself

A useful way to start is by posting a bit about yourself with the hashtag introduction. Everyone on Mastodon has been in the same situation, so people are happy to share intro posts to try and get you some followers. Some people also periodically re-introduce themselves to make sure they’re connecting with new people.

5. Follow hashtags

Though some instances might differ, there’s no inbuilt and inherent search function in Mastodon. This seems to help with reducing unwanted interactions from bots and people with malign intentions, but can also make it tougher to find stuff you want to see. The way round this is through using hashtags, which are searchable. If you’re adding hashtags to a post it’s often because you want it to be visible to more people, to spread further than your immediate circle. When adding a hashtag (on my platform at least) you can see how much it is being used, which can help to hone the right search function, ie, spelling or pluralisation, to make sure folks will come across it.
You can follow hashtags like following users – and this is a good way to encounter people who are interested in similar stuff. Some apps (like Tusky) have the option to see a feed of hashtags. Otherwise they will show up in your home feed.

6. Bonus: Tips on posting

Mastodon has some unusual features as well as its own slightly peculiar etiquette. Some of this took me a while to work out, so it’s worthwhile knowing. When posting you can choose both the the visibility of your post and its reach. These are the descriptions my server gives for visibility:

• Public = Anyone on and off Mastodon
• Quiet public = hidden from Mastodon search results, trending and public timelines
• Followers = only your followers
• Private mention = everyone mentioned in the post

Private mention is basically a direct message. Though it’s unencrypted and people can be tagged into the conversation, so it’s not suitable for genuinely confidential stuff.
Reach can be local only (ie only shared with people on your home instance) or federated (so, can be shared onto other instances).
In my experience, I almost always post publicly and federated – I’m sharing thoughts and work which is not confidential or super personal. I try to stay mindful that my feed is more like a micro-blog than somewhere to share private stuff.

alt text for images is a big thing on Mastodon. People are aware that visually impaired users use the platform, so there’s a culture of utilising alt text by default. I’ve found it makes me consider what images I’m posting more carefully. It took a bit of getting used to but I now enjoy writing a few words explaining what each image is showing. Similarly, a lot of folks use hashtags formatted in CamelCase, that is, capitalising each word so they’re more easily readable. It’s the old SuperbOwl / SuperBowl conundrum. Often people are prolific with content warnings, and use them to put political or very specialist posts behind an extra click. Worth using if you post content relating to a wide range of subjects, so followers can choose which to read.

Come and find me

I hope some of this has been of use to some people reading – if so, please come and find me on Mastodon and say hello. I’m at @grahamdunning@post.lurk.org or https://post.lurk.org/@grahamdunning
Writing this post has been on my To Do list for absolutely ages, so I’m glad to get it out in the world. If there are any major errors in what I’ve put here, please let me know. This is supposed to be a helpful post so if it’s inadvertently misleading, it misses the point and I’ll change it.