The Mighty, Mighty Mastodon Thread

October 14, 2017 7:21 AM

Over on the #WomenBoycottTwitter thread, folks are discovering, rediscovering, and, more importantly, signing up for Mastodon, the open source social network.

As the thread progresses, folks are posting their mastadon user names, some with the #mefite or #metafilter tag in their profile. It's hard to keep up with, so I thought it would be nice to have a thread here for folks to post their username so we can all benefit and build our follower base.

Also, as an aside, maybe mastodon could be added to the list of social networks available on user profiles?

posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon to MetaFilter-Related at 7:21 AM (224 comments total)

Mastodon has been added to the Mefi Wiki Social Stuffs page; there are some implementation issues there, but it's on the list.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 7:24 AM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm @williammize. See? That was easy! Now you do it!
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 7:24 AM on October 14, 2017

I'm sorry, but "toots"? I can't get behind a social network where the main activity is farting into the ether. I mean, that's pretty much all social networks, but the rest of them at least try to hide it.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:45 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm @[e-mail]
posted by latkes at 7:48 AM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by Fizz at 7:55 AM on October 14, 2017

This post was a good reminder that Mastadon is a thing. I had completely forgotten about it and I'm growing very tired of Twitter and all of its bullshit. Now I just need a stand alone Mastadon app to be made for Android.
posted by Fizz at 7:58 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh wait, I forgot about Tusky.
posted by Fizz at 7:59 AM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by cooker girl at 8:13 AM on October 14, 2017

I kinda thought it was toot like a mastodon trumpet sound?
posted by ODiV at 8:14 AM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

How Mastodon works, by someone who has only learned about it 10 hours ago:

* Instances are maintained/moderated/unmoderated by different folks, so they might have different tenors. They are also funded by the maintainers as far as I can tell, usually through Patreon. There is one called social.coop that is funded as a cooperative business.

* Instances might have things like Codes of Conduct--wandering.social (a sci-fi/fantasy focused instance) is an example. I have no clue how you would know this or find it though. All the information I can find about instances is in the two line summaries on the listing page.

* The instances can white list or block each other so that if you're logged into that instance, your federated timeline is influenced by that. I think???? This means that the Code of Conduct of the instance you choose determines what you can see.

* You can only log into one instance at a time on most apps.

* You can follow people from other instances.

* I'm in two instances now and have half of y'all added on one and half on the other and it seems to have been a bad decision on my part.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:17 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Two more tidbits:

* It's pretty much a complete knockoff of Twitter and Tweetdeck, except that you can't quote tweets/toots. This is a deliberate choice because they think quoting instead of replying degrades actual conversation.

* Hashtags are more important.
posted by tofu_crouton at 8:21 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can anyone recommend a good instance to join? Or a good way to choose an instance?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:21 AM on October 14, 2017

I haven't joined because I'm paranoid about choosing the wrong instance and not being able to talk to people on the other instances. For all its flaws, I like the fact that you can see and talk to virtually anyone on Twitter. How do I know who to follow on Mastodon if I can't see their past posts (sorry, farts (sorry, toots))?
posted by AFABulous at 8:23 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

and can you just peek in without joining?
posted by AFABulous at 8:25 AM on October 14, 2017

also also, there's only one LGBT instance??? with 381 people??
posted by AFABulous at 8:30 AM on October 14, 2017

AFABulous, don't worry--you can follow anyone, including people who use other instances (unless a particular instance blocks another particular instance--like if you join the LGBTQ+ instance but want to follow someone who belongs to the probably-nonexistent "queers are bad" instance, you may not be able to if one has gotten around to blocking the other).

That particular LGBTQ+ instance might be the cultural equivalent of a punk house, and in a few years when Mastodon's taken root (theoretically..) maybe some behemoth centrist nonprofit like the HRC will "run" the mainstream gay instances? Or maybe not, who knows. But regardless of which instance you join, you can still follow people from all over--so you choose an instance that's locally interesting to you--like the LBGTQ+ one, where you're more likely to enjoy listening in on the ambient conversation of other folks there, people you don't specifically follow. But there's no reason you couldn't, like, pick an instance that's all Portuguese language or something--except that unless you happen to know Portuguese, you won't really be able to enjoy listening in on whatever it is people are talking about. As far as I understand that's really the only thing you have to fret about, w/r/t instances.
posted by tapir-whorf at 8:40 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Nickname squatting feature activated! @[e-mail]
posted by Skorgu at 8:42 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

also also, there's only one LGBT instance??? with 381 people??

I've seen way more than one but now of course I can't figure out how to get to the place where I saw them.
posted by cooker girl at 8:47 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can you change your instance after you join? It feels really weird to have so little information with which to make this big decision, which defines your identity and is visible in your username.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:48 AM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can you change your instance after you join? It feels really weird to have so little information with which to make this big decision, which defines your identity and is visible in your username.

Yeah, that was a tough thing to decide but ultimately I just rolled with it and now I follow a ton of people on multiple instances and I just swap between local and federated timeline to see what people are up to.

But I get your hesitation and wanting to make the right choice. It's very by the seat of your pants, this entire thing.
posted by Fizz at 8:54 AM on October 14, 2017

Clearly we need a Mefi instance. I squatted @chrisod a while ago. Need to actually try using it for a while.
posted by COD at 8:54 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I did see an instance named Mastodon.blue. I suppose it would be bad form to swarm it and take it over.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:01 AM on October 14, 2017

It's worth mentioning that Ethan Zuckerman [media scholar, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media, generally thoughtful human] has an interesting blog post about Mastodon's explosive growth in Japan, where it's mostly used for sexy lolicon things.
posted by tapir-whorf at 9:07 AM on October 14, 2017

I'm on there now (thanks to this thread, as I hadn't had a chance to read the other one yet). I'm @AmyNM there as I am here. I'm not a big Twitter user, so I likely won't be a big Mastodon user, but it's nice to have that option and I look forward to following my fellow MeFites.
posted by Amy NM at 9:10 AM on October 14, 2017

As I mentioned on the other thread, I'm @[e-mail]. I picked that instance purely because that seemed to be where most of the MeFites were, though much as I love you all I am hoping to broaden the group I'm following a bit beyond that....

Is the federated timeline the only way to see what's happening in other instances? Right now it seems to be mostly full of people tooting in languages I have never studied, even though I theoretically set my filters to avoid that. And even if it were all in English or French, it moves hella fast. Do hashtag searches work across instances?
posted by solotoro at 9:18 AM on October 14, 2017

For anyone else new to Mastodon, I found this explanation useful. That led me to this tool for picking an instance to sign up with. It's not great, but it's better than nothing. I ended up over at LGBT.io because it looked like a fairly big LGBT instance. May be what you're looking for, AFAbulous. Not sure it'll stick but I'm @[e-mail]
posted by Nelson at 9:19 AM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yeah the lgbt.io is the only one I saw, and it had 381 members (now 382 I guess).
posted by AFABulous at 9:23 AM on October 14, 2017

ok fine, I'm not going to waste any more mental energy on decision paralysis, so I'm @[e-mail]
posted by AFABulous at 9:32 AM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm @[e-mail] and I'm still sort of figuring the whole thing out.
posted by chococat at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Whoa, first-ever internet account with [part of] my real name! Only took twenty years!

Even though I've been on Mefi for just about that long, I don't think I've made more than one or two actual friends on here, since my default mode on the internet is to fade into the background (because being female on the internet has sucked for a long time, even if it's sucked less here for the past decade). But if anyone wants to listen in to the things I may/may not have to say, I'm @[e-mail]
posted by tapir-whorf at 9:38 AM on October 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

Octodon is run by a queer trans woman and she's great.
posted by latkes at 9:43 AM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

So how do you see a feed of just the people you follow? Why do I get a 401 when I try to mention someone on the same instance, who also follows me? How do you close the toot composition column, which takes up 1/4 of the screen? I swear I've tried searching.
posted by AFABulous at 10:04 AM on October 14, 2017

[e-mail]. I've never tooted but please add me and maybe I'll be inspired!
posted by selfnoise at 10:05 AM on October 14, 2017

I signed up as @octothorpe on mastodon.social and mastodon.art but I have no idea what I should do there. It's all about the network effect; almost no one I knew personally is/was on twitter which just made it a glorified newsfeed for me and certainly no one I know is going to be on mastodon.
posted by octothorpe at 10:07 AM on October 14, 2017

Okay, some basics on selecting an instance. The process is kind of a mess right now tbh, Mastodon is still a relatively young project.

There is a super-terse list of instances on joinmastodon.org, which is a site mostly made by Gargron, the dude who made Mastodon.

There is also a button there which will lead you to instances.social, which has a slightly-less-terse list with a bunch of filters and a wizard to help you set up some of those filters. You'd want to choose a few instances that sound good to you and click through to them to read their own about/policies/etc before choosing an instance.

Currently there is no way to migrate accounts from one instance to another so yes, you are kind of stuck with this choice. There is a year-old issue in the issue tracker discussing why this is desirable, how it should work, and so on; I'm hopeful that someone will get this happening in the next year or so. Preferably a lot earlier.

One current bit of Mastodon culture is the #introductions tag - toot something about who you are, what you do, and use that hashtag, and you'll find some folks following you because you sound interesting. Use it to find people you're interested in following, too. (and note that this link is to a view of it on mastodon.social, where it contains the #introductions from every server mastodon.social is currently watching, but you can click through to a user and do a 'remote follow' from your own account on boople.snoot or wherever you end up.)

I'm currently @[e-mail] although that may be changing soon if I follow through on getting dragon.style set up. This week my toots have mostly been about trying to do just that, normally they are a mix of random thought blips from a gen-x trans lady with occasional photographs of my computer's screen with fragments of comics I'm working on.
posted by egypturnash at 11:01 AM on October 14, 2017 [8 favorites]

The "home" feed is the people you follow. Click the "local timeline" icon (a group of people) and you will see your instance. Click the "federated" timeline (globe) and you will see the whole federated universe of various instances that federate with each other. If anyone missed Sarah Jeong's reporting on Mastodon, it was good.
posted by latkes at 11:02 AM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]. No idea how to work the thing yet, but I’m there.
posted by holborne at 11:05 AM on October 14, 2017

ALSO:

If you find Mastodon is lacking a feature then consider going to the issues page on Github and posting a feature request. Search first, someone else may have already posted something similar; hit the thumbs-up button and add your thoughts to that one instead. Hell, it's open source - if you're a programmer then consider having a go at implementing it.

ALSO:

Mastodon is supported by users like you; if you decide you're sticking around then please consider throwing a few bucks to the main Mastodon development Patreon and/or the folks running whichever instance you use.
posted by egypturnash at 11:25 AM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'm wondering if I should start fresh and switch on over to Mastodon.Social since so many people are on there.
posted by Fizz at 12:03 PM on October 14, 2017

I signed on in April but never really got it.
@[e-mail]
posted by arcticseal at 12:22 PM on October 14, 2017

Actually, fuck that. Smaller instances feel more cozy. I'm so programmed into wanting to be cool that I forget the reason I'm fading out of Twitter, because its just TOO much and too overwhelming.
posted by Fizz at 12:30 PM on October 14, 2017 [7 favorites]

Mastodon has been added to the Mefi Wiki Social Stuffs page; there are some implementation issues there, but it's on the list.

Would it pay for MeFi to have it's own instance ?

Because I would contribute to that. It'd arguably be more useful to me than chat.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 12:48 PM on October 14, 2017 [9 favorites]

@[e-mail]
posted by ctmf at 12:49 PM on October 14, 2017

Aaaaand, posting this in the right thread...

I have no idea whether I'm actually going to use Mastodon, but I signed up as @[e-mail] . At least, I think I did!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:11 PM on October 14, 2017

I signed up as @[e-mail]. I'm not sure if I'll stick with it. I'm terrible at these things.
posted by Elly Vortex at 1:18 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I've been on Mastodon for a while, since the last time it was in the news a bit. @[e-mail] - for what it's worth, it was just the main instance people were talking about at the time, and since there was no obvious Australian Dads Who Are Starting To Go Grey instance it seemed like a reasonable choice.
posted by Jimbob at 1:28 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

And yes the interface is like Tweetdeck, not raw Twitter, which if you've never used Tweetdeck may seem weird, but I haven't used the actual Twitter.com interface since about 2008 so it's fine once you get used to it. More functional and raw, none of the "let's try to be Facebook" crap you get on twitter.com. The main point is the "Home" timeline has everyone you follow, no matter what instance, just like Twitter. The Local and Federated timelines are firehoses of everything happening on your instance, or on all the instances on which you follow people. Which twitter doesn't really have.
posted by Jimbob at 1:30 PM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by jjray at 1:31 PM on October 14, 2017

also also, there's only one LGBT instance??? with 381 people??

I think maybe as many as a quarter of the people I follow are straight. Maybe.

I'm @[e-mail]; one of these days when I've got about 6 hours to fight with webserver nonsense I'll probably start up an instance. (I suppose that will happen long about 2019.)
posted by brennen at 1:43 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I signed up back in April when mlkshk was in the throes of deciding it's future

[e-mail] iirc and I'll have to figure out where it is since the laptop I saved it on died of too much coffee in the keyboard syndrome
posted by infini at 1:49 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I just took the plunge. @[e-mail]
posted by MexicanYenta at 2:24 PM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by Chrysostom at 2:32 PM on October 14, 2017

The primary instance I signed up for is 90% Japanese now, so I'm gonna try this again with my cat's account, which is @[e-mail]. Have added a bunch of you, in case you were wondering who the strange cat is....
posted by ClarissaWAM at 2:36 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

@[e-mail]. I think you can have multiple accounts so if I wanted to be jaybird on another instance it would be it's own thing?
posted by emjaybee at 2:58 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm @[e-mail]. I picked that instance because it seemed to have good uptime six months ago when some popular instances were kinda unstable.

As far as I can tell, and I'm no expert, there's two things that matter about picking an instance: 1. As mentioned above, they may have different moderating policies, themes, etc., and maybe there's one that aligns with your interests in particular. 2. If you care about the local timeline (firehose feed of everyone on your instance), then I guess pick an instance with interesting people.

But if you just wanna follow your friends (and/or all the mefites) and not pay attention to the toots of strangers, it really doesn't matter which one you're on.

(Now that I said that, yeah, "toots of strangers" sounds like something to avoid for sure.)
posted by katieinshoes at 3:04 PM on October 14, 2017

I've signed up as @[e-mail]
posted by Wobbuffet at 3:20 PM on October 14, 2017

So, the interface thing was throwing me off, so here's what I found;

All the columns are "pinned" columns by default. Just unpin them in the little options button on top. Pin the ones you want, and the unpinned window becomes whatever you click on.

You can't resize, but if you zoom in Firefox it becomes one column.

You can't search by word, so if you're posting something you want people to find you need a hashtag, like #MeFite. This is so people can't search words and harass.
posted by bongo_x at 3:54 PM on October 14, 2017 [4 favorites]

I am @[e-mail]
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 3:57 PM on October 14, 2017

I don't understand the difference between "follow" and "follow remotely". It seems like you click follow someone on another instance and it doesn't work. But I think it does, it just takes a while sometimes. Not sure about that.
posted by bongo_x at 3:58 PM on October 14, 2017

What's the business model, ads? I'm not seeing any ads. Not that I mind not seeing ads, but I don't like to be a free user, plus I'm curious why someone would go to the expense of running an instance (i.e., in what way am I the product)

Would the ads be different on each instance? Analytics/data gathering?
posted by ctmf at 4:36 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Pogo_Fuzzybutt: Would it pay for MeFi to have it's own instance ?

Is this something we're interested in? I have some downtime I might invest in investigating this. I haven't really delved into Mastodon yet.
posted by Pronoiac at 4:50 PM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ctmf, some instances use Patreon, and I don't think there's anything in particular stopping any given instance from running ads if they wanted to (other than being the only ad-stuffed instance in a sea of ad-free instances). Other than that, the motivation is the same for other free software: someone wanted a thing to exist and so they made it.
posted by FeatherWatt at 4:52 PM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

"Follow" is something you do on your instance (with yourservername.whatever showing in the URL bar). "Remote follow" is the same end result, but it's when you're viewing someones profile, message, etc., on a different server. It has to work this way in order to be secure.

(In case you want the details, imagine the following scenario:
1. I'm hanging out in browser tab A open at my home @[e-mail]
2. someone sends me a link to their cool friend's profile, https://mastodon.xyz/@Ciara
3. tab B opens up that link https://mastodon.xyz/@Ciara
4. I clicky "Remote follow" there. But that web page is mastodon.xyz and that's not my home. mastodon.xyz can't access my profile, etc.! So it says "tell me what your Mastodon address is and I'll send a follow request to your home server on your behalf."
5. I type in "@[e-mail]" and clicky the button. I get redirected to my home instance with some information that says "hey, someone claiming to be @jond there wants to follow @[e-mail]"
6. my home server knows me because I'm logged in there so it can update my profile and add @Ciara to my follow list.)
posted by introp at 4:58 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

P.S. I'm @[e-mail] or https://mastodon.social/@jond
posted by introp at 4:59 PM on October 14, 2017

so I discovered you can look at tags on other instances e.g. https://mastodon.art/tags/mefite
posted by AFABulous at 5:15 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

why didn't you guys tell me it was full of nerds?
posted by AFABulous at 5:25 PM on October 14, 2017 [6 favorites]

introp

That's what I assumed was happening, but I wonder if there's something different going on at different servers.

I click follow on someone not on my instance, either nothing happens, or it lights up. If it lights up and I check my follows sometimes it's not there. If I come back later it often is.
posted by bongo_x at 5:27 PM on October 14, 2017

Running a quick regex on this page, here's a list of IDs that people have posted so far (in case anyone is just importing the CSV to their profile to follow people):

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
posted by introp at 5:28 PM on October 14, 2017 [5 favorites]

Nerds and/or furries, mostly.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:30 PM on October 14, 2017

why didn't you guys tell me it was full of nerds?

I don't know how it could be any nerdier.

The Federated feed I see is about 90% anime, video games, programming, with a strong LGBT presence, and a small side of crypto currency libertarian bros.
posted by bongo_x at 5:31 PM on October 14, 2017

I posted this in the blue thread before this opened up, but add me to The List: @[e-mail]

and I am not furry, just fuzzy.
posted by oneswellfoop at 5:31 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

@[e-mail]

I am a flipping lemming, but only for fellow MeFites.
posted by vers at 5:32 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Grabbed the name I actually wanted for Twitter that some wanker is just sitting on:

@[e-mail]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:38 PM on October 14, 2017

I tend to forget Mastodon exists but when I am there, I am [e-mail].
posted by Stacey at 5:45 PM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by zarq at 5:56 PM on October 14, 2017

I've been following folks in between errors there and downtime blips here (and checking on my paperclips...); I'm @[e-mail].
posted by booksherpa at 6:12 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's also a lot of cats. A lot.
posted by bongo_x at 6:27 PM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

@[e-mail] (it's a tricky mastodon to talk on, but six or so folks still hang on)
posted by moonmilk at 6:35 PM on October 14, 2017

I've now added to the surfeit of cats around Mastodon and have joined as @[e-mail].
posted by Numenius at 6:49 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I joined octodon.social back in April because the main instance at mastodon.social was getting flooded & had temporarily shut down new sign-ups (hmm.... that sounds vaguely familiar...) & I liked the “about” statement a lot. It addressed most of what’s been getting under my skin about Twitter.

Also 500 characters! Luxury!

I’m [e-mail] - I’m sure you’re shocked by the wacky name I chose.

Also, this evening has been fun. Glad I had a little spare time to be there for the Meta-in-Filtration.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:54 PM on October 14, 2017

Thanks everyone who has added me so far.

Whenever I find Mastodon confusing I remind myself that it took me about a year to even understand what the heck was going on with Twitter.
posted by selfnoise at 7:07 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

@[e-mail]. I have no idea if the instance I chose is any good, but the name's fun!
posted by elsietheeel at 7:16 PM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by egregious theorem at 7:45 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

all right, as on twitter, I'm @rachelrachel (@mastodon.social and a few others because how even does this work)
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:54 PM on October 14, 2017

I wanted to sign up for anticapitalist.party but they're rather... specific...
Sorry comrade, registrations are closed, for now...
Registrations will open for 5 hours every time French government or President commits social class violence. Stay tuned.
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:56 PM on October 14, 2017 [11 favorites]

@[e-mail]
posted by Runes at 7:56 PM on October 14, 2017

I'm @[e-mail], I'm not sure I'll ever use it, but there it is in case I get excited.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:12 PM on October 14, 2017

Eyebrows, I'll just use that address when I complain about moderation, so you can't say I did it behind your back...
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:30 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is lovely! It's like the early internet where it's quiet because only twelve people know where your tiny holler up in the hills of the internet is, rather than because you're screaming into the howling storm along with five thousand other people that second. Hi, new internet friends!
posted by tapir-whorf at 8:50 PM on October 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

If you check out the federated timeline, even just English-language, it goes by faster than you can read at times. That seems plenty to me.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:10 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

@[e-mail]

This is great, by the way
posted by egregious theorem at 9:29 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Fizz: “Actually, fuck that. Smaller instances feel more cozy. I'm so programmed into wanting to be cool that I forget the reason I'm fading out of Twitter, because its just TOO much and too overwhelming.”

I noticed this too. I would never post a picture of myself on Twitter, even in my mowing gear with my face covered. It's naive, of course, but Mastodon felt safe to do that.

I posted it in the thread, but I'm reposting here for completeness. My username is @[e-mail].
posted by ob1quixote at 9:34 PM on October 14, 2017

@[e-mail]

Not been there much, planning to be there more, who knows, you know the drill.
posted by motty at 9:51 PM on October 14, 2017

Interesting: this thread has more people giving their Mastodon IDs than the first Mastodon MetaTalk, six months ago. It seems to be looking better (or at least more promising) now.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:01 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm @[e-mail]. I just joined, so I haven't followed any of y'all yet.
posted by nangar at 10:04 PM on October 14, 2017

I am having hell of a time getting the federated timeline to display in English only, or at least to filter out languages I don’t read. I’ve gone into preferences and checked everything except English, French, and German, but it’s till showing me all other languages, and it’s mostly in Japanese. What am I doing wrong?
posted by holborne at 10:41 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Maybe give it a short while for your preferences to kick in, holborne. Suspect preference changes might only apply to New Things You See rather than Your Cache Of Things Already Shown You.
posted by motty at 10:51 PM on October 14, 2017

Another "not sure if I'll use it" joiner. I'm @[e-mail]
posted by michswiss at 11:44 PM on October 14, 2017

Predictably, I am @[e-mail]
posted by iamkimiam at 2:52 AM on October 15, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by pompomtom at 3:27 AM on October 15, 2017

Coolness!

@[e-mail]
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 4:29 AM on October 15, 2017

I have no idea if I'll actually use this, but just signed up as @[e-mail] and am about to start following y'all
posted by Fence at 4:48 AM on October 15, 2017

I am having hell of a time getting the federated timeline to display in English only, or at least to filter out languages I don’t read. I’ve gone into preferences and checked everything except English, French, and German, but it’s till showing me all other languages, and it’s mostly in Japanese. What am I doing wrong?

Maybe give it a short while for your preferences to kick in, holborne. Suspect preference changes might only apply to New Things You See rather than Your Cache Of Things Already Shown You.

I checked all those boxes yesterday, and I'm still having the same problem today.
posted by solotoro at 6:41 AM on October 15, 2017

Also, the language filter is often kinda broken for the federated TL. Admittedly, language detection is a Very Hard Problem to solve, but also the way that Masto ties into its language detection library (cld3, I think) is tricky. It works a lot of the time but it also has features like relying on the posting server to tag the toot language. Makes sense, right? Except when you have instances running old versions that haven't fixed language tagging bugs -- everything they post shows unknown or en. Etc.
posted by introp at 7:05 AM on October 15, 2017

I've signed up as [e-mail]

Since I can't really use social media in China, might actually be active there! ;D
posted by Trifling at 7:35 AM on October 15, 2017

So if I signed up back when this was last a thing, but can’t remember what instance I chose, or what user name I used, is there any way to recover that? Apparently I didn’t bother to write this info down anywhere.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 7:39 AM on October 15, 2017

@[e-mail] . The main page sign-up never worked, had to bounce to the sign-up specific page to get in.
posted by persona at 7:40 AM on October 15, 2017

I have far fewer problems with a mastodon post in a language I can't read than I do with a video ad for a murderbot manufacturer, so twitter 0 mastodon 1.

I need to build a net of people I can talk with, obviously, but that took me quite a while with twitter too. Losing a bunch of those pocketfriends will suck, but twitter is just getting worse and worse. They'll let any psychopath say anything on that shit.
posted by pompomtom at 7:59 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

(and yeah, I used to click on all the murderbot ads becuase I knew an 'engagement' cost them money, but if that money just goes back to the pool of murderbot/psychopaths/etc... eh, I dunno...)
posted by pompomtom at 8:02 AM on October 15, 2017

DiscourseMarker, Mastodon apparently has no problem with people having multiple accounts on different instances. And there are legit reasons people might want to do this, for instance if you're bilingual, you might want to join separate instances that use each of the languages you speak as a primary language, or you might want to a generalist instance as well as one that caters to a specialized community. So you can create a new account and write down your info, and you'll just have another inactive one on some instance somewhere.
posted by nangar at 8:21 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Idle question: was the recent twitter expansion from 140 to 280 characters simply a reaction to mastodon?
posted by pompomtom at 8:27 AM on October 15, 2017

I don't think that Twitter is worried about Mastodon. I think that Twitter is worried about their lack of a funding model, but not because they face competition from Mastodon.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:01 AM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Be forewarned that if your Mastodon name is different than what it is here, I will immediately forget who you are.
posted by AFABulous at 9:33 AM on October 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I was bad at Twitter so who knows how long this will last, but I'm @[e-mail].
posted by camyram at 9:38 AM on October 15, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by mosessis at 9:46 AM on October 15, 2017

@[e-mail]

Just name-squatting for now, hope to be more active soon!
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 10:27 AM on October 15, 2017

I'm @[e-mail]

Which, the interface doesn't make this as easy to find as it should, but you can also link directly to your account like https://mastodon.social/@joshmillard if you want, analogous to how you'd link a twitter account. It's been a few months so I don't remember if there's any gotchas there.

Anyway, damn I missed Mastodon it turns out. I jumped on relatively early, back in late 2016 after hellojed pointed me to it, and then started using it in earnest after the big rush in spring of this year reminded me it existed and got a lot of MeFites chattering about it and joining up. Then I got distracted by stuff in the summer, and let it slip by the wayside.

I like its scrappiness, its cruftiness, its sweet spot sense of quiet business where there's a firehose in the federated timeline but my home feed is manageable and there's zero corporate bullshit around because instead there's a bunch of art weirdos and furry antifascists chatting about shit.

I'm glad I'm back, and it looks like I need to go on a followin' spree now. I will say part of what I like about my feed over there is having a bunch of MeFites around; part of it is digging in on random tags or timeline posts and following complete strangers who are posting interesting stuff. I heartily recommend that kind of mixed strategy.

> Would it pay for MeFi to have it's own instance ?

Is this something we're interested in? I have some downtime I might invest in investigating this. I haven't really delved into Mastodon yet.

I am ambivalent about the idea; I think the idea of a MeFi-specific instance is fun and wholly endorse you making the effort if you want to, but I have also seen most small masto instances based on an existing online group go by the wayside because attrition is likely and server maintenance is a thankless task. Can make investing in an account on such a server sorta risky because it might just end up going away.

So I'm personally not gonna try to spin one up, basically? But if you want to take a stab at it I have high fives and free advice ready for the dispensing and I'm happy to support it as the unofficial official instance.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:59 AM on October 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Since Friday Twitter seems even more keen on showing me the "while you were away" edited highlights instead of the real timeline; now after about an hour of inactivity the "see XXX new tweets" turns into a "see new tweets" that loads only the highlights. It's annoying as hell; is Mastodon better at actually showing you the stuff you subscribed to instead of forcibly curating it for you?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:10 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

christ there's a lot of you

It's annoying as hell; is Mastodon better at actually showing you the stuff you subscribed to instead of forcibly curating it for you?

Masto is very no-bullshit about giving you your feed of folks you follow in chrono order, full stop. To the extent that it had difficulty with that at all back in the spring rush, it was from decentralized federation problems from load, not any kind of top-down fuckery from C-levels.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:19 AM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Metatalk: not any kind of top-down fuckery from C-levels
sorry, couldn't resist
posted by Jesse the K at 11:54 AM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

There is a Ten Forward instance 🖖!
posted by jyorraku at 3:39 PM on October 15, 2017

Another pass of the regex script

1. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.xyz/@Ciara
2. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@Cpartridge
3. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@Devils_Rancher
4. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@Holborne
5. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@MexicanYenta
6. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@RexfordGTugwell
7. [e-mail] - https://Octodon.social/@TotallyArbitrary
8. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@Vers
9. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@Wobbuffet
10. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@afabulous
11. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@bgm
12. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@booksherpa
13. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@brennen
14. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@camyram
15. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@conniptions
16. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@ctmf
17. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@dearbhla
18. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@derwinmcgeary
19. [e-mail] - https://scholar.social/@dylan
20. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@egypturnash
21. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@eyebrows
22. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@gotanda
23. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@grayduck
24. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@iamkimiam
25. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@infini
26. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@janidlo
27. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@jaybird
28. [e-mail] - https://queer.party/@jetgxrl
29. [e-mail] - https://social.tchncs.de/@jjray
30. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@john271828
31. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@jond
32. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@joshmillard
33. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.xyz/@klohrenz
34. [e-mail] - https://mastadon.social/@lady3jane
35. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@lady3jane
36. [e-mail] - https://octodon.Social/@latkes
37. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.art/@mappingcat
38. [e-mail] - https://toot.cat/@miaow
39. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@michswiss
40. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@miriam
41. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@mosessis
42. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.art/@mtomasulo
43. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@nangar
44. [e-mail] - https://lgbt.io/@nelson
45. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@nopetopus
46. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@ob1quixote
47. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@oneswellfoop
48. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@ozjimbob
49. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@persona
50. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@pompomtom
51. [e-mail] - https://oulipo.social/@ranjit
52. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@rosiembanks
53. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@runes
54. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@selfnoise
55. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@skorgu
56. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@solotoro
57. [e-mail] - https://octodon.social/@sonicbooming
58. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@trifles
59. [e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@zarq

posted by introp at 4:37 PM on October 15, 2017 [11 favorites]

Hi folks. I'll put in a plug for oulipo.social, although I saw that ranjit did so a day ago. It's a fun community that will support you and is always forgiving of banal, choppy, or ambiguous writing (I know firsthand from making tons of badly thought out toots as Half_Cup_Baconfroots but attracting no scorn).
posted by knuckle tattoos at 4:53 PM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I will look into it, thank you KT.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 5:07 PM on October 15, 2017

[e-mail]

I'm really just name-squatting for now, but have already followed a bunch of y'all.
posted by maggiemaggie at 5:54 PM on October 15, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by Gridlock Joe at 6:14 PM on October 15, 2017

What is the difference between the home panel and the local panel?
posted by maggiemaggie at 6:33 PM on October 15, 2017

AFABulous: "Be forewarned that if your Mastodon name is different than what it is here, I will immediately forget who you are."

Ah, but do you even know who I am here?
posted by Chrysostom at 6:46 PM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

In my brain you're "the guy who posts the election stuff in the political threads"
posted by AFABulous at 7:18 PM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ok so I am discoursemarker on mastodon.social, and also apparently on octodon.social from this past spring.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 7:32 PM on October 15, 2017

...I also enjoy baseball.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:03 PM on October 15, 2017

Sorry, I can only hold one trait per person at a time. cortex is still "that guy who ate the huge donut."
posted by AFABulous at 8:13 PM on October 15, 2017 [6 favorites]

What is the difference between the home panel and the local panel?

Home is where you see people you follow, replies, etc. There are options.

Local is your local instance.

Federated is everyone.
posted by bongo_x at 8:14 PM on October 15, 2017

If you're wondering about Mastodon and would like an explanation from another perspective, @[e-mail] has a piece up on autostraddle that may help: https://www.autostraddle.com/mastodon-101-a-queer-friendly-social-network-youre-gonna-like-a-lot-390948/
posted by introp at 8:38 PM on October 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

I just joined so I can squat my username: @[e-mail] - https://mastodon.social/@spinifex
posted by spinifex23 at 9:39 PM on October 15, 2017

If not a Mefi server (which I think is an entirely reasonable call), could we have a mefi account? As in, just echoing the tweets that go out on @Metafilter.
posted by pompomtom at 10:09 PM on October 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

What's the joining strategy? Do you join by special interest? Actual location? If so, exactly how and where do you search for the right instances? I joined a couple of instances but almost at random.

And I don't know what I'm supposed to do once I get there. Nothing is as obvious as "This is the limerick instance in Limerick, Ireland. Post limericks about Limerick or get the hell out." People are just introducing themselves and then welcoming other people who have introduced themselves. Is that because this the introduction phase of the party? Will it eventually be followed by something else once people have had a few drinks and worked up the nerve to dance?
posted by pracowity at 4:32 AM on October 16, 2017

https://mastodon.social/@Jesse_the_k
posted by Jesse the K at 6:56 AM on October 16, 2017

I can almost guarantee I am incapable of cluttering anyone's feed.

https://mastodon.social/@gardrastic
posted by Drastic at 8:24 AM on October 16, 2017

Forgot I'd signed up on this, but have been getting emails lately saying "so-and-so has followed you" and I figured that meant that Mastodon had been brought back up on MetaTalk and here we are.

"Octodon is run by a queer trans woman and she's great."

I couldn't remember which service or server I'd signed up on, but it's Octodon, and hopefully I chose it because I'd heard whatever it was you just said back when it was first said. Anyway, @[e-mail] and I'll see you all there.
posted by komara at 8:45 AM on October 16, 2017

@bondcliff on octodon.social though I haven't used it since I first signed up months ago and I'm not sure if I will. I'll go say hello.
posted by bondcliff at 8:47 AM on October 16, 2017

I'm trying it out, not 100.000% committed just yet though.
@[e-mail]
https://mastodon.social/@TheoEsc
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:47 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm getting into this, but I've got a bit of an issue- half the people I'm following aren't turning up in my home feed. Anyway I'm https://mamot.fr/@Braeburn don't know if the language thing is causing the issue?
posted by Braeburn at 9:53 AM on October 16, 2017

I popped back on and tooted something inane like "gee it's been a while I forgot about this place hurrr" and immediately chastised myself like, "Why am I doing this? I wouldn't tweet that. Stop treating this place like a novelty and get to work."

So I did exactly what I would do on twitter which is post pictures of one of my disgusting teeth sculptures. Immediately I had engagement from strangers, and interactions, and everything else I would never get from just going "ahoyhoy i have arrived."

Turns out that you have to be the change you want to see in social media, even if it's by grossing people out.
posted by komara at 9:59 AM on October 16, 2017 [6 favorites]

Oh its you and your teeth again, is it?
posted by infini at 10:06 AM on October 16, 2017 [3 favorites]

I didn't realise this was a live thread!

I just searched for Mastodon because I realised I wasn't following anyone.
I've just been scrolling through adding people and suddenly saw (3) in the tab title.
I assumed it was a months old thread for some reason.

Anyway I'm @[e-mail] (I think?)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 10:23 AM on October 16, 2017

https://octodon.social/@clew

and

https://oulipo.social/@cloo

I never "got" twitter, but I like the federated idea.
posted by clew at 10:32 AM on October 16, 2017

@[e-mail]
@[e-mail]
posted by mbrubeck at 10:34 AM on October 16, 2017

Scratch the other one I shared. I'm @[e-mail].
posted by elsietheeel at 10:42 AM on October 16, 2017

pracowity: "And I don't know what I'm supposed to do once I get there."

It's basically "Twitter that isn't full of assholes" mostly. So whatever you feel impelled to do in the microblogging sphere. Some people seem to have a lot to say in that way, some don't.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:20 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

@[e-mail]
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:34 AM on October 16, 2017

> ... I've got a bit of an issue- half the people I'm following aren't turning up in my home feed.

Did you just follow a bunch of people? I think your account doesn't update immediately when you follow people. I ran into this this morning when I followed a few people in quick succession. When I checked my profile info after 20 minutes or so, they were all there and started showing up in my home feed.

It's also possible some of the people you're following just aren't posting much.
posted by nangar at 11:43 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

There's a thing in the settings that lets you import a follower list. (Or that's what it looks like anyway)
Is that what it does?

Could there be an importable Mefites file?
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 12:17 PM on October 16, 2017

(I'm not precluding me making it, when there is time. If it is in fact possible)
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 12:17 PM on October 16, 2017

I think there may be some wishful thinking about lack of assholes on Mastodon. What there is is moderation, and as I have discovered that comes from the admin of your local. So that's one aspect of choosing an instance. There are entire asshole instances of Mastodon, one of which claims to be associated with 8chan.

I'm really not much for social media. I only use Twitter to amplify political discussion. While that's great for Twitter, where you're one of the crowd, on Mastodon it sort of feels like being the ranting guy on the street corner.

What's the joining strategy? Do you join by special interest? Actual location? If so, exactly how and where do you search for the right instances? I joined a couple of instances but almost at random.

Some instances seem to have special interest, a lot don't. I have very little interaction with my local. I'm not going to bother figuring out another one and changing though. The mod seems good. I think it's more about building your follow list, like anywhere else. Mine is in Germany though, and with the bigger worldwide audience, and my odd hours, I see a lot of people saying "goodnight" when I'm getting up, and "good morning" when I'm on late at night.
posted by bongo_x at 12:53 PM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

One interesting thing is how simple and responsive the desktop web page is. On my old notebook it's basically nothing, and is really easy and quick to jump around. I could never figure out why Twitter is such a beast, and I have to close and restart after a short period.
posted by bongo_x at 1:04 PM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

There may exist some Mastadon Instances full of Nazis, but they're easier to avoid/silence/neutralize. That and nobody's TRYING to make money off Mastodon, which is refreshing.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:20 PM on October 16, 2017

agreed with the "yet" and the importance of moderation. I haven't walled myself off with post restrictions, but expect I eventually will; people I follow and who boost my posts are followed by people who hail from, for example:


https://sealion.club/
Welcome to Sea Lion Club.
We are a federation of microbloggers and shitposters who care about free speech. Also, fuck Mastodon.

The value of picking a small instance rather than going with mastodon.social may be restricting others' access rather than increasing yours. Some good stuff about privacy on mastodon here.
posted by notquitemaryann at 1:23 PM on October 16, 2017

If anyone does create an importable mefites list, I'd like to opt out of that. Thanks.
posted by zarq at 1:42 PM on October 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah, let me say just as a general mod gut-check that I think we're way better off keeping the following stuff pretty organic, with threads like this about at the far end of what makes sense for collating contact info. An automated grab-everybody list doesn't feel like a great or necessary way to go; just add folks manually and let network effects on masto do the rest.
posted by cortex (staff) at 1:45 PM on October 16, 2017 [4 favorites]

Agree with Cortex in that I feel like there's an expectation that MeFi rules and norms will be followed elsewhere, and feelings may result.
posted by bongo_x at 2:53 PM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

The instance I joined 'silences' seven instances because "they allow hate speech or harassment", that means I won't see posts from users on those instances in my timelines even if somebody I'm following follows someone on one of those instances. I'm pretty impressed that the admin of my instance only felt it necessary to silence seven instances out of the gazillion Mastodon instances out there. (And, yeah, sealion.club is one of the instances she silenced.)

So, there are assholes in Mastodon's fediverse, and they can start their own asshole instances because of Mastodon's federated structure, but they're blocked, or, in Mastodon-speak, 'silenced', by the admins of most other instances. Mastodon's protocol provides them no way for them to troll or 'brigade' other instances.
posted by nangar at 3:05 PM on October 16, 2017 [8 favorites]

okay, I tooted! I don't totally understand how this works or how to navigate it or how to add you all, but I have indeed tooted.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:29 PM on October 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

preemptively blocks sealion.club from ever talking to the instance she set up this weekend

(I would invite y'all to my instance but signup confirmation email ain't working yet, so registration is closed. Setting up a Mastodon is kinda complicated.)
posted by egypturnash at 8:48 PM on October 16, 2017 [2 favorites]

So ... it's also important to choose an instance whose moderation policy suits you? Are there some instances that are more strongly no-assholes than others?

Seems like most people who posted above kinda defaulted into either mastodon.social or octodon.social which seem to have broadly similar policies but stated in formal vs. informal terms.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:35 PM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

OK so I added myself to octodon.social and for the record I'm:

@[e-mail]
@[e-mail]
@[e-mail]
posted by octothorpe at 9:55 AM on October 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

I posted an explanation of what a "mefite" is over at octodon.social a while ago with a link to the MeFi front page. It turns out a lot of people over there had been wondering what the hell a #MeFite was since a bunch of us introduced ourselves as such over the weekend, so it got boosted by a lot of random people, as well as a few MeFites.
posted by nangar at 12:35 PM on October 17, 2017

why do i keep on typing "dragon.party" when my instance is dragon.style wtf, anyway reg is still closed on it because the getting outgoing mail working is a hassle.
posted by egypturnash at 12:41 PM on October 17, 2017

I'm @[e-mail]
posted by Bistle at 12:44 PM on October 17, 2017

> ...add me or whatever the verb is.

"Follow", the verb's "follow". I'm following one of your accounts, but evidently not the mastodon.social one. I'll have go fix that.
posted by nangar at 1:51 PM on October 17, 2017

Nope, actually I did follow you and only missed a couple of your toots.
posted by nangar at 2:02 PM on October 17, 2017

Is it true that you cannot delete your account?
posted by pracowity at 2:07 PM on October 17, 2017

To delete your account, go to https://mastodon.social/settings/delete (replace “mastodon.social” with whatever server you use), enter your password, then press the big red button.

This will permanently remove all data from your "home" server, and it'll inform your remote followers’ servers to do the same. But as with most stuff that's been published on the internet, there's still a possibility that someone who once accessed it still has a copy somewhere. In particular, if someone followed you from a different server, but their server is not currently listening to messages from yours, then it may still have your old posts in its cache.
posted by mbrubeck at 2:46 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]

That worked perfectly. Thanks.
posted by pracowity at 2:54 PM on October 17, 2017

Totter, not follow

I tottered after you and read your toots, tout suite
posted by infini at 3:05 PM on October 17, 2017 [2 favorites]

My first @[e-mail] toot seems to have worked. Hmm...
posted by pracowity at 3:13 PM on October 17, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by yoga at 6:08 PM on October 17, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by terrapin at 10:12 AM on October 18, 2017

@[e-mail]

Toot on, son! Toot on!
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 10:29 AM on October 18, 2017

Quick thoughts on the replacements(?) for existing social networks. Like many I hate Twitter and Facebook, but I do like being able to post to those services without having to visit them. Instagram is my tool of choice of late, but I can't post a photo to Ello or Mastodon, so I use those services less than I might. But I wonder, with whom should I be frustrated with about this? Is it Instagram (owned by Facebook)? Every few months I log into Ello to see what new pr0n accounts have followed me and to see if there are any updates on posting from other services. I am told it is coming soon, but it has been over a year now siren I first asked.

The good news for me is that there are apps for Mastodon that I am likely to use. Mstdn for my Mac desktop(s) and Amaroq for iOS. With these tools I will see if these other options keep my interest.
posted by terrapin at 11:31 AM on October 18, 2017

Ok, Amaroq is not working and the developer says it make take. while to fix. They suggest using Tootdon, which I am downloading now to try.
posted by terrapin at 12:11 PM on October 18, 2017

If I sign up on multiple instances as pracowity with the same email address, am I the same pracowity across all of them or am I a different pracowity on each?
posted by pracowity at 1:18 PM on October 18, 2017

Your accounts on different instances are not linked in any way, no.


Also:

but I can't post a photo to Ello or Mastodon

You can put photos on Mastodon.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:42 PM on October 18, 2017

I don't know about iOS, but on Android there's an app called Cosian which lets you combine Mastodon and Twitter timelines, and cross-post the same message to both.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 5:30 PM on October 18, 2017

"but I can't post a photo to Ello or Mastodon"

You can put photos on Mastodon.

Initially I was right there with your statement and it took me a minute but then I realized that when terrapin said "Instagram is my tool of choice of late, but I can't post a photo to Ello or Mastodon" what was meant was "when I post a picture to Instagram I can not, from within the Instagram interface/app, cross-post it automatically to Ello or Mastadon whereas I can automatically cross-post it to Twitter or FB."

so yeah of course you can post photos to Ello or Mastadon but only manually, through their interface, and not from within the Instagram app.

... at least that's how I interpreted it.
posted by komara at 7:51 PM on October 18, 2017

So one problem with the distributed nature of Mastodon is that you don't know who to contact when something's wrong. mastodon.art is down with a 502 error right now and I have no clue who to tell about that. My first impulse is to go to Twitter and find the site's account to tweet to but I'm not using Twitter anymore.
posted by octothorpe at 5:03 AM on October 19, 2017

Octothorpe, I was coming here to say the same thing. I'm going to see if I can find any info through my mastodon.social account, and then I'll post something on the mastodon.art patreon page. I'll report back if I find anything.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 5:18 AM on October 19, 2017

About 8 hours ago, @[e-mail] started to upgrade to v2.0 and hasn't posted since. I assume it hasn't gone smoothly.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 5:20 AM on October 19, 2017

Mastodon.art is back up, FYI
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 6:33 AM on October 19, 2017

From @[e-mail]:

Good morning everyone!
😅 What a stressful night for me. Please be patient as your home timelines begin to fill back up & instances resend things. Nothing was lost & we're on the new v2.0 What happened had everything to do with our OLD database hosting company choosing to do something without notifying me right during our upgrade.

posted by Numenius at 10:00 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mastodon should have an obvious "contact administrator" button for instance-specific trouble, and maybe a design feedback channel that does not require you to be a developer with a github account. Maybe this stuff is there, but I don't see it yet?
posted by pracowity at 1:33 AM on October 20, 2017

I don't think there's anything quite that convenient, but don't all the instances list their administrators on the about page? Counterintuitively, you may have to click "about" when you already think you're ON the about page to get there, but I just checked several semi-randomly (ie they were listed somewhere in this thread) and they all have that.
posted by solotoro at 5:41 AM on October 20, 2017

I signed up for a few. I think @[e-mail] will probably stick.
posted by Karmakaze at 9:30 AM on October 20, 2017

https://wandering.shop/@kitkendrick
https://witches.town/@kitkendrick
https://toot.cat/@kitkendrick
https://cybre.space/@kitkendrick
https://tenforward.social/@kitkendrick
https://octodon.social/@kitkendrick
https://mastodon.social/@kitkendrick

I was going to be prolific, and was only going to post thematically appropriate stuff on each mastodon and tell my names apart by the emoji in the middle of my display name....

It was like I forgot everything I know about myself and my energy level. How super cute are all the customized bio pages though?
posted by Karmakaze at 1:31 PM on October 20, 2017

I'm @[e-mail], and have no idea what I'm doing there.
posted by sarcasticah at 7:40 PM on October 20, 2017

I signed up ages ago as @[e-mail]. I just tooted for the first time since May. Not sure if I will continue or not.
posted by Literaryhero at 7:02 AM on October 21, 2017

Could we mesh it with bits of mltshop (eg. Instagram/twitter integration) and vice versa?
posted by infini at 10:05 AM on October 21, 2017

Like, if you just automatically had a mastodon.metafilter.com account automatically because you had a Mefi account? That'd be *rad*.

That'd be *bad*. Fine as an opt-in for people that want it, but don't automatically give people a public social-media account that they may have no interest in maintaining a presence on.

(side-eyes Google+)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:13 PM on October 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

What is Mastodon and why is it better than Twitter:

The problem with Twitter is that its incentives are completely misaligned with those of its users. Twitter makes its money from advertising, which means that its goal is to keep your eyes glued to the screen for as long as possible, and to convince you to interact with ads. Its goal is not to keep you safe from harassment, or to ban dangerous extremists, or to ensure your psychological well-being. Its goal is to make advertisers money by selling them an engaged audience...

Mastodon, by contrast, isn’t run on advertising. Well, instances could add advertising if they wanted to, but I’m not aware of any that do. Most of them, including the flagship, are run on donations from their users. Others get a bit more creative: cybre.space, for instance, allows free signups for one hour each day, but if you donate you can get an instant invite. capitalism.party is an interesting experiment where every signup costs $5. social.coop is run as a co-op. The possibilities are endless, since the underlying code is open-source.

What these instances all have in common is that they’re not driven by the insatiable appetite of marketers for clicks and engagement – instead, their goal is to make as warm and hospitable a place for their users as possible. The incentives of the people who run the platform are aligned with the incentives of the users.

Ultimately, this is why Mastodon instances can implement the kinds of moderation policies that their users clamor for (including banning Nazis). Most instances only have a few dozen to a few thousand active users, and they’re often organized based on shared interests, languages, or nationalities. This means that each instance tends to be small enough and like-minded enough that they can have fairly nitpicky moderation policies (or policies that adapt to local laws and customs), and it’s not too overwhelming for a small group of sympathetic and highly-motivated admins to handle...

I’m not going to pretend that Mastodon is devoid of moderation problems. Yes, the flagship instance bans Nazis and other malcontents, as do most of the other large instances (including my own). There are plenty of instances with their own policies, though, and there’s nothing in the software to prevent them from doing so. So if you want to use an instance that harbors Nazis, or even just libertarians or free-speech advocates, then you can certainly find them.

As you can imagine, though, a right-wing instance that brags about its tolerance toward fascists is not likely to get along with a left-wing instance that bills itself as “anticapitalist”. Thus you will find lots of instances that block each other, creating a situation where you might discover vastly different content and vastly different people depending on which instance you sign up with...

Every so often in the Mastodon community, a serious conflict will arise between instances. Often it starts because two users on two different instances got into a fight with each other, the admins got involved, and they disagreed on how to resolve the dispute. Sometimes it’s the admins themselves who started the fight. Either way, the admins end up criticizing or disavowing each other, the public timeline gets filled with debates on who’s right or wrong, and ultimately one group of instances may decide to block or silence another group. We call this “the discourse.”

“The discourse” tends to flare up every month or so, and when it does there’s usually a lot of moaning about how much drama there is on the fediverse. This lasts for a day or two and then things go back to normal, albeit with a slightly more bifurcated community than we started with...

posted by TheophileEscargot at 2:36 PM on October 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

New user signups are now open on dragon.style, my instance "for dragons and people who like dragons".
posted by egypturnash at 7:04 PM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

The metafilter instance will be named draygun.style.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:39 PM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I’m @[e-mail]!
posted by adrianhon at 2:02 PM on November 5, 2017

@[e-mail]
posted by adamrice at 7:56 PM on November 5, 2017

Hey-o! Just found this via the most recent Twitter thread on the Blue.

@[e-mail]

I would be very interested in a mefi instance! That would be a quickfire way to follow good people.
posted by like_neon at 3:35 AM on November 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm @[e-mail]. I haven't tooted anything in 6 months though :-(
posted by Pendragon at 6:31 AM on November 6, 2017

Y'all better start actually tooting. I follow 170 people and only about 10 of them toot on a regular basis. If this keeps up it's going to go the way of ello and we'll be forced back to Twitter again (or off social media entirely, which is not a great option for a lot of people).
posted by AFABulous at 7:57 AM on November 6, 2017

It turns out that I am incredibly boring and have nothing to say.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:47 AM on November 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I toot as much as I tweet, which is very little so I'm not if Mastodon is really that useful for me. I mostly use Twitter as a newsfeed rather than a dialog and there isn't much news on Mastodon.
posted by octothorpe at 8:49 AM on November 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Hi! I am @[e-mail] - I am increasingly leery of social media - but if Mefites are trying it…
posted by device55 at 9:04 AM on November 6, 2017

there isn't much news on Mastodon.

I thought this would be a feature, but then I realized that I had no idea what was going on. I started using Feedly and subscribed to some news sites, but still missed Twitter for its immediate nature. OTOH that leads to a lot of knee-jerk outrage. Which also carries over to Mastodon sometimes (e.g. snark about lack of GOP reaction to the recent mass shooting). Sigh. People gonna people.
posted by AFABulous at 9:16 AM on November 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I toot as much as I tweet, which is very little so I'm not if Mastodon is really that useful for me. I mostly use Twitter as a newsfeed rather than a dialog and there isn't much news on Mastodon.

That, and twitter is 100% for politics for me. MetaFilter is as close as I've ever come to social networking.

I like Mastodon, I'm just not going to tell you anything about my pets.
posted by bongo_x at 9:48 AM on November 6, 2017

I find people either post infrequently or much, much too frequently. Like every five minutes.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:01 AM on November 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: It turns out that I am incredibly boring and have nothing to say.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:03 PM on November 6, 2017 [5 favorites]

I created @[e-mail] and @[e-mail] today. I don't know how much I'll toot. If you like following people who have made no impression on you on MetaFilter, I'm sure I'll have the same kind of presence there.
posted by zorseshoes at 5:45 PM on November 6, 2017

I'm @[e-mail], just to jump on the bandwagon - looking forward to having a mefi-oriented timeline!
posted by sagc at 10:22 AM on November 7, 2017

I have started posting the funny pictures from my occasional D&D game on wandering.shop.

I also made the mistake of disparaging evopsych on cybre.space and was treated to an epic mansplain that wandered through many a topic and went on for some time. I kind of tl;dr'd it, so I can't explain the entire byzantine path for you though (assuming I would have been able to after actually reading it.) So, uh, thanks mastodon for recreating a classic twitter experience, complete with checking in from time to time to say "holy cow, he's still going!"

Otherwise I do find I have the same problem as many others, that I don't really have all that much of interest to say, or at least that I think the general public would find interesting. I wish it had a few more tools available so I could at least, say, autopost certain instagram photos or something.
posted by Karmakaze at 10:35 AM on November 7, 2017

@[e-mail]

I'm loving it so far.
posted by Brittanie at 12:09 PM on November 7, 2017

Serious answer: have a look at my local "news" site, NOLA.com (the ragged guts of what used to be a decent publication, the Times-Picayune). I won't bother being specific since that page will change by tomorrow but right now I see two, maybe three articles on the top half of the page that I would care to read, and I've already seen links to two of them thanks to Twitter.

That's what I use it for - finding people who share similar interests and therefore interesting information. If I had to suffer through the entire RSS feed for NOLA.com I'd burn my reader in protest.
posted by komara at 12:17 PM on November 7, 2017

To add on a bit: take my above example and extend it by however many articles are in all the major newspapers in the US - I follow people from all over who occasionally post something interesting about their city / local news. It's not perfect, but it's superior to trying to browse the RSS feeds of all the major sources.

and all that's interspersed with good local non-news-source commentary about my city, and photography, and a few webcomics and my personal friends' dumb joke accounts. My feed is a thing I've been actively curating and tweaking for literally over a decade and it's not something that's easy for me to replace.
posted by komara at 12:21 PM on November 7, 2017

I find people either post infrequently or much, much too frequently. Like every five minutes.

Well, that's convenient. That's exactly when I read it.
posted by ctmf at 12:40 PM on November 7, 2017

"guess I'm just saying, I heard all about Twitter as a thing for news way back before I had an account, and throughout my entire multi-year experience with it and I still can't extract any useful news value from it."

I totally get that, and I'm not insinuating that my experience with the site will be everybody's experience. I used to rely on my RSS reader as my primary source for info and then Twitter was merely an amusement. Two years ago I realized I was barely using my reader and resigned to paying for only one more year, and when that was up I let it drift.

My political news comes from the threads here, and some on Twitter, and almost all my local news comes from Twitter, and then once or twice a day I browse whatever Google News thinks I might want to see.

I still haven't put the effort into figuring out how Mastodon is gonna factor into all that, even though I open it daily. A lot of my foot-dragging here has to do with how slow Tootle is on my phone. It makes it feel like a chore.
posted by komara at 12:50 PM on November 7, 2017

Since you guys brought up news and Mastodon, I suppose I'll announce that this morning, on a whim, I created an "Earth News with Captain Pike" account on tenforward.social (link), in which your host Captain Pike editorializes in his characteristically succinct fashion on assorted headlines of the day.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 1:11 PM on November 7, 2017

"So, local news. How does that work for you? Like, seriously it's just a mystery to me."

I follow accounts like our local alt-weekly The Gambit, investigative reporting The Lens, ultra-local neighborhood-specific reporting like Mid-City Messenger and Mid-City Neighborhood Organization. For food I follow Eater NOLA.

In terms of non-business accounts I follow people like skooks and Brett Martin and prokchorp and at least a dozen others I've found over the years who typically tweet about in-town stuff.
posted by komara at 1:13 PM on November 7, 2017

@[e-mail]

Sloooowly figuring things out and adding people, but I’m there!
posted by brilliantine at 7:34 PM on November 7, 2017