F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions: Difference between revisions

F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions (view source)

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Added some more details and re-ordered the questions and slide-ins, so it will also work well for non-participants.

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 Mastodon is just one part of the Fediverse.<br>
-On Mastodon, on your timelines it may look like you're only seeing Mastodon posts, but many of them may originate from other parts of the Fediverse.
+On Mastodon, all content may look like it only originated from Mastodon, but many posts may originate from other parts of the Fediverse.
 [[File:Fediverse branches.png]]
-All of these different services in the fediverse can communicate with Mastodon and each other.<br>
+All of these different services in the Fediverse can communicate with Mastodon and each other.<br>
 It works similar to email. You can write to someone who has gmail from an icloud account, for example.
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 It works similar to Mastodon, but the interface looks more like Instagram than Twitter and you can only post and see picture posts.<br>
 Some special features include the ability to add license information for your media and adding your posts to collections.<br>
-Users from Mastodon or other parts of the Fediverse won't see the license information or collections though.
+Users from Mastodon or other parts of the Fediverse, who follow Pixelfed-Accounts won't see the license information or collections though.
-==Questions from the people==
+==Questions from participants==
-====How to find people on other services?====
+====Will Mastodon/the Fediverse remain niche?====
-You usually need to know their full handle or the url of their profile to find them with the search function.<br>
-So it works the same as finding people on other Mastodon servers.<br>
-====How to find people of niche communities/with special interests====
-You can search for a hashtag, click on it and see posts by people using the hashtag.<br>
+It grows every time the big commercial platforms f**k up, so it may depend on how big and thorough those are. But because Fediverse is not a centralized platform, everyone and anyone can create their own niches (which may not even be connected to the rest of Fediverse).
-You can also find a server that is dedicated to the topic you are interested in (e.g. [[Special Interest Instances|here]]) and find people on the /discover page of the server (only Mastodon servers).
-====How to find people you know from Twitter====
+====How to choose the right server / instance?====
-Tools like [https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ fedifinder] will crawl the info of everyone you follow on Twitter for fediverse accounts, you can download it as a .csv file and import it into your account.<br>
+''See also [[How do I get an account?]]''
-Put your Fediverse handle into your Twitter profile so other people can find you.
-====How to choose the right server?====
-''See also [[How do I get an account?]]
 First think about which service you want to use. Mastodon, Pixelfed, ...<br>
-Then think about the size of the server. Very large servers go against the whole idea of decentralization/federation and especially currently they might be overwhelmed from all the new users. Also they attract hackers.<br>
+Then think about the size of the server. Very large servers go against the whole idea of decentralization/federation and especially right now they might be overwhelmed from all the new users.  Additionally, huge servers are much more attractive target for hackers.<br>
-Very small instances might appear very sleepy and you'll have to discover lots of people to follow yourself.<br>
+Tiny instances might appear very sleepy and thus making harder for you to discover interesting people to follow, as you have to actively search to find them on other servers.<br>
-Then think about if you want a general interest server, a themed server or a server local to where you live.
+Then think you should ask yourself what is most relevant for you: sharing a server with people, who share the same special interest, or who are geographically located in the same area or do you want neither and prefer a general interest server.
-Some links:
+Here links to different server lists:
 * [[Special interest instances]]
@@ Line 77: / Line 66: @@
 * [https://joinfediverse.com/ joinfediverse.com] - small instances ready for new users
 * [https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers/ fediverse.pary (Themed Servers)]
-* [https://instances.social/ instances.social] - instance picker (check out the advanced mode for some interesting details like security quality)
+* [https://instances.social/ instances.social] - instance picker (check out the [https://instances.social/list/advanced#lang=&allowed=&prohibited=&min-users=&max-users= advanced mode] and sort by interesting details like security quality)
 * [https://fediverse.observer/list fediverse.observer] - filterable list of all servers
 * DE: [https://contentnation.net/de/favstarmafia/artikel2 Deutschsprachige Mastodon Instanzen]
+====Do Mastodon servers generally have the same technical features or are there relevant differences? If so, can I check this out before joining?====
+Most servers will have the same features and limits. Some may have higher limits for e.g. characters in a post (climatejustice.social has 5.000 instead of the usual 500).<br>
+The limit for poll options or the number of bio-links may have been adjusted by the admins. But each code change may create problems at every Mastodon update, thus most servers run with the original settings. <br>
+As of right now, there are listings of Mastodon instances that also include information about deviations concerning features or limits. And instances commonly also do not advertise them on their "/about" pages. Asking around before joining a server, is currently the only way to figure this out.
 ====How to move to a different instance====
-There is a guide in English, German and Japanese [[Moving instances|here]] and one in German [https://wiki.subversive.zone/doku.php?id=umzug_des_eigenen_accounts_auf_eine_andere_mastodon_instanz here].
+There is a guide in English, German and Japanese [[Moving instances|here]] and another one in German with screenshots [https://wiki.subversive.zone/doku.php?id=umzug_des_eigenen_accounts_auf_eine_andere_mastodon_instanz here].
+====How to find people on other services?====
+You usually need to know someones full handle (@profile@server.name) or their profile's URL. Both can then be used to find them with the search function of the service, where you are logged in.<br>
+Whether you want to find an account on a different Mastodon server or an account on a different Fediverse service, you always need the same information for your search.
-====Slide-in: On deleting posts====
+====How to find other members of niche communities/ people with shared special interests====
-"The internet doesn't forget and the Fediverse can't forget."<br>
+You can search for topics or hashtags. The results are clustered as follows: all ⏐ people ⏐ hashtags ⏐ posts. "People" will show you accounts, that have handles or display names containing your search word. "Hashtag" will list hashtags, that start with your word. You can click on each hashtag to see posts containing it. Under "Posts" you will only find those, you have interacted with.<br>
-Because servers need to crawl each other, a post you delete may still be visible on another server.
+You can also find a server that is dedicated to the topic you are interested in (e.g. [[Special interest instances|here]]) and find people on the "/discover page" of each server (only Mastodon servers).
-====Will Mastodon/the Fediverse remain niche?====
+====How to find people you know from Twitter====
-It grows every time the big commercial platforms f**k up, but because it's not centralized, everyone can create their own niches (which need not even be connected to the rest of Fediverse).<br>
+Tools like [https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ fedifinder] , [https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/ debirdify] or [https://twitodon.com/ twitodon] will crawl the account info of everyone you follow on Twitter for Fediverse accounts. You can download the results as a .csv file and upload it via "preferences >> import" to your account. You can also use debirdify to create and upload lists with Fediverse account info for Twitter accounts you have previously blocked or muted.<br>
+Make it easy for your Twitter contacts to find you in the Fediverse by adding your account info to your Twitter profile. You can either adapt your display name, add it to the description in your bio or as the bio's link.
 ====How to best share audio, pictures and movies?====
-For media, especially videos with bigger file sizes, it's better to post them via Peertube and then use the link to this video in your Mastodon posts.
+As seen in the graphic above, there are specialized Fediverse services for multimedia sharing. An example: If you often want to share your videos, especially if they exceed Mastodon's file limit of 40 MB, it is better to use [[PeerTube|Peertube]]. You can then use the link of your PeerTube video to create your Mastodon post. Using a PeerTube link will not impact how other users can engage with your video content.
-If you want to share a Youtube-video, you should use [https://invidious.snopyta.org/ invidious.snopyta.org] or another invidious instance to create a tracker-free link, because a lot of users don't like sharing their data with big tech companies.
+If you want to share video from Youtube, you should create a tracker-free link, because many Fediverse users do not want to share their data with big tech companies. You can use [https://invidious.snopyta.org/ invidious.snopyta.org] or another invidious instance to create such a link.
 ====Is it sensible to have several accounts, so for Mastodon, Pixelfed, Peertube, etc.? And how to connect them?====
 It can make sense to have more than one account on different services, especially if you want to share different media.<br>
-You can use the same handle for all of them, but the full handle will be different, so e.g. @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.social (Mastodon) and @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.video (Peertube).<br>
+You can use the same handle and display name for very account, but each full handle will be different, so e.g. @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.social (Mastodon) and @PaulaToThePeople@climatejustice.video (Peertube).<br>
-You can link from one profile to the other, but they will always remain separate accounts.
+While you can link from one profile to the other in each accounts meta date, they will always remain separate accounts.
-====Do Mastodon servers generally have the same technical features or are there relevant differences? If so, can I check this out before joining or moving?====
+====Are there special servers for governmental accounts?====
-Most servers have the same features and limits. Some have higher limits for e.g. characters in a post (climatejustice.social has 5.000 instead of the usual 500).<br>
-Also limits for poll options or number of bio-links can be adjusted by the admins, but might create problems for every update. <br>
-There is generally no easy way to find out about special features before joining a server unless you ask around.
-====Are there special servers for govermental accounts?====
 There are:
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 * more will probably come...
-====Slide-in: On verifying your account====
+==Slide-ins==
-There is no official verification system in the Fediverse like on Twitter but there are other ways to check, if an account is legit:
+====Account verification====
-* Accounts on before mentioned government servers are always real government agencies
+There is no official verification system in the Fediverse like on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. But there are indicators, that help to access how legit an account is:
-* Every Mastodon account can have a verified link to their official homepage.
-** To have such a link, link Mastodon on your Website with the "rel=me" attribute. (See Settings > Profile > Profile metadata > Verification) '''Afterwards''' add the homepage in your profile metadata.
-** To verify that someone is really who they say they are you have to make sure if the website they link to is really their own.
-====Slide-in: On accessibility====
+* If the account belongs to an official invite only server, for example to one of the government servers mentioned above, they had to verify themselves to create their account on those servers
+* Each Mastodon account can create verified links to their official website
+** To verify yourself as the owner of a link in your profile metadata, the linked website must contain a link back to your Mastodon profile. The link back must have a <code>rel="me"</code> attribute. The text content of the link does not matter.
+**As anyone can set up fake websites and then successfully create a verified connection between such a fake site and their Mastodon profile, it is not 100 percent reliable.
+**It is helpful to check for the following: If you click the Mastodon verified link, does its URL in your browser exactly match the URLs that you may find through their officially verified accounts on a different platform? Do other links from other reliable sources like news media match exactly? Or in cases where real life products featured their URL, does it match exactly with their Mastodon link?
-Glitch-Soc has a feature where you can see red boarders around pictures or videos without alt text.
+====Accessibility====
-There is also a bot [https://botsin.space/@PleaseCaption @PleaseCaption@botsin.space] that reminds you to caption your media if you forgot.
+* To share your content inclusively on Mastodon, ad a description to every video or picture/graphic you post. A good description is short but includes all necessary information, so someone unable to see does not miss out on what it is you want to share through your video or picture.
+* The fediverse service Glitch-Soc has a feature where you can see red boarders around pictures or videos without alt text.
+* There is also a bot [https://botsin.space/@PleaseCaption @PleaseCaption@botsin.space] that reminds you privately, if you the media in your posts lack a description.
+====Deleted posts====
+"The internet doesn't forget and the Fediverse can't forget."<br>
+Because servers have to crawl each for content, a deleted post may still be visible to users on servers. If they engage with the post after you have deleted it, you may not even see this in your notifications because by deleting it, you have severed your account's connection to it.