F.A.Q. - Frequently Asked Questions
Agenda:
 A lot of info might still be missing and the page might change at any time. |
Introduction Moderation Does everybody already have an account? What is Mastodon? What is the Fediverse? What is Pixelfed? Questions
Notes
Introduction
Paula joined Fediverse in 2018 and became and an administrator a bit later
Proper notes will be shared later on (Thanks so much!!)
Moderation
Rules for this workshop
Don't turn on microphone while someone else is speaking
Wait for Paula to invite you to speak
Raise your hand (if on browser look for the hand symbol bottom right of screen; or write in the chat you want to speak)
Does everybody on the call already have an account?
it will help understand if people need help setting up an account
@sburall@mastodon.social
gaysis@social.agb-web.de
very often you need to use the full handle to find a person, just their name might not be enough
you can search using topics, results can be accounts, hashtags or posts
What is Mastodon?
it's a free software,
has some features the same as Twitter, and some different
What does it look like?
Use preferences to change how mastodon looks
use advanced web-interface to see multiple columns
If you have too many columns, they won't fit on the screen and you will have to zoom out.
you can make a list of people you don't want to miss and they will appear in a column (sorry can't see this happening and so can't quite explain properly)
home timeline is people you follow and people who are boosted by people you follow. But it almost never matters which fediverse server they are on, just need to follow their account
There is the local timeline, this shows only posts for people on your server. It is filled when you join the server and you don't need to follow them
federated timeline shows the whole, known fediverse (known to your server - depends which accounts are followed from your server or what was searched from your server)
What is the Fediverse?
mastodon is part of the fediverse
what you see in your home timeline, it might include people on mastodon, and people from elsehwere - eg pixelfed - see infographic - there are lots of branches of the fediverse
[can't see the infographic so can't note it I'm afraid]
all of these different servers in the fediverse can communicate with mastodon
it works similar to email, you can write to someone who has gmail from an icloud account, for example
you can follow different fediverse can
What is Pixelfed?
it's for pictures and there are lots of others for music, podcasts, books, writing etc
works similar to mastodon servers, but interface looks different
includes some special features like licence information or adding posts to a collection
if you want to actively use a certain fediverse service, you always also need to start an account there, but passively you can follow accounts throughout all the fediverse and their content will appear in your "home timeline"
Questions
Questions from the people:
How to find people on other services? A number of us particularly interested in finding people from niche communities/ with specialised interests eg multiple sclerosis/ ADHD. And also interested in finding new people not connected to on, eg twitter
You need to know their full handle or the url
but if the server is down they won't appear
can also search for hashtags, you can then click on the tag to see them
tools like https://fedifinder.glitch.me/ will crawl the infos of everyone you follow on Twitter for fediverse accounts, you can download it as a .csv file and import it into your account
How to choose the right server?
there are either themed, local or general servers
if you want to move, there is a "How to" in German: https://wiki.subversive.zone/doku.php?id=umzug_des_eigenen_accounts_auf_eine_andere_mastodon_instanz
Search-Site that gives infos about server-quality in the advanced mode: https://instances.social/list/advanced#lang=&allowed=&prohibited=&min-users=&max-users=
too big servers attract hackers
Relevant fact about "deleted posts": because servers need to crawl each other, a post you delete may still be visible on any server other than the one you are on
Will Mastodon/the Fediverse remain nieche?
it grows everytime the big commercial plattforms f**k up
but because it's not centralized, everyone can create their own nieches (which need not even be connected to the rest of fediverse)
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
if you want to share a youtube-video, you should use invidious.snopyta.org to create a tracker-free link, because a lot of users don't like sharing their data with big tech companies
Is it sensible to have several accounts, so for mastodon, pixelfed, peertube, etc.? And how to connect them?
depends on what you want to share, especially for multimedia
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?
most servers have the same limits, some have higher limits for example characters (5.000 instead of general 500)
contentnation.net has an overview for German servers
limits for polls or number of bio-links can be adjusted by the admins, but might create problems for every update
changes on one server can possibly affect the performance of other servers
I'm actually on Friendica and not Mastodon (not sure if that was a great decision but I also didn't want to overthink things). On my server there are not as many people, I think, so if I use the search bar I often find nothing at all. People probably then tend to choose servers where there's already a lot of people to make it easier to get connected. So could we say that, while trying to decentralize social networking, fediverse still has those mechanisms that automatically lead to more centralization?
one instance/server can block users on other servers or even a whole other server
Are there specials servers for govermental accounts
in Germany there is social.bund.de which is invite only
there is also an EU-server
there is no offical verification system in the fediverse like on Twitter but there are other ways to check, if an account is legit:
certain servers are invite only, so only legit users can create an account there
every account can create a verified link-back to their own official website
Accessabilty-Feature:
Glitch-Soc has a feature where you can see red boarders around pictures or videos without alt text
there's a BOT that reminds you, if you've forgotten alternative text / description