From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in.
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
check out the whole server I’m on!
@iwritelike -
Yeah, it's definitely different from other social media, where they're eager to show you stuff to keep you on their app. Here you have to actively "ask" for stuff.
It's like doing topiary: first you gotta do some wild growth, then you go and cut it back to what you want.
And don't be afraid to cut, esp. if you follow sometime very generic, like # art. I'm not into video game fan art, so I just mute acc'ts that post that into my timeline. Nothing personal, I'm just not into it
@jztusk @iwritelike
yes, you don't have to follow people, following topic hashtags will bring all kinds of people straight to you! -
@jztusk @iwritelike
yes, you don't have to follow people, following topic hashtags will bring all kinds of people straight to you!@traecer @jztusk @iwritelike I would add that the folks you're already following, take a look at the hashtags /they/ use, those tags most likely will bring in posts from accounts you also want to follow.
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
Don't kniw if you're aware, but you can follow hashtags, not just people. That way your home feed is populated by all your favorite topics.
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
@iwritelike @quietmarc You’ve made a good start with those hashtags. Simply follow them to view posts sharing those hashtags and follow anyone who seems interesting. And follow any other hashtags they might be using. Also just start typing a hashtag and see what suggestions come up. It’s all very organic.
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@iwritelike @quietmarc You’ve made a good start with those hashtags. Simply follow them to view posts sharing those hashtags and follow anyone who seems interesting. And follow any other hashtags they might be using. Also just start typing a hashtag and see what suggestions come up. It’s all very organic.
@iwritelike @quietmarc And I’ve just noticed the other 400000 people saying the same thing. Lol.
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@jztusk @iwritelike
yes, you don't have to follow people, following topic hashtags will bring all kinds of people straight to you! -
@traecer @jztusk @iwritelike I would add that the folks you're already following, take a look at the hashtags /they/ use, those tags most likely will bring in posts from accounts you also want to follow.
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@iwritelike @quietmarc And I’ve just noticed the other 400000 people saying the same thing. Lol.
@andymoose @quietmarc
It's still helpful! First of all, new information sticks better with repetition
. Plus, I treat every reply as a thread to the larger world of Mastodon where I can discover more accounts. So thank you very much for your reply! -
Don't kniw if you're aware, but you can follow hashtags, not just people. That way your home feed is populated by all your favorite topics.
@MissGayle Thank you! I think I'll do just that from now on. I was afraid it would clutter my feed with unrelated posts, as I've noticed that sometimes tags don't really match the content. But I'm willing to give it a try
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check out the whole server I’m on!
@iwritelike@clew Thank you! As soon as I figure out how to do this, I will
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@iwritelike Once you start following a few people I found this tool handy. "Followgraph looks up all the people you follow on Mastodon, and then the people they follow. Then it sorts them by the number of mutuals, or otherwise by how popular those accounts are. It then shows the list with Mastodon links to follow them." https://followgraph.vercel.app/
@gptreb Thank you! This sounds really helpful and promising.
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@iwritelike I don’t know if you also want others to find you, but it helps to have an intro post (with the hashtag # intro) pinned at the top of your profile.
You already have info in your bio which is great. Just elaborate a bit on that in the intro post with relevant hashtags for your interests (like the ones you included in this post).
Many people in the Fediverse boost intro posts because we all know this is the best way to find mutuals.
Also, for some servers the pinned posts are the only posts that show up on a profile if your server is muted (mastodon.social has some major moderation issues so some people have reduced your server’s visibility to avoid harassment or bots).If in the future you move to a smaller server that pinned post might also be the only post people see because their server hasn’t yet federated with your server.
So don’t fret if an account looks empty or only shows your posts they’ve interacted with (it doesn’t necessarily mean they are fixated on only your account which is what I thought when I was new to mastodon), this just means the two servers haven’t yet been introduced and need more interactions. That’s why some people’s profile photos only show up once you follow them.
@stephaniepixie Oh, what a guide! Thank you so much! It answered so many of my questions. I did notice all those things you mentioned, including the accounts that looked empty, which made me think there was no reason to follow them, and the changing profile photos.
Everything is so new and intricate here. Your reply is a real treasure! -
My fav tag is #DogsOfMastodon
@justbob What a great tag! It'll be the first tag I follow
Thank you! -
@iwritelike @justbob@kolektiva.social
Search is, uh, a work in progress on Mastodon. There are so many servers, and not all of them index their posts, so it's best not to depend on it. But it looks like you've gotten a lot of good suggestions!
@jztusk It's so good to know, really. I gaslit myself into thinking I was doing something wrong because I believed in the power of the search box
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@justbob @iwritelike yep, follow hashtags in addition to accounts!
@Tim_Eagon Thank you! I will now.
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A alsternerd@akkoma.alster.space shared this topic
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
@iwritelike #bookstodon is where it's at
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@iwritelike It’s like gold digging here: first you need to follow a lot and have a messy time line (by following hashtags), then you can sort things out and find the gold
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
@iwritelike
Once you follow a few people, go through the list of people they follow (available from their profile). There's a good chance you have shared interests.When someone you follow boosts an interesting post, check out the profile of the person who made that post.
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From what I understand about Mastodon now, the more people I follow, the better chances I have to find discussions I'm interested in. Not that it's a complete Catch-22, but it’s certainly hard to start discovering things when your following list is quite short. Does anyone have recommendations from the world of literature, science, or art?
Definitely take a look at the hashtag WritingCommunity. That's where a lot of authors organize, and you'll also find a few writing games there with daily prompts or questions. Follow those hashtags, as well.
Mastodon has an awesome writer community, seriously.
So yes, follow often, weed out later. Don't feel bad about muting people (or just muting their boosts). Here, you have to curate your timeline, there's no algorithm doing it for you.
Also, welcome! Glad you're here!
