Mastodon For Dummies

By Chris Minnick and Michael McCallister

A little birdy told us you needed to know more about Mastodon

Ready to escape the drama of existing social media platforms and try something new and awesome in the world of social media? In Mastodon For Dummies, experienced tech trainers Chris Minnick and Mike McCallister show you exactly how to use Mastodon, the hot decentralized social media offering on the web and destination for thousands of social media migrants. Learn how to sign up for the service on your choice of server and get familiar with the rules of what’s sure to become your new favorite app. You’ll discover how to connect with other people, attract your own followers, and make yourself right at home in the Mastodon community.

In the book, you’ll find:

• Easy-to-follow instructions on how to choose the Mastodon server that suits you best
• Instructions for establishing new connections on a new social platform and learning the rules of the road
• Tips for conducting business on Mastodon and making a home for your home-based business or brand on the social media service
• Step-by-step guides on launching your very own server

If you’re ready to leave old social platforms in the rear-view and try something new, grab a copy of Mastodon For Dummies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Jan 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781394193387

Book preview

Introduction

Welcome! Whether you're curious about Mastodon as an alternative to billionaire-owned corporate social media platforms or because you've noticed that many of your favorite people are joining Mastodon, this book is your friendly and easy-to-use step-by-step guide.

Maybe you're trying to decide whether to join Mastodon. Or maybe you've already joined Mastodon and are looking to get the most out of it. Or maybe you stumbled over some of the technical details of signing up on your first attempt but you're ready to give it another go. Whatever your reasons for wanting to learn more about Mastodon, we believe that you now hold in your hands (or on your screen) the easiest, friendliest, and most complete guide available!

For those of us (like Chris) who came to Mastodon because we had a sudden epiphany that we no longer liked Twitter, after spending way too much time on it, Mastodon feels like a breath of fresh air. But it's a different kind of fresh air — like a sea breeze at a beach full of interesting people you want to talk to, rather than angry knuckleheads, salespeople, and snake-oil peddlers.

For those of us (like Michael) who came to Mastodon in its early days because of the cool technology and its potential to change the way the web works for the better, the sudden popularity and success of Mastodon is proof that social media doesn't need to be corporate owned and that online communities can form and become sustainable without profit motive.

Thank you for choosing us to be your guides as you take your first steps into the world of Mastodon.

About This Book

This book is designed for people who are either new to Mastodon or have some experience but want to learn how to make better use of it. You'll discover, in plain English, the most important and useful things to know:

Learning the history of Mastodon

Understanding how Mastodon is different from and similar to Twitter

Knowing what it means that Mastodon is distributed

Signing up for a Mastodon account

Learning how to log into the Mastodon mobile app and the website

Customizing your Mastodon profile

Configuring important preferences in Mastodon

Getting a verified link on Mastodon

Securing your Mastodon account

Using Mastodon's three timelines

Searching for and finding other users

Following other users

Using hashtags on Mastodon

Viewing trending topics

Blocking users and servers

Getting followers

Interacting with people and posts

Using direct messages

Understanding how moderation works

Posting images and video

Creating polls

Doing business on Mastodon

Making positive contributions as a business on Mastodon

Setting up and running your own Mastodon website

As you read this book, keep the following in mind:

The book can be read from beginning to end, but feel free to skip around if you like. If a topic interests you, start there. You can always return to previous chapters, if necessary.

At some point, you'll get stuck, and something won't work as you expect. Do not fear! Many resources are available to help you, including Mastodon's documentation (at https://docs.joinmastodon.org/), other people on Mastodon, and us! You can send Chris Minnick a public message on Mastodon at @[e-mail] and you can send Michael McCallister a public message at @[e-mail]. Make sure to use the hashtag #mastodonFD!

In the book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy – just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

We make only a few assumptions about you, the reader.

We assume that you have a computer running a modern web browser or a mobile device running Android or iOS. The instructions and screenshots in the book were tested and optimized using the Chrome browser, which is available for free from Google. Even so, all the instructions and websites mentioned will work in the latest version of Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and any other modern web browser.

We assume you have access to an internet connection. Just as with any social network or mobile app, you won't be able to do much with Mastodon if you're not connected to the internet.

Icons Used in This Book

Here are the icons used in the book to flag text that should be given extra attention or that can be skipped.

Tip This icon flags useful information or explains a shortcut to help you understand a feature or concept.

Remember Try not to forget the material marked with this icon. It signals an important concept or process that you should keep in mind.

Technical Stuff This icon explains technical details about the concept being explained. The details might be informative or interesting but are not essential to your understanding of the concept at this stage.

Warning Watch out! This icon flags common mistakes and problems that can be avoided if you heed the warning.

Beyond the Book

Extra content that you won’t find in this book is available at www.dummies.com. Go online and type Mastodon For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box to see the following:

Cheat Sheet: The online cheat sheet provides additional tips for using Mastodon and building your following.

Updates: Mastodon is growing and improving rapidly. As such, some of the instructions or screenshots in this book may not be exactly correct when you read this book. You'll find updates to the book, as well as a place to report errors that you may find.

Where to Go from Here

Are you ready to get started? Turn the page! Remember: You don't have to read this book in order from start to finish. If you're most interested in learning how to sign up for Mastodon, go straight to Chapter 2. If you want to know whether Mastodon would be a good fit for your business, check out Chapter 6. If you want to get technical and find out how to get started with setting up your own Mastodon server, go straight to Chapter 7.

No matter where you decide you're going to start reading this book, we're glad you are. And we're looking forward to seeing you on Mastodon!

Chapter 1

Exploring Mastodon

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Understanding what Mastodon is all about

Bullet Reading a brief history of Mastodon

Bullet Seeing the differences between Twitter and Mastodon

Bullet Introducing the fediverse and federation

You’ve probably heard that Mastodon is the open-source Twitter or a Twitter alternative. There’s certainly some truth to those definitions, but they don’t really tell you all that much about Mastodon itself.

It’s true that Mastodon is a microblogging service like Twitter. You can post short messages of up to 500 characters that friends and strangers can read and respond to. You can share links to news, information, photos, and video from across the internet.

But Mastodon is far from being a Twitter clone. It operates on a different economic model and isn’t owned by anyone, especially a celebrity billionaire.

In this chapter, you find out how Mastodon works in the broader scheme of things. We provide a more detailed comparison with Twitter, definitions of terms you’ll encounter while exploring Mastodon, a little bit of history, and more. If you’re anxious to get started using Mastodon, feel free to skip to the next chapter. We understand. Come back to this chapter when you’re ready.

A Brief Definition of Mastodon

At the https://mastodon.help site, they answer the question What is Mastodon? this way:

A good way to describe the network is by saying that Mastodon is a ‘galaxy of interconnected social networks based on a common platform.’

Mastodon isn’t just one site, like Twitter.com and Facebook.com. The first choice you’ll make when you decide to create an account is what star (or instance) in this galaxy of sites to call home. (Chapter 2 walks you through the steps.)

Each of these sites runs the Mastodon software (the common platform). Once you have a home on a site running the Mastodon software, you can connect with people on other sites running Mastodon.

However, there are exceptions to your ability to connect. Your site administrator can choose to block connections to some or all Mastodon instances for whatever reason. Most often, blocking happens because a particular site’s users frequently harass other people, produce spam, or engage in some other bad behavior. We talk more about your ability to block individuals and servers in Chapter 3.

You may wonder where all these instances came from. Perhaps more to the point, how does Mastodon pay its bills? There are two parts to that answer.

Mastodon’s code is open source, and the person who wrote the code doesn’t charge anyone to use it. But just because the Mastodon software doesn’t cost anything doesn’t mean there aren’t costs to running Mastodon. Internet service providers don’t connect sites to the internet for free. The web servers that host the content on Mastodon cost money to operate and maintain. Parts break and need to be replaced. Larger instances serving thousands of users need more than a volunteer admin (or even a squad of volunteers) to keep everything going.

Twitter and other big tech companies solve this problem by selling targeted advertising to companies that want to reach specific types of people. Everything you do on their platforms is tracked: The posts you like, the posts you share, the topics you post on, and more. Many of them track all your travels on the internet through browser cookies. Your privacy doesn’t matter to them.

Mastodon doesn’t work like that. The vast majority of instances don’t accept ads, and many block access from instances that do sell ads.

In your travels around Mastodon, you’ll see many reminders to tip your bartenders. The folks who manage Mastodon instances usually have a way for users to contribute to the instance’s expenses, either directly, through a foundation, or through a platform such as Patreon or Kickstarter. The best administrators are transparent about expenses, posting the monthly expenses of the