Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 3
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Chapter 1: Exploring Mastodon 5
A Brief Definition of Mastodon 6
A Brief History of Mastodon 7
Comparing Mastodon to Twitter 8
On Mastodon, conversation is the focus 9
Mastodon is a home, not a site 9
Mastodon is built to serve its community 10
Algorithms aren't allowed on Mastodon 10
Users aren't tracked on Mastodon 11
Ads aren't acceptable (yet) on Mastodon 11
Welcome to the Fediverse! 12
Understanding Federation 13
Chapter 2: Digging into Mastodon 15
Choosing a Server 15
Browsing your options 17
Understanding sign-up speed 18
Reading the rules 19
Previewing a server 19
Meeting the admin 19
Seeing why smaller is better 20
Signing Up 20
Choosing your username 21
Choosing a display name 21
Choosing a password 22
Following the suggested people 23
Customizing Your Profile 24
Starting with the basics 24
Setting options and metadata 26
Viewing and tweaking your profile 28
Choosing featured hashtags 29
Setting Your Preferences 30
Choosing your preferred language 30
Checking out the themes 31
Trying out the advanced web interface 31
Looking at animations and accessibility preferences 32
Glancing at the other options 32
Getting Verified 32
Getting your verification link 33
Linking back to Mastodon 34
But can I have a blue check mark? 34
Securing Your Account 35
Getting an authenticator app 35
Setting up two-factor authentication 36
Understanding Mastodon's Three Timelines 37
The home timeline 37
The local timeline 38
The federated timeline 39
Signing in Using the Mobile App 39
Chapter 3: Finding and Following Friends and Strangers 45
Searching for Users and Hashtags 46
Searching for users 46
Searching for hashtags 47
Following Other Users 48
Follow freely 48
Finding recommendation lists 49
Following accounts boosted by friends 50
Exploring 50
Following Hashtags 51
Viewing Trending Topics 52
Viewing top hashtags 52
Learning from history 53
Blocking and Filtering 53
Filtering content 53
Finding out who's blocked 55
Blocking and muting users and servers 56
Unmuting and unblocking 57
Reporting users 58
Chapter 4: Developing a Following 59
Finding Your Friends on Mastodon 59
Searching for fellow Twitter refugees 59
Inviting friends and family 64
Boosting and Favoriting 66
Joining in the Conversation 68
Introducing yourself 69
Asking for advice 69
Asking big questions 69
Being funny 70
Being respectful of others 70
Posting about Mastodon 70
Using Direct Messages 70
Writing and sending direct messages 71
Remembering that direct is not private 72
Chapter 5: Toot, Toot: Writing Effective Posts 73
Knowing the Lingo 73
Instances, nodes, and servers 73
Toots and posts 74
Avoid using birdsite terms 75
Content warnings (CW) 75
Minding Your Manners: Mastodon Etiquette 76
Review the code of conduct 76
Be conversational 76
Build community 77
Using Hashtags 78
Enhancing Your Posts 79
Illustrating your posts with videos and images 81
Creating a poll 83
Setting post privacy 85
Adding a content warning 86
Changing your language 87
Chapter 6: Mastodon for Business 89
Doing Business in the Fediverse 89
Taking it slow 90
Monitoring what other businesses are doing 91
Knowing the Policies of a Server 92
Find out whether business users are allowed 92
Find out whether marketing is allowed 93
Adjusting to Mastodon 94
Make it personal 94
Don't repeat yourself 94
Ask for guidance 94
Making Positive Contributions 95
Contributing money 95
Contributing expertise 97
Contributing equipment 98
Contributing space 98
Running Your Own Server 98
Chapter 7: Running Your Own Mastodon Instance 99
Building an Instance 99
Hosting your own instance versus using a hosted instance 100
Understanding Masto.host 101
Getting started with Masto.host 101
Opening Your Instance to the World 107
Adding (and limiting) users 107
Defining rules and policies 112
Keeping your instance staffed 115
Funding your instance 116
Keeping Your Instance Running: System Administration 117
Making backups 117
Fighting spam with scripts 118
Supporting user's discoveries 118
Enforcing the Rules: Moderators 119
Reading reports 119
Fighting spam 122
Disciplining other sites 122
Contributing to the Mastodon Project 123
Reporting bugs and making suggestions 123
Preparing documentation 123
Getting involved with your instance 124
Chapter 8: Ten Tools that Integrate with Mastodon 125
Metatext 126
tooot 127
Whalebird 128
Subway Tooter 128
Tusky 129
TheDesk 130
Toot! 131
Tootle 132
Halcyon 133
Hyperspace 134
Chapter 9: Exploring Other Fediverse Platforms 135
PeerTube 135
Discourse 136
Pixelfed 137
Friendica 138
Funkwhale 139
BookWyrm 140
Inventaire 140
Lemmy 141
Owncast 142
Pubcast 142
Index 143
