this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2023
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Fediverse

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Been using lemmy and really enjoying it. I have a twitter account that does me no good so Mastodon seemed very appealing. I joined an instance, made some posts, tried interacting with a lot of people. . . I dunno. It just never really grabbed me.

I've noticed that content seems to federate on lemmy better than on Mastodon even though lemmy is younger, and I'm under the impression this is true for kbin as well though I don't personally use it. I'd love to hear how you guys feel about it - as an artist the idea of having a blog to share my creations as well as life updates is cool but man it's just so dead

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 2 years ago (5 children)

So, the issue with Mastodon is that there's no global search and discovery. In order to be found, things have to be hashtagged. The problem with hashtagging is that twitter clout weirdos made hashtagging SO uncool that nobody, anywhere, wants to do it anymore. So, do search hashtags related to your interests and follow folks that are posting to them, but that may not get you too many hits.

If you're on an instance that isn't enormous, try the local timeline to identify some folks to follow. On big instances, that's not usually useful because it's too big a firehose.

For art specifically maybe see the stuff that curator on mastodon.art boosts: https://mastodon.art/@Curator

This is why Lemmy/Kbin is potentially cooler for some applications than Mastodon. Since communities are (a) not stigmitized like tags and (b) also mandatory, plus search exists, it's much easier to find things! (Although there's not yet much to be found)

[–] tenth 7 points 2 years ago

This. Mastodon need to work on discovery.

Thanks for the tips on tags. I initially followed tags but could not unfollow them using official mastodon app so I gave up. Have since switched to Metatext but Lemmy has way better content so I’d rather spent my time there

[–] kratoz29 5 points 2 years ago

Now that I think about it, hashtags are the most cringe thing for me, even when I agree that they are useful, I mean, I use tags for whatever software I use that supports it lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

This is actually really helpful, thanks!

[–] Daisychan 3 points 2 years ago

I wasn't able to find good content on Mastodon so I gave up early on. I didn't know about the hashtag thing! Thank you for this

[–] Lifecoach5000 2 points 2 years ago

I’m still learning the lay of the land here and not a hashtag fan myself, but I was curious if I made a hashtag here and I was following that hashtag on Mastodon if it would should up there. I tested it earlier and didn’t seem to work - which is fine. Just still trying to figure out all the interactions within the fediverse.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Thing is mastodon is a microblogging alternative to Twitter. Personally what I enjoy about Twitter is the people, keeping up with certain friends. They are not in Mastodon so the experience felt dull.

Lemmy is a link aggregator alternative to Reddit. Personally what I enjoy about Reddit is sharing content and discuss in a more broad way. I don't care to know the people, but the content.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

On Mastodon, you follow people. On Lemmy, you follow communities. That's pretty much it. I personally don't dislike Mastodon (I use Pleroma instead), but I think, Lemmy and KBin are just so much more fun.

[–] LordXenu 6 points 2 years ago

The fact they all can work together is cool as fuck. I can follow both people and communities, it’s awesome.

[–] nightscout 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I like mastodon but the content you see is only driven by two things: the people you follow and the hashtags you follow. Basically, you follow people and hashtags to effectively create your own "algorithm." Once I understood this and really made an effort to follow both people and hashtags that interested me, my Mastodon feed became way more interesting than my Twitter feed.

I also like the quality of the interactions better on Mastodon. Because of how the whole thing works, you're not going to get bombarded with horrible stuff in most cases (at least the chances seem to be far less for that kind of thing happening).

But it definitely takes more time and energy to curate compared to Twitter.

[–] adeoxymus 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How do you follow hashtags?

[–] nightscout 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Depends on the app you’re using but usually you just click on the hashtag of interest and then click on the + button or something similar in the upper right corner of the screen. That’s how you do it in both Mona and Ivory.

[–] adeoxymus 2 points 2 years ago

It seems there's no button in the official Mastodon app, however on the site there is.

[–] swancheez 2 points 2 years ago

Similar to how it works in Tusky as well.

[–] swancheez 2 points 2 years ago

Similar to how it works in Tusky as well.

[–] phillycodehound 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I love Mastodon. I'm on the Masto.ai instance. I'm helping maintain it so that might help keep me engage. I also love PixelFed (Pixey.org is my instance). Lemmy.world and Geddit.social for Lemmy instances.

[–] phillycodehound 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wait I didn't answer you question at all. Sorry bud.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

hahah you're good. I might have to try pixelfed! and hosting a wordpress site would be cool but I really wanna interact with people, get mutuals, that sorta thing. I feel like I'm constantly interacting with people on lemmy and I'm lucky if someone even likes my comment on mastodon lmao

[–] phillycodehound 2 points 2 years ago

find me on Pixey.org (a pixelfed instance) I'm Phillycodehound everywhere.

[–] kynshp 8 points 2 years ago

I gave Mastodon a small chance a couple weeks ago and just hopped on Lemmy today and I can already tell (at least as of right now) I prefer Lemmy as a platform. I'll definitely give Mastodon another chance but I just couldn't really get into it. I think I agree with you on the fact that the content seems to federate better on Lemmy.

[–] Venicon 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I enjoy Mastodon as a Twitter replacement. I share whatever nonsense is in my head and react to other peoples nonsense too.

Following hashtags is a great way to find like minded people and because there is no monetisation there are no companies or promoted tweets etc.

[–] TheRedBadger 2 points 2 years ago

Hashtags are the best way to connect to communities on Mastodon.

[–] wellnotreally 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I’ve been trying Mastodon for about a week now and using hashtags like everyone suggests, but I’m not getting any interaction with my posts. I’ve looked up hashtags as well and they seem to either have posts filled with nonsense gibberish or no posts at all. I’m not giving up on it just yet though.

Lemmy has been excellent in comparison.

[–] TheChancePants 3 points 2 years ago

I’m with you. Signed up for Mastodon months ago when Twitter lost me the same way Reddit has. I’m acclimating to using tags to find content I’m interested in, but now the posts that do show up related to my interests have next to zero engagement, making it hard to want to engage myself. At least it’s pretty good for gaming news and stuff like that.

[–] Crow 6 points 2 years ago

I think mastodon is great. It’s not so much for me as I prefer this style of website, but I still have an account and check it occasionally. Also federated.

[–] jetsetdorito 6 points 2 years ago

It takes some work to like it at first, to find an instance you like so you can use the Local feed and follow some people

[–] phillycodehound 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

As far as doing a blog. Try spinning up a WordPress site and hook it up to the activitypub and the fediverse

[–] m88youngling 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You can connect WordPress sites that way? How exactly does it work? Does it just push your blog posts out automatically to a Mastodon account?

[–] phillycodehound 1 points 2 years ago

It can go both ways. I think.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Mastodon is as great as your reach. Make sure you use hashtags though, that's how people find you.

Also link your mastodon and I'll follow you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I look forward to getting to know you better.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

I like Mastodon, but I find it hard to fully engage with a platform where I feel like I have to share my life. I'm much more into bigger discussions and places like here are better for that in my opinion.

[–] Secret300 3 points 2 years ago

I made a twitter account back in 2014 and I just didn't like it. Tried mastadon and I still didn't like it. I just don't like that type of site I guess.

[–] ebits21 3 points 2 years ago

Mastodon is great. I personally use the Ivory app on iOS.

[–] lily33 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I tried Mastodon at one point, but couldn't enjoy it. They reject using recommendation algorithms in favor of chronological order. And I get their reasons, but that meant my feed was mostly full of things I didn't care about, so I left. Things may be better now that they've added an ability to follow hashtags, I don't know.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I'd love to have both. Old Instagram was perfect - chronological following feed, recommend explore. I'm probably asking for too much though hahah

[–] Mpeach45 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Easier to get Lemmy on Mastodon than Mastodon on Lemmy right now. Though the other way is supposed to be in the works.

I actually find Mastodon quite engaging.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Very good point

[–] kplaceholder 1 points 2 years ago

I actually can't see Mastodon users on Lemmy properly? I mean, not that I intend to follow many Mastodon users from here, but just out of curiosity I tried to look them up via Lemmy and, while they do show up, they always show up without any toot. Idk whether I'm doing something wrong or it's just broken at the moment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I use Mastodon. I like it a lot but there's definitely less going on that I'm seeing. I suspect the more time spent on Mastodon and the more people join, the more engaging it will be. It also doesn't help that I'm not following a lot of people.

[–] Panda 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I have an account and never posted anything because it feels intimidating to post my first...post there. (Do people on Mastodon call it post or is there a different word similar to Twitter's 'tweets'?).

It looks really good though, but I find it more intimidating than Lemmy / kbin!

[–] TheChancePants 2 points 2 years ago

They call them “toots” AFAIK.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I got my mastodon feed filled out right off the bat by using one of the followers exporters.

Then to find more you hang out on the federated feed and follow people with posts that you like.