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.