Since I’ve been on Lemmy, I don’t know what my use is for Mastodon anymore. It’s dead on there anyway. I don’t have anyone to talk to and nobody responds to my posts.
Mastodon is “dead” because you’re not making the switch from spoon-fed algorithmically-supplied content to content you have to actively seek out. Mastodon supplies tools for this, but if these aren’t for you, then yes, Mastodon is useless to you.
To make Mastodon “not dead” you have to take some actions of your own to become part, in effect, of an actual community. These steps helped me:
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Follow some #hashtags of interest. As you find people posting interesting content on that hashtag, follow them. Engage with some of those directly, responding to their posts. Do this for a couple of weeks and you’ll have a full feed.
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Occasionally look into the local feed. Skip over stuff that bores you. Read stuff that interests you. If you see the same names making interesting content, follow them. Also, engage with the stuff that interests you by responding to posts.
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Make content as well as the replies mentioned above. Apply relevant #hashtags so it’s findable. But keep in mind that the system is not going to stuff this in other people’s feeds on your behalf. This isn’t Twitter or any other corporate microblogging setup. You need to get followers, which you can get by following steps 1 and 2. Otherwise you’re just going to get the occasional person seeing your posts who is doing step 2.
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Boost boost boost boost boost. There’s no algorithm cramming posts into other people’s feeds. The only way things go “viral” in Mastodon is if people spread it around. You have to be part of the process instead of abrogating that to an algorithm designed to foster “engagement” by spreading dissent and hate.
I’ll make more of an effort to do that, although I’m still skeptical about the amount of content I’ll see.
In the end it still may not be for you, and I’d like to stress this right now: that’s perfectly fine. Not every platform is for every user. If Lemmy serves your needs better, use Lemmy over Mastodon! It’s awesome!
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I hate that posting into the void feeling. I blame that more on the microblog format more than any particular platform.
I’ve found the Mastodon experience much more isolating than Twitter or Threads, because it intentionally does a lot less to help you find interesting posts and like-minded posters.
I felt like this the first time I made an account, but that’s because no one told me I had to follow hashtags, and I only used the official app where you can’t even do that!
But now I know all that and I’m using a third-party app, my experience is much better. For example, I posted a question about a book series last night, added all the relevant hashtags and then this morning had about 8 or 9 replies from people all helping with my question.
We’re so used to algorithms and being able to just search for particular keywords which will then show up that we’ve forgotten how social media used to work.
I’m using the default mastodon app and I don’t have much replies too. May I know what 3rd party app you’re using?
I can recommend Tusky, easy and simple. Otherwise Fedilab is nice too. Both for Android and available on f-droid.
I’m using Tusky on Android. More features and more customisable to how I want it.
If you’re on iOS, I’m not sure what apps are available on there.
You have to use hashtags on Mastodon if you want your messages to be seen because there is no AI to fill timelines. People follow hashtags and search for them. Then you’ll get likes and boosts.
And, you control your own timeline by following hashtags, following people, and searching for hashtags. This way, unlike Twitter, your timeline only has posts that you are interested in. Once you get this set up, it’s quite nice to only see posts that you like reading, without advertising and without posts meant to enrage you.
Also you can use https://fedi.directory to find great people to follow.
200% this, I did not enjoy mastodon at all until I realized you could follow hashtags. Once you do that you find your people and everything clicks.
People follow hashtags and search for them. Then you’ll get likes and boosts.
How do I follow hashtags? I am using the official Mastodon app for Android.
You should consider switching to Megalodon. It’s a fork of the official Mastodon app so it’s already what you’re used to but adds features like following and pinning hashtags as we as supporting markdown in posts (if your instance is using glitch-soc)
I will check it out, is following hashtags a client side feature or OG webpage supports it?
The web client supports it too, as do other apps like Tusky and Ivory. The official app is just a weird outlier.
@kratoz29 @Jerry as stated here: https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-follow-hashtags-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/
“The official Android app doesn’t yet support hashtag following”, but you can use a different app that supports that feature. For example Tusky. :emoji_wink:Thanks for the heads up!
“Creating your feed” is an essential part of of enjoying mastodon. Hashtags are the single biggest thing but also
- groups help surface new material
- you can follow lemmy/kbin users (you can also follow communities but you only see boosts)
- you can subscribe to peertube creators
- you can follow pixelfed users if you want more pictures in your feed
- etc
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When you follow hashtags do they bring people from other instances to your feed? Or does the search only fetch things from your own instance?
Edit: spelling
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The key word here is “connected” instances. You don’t find hashtag-related posts from all the servers, just the servers that your server is connected to and also only posts that your server has seen from other servers.
This is why, on my instance, I relay with over 300 other instances, some of them are the larger ones. All the posts they see on their server are duplicated onto my smaller server. The impact is that while my server is small, it has the same messages as one of the large servers which makes for a better experience. Note that Mastodon.social does not relay with any other instance. Not that most instances could possibly hold all their posts and accounts anyway.
When I search for hashtags on my instance, I do get a lot of hits.
Many smaller servers do not relay as much as I do, or at all, because it requires disk space to store all the posts, images, and accounts that are streaming in constantly from all these other servers. I don’t have these concerns because I have unlimited capacity. So, the experience will vary depending on which server your account is on.
This has been very illuminating, thank you!
Ok, don’t use it, easy.
Dead?? Goodness - I love Lemmy and I’m working hard on the community I’m building but Mastodon is jamming! I’ve got like 200k followers on IG and only about 700 followers on Mastodon and the convos and engagements blow away IG!
My thing is follow follow follow and then favorite, reblog, and reply! Been amazing.
same here
Better porn on lemmy?
ofc!
I started following people I found elsewhere, then followed people they boosted until my feed had enough volume. Since I mostly consume content and don’t post much, that has been working for me. It does take some figuring out and blocking people (like some on this thread) who’ll act like you’re not supposed to be there if it isn’t all obvious to you (it really isn’t to anyone). If you like both lemmy and twitter (X) it might be worth giving masto another shot.
Much like Twitter u have nothing to post and no interest in any of the things posted.
I saw a lot of comments about hashtags to follow. It’s right. You must follow them to find people to follow.
But, it’s missing a part of how to find people to follow. Boosting is essential. A way to boost automatically a toot is to use groups. You mention the group about the topic and your toot will be boosted. You need to follow these groups to find people. You feed will be less empty by following groups.
could Lemmy extend its functionality and UI to essentially become an active part of Mastodon?
it’s almost the same tech, no?
That’s Kbin
oh sick that’s something i would love to see in Lemmy to expand the Mastodoniverse
They serve vastly different purposes. Lemmy would be a terrible place for people to chat about how their days are going, which is a key part of what microblogging platforms provide to be honest. And conversely, for structured conversations focused on specific topics, Lemmy has obvious advantages.
Beyond the basic structure, there are cultural issues with both that make them a bit tenuous for me.
I don’t want to ask how people are doing. I have things that I like and I want to see posts about them.
Then it’s not for you, and that’s fine
I basically used twitter for news some update and a couple of writers and actors accounts. Mastodon lack a bit of variety right now but you can find tons of content from users pages.
Interesting, I joined recently, followed a couple of people and hashtags, posted and got responses which I didn’t expect as I was there for a day.
I’ve found squabbles pretty good for tweet style content. There seems to be a pretty engaged audience who can look at a short sentence or photo and happily engage with a comment
