Phil Reese @phillipjreese@mastodon.technology

With the help of others, the previous thread had evolved in a real Mastodon Instructions site.

It's still under construction, but you can still see it here:
https://rame.altervista.org/mastostart

Therefore bad accounts don't last long on Mastodon.

Also for that it's extremely important that you sign up on an Instance where you can easily interact with admins that can communicate in your native language, shares your culture and political views and are capable to understand subtle things that are quite impenetrable for somebody that doesn't know how things works where you live.

Also, if you pich the last post of a sub-thread (in this picture the post 7c) you will see all the previous posts in chronological order, but excluding all the other sub-threads

Now, pay attention: if you pick the thread by selecting the post nr.2 you will also see all the following posts in chronological order, but you will not see the previous ramification (the sub-thread containing the posts 2a and 3a)

MOVING TROUGH RAMIFICATIONS

If you want to read a thread that is highly ramificated, the most important concept to understand is that the order of the different posts will be rearranged depending on which post you select.

Lets make some examples. If you want to read the previous thread and you select the first toot, all the following posts will be rearranged in chronological order (see picture)

THREADS AND RAMIFICATIONS

A thread can evolve in a sort of 'tree' because people will reply and counter-reply on different posts. On the following picture you see a thread that, from a single post, evolves in four different branches:

Twitter users are quite used to it but if you arrived here from different platforms (i.e. Facebook) that can be a little bit confusing 😄

THE POST'S PRIVACY

When you post a message (toot) you can choose between 4 types of posting:

PUBLIC - Your post is public, appears on public timelines and everybody can see it

NOT LISTED - Your post is still public but doesn't appear on timelines. People can read it only if they are cited in it or if they go to your profile and scroll your posts

FOLLOWERS ONLY - Your post is still half-public because only your followers will see it. At their eyes it appears as a regular public post

DIRECT - Your post is private and viewable only by the people cited inside the post.

Anyway remember that Mastodon is designed to spread discussions and not for privacy: your Instance admins are capable to read all your messages, included the direct ones.

For encrypted messaging there are other platforms like https://matrix.org

>>> the Instances:

mstdn.social
mas.to
inditoot.com

(I am not suggesting you that these are better than others, but simply reporting what some new users said)

STEP 2: Export your posts, followers and silenced users list and import them in the new account as explained here: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/06/how-to-migrate-from-one-server-to-another/​

If you need help on this, please contact admins and users of the Instances that you signed up. Please note that if obe of the two instances is using an old version of Mastodon software, this process can work only partially.

MOVING TO A DIFFERENT INSTANCE

In the last days many new users expecially from India, arrived on Mastodon by signing up casually on Instances that are very different from what they need (for example Instances that promote veganism are now flooded by pictures of Tikka Masala Chicken 😅). Therefore it can be a goog idea to move to a different Instance.

If your account is already big, with many posts and followers that you want to keep dont worry: you can move 'em on the new Instance.

STEP 1: Find a new Instance that fits your needs. https://instances.social/​ is the right place to do it. Also, many people signs up on mastodon.social that is ok but, in my opinion, by lacking a true 'local' identity may not be the best place when you want to discuss indian-specific topics. AFAIK most of the new users are signing up on >>>