HERE IS WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR ABOUT USING MASTODON. I feel like every post I see on Mastodon is some kind of angst about how to use this newfangled thing, and I am still very confused, but I figured we can all learn together.
Also if it sounds elementary to you please scroll away, this is not for you :) but correct me if I'm wrong!!
(1) MAKING AN ACCOUNT: when you sign up, you choose an "instance." When they say that Mastodon is "decentralized," it means that it's a huge network with multiple nodes. You create an account in one of those nodes (the instance).
You can choose a node based on the kind of posts that you want to see, as each node has its own content moderation settings / interests. This tool can help you decide, or you can use the flagship instance, mastodon.social (I'm on this one) instances.social/
I've sort of thought of it as subreddits, where you can be a member of one but still read posts from other subreddits. The difference here is that each subreddit / instance is a Twitter feed, not a discussion board.
Each account is formatted as @ {handle} @ {instance name}, but when you're on your timeline, people on the same instance just show @ {handle}.
You can change instances pretty easily through Mastodon's data export utility and you can let people know on your profile that you've moved your account from one instance to another. You can download your followers / muted users / blocked users list.
This is the part I'm a little fuzzy on, but it seems that if you move instances, you *can* bring your followers with you even when your old account is archived: mstdn.social/@feditips/105317854827203241
(2) POSTS: here are the equivalences. (You can also filter posts on your timeline so that they show / or don't show RT/likes!)
Tweets = toots
Retweets = boosts (and reblogs)
Like ā¤ļø = fave ā
For now, I'm using a Twitter / Mastodon cross poster as everyone I know slowly makes the migration. crossposter.masto.donte.com.br/
(3) TIMELINE: there are three of them -- home, local, and federated. Home = people you follow. Local = most recent posts from people in the same instance. Federated = shows posts from your instance + the other ones that this instance is connected to.
(4) LISTS: like Twitter, Mastodon has its own lists function. However, one cool thing that I've discovered with Mastodon is that each instance has its own profile directory. In @hci.social, for example, you get a huge list of people who work on HCI.
In this way, Mastodon helps you discover / curate accounts you might be interested in following by dint of people's main interests. For example, I know @amyxzh and @andresmh's work but if I wasn't already familiar, it's great to quickly discover and follow lots of people!
(5) VIBE: This is where I struggle, lol. I think my general issues now are two-fold -- a) it's hard for me to follow conversations because responses aren't really threaded and b) I still don't have a feel for how the app talks, so to speak.
As far as I can tell, *this* is the thing that people are trying to figure out but it does have a retro feel, like ning or livejournal or IRC. Honestly, I am looking forward to a more curated approach to a professional-ish social media and hope to see you on Mastodon soon :)