I’ve been told that I can be pretty noisy on social media. For sure, I guess, and it’s not to draw attention but me putting into practice why I’m on social media in the first place. I like to think that I’m constantly learning.
That’s why, if you check my Twitter or Facebook timeline between 5 and 6 am, it’s story after story. It’s the result of me doing my research and reading. I bought into the notion that, if I found something helpful, there may well be others that could benefit from it. Why should we all have to start from scratch? I love it when it also spikes a conversation. So, yeah, I’m noisy. You can add Mastodon to the noise I make.
Like so many, I’ve been keeping my eyes on what’s happening at Twitter. I am fearful that big changes may come that are not consistent with my values or the site may well just go away. To that end, I returned to Mastodon. Returned, because I did apply for an account a while back to a node that still has to get back to me. This time, I tried to get an account on the Canadian node and I was able to get in immediately. So, dougpete lives on!
I like the concept of no advertising and, to date anyway, a feeling of being welcome in someone else’s house.
When I was first verified, I truly did click on anything that looked like a link to see what happened when I did so. It’s amazingly similar to Twitter and yet different. There are some things that I can’t do (or haven’t figured out yet) and there are a number of things that happen quite easily.
Here’s what I think I’ve done well so far…
- set up a profile that looks like I’m in it seriously (see above) and I ported over the waves from the Point at Point Pelee and my treasured sketch of me from friend Colleen Rose
- I made my profile open so that anyone can freely join me and I’ve been following them back
- I used Fedifinder to find Twitter friends who have moved over and I’ve been following most of the people that are recommended to me, knowing I can always fix that if it doesn’t work out
- I switched to the “Advanced Web Interface” to operate in a Tweetdeck like environment – I hate wasted space on my screen
- I explored the IFTTT scripts for Mastodon – specifically looking from a WordPress to Mastodon script with no success – got to think about this – if I rely on posting it manually, I’ll forget more than I remember
- I dropped Shareaholic as it had no Mastodon option but AddToAny does. Ironically, it has a problem now posting to Twitter – I’m currently sharing my reading to Twitter, Facebook, Flipboard, and Mastodon
- I downloaded and configured the Tusky app for my phone
- I switched to a Vanilla flavour and then tried the M A S T O95 skin and panicked big time – get me outta here! High contrast Glitch works best for me
- I found the newsletter and status indicators for my node
- I changed the default for messages to go public rather than to my network which is pretty small at this point in time
- I’m noticing the lack of support for Mastodon in places that I visit. Buttons for Twitter and Facebook are popular; hopefully, this will change
- I’m growing more confident in what I’m doing and to whom I’m connecting; it really was a learning experience for me and that’s a good thing
- I think I understand the difference between the Local Timeline and the Federated Timeline
- I added a Mastodon category to my WordPress site
- And, most importantly, I’ve learned not to type Mastadon
At this point, I’m not sure where I’m headed with all of this. But, at least I have the presence and am developing a skillset to be able to do things.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.