Due to popular demand, and the ever-increasing net to explain Mastodon to newbies as every instance is being bombarded with new users...
I've gone ahead and create a video tutorial that should help folks get to grips with all of this platform's particulars:
Intro to Mastodon 101
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W22msAw2zwI
Special Thanks to:
@noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark
ALSO, MY VOICE IS SUCH HELL. I AM SO SORRY TO SUBJECT YOU ALL TO IT.
@tahajin I liked it a lot, though 
@lucariwhoa (Exasperated Gay Black Noises) ;~;
@tahajin I like it. It's calm, and I was able to understand pretty well despite how I have a hard time making out sounds, in particular speech.
@Nomaxice Aw, jeez, thanks! I tried my damnedest to make sure I was enunciating everything else despite the uh...handful of speech impediments I operate through!
@tahajin I liked your voice! :)
The video was very informative and well produced!
Every now and then I felt the audio levels/mixing made it a bit difficult to follow, at least for me - but other than that it was absolutely excellent!
@DareLooks Not surprised, this is my first time using my voice in a video since...what, like early high school - so about eight years or so? My dialogue mixing is ROUGH.
But I'm glad most of the important stuff came through!
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark You mean there's a better way than just jumping off the deep end and hoping not to drown? Fascinating (Spock voice)
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark Thank you very much.
@tahajin Don't be shy about your voice! Nothing odd about it. Wouldn't have thought twice about it if you didn't mention it.
@Gargron Yeaaaah, but I N S E C U R I T I E S. ;~;
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark
hey guys, I just created my account and your .. post ? helped me understand it better :) thx !
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark this is so, SO good.
tangential: are there any technical barriers to implementing a (group) DM solution as part of Mastodon with the Signal protocol?
@0xKruzr I wouldn't know off the top of my head but, theoretically, that would just operated like a private instance, which already exists!
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark I’ve been here a while and still found this helpful
@seb_ly Shoot, that's awesome to hear!! Thank you so, so much!
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark it certainly helped me understand the platform better, thanks
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark Thanks, that was helpful!
@tahajin Thank you so much for this! And I really enjoyed hearing your own voice in the video. 👍🏼
@noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark
@tahajin @Gargron @MillennialDog this is super!
@tahajin @noelle @Gargron @MillennialDog @Rybark genuinely helpful as a newbie here! Thanks!
@tahajin This was so well done. Thank so much for putting this together hun.
@Therian No problem at all! Though it did wallop my weekend...! I’m so bloody tiiired. ;~;
I was thinking about boosting this on bird site but everyone with a similar following to me has been auto-modded into oblivion for saying TERFs can suck it, so, y’know.
@tahajin good video. sure to get a lot of hits in the coming days.
@tahajin This is dope!
@vey YOU’RE DOPE.
Nah but seriously, thank you~.
@jeroenpraat No problem and uh, I’d rather keep it under my account, if at all possible!
@tahajin
Thanks! Of course, but if you want to keep it under your name, you should upload it yourself somewhere on PeerTube.
@tahajin Hi, did you already upload your video somewhere on Peertube?
@jeroenpraat Nnnot yet, no. Sorry, is there something wrong with it being on YouTube?
@tahajin Yes, because I want to embed it on our wiki, and we don't embed content from proprietary sites.
Eric 
@tahajin @Gargron @MillennialDog
Ok I just went back to the bird site to post a link to it 😎
@tahajin @Gargron @MillennialDog Thanks for the video, it actually did help me :)
I certainly won't ask for anyone to boost this, but I'd definitely appreciate any comments or criticisms as this was a larger undertaking than I thought it'd be!
Hopefully eight minutes isn't too long for a website tutorial!