Derek I. Batting @wishx@mastodon.social

Have you posted a photo on Mastodon and the preview image hides something important?

If you're using the web version of Masto, you can alter the focus of the preview image when posting photos. Just click "Edit" on the image and move the circle around. When you've finished click "Apply".

(And while you're editing, do remember to add an image description for blind people!)

The two photos below are identical, but one has the focus set to the right and one to the left.

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips

New people, welcome to Mastodon and the Fediverse!

Here's how to get started:

1. Find some people to follow over on @FediFollows, and through Trunk (https://communitywiki.org/trunk)

2. Find out your Mastodon/Fediverse address so you can share it with friends (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107248252715651564)

3. Invite people to join you on here by telling them to go to https://joinmastodon.org and click on "Get Started". It doesn't matter if they join a different server because the servers talk to each other (here's a bit more of an explanation https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107021461185874594)

4. Find out what the Fediverse is (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107044096139091624)

5. Find out why Mastodon being on so many different servers/instances is a really good thing (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107083735491993183)

6. If you see anything nasty, you can report it to your friendly server admin (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106540152842368591)

7. You can (sort of) verify your account if you own a website (https://mstdn.social/@feditips/106274105538953001)

If you have any questions, @ me or DM me!

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon

The threshold for discoverability on Mastodon is pretty high, so be generous about boosting other people. Sometimes you're the signal, and sometimes you're the path the signal takes through the noise.

So you just arrived here from twitter and it's quiet. Real quiet. That's because there's no algorithm here designed to drive engagement(which equals profit).

Here, you are the algorithm. It's up to you to find and follow people that are interesting to you. You can also see who they follow and who else follows them, as you build it up, it gets more interesting.

Also, if you find people you don't like or entire instances you don't like, you can mute or block them. You are in control.