Help Me Dog – Mastodon Server
Helloooooo.. Is there anyone out there?
If yes, you may not know that I started a Mastodon server because of all of the issues happening with Twitter right now. Also, Mastodon is growth over the last few days, has been insane!
So, you maybe asking yourself…
What the heck is Mastodon?
Before we get into that, here is a link to my profile.
If you hit that link, it will take you to my profile on the Help Me Dog Mastodon instance.
Mastodon is one of MANY code bases one can run to join the Fediverse. We will get back to that.
Mastodon, named after so many different things, is a twitter-like social media system, that is completely open source, and can be linked to the greater Fediverse. Making it so users on your server can toot (like a tweet) and follow people from other servers in the Fediverse.
So, what is the Fediverse?
As you can see by that tree, there are a bunch of different software packages that can run in the Fediverse, and all of them are based on ActivityPub.
This means you can actually follow, comment, and talk with people on PeerTube (Youtube alternative) from your Mastodon account, and if you follow them you will even see their posts in your feed.
Now, this can get really overwhelming fast. Let us take a step back and just focus on HelpMeDog Mastodon.
When you first get to the HelpMeDog Mastodon server, you can browse public profiles and posts, but you can’t interact without an account. At the time of this writing though, new account registration is fully open.
We also support 2FA, so you can really lock down your account after creation.
If you prefer mobile, the app on Android I use is Tusky. For iOS, the options are a bit more limited, but Mastodon does have an official app in the Apple App Store.
Now I will be adding to this post as I think of things, but I also will be creating a collection of posts to help walk new people through what I have learned as a user and as a server admin.
Until then, have fun!
-Z
Love me!
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