Hey everyone, I'm working on a guide on how to thrive on Mastodon. If youve been here for more than three months, I'm curious if you would have any advice for a new user to get them to stick around and not bounce off.
All comments welcome, feel free to boost.
@srol
What we really need is a directory of instances by theme/focus, not just by level of rules enforcement.
My most important advice is start on a smaller instance, follow lots of people, and don't be afraid to butt in on conversations as long as your goal is not to be offensive. And if you're accidentally offensive and apologize sincerely, people will forgive you and life will go on.
@DialMforMara @srol yes. I would love a searchable list of instances that I can search by theme and other parameters.
@DialMforMara That would be nice.
Related research (only currently open registration though):
https://github.com/distributopia/masto-world-overview
Please, use it if you find it helpful (I'll try to update it when new instances go up).
If you create such a website, please, let me know :)
@DialMforMara @srol I'm happy to help out! I can handle front-end and back-end, but I'd be best leaving the research and writing to you 🙂
@DialMforMara @srol That's a fantastic idea. However, because new instances appear all the time, hard to maintain without crowdsourcing.
@DialMforMara @srol Yeah but let’s be honest, the actual content filling most instances doesn’t actually reflect any stated theme. There are a couple exceptions, sure, but imo not enough to make a directory.
@srol
That said, does anyone want to help me create a directory of instances by theme? I can do the research and writing, and maybe some HTML, but I don't know how to do backend