Do you have any questions about using this place?

Any question is fine, don't worry if it seems too simple, I'm especially wanting to help non-technical people on here.

Put them in the replies (or DM if you prefer) and I'll try to get some answers for you 🙂

#FediTips

⚠️ Spammers from a site called SocialDB.xyz seem to be flooding Mastodon members with emails claiming to offer sponsorship opportunities (which is dubious to say the least).

It's probably best to just ignore these emails, report them as spam and do not click on any of their links.

They seem to be getting email addresses from blogs mentioned in Mastodon profiles, if the blog has a public email address. The spam assumes the linked blog is the same as the account owner.

#SocialDB #SocialDBXYZ

You can control who can see your post by choosing a visibility setting when you publish it. Here's a guide to all the visibility settings and how to use them:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/who-can-see-my-posts-in-mastodon-how-do-i-send-dms-in-mastodon

The guide also answers lots of questions about visibility settings.

If you want to restrict who can see your post, you should choose "Followers Only" (which just your followers can see) or "Only People I Mention" (which only accounts mentioned in that post can see).

#FediTips #Mastodon

You can hide your Mastodon profile's follows and followers by editing your profile. Full guide here:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-to-hide-your-follows-and-followers-in-mastodon

They will still be visible to you when you are logged in, but no one else will be able to see them.

The method for doing this changed with Mastodon 4.6.0 so you may want to check out the new location for this setting.

(Thanks to @nprofile1q... for pointing out the update!)

#FediTips #Mastodon

There is a weather service on the Fediverse called FediMeteo providing forecasts in your timeline for cities and towns around the world:

1. Go to https://fedimeteo.com
2. Click your country
3. Click your town/city
4. Copy-paste the Fediverse address (looks like @ something @ something ) into the search box in Mastodon etc
5. Click follow in Mastodon etc

(Don't worry if it looks blank, it just means no one from your server follows that account yet.)

If you have questions ask @FediMeteo

If you're interested in starting your own Mastodon server or other kinds of online services, you might want to check out my other website:

➡️ https://growyourown.services

I've just revamped the site to feature options for all tech skill levels (including none!). You can follow this account for the site's latest updates:

➡️ @nprofile1q...

Here's an easy-to-understand tutorial from the site about creating your own Mastodon server:

➡️ https://growyourown.services/making-your-own-mastodon-server-in-10-steps

#SelfHosting #CommunityHosting

If you are able to, it's really important to add alt text descriptions when posting an item of media on here 🙂

If you forget to add descriptions, there are two ways you can be reminded. Both methods are covered in this guide:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-remember-to-add-text-descriptions-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse

#FediTips #AltText #Accessibility #Mastodon

Write Freely is a minimalist blogging platform for the Fediverse, with a focus on the text itself. You can find out more on its website at:

➡️ https://writefreely.org

You can follow the official account at:

➡️ @nprofile1q...

There's an official list of Write Freely servers you can sign up on at https://writefreely.org/instances and there are many others out there which aren't on the list.

#FediTips #WriteFreely #Blogging #Minimalism

There's apparently scammers going round pretending to be Mastodon admins, demanding people "verify their identity".

Do not click on their links, do not give them any info. It is a scam. Genuine Mastodon server admins never demand verification like this.

Here's a guide to how to recognise and avoid various kinds of scams on Mastodon and the wider Fediverse:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/how-to-avoid-scammers-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse

(Thanks to @nprofile1q... for providing warning about the latest wave of scam posts.)

#FediTips

Mastodon has a built-in system to prevent you seeing the same post boosted again and again. However, it allows boosts to reappear if 40 other posts have passed through your main timeline, and this is why you may see the same boost repeated.

As the Fediverse is now much busier, Mastodon's devs are raising this number to 80 other posts (technical details are at https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/39784). This should hopefully be in the next update.

(Thanks to @nprofile1q... for pointing this out 🙏 )

#FediTips #Mastodon