Michael

@jhpot I'd like to be the first to tell you in detail about everything you got wrong in this article. 🧵 (1/87)

@gcluley@mastodon.green *rushing in panting* “Am I too late to tell you something you clearly already know?”

@jhpot Finished reading now. You've done a great job, and on just skimming the replies here it's clear that there's a real appetite for this. Thanks for the work you've put in.

@jhpot 😉 Not at all. I'm still reading through it, but I think it's a great introduction, and I'm bookmarking it in case any friends or family ask me what this thing's all about.

@feditips@mstdn.social @MadSci@focal.social Yes, that’s all it needs to be seen as. A quick tool to help new users find some of the accounts they used to follow on Twitter. People will use it while they’re finding their feet here. I had a quick skim through and found a couple of accounts that I followed. If people want to block me for that, then that’s on them.

If you click on the "Settings" icon again, it gives you much more control. You can now select "Include additional tags for this column" and add more hashtags as you wish, as well as excluding some too! You're now able to constantly get distracted by all the exciting new members posting #introduction, and #neuhier or whatever topics you enjoy! Have fun!

@mrbitterness OH. MY. GOD. I bet the admins are really grumpy that #musk didn't wait a few more weeks. Imagine having *that* to tempt all the users over.

This changes your home page to a column layout and adds a "Getting Started" column on the right. Next step is to replace that with stuff you're interested in. There are some options already in that column, but there's a way to quickly add hashtags too.

Go to the Search box on the left of your screen and type a hashtag, such as #introduction, you'll see Mastodon gives you a selection of matching terms. Click on the one you want.

Clicking on a result shows it in a column over on the right of your screen. You've now got a column dedicated to your favourite subject, but if you log out and come back later it will have gone. Let's fix that!

@davep Haha, I know the feeling. I've only been here a few days and it's certainly a lot harder to find you footing than on that birdsite. I don't know if you've worked out how to pin hashtags, as I'm finding that's livened up my homepage very quickly -- here's a quick guide: https://mastodon.social/@mykd/108204177987098133

@mrbitterness Haha, that the danger of live-tooting! I was just typing out that step as you replied 😀

You can change lots here, but for the moment just click on Appearance, a subheading under Profile. You can then click "Enable advanced web interface"

To keep your hashtag visible, first press the little settings icon at the top right of the column, then press 'Pin'. You've now saved that result and it will remain on your home page until you remove it. But there's more!

@mrbitterness Ah, got it. Now, if only there was an #edit button 😉

@mrbitterness I can definitely see evidence of changes to the API to allow edits to be propagated, so the button could be well on its way. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/16697 You do raise an interesting point though. How will such changes get managed in the future as the number of instances increases, and inclinations of their admins diverges. Does the #fediverse have the required strong #governance and #compliance structures in place?

@mrbitterness I don't want to sound cynical, but that doesn't sound like a story that ends well...

@feditips@mstdn.social @Mickenfox@mastodon.online I’m not sure “always” is true here, but certainly centralisation is typically an easy way to establish authority, and that’s important when discussing authentication.