I signed up. Now what?

Compared to the bigger social networks, Mastodon can feel quiet at first, especially on a smaller server like sunny.garden. This might be a good or bad thing depending on what you were expecting.

Since Mastodon isn’t going to throw a bunch of ads, topics, posts, and follow recommendations at you all the time, it pays to explore a little on your own. Generally you’re only going to see what you specifically choose to see.

If you’re looking for people to follow, check out…

• the Profile Directory
• the Local Timeline
• the #introduction tag
• follow the @FediFollows account for recommendations
• browse users on other communities that look interesting

Because Mastodon isn’t a single service operated by one company, clicking Follow on a user on a different server may require you to enter your own username, eg. @myusername@sunny.garden. This will link back to sunny.garden to establish the connection between the servers.

Help other people find and follow you (or not)…

If you’d like other people to find and follow your account, it will help a lot if you…

• Set your profile Avatar picture, and add a Header image if you’re feeling fancy
• Fill in something about yourself – or what you might be posting – in your Bio
• Post an introduction using the #introduction tag
• Explore your account settings to control things like whether your profile is listed in the directory

Invite a friend…

Having just one or two people you already know on Mastodon can make a big difference in how welcoming it feels. Whether or not they join sunny.garden or a different server, you can still follow each other either way.

But if you’d rather start fresh, that’s fine too!