New to mastodon, never used Twitter, refuse to use Xitter. Any tips and who and what to follow? And who and what do you follow?

Edit: thank you all for your responses! I’ll definitely check out the accounts you suggested! Looking through hashtags I like and popular ones sounds like a great addition!

  • kia@lemmy.caEnglish
    23·
    8 months ago

    Start by finding some hashtags you like and following those. It’s a good way to fill your feed and find interesting people to follow.

  • T JediA
    11·
    8 months ago

    If you like games, try looking at the users of GameDev Place

    If you like visual art, Mastodon.Art can be a good place to start.

    If you are from Europe, there are a few official accounts at https://social.network.europa.eu/directory

    If you like memes, I strongly recommend @skeletor@mas.to and @SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to

    If you need to get news, Flipboard is in the process of federating its content, you can see a few users that are already able to be followed in this post: https://flipboard.social/@Flipboard/111926711889817950

    Hope this helps.

    • kirbowo808@kbin.social
      6·
      8 months ago

      Wouldn’t recommend mastodon.art imo

      Heard the admins on there are very ban-ready on there and basically defederate anyone they consider “bad” despite not actually being problematic themselves.

      • T JediA
        2·
        8 months ago

        Yeah, I don’t like mastodon art moderation either, and I wouldn’t recommend signing up there. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are a lot of artists there willing to spread their work.

        I was a mod when they picked a fight with a “sister” instance from mine. I saw the MO of the adm. But also found that most of the users there were not even aware of what was happening.

        Anyway, OP. Follow whoever you want, just be aware that if you cannot follow someone from mastodon art is because they chose to block your server. Is not personal.

        • anarchost@lemm.ee
          2·
          8 months ago

          Out of all the bad things you can say about Mastodon drama and moderation issues…

          It’s pretty cool the phrases “don’t use this instance” and “follow people on this instance” can coexist.

          Because of federation, the admins of an instance besides your own don’t even get to peep your IP addresses.

      • hegeezias@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        Yeah, I’m an artist on mastodon.art. Not a huge fan their heavy moderation and the drama it creates. I’d love to switch instances, but hate that previous posts don’t travel with you.

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    8 months ago

    How big is your instance ?

    On a medium sized instance, The local feed might be a good start-up to find “popular users and hashtags” (Actually, I don’t do it on Lemmy, but may-be I should)

    What stuff do you find interesting ? You can follow writer like Greg Egan or Neil Gaiman, you can fallow European agencies like the one in charge of data protection, and then tons of bloggers, streamers, and other users.

  • anarchost@lemm.ee
    5·
    8 months ago

    You can go to your server’s Hot or Trending section and just start following big accounts, and from there find people in replies to various interesting posts to follow. Maybe.

    You can also follow hashtags on there!

    • mbryson@lemmy.ca
      4·
      8 months ago

      Hashtags are such a great option for following. I’ve found a lot of neat and interesting accounts relevant to my interests that way, alongside just the occasional great photo via following hashtags of my location as well.

  • ⲇⲅⲇ@lemmy.ml
    4·
    8 months ago

    You should add your likes, what kind of topics or stuff you are interested to. So we can recommend you people to follow. If you say it this way, Mastodon is pretty big to know exactly where you fit.

  • Io Sapsai 🌱@lemm.ee
    3·
    8 months ago

    I follow hashtags that I like and if I like a person’s posts I’d check their profile out and follow them. I also look at who interacts with my posts, and give them a follow as well, if I want their interests to show up on my feed. I also follow a couple of a.gup.pe groups. Bookstodon is a fun one, I got some cool suggestions there. They were also integrated with lemmy but I haven’t seen them work well here for now.

  • StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org
    3·
    8 months ago

    Mastodon (and all of the Fediverse, to be honest) are a VERY diverse bunch. You’ll likely find your crowd. Start by using the search bar and searching for hashtag keywords for the things that you are interested in, like #linux, #minecraft or #selfhosting. That will bring up instances of those hashtags your server has seen.

    I tend to suggest users new to the fediverse follow @FediTips@social.growyourown.services . They post tips and tricks about the fediverse in general and Mastodon specifically.

  • Daniel Hakimi@mastodon.social
    2·
    8 months ago

    @BudgetBandit it really depends on what you’re into. Like, I could tell you to follow @ZachWeinersmith for SMBC-type humor, or me for menswear, or @GovTrack to track US Government voting patterns, or…

    But that’s not really a useful way to talk. You could always go through explore, but I also don’t think that’s a great approach.

    It would be best if you told us what you wanted to see here and we helped you find it.