Get started on the Geekdom Mastodon instance

by geewiz, 27th Dec 2022

Welcome, fellow geek! We’re happy that you decided to join us on Geekdom.social.

Starting on a new social network, building your own network from scratch can be stressful. That’s why we’ve prepared these tips for you to make things a bit easier.

Introduce yourself

Say hello and start by posting an #introduction of yourself. Pin it to your profile, so other people visiting your page can get to know you!

Find kindred spirits

Entering a hashtag into the search field is a good way to find like-minded people. You can even follow hashtags themselves if you don’t want to miss anything!

You’ll find the profile page of a Mastodon account by clicking their username. If you only have their account URL, enter it into the search field, and you’ll get their profile page, too.

Explore the federated network

Mastodon, other than other social media networks, isn’t a single, monolithic system. The Mastodon network consists of thousands of so-called “instances”, and Geekdom is one of them. Each instance is operated by different people, which gives each one its individual character.

Each Mastodon instance publishes the posts by its members, and it also imports posts from other instances for its members. That’s why there is not one but several timelines you can view.

First of all, your personal “Home Timeline” shows you the posts of the users and hashtags you’re following.

On the “Local Timeline”, you’ll find all public posts on the instance on which your account resides. That’s why the local timeline on Geekdom is probably one of the geekiest timelines on the planet!

Here’s another successful tactic for finding people to follow: If there is a Mastodon instance that specialises in a topic you’re interested in, visit its website. Its user list and especially its local timeline will provide you with lots of great connections.

The “Federated Timeline”, on the other hand, contains all the posts that get pulled in from the network because someone on your instance has expressed interest in them.

It’s important to know that the search function operates on the federated timeline, not on all the vast content in the whole Mastodon network.

This is also the reason why some hashtags, especially very new ones, might not return a search result for you. In these cases, Geekdom’s federated timeline doesn’t yet contain any post tagged with it, and your search will return “0 results”. However, if you’ve enabled the “Advanced view” in your settings on the Geekdom website, you can still click the hashtag in the search result. This will open a new column for it. While the column will be empty, its header will have a follow button. Click it, and from now on, future posts with this hashtag will turn up in your personal timeline (and therefore in the federated one, too).

Show your passion

Share content on the topics that are important to you to attract others with similar interests.

Make your posts easy to consume

Don’t forget to use hashtags in your own posts. If you spell them in CamelCase (words separated by capitals instead of spaces), they’ll be easier to read for everyone. It also clarifies their pronunciation for screen readers.

Speaking of screen readers, please take a minute to add captions to your images. It’ll make them more accessible for visually impaired people.

Sometimes, we prefer to not be confronted with certain topics. That’s where the CW feature comes in handy. Use it liberally - think of it as a flexible “content wrapper”, not just a “content warning”.

As per our CoC, please always mark graphic media that’s not suited for general audiences as sensitive.

Block and report

With a few exceptions, this is a pretty friendly place. However, there’ll always be a less than pleasant person. The Mute and Block features help you prune your timeline.

Also, don’t hesitate to report people who violate our Code of Conduct; our moderators will quickly take care of the issue.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

People here are happy to assist you.

There are also useful websites that explain the intricacies of Mastodon in more detail: