I have written a short piece on "How to use Mastodon as a Facebook replacement", mostly for my friends on FB, but worth sharing.
I hope it's useful for people. If so, please share. Feedback welcome. Full text with links here:
meisner.ca/2025/02/02/how-to-u…
Attn: @FediTips
How to use Mastodon as a Facebook replacement
by Mark Meisner – Version 1, 2025-02-02 Are you wondering how to get away from Facebook (FB), but still want to keep in touch with actual friends and family? It’s not easy. The “n…Mark Meisner
Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (7 Monate her)
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •That's really good, nice! 👏 Very interesting to emphasise how to make Mastodon's user experience more Facebook-like, that could help more new people come here 👍
One thing: some servers have more than 500 characters (I've listed a few good ones at fedi.garden/tag/larger-post-si… but there are lots more.) ...but it's your call if this adds confusion or complexity.
Also you might want to copy paste the text into the description of the image? That will get you a lot more boosts on here 🙂
Larger Post Size | Fedi.Garden
fedi.gardenMark Meisner 🌎
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Okay, brilliant! I've just boosted it, hopefully other people find it useful too 🙂
A lot of people are looking for ways to get their friends off Facebook, so it's great to see guides like this.
Invisible Marcel 🌀
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Invisible Marcel 🌀 • • •@madjo
It definitely does have alt text, you can check on the original page for the post:
mastodon.social/@markmeisner/1…
This was added to the post later, perhaps the edit hasn't federated to your server yet?
Mark Meisner 🌎
2025-02-03 00:52:37
Cătă
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •@Mark Meisner 🌎 @Fedi.Tips There's a lot to get used to if going from Facebook to Mastodon. There are lots of missing features (compared to Facebook) and if you're on a server that has the default 500 characters limit, then bad luck!
If not, it could be more bearable, but:
- They would still have to cope with the fact that there is no threaded view in the comments of a post. Every comment is linear, so you don't know who replied who. Unless...
- People just tag each other in order to be notified by a response. This is mandatory. If you don't, the people before you won't be notified.
- They would still have to cope with the fact that longer posts are threaded and can be sometimes difficult to read through
- There's no way to create events and groups (and no way to attend these events).
- There's no gran
... mehr anzeigen@Mark Meisner 🌎 @Fedi.Tips There's a lot to get used to if going from Facebook to Mastodon. There are lots of missing features (compared to Facebook) and if you're on a server that has the default 500 characters limit, then bad luck!
If not, it could be more bearable, but:
If these aspects are important for those people, consider also recommending Friendica (and possibly Diaspora too). The Fediverse is really lacking when it comes to Facebook alternatives. Nearly all of them seem to have a learning curve even bigger than Mastodon itself (which, fwiw, has been worked on in the past years). Friendica seems to be the most accessible though, among the ActivityPub platforms. There are two great apps for Android (Relatica and Raccoon - with the former also being worked on to support iOS too). Plus there are countless user created guides on how to use Friendica. I tried to gather them all in this megathread, so if you need to give a guide to someone, pick any of the ones I linked there. :D
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Cătă • • •I wouldn't recommend Diaspora at the moment as it has very few active users (just a few thousand), it cannot connect to Mastodon, Pixelfed etc, and Diaspora's development seems to have slowed to a crawl. Hopefully it gets back to its glory days at some point, but it's currently not a good place for new people to start on IMHO.
Friendica is a much better option, it reaches almost all of the Fediverse, but it still lacks some things such as an abuse reporting tool.
Cătă
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Cătă • • •Yeah, Friendica development is much more active 👍
Shantell Powell
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Shantell Powell • • •@Shanmonster
There is a platform on here specifically for replacing Facebook Events called Mobilizon, more info at fedi.tips/mobilizon-event-orga…
Facebook Groups is trickier, there's not a direct replacement yet. Some Fediverse platforms like NodeBB seem to be looking at group privacy but they're not ready yet.
Mobilizon: Event organisation and discovery | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tipsShantell Powell
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •Alex Chapman
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Alex Chapman • • •Alex Chapman
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •Crcordray🇨🇦🇺🇸
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Crcordray🇨🇦🇺🇸 • • •@crcordray
There is, but Friendica is lacking some things such as a moderation system:
github.com/friendica/friendica…
Feature Request: implement Moderation system · Issue #8724 · friendica/friendica
GitHubkasicak
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •A paragraph on Facebook shares and likes vs. Mastodon boosts and favourites would be useful too! I am in a a target group for this guide (never used Twitter, only Facebook and Instagram) and this is one of the differences that still bother me after a few months of using Mastodon.
Also, how to discover interesting accounts, how to look for specific topics and how hashtags work (or don't work...) on fedi. (When I search for a tag that is extremely popular on Instagram, here almost nothing appears - WHY? This is one of the most annoying things for me 😊).
I can see why you want to keep it extremely short and simple though.
@FediTips
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf kasicak • • •I've tried to do a more comprehensive site all about Mastodon covering the topics you mention at:
➡️ fedi.tips
I think Mark is just trying to do a really simple, quick-to-read explanation aimed at a very specific audience. Some people get overwhelmed by comprehensive guides, so a brief standalone guide can perhaps reach those people more easily.
Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tipsMark Meisner 🌎
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •@kasica
Everyone on Mastodon should follow Fedi.Tips. So helpful. Thank you!
kasicak
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •I totally get it! I am easily overwhelmed too. I keep Fedi Tips open all the time so it’s always at hand 😊 Thank you for creating it!
@markmeisner
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf kasicak • • •@kasica
Aww... thank you for the kind words! 😊 Very happy if you find it useful!
Rin/Mari Clarity
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Mark Meisner 🌎
Als Antwort auf Rin/Mari Clarity • • •@rinmari Apparently there is a Groups feature on Mastodon. Here is yet another great tip from @FediTips
fedi.tips/how-to-use-groups-on…
As for events, see this tip.
fedi.tips/mobilizon-event-orga…
How to use groups on Mastodon and the Fediverse | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse
fedi.tipsRin/Mari Clarity
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Rin/Mari Clarity • • •@rinmari
Just to clarify, the Groups feature in that particular guide is basically a "super hashtag", it lets people on different servers more easily participate in discussions with accounts that their server hasn't noticed yet.
It's similar to the email discussion lists of the 1990s/2000s.
Marshall Mayer
Als Antwort auf Mark Meisner 🌎 • • •As a FB Refugee, I found an interesting post by @atomicpoet that summarized my frustration with Mastodon: atomicpoet.org/objects/d7ac885…. Especially, the inserted clip.
Too bad Mastodon may miss its moment because much of what it is doing (UX excepted) is right.
Chris Trottier (@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org)
atomicpoet.orgFedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Marshall Mayer • • •Bluesky is a centralised network, just like Twitter or Facebook.
It is very very very easy to have discovery systems on a centralised network, but that centralisation also means the network can be bought out at any moment.
If Musk wanted to buy Bluesky there is nothing to stop him.
If Musk wanted to buy Mastodon, that would be quite tricky as it is spread out on thousands of independently owned servers most of which hate him.
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •@AuthenticPhoto @atomicpoet
Also, Bluesky has something like 100 times more funding than Mastodon, and that funding comes from Bluesky selling itself to VC investors.
Those VC investors aren't charities, they are buying the network with an expectation of massive profits, which will have to happen through exploitation of users ("enshittification").
Mastodon hasn't sold itself to anyone (and cannot due to its structure), so it isn't on a path to exploit users.
Fedi.Tips
Als Antwort auf Fedi.Tips • • •You cannot have your cake and eat it. Centralisation and VC money comes at a horrible long term cost.
If you want a network resistant to Musk-type takeovers, Bluesky isn't it.
The only network which cannot be easily bought out is the Fediverse (which Mastodon is part of). This is the place to be if you want a different kind of future.
I know not everyone cares who owns their networks, but if that's the case why bother leaving Twitter or Facebook?