I realize that there are reasons that Mastodon doesn't allow #QuoteTooting the way that Twitter has #QuoteTweeting.

That said, even after 9 months of using Mastodon almost exclusively, I still catch myself trying to quote toot something only to remember that (essentially) I can't.

#MastodonThoughts

I get that search on Mastodon is a topic that many people have Big Opinions on, and I don't want to go there. However, I just discovered / realized I can't even search my own Toots. I feel like this is a big let-down.

One of my main use cases for Twitter/Mastodon is as a journal. Do I have to meticulously tag every single Toot to have any chance to recall what I've written about a topic?

#ScottThoughts #MastodonThoughts #MastodonSearch

Wish I could filter boosts so they only show as a one-line label I can expand if I’m curious about it.
Sometimes boosts are nearly my whole feed and I’d prefer to toggle to emphasize real-time posts, but not hide boosts entirely.
#MastodonThoughts

#DudeSpeak #mastodonthoughts

I've noticed here, I can actually focus on what I actually LIKE, instead of always stewing on what I don't like at the bad place. I mean, focusing on the issues is definitely a must, but it feels so much healthier here to do so. I hope that makes sense? #mastodonthoughts

No matter if #COP27 overall is a failure or not, we ought to stay positive in our attitude toward achieving net zero together. With a positive mindset, we can help minimize or even prevent negative outcomes for future generations. #MastodonThoughts

#mastodonthoughts

I wish I could change the ⭐️ icon to ❤️here (I would settle for 👍 too).
“Favorite” is something you do for yourself. A bookmark.
“Like” is a kind message to the poster.

If @Mastodon is indeed open, maybe that could be made a proper Settings option.

Now that many of my favorite Twitter friends have joined Mastodon, my Home feed is as comfy and informative as my Twitter lists where. 👋 everyone!

I have 2 accounts, down from 4, and am debating consolidating to the smaller and focused of the 2, as its Local and Federated work better a foundation for me I think. Still figuring that out for myself.

My Mastodon thoughts for today: (1) where your account resides *does* matter, and (2) your Home feed experience is up to you.

#MastodonThoughts

https://shellsharks.com/mastodon

@mttaggart told me not to, but here it is anyways! Dropping my “take” inline here. Click through the link for all the other resources and deep links.

There is a lot about Mastodon (and the Fediverse) that I have yet to learn, but what I do know is that it has (pretty much) already surpassed what Twitter was to me in both personal and professional contexts. I had a Twitter account for years, and try as I might, I never felt quite comfortable being anything more than a passive consumer - a lurker of those in the #infosectwitter community who had big followings. Though there was of course a decent amount of discussion/engagement within the infosec Twitter world, it often seemed to me very clique-ey, reserved only to those with big followerships or with well-known personas and established circles. I also always had the sense that trying to cultivate a following on Twitter was, sorta cringey. People there seemed more interested in boosting their follower counts or their follower-to-following ratio than expanding their true community. This feeling was ever-perpetuated by the constant deluge of tweets sounding off about how many followers they had, or how close they were to a certain follower threshold, etc…

Look, I get it - I have a blog, a podcast, I understand why people crave followers. It’s the engagement I am after though, not so much just having my tweets/toots/posts/stuff show up in a lot of people’s timelines. I genuinely enjoy sharing my thoughts/ideas, and even moreso hearing/learning from others. Naturally, a good way to create this engagement is to network, follow a lot of people and of course, have others “follow” me. I never had a big following on Twitter (~190ish as of the last time I looked), and I never got much engagement there (partially because I rarely posted). I’ve been on Mastodon for nearly 2 weeks and already I’ve seen much better engagement (and I am not alone). Maybe it’s the novelty factor, or maybe it’s because it hasn’t had time to turn into a toxic stew, it could be because I am more actively engaging. I’m not really sure yet, but what I do know is the vibe is different. That sense of community is definitely there and I am looking to make the most of it.

Alright, so I have a few other thoughts/takes on my Mastodon experience so far, and as I am want to do, I will share via a list!

- As others have pointed out, two reasons why Twitter always felt a bit, icky, was because of forced ads in your timeline and the bedeviling algorithm which fed not what YOU wanted into your timeline, but what Twitter thought would yield maximum engagement, which typically meant trying to fill you with rage. Mastodon is a breath of fresh air in comparison.

- I joined the infosec.exchange instance, which is relatively quite large (~24k and growing) and have followed nearly 400 people so far. What I’ve seen across my home feed and the local timeline has been really great! No ads, literally just what I’ve signed up for. I’ve been consuming/scrolling most of it so far and have encountered a lot of new people and genuinely look forward to (most) of what they have to share.

- Mastodon is a series of unique, networked instances. When folks from other instances are boosted into my timeline, there is a sense of excitement, of exploration. For example, if I see someone with the handle @hax@supercyber.pizza, I think “wow! I’m happy to have discovered this indvidual in the wide Fediverse, and look forward to what they post/boost into my timeline”. That hunger to follow, to connect moreso than “get followers” is really great. I have this desire to collect as many cool instances and awesome people as I can into my following list.

- If you want people to follow you, or engage with you, I highly recommend spending some time to tell people what you’re all about in your account profile. Also, toss a picture of some kind in there. Anything will do.

- Each instance will likely have its own culture, traditions and of course rules. Spend some time trying to figure out what those are, and leverage the content warning (CW) feature to try and be a little less offensive. It’s not hard to do!

- Being on an instance which has a population that best shares your personal/professional interests will give you a local timeline that will help you find people to follow and consume your posts. This is true. But! With a little effort, you can, regardless of what instance you are on, curate a following of people across instances, building a home timeline that is perfect for you, void of ads or algorithmic influences. This feed/timeline will continue to grow and mature thanks to the boosts and discussions of those you follow and engage with. So spend less time trying to find the perfect instance, and more time building that list.

If there is any drawback to Mastodon so far that I have seen, it is the lack of full-text search (for privacy reasons). This makes some of the intel-gathering I used to do on Twitter a bit more difficult (I’m not the only one with this sentiment). One frequent use-case was to search for info on CVEs (e.g. PoCs, research, etc…). To address this concern, the infosec community on Mastodon has been putting their heads together on how best to use hashtags to make intel-gathering possible on Mastodon.

#infosec #meta #mastodonthoughts

Having been here approximately #OneWeek it seems like time for some #MastodonThoughts

1) It will take me a bit to get used to actually being able to use multiple complete sentences. I might actually be able to convey nuance!
2) I primarily used #BirdSite with a third-party client. This meant I wasn't subject to the algorithmic silliness and advertising, but also meant (thanks to API limitations) I didn't get to use all the features unless I used the official website/app. Whereas here? Some of the best features are only found on third-party apps!
3) Related, this means lots of the "it's okay to like things! It doesn't mess with your timeline!" messages confused me because... I wasn't worried about that before. But I see how that was a problem for some.
4) I'm loving the fact that alt-text on images seems to be much more common - let's keep this up!
5) That said, how your app displays alt-text can make some things challenging. The alt-text taking up the entire screen because the image is itself a wall of text? So now I have two layers of text my brain can't disentangle? Bad.
6) I understand the lack of a quote function given its use in harassment. And this is something I've gotten used to in the art world, because getting the signal boost on the original post matters. But I'm not quite sure how to "yes, and..." properly. What I saw lots of artside was people starting their commentary with "LRT" (last retweet) which is supremely not helpful because once it's out of context or the RT'd post is muted I have no idea what is being referred to. So... any thoughts on what the norm is/should be for how to bring attention to a thing and add commentary respectfully?
7) I'm periodically checking to see who all has migrated over, but am missing some of the diversity I had over yonder - the fact that I had all different flavors of nerds in my feed. I loved the fact that I could randomly trip over an expert in an extremely niche specialty, and haven't found that here yet (but, again, it's only been a week).
8) Since I was fairly small, I didn't have the random weirdos up in my mentions, or things escape containment. But I understand how the opportunity to reset with a smaller circle matters for some, while simultaneously making it hard to get that diversity I like from point 7.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Ok so my favourite thing about the #massmigration to date is that the federated timeline, at this hour at least, reads like the old global feed back in the ye-olde days of the other social networks when it was real people sharing and interacting with zero spambots, trolls, and dare I say it... influencers! #thenandnow #mastodonthoughts #mastodon