Hi, I'm new here & I don't know how this works but I'm glad to be on a mammoth. Or an Octodon. Or a Mastodon. #introduction #sendhelp
@Imanoctopus Think of Mastodon as kinda like Twitter, but spread out across multiple interdependent servers, and better because most of the servers don't tolerate Nazis and other assholes.
@starbreaker ha, that's a very good point, thanks. No one wants assholes. But the 3 columns are giving me a bit of anxiety, It looks hella fun tho.
@Imanoctopus It's a little confusing at first, but give it some time. The home column is everybody you follow. Notifications is stuff directed toward you, and you can control what appears there. The local timeline is everybody on the same server as you, and the federated timeline is a firehose made of public posts from all over the network.
I'd suggest doing an #introduction post where you hashtag a few interests so people can find you, and watching local for interesting people to follow.
@starbreaker Ha, I see ! Luckily I have a friend here helping me a bit right now. Thank you for the #introduction tips, I'll def make one. It's like Twitter but much, much bigger. A mix between Twitter and Reddit maybe ?
@starbreaker Na I see what you mean! I suggested Reddit because it feels like there's one big base (mastodon) and then many sub-mastodon (baby mastodons) . But I might be completely wrong considering I've been here for like 10min.
@Imanoctopus Pretty close, but when you look closer Reddit is centralized and owned by a single corporation.
I think of Mastodon as more like email because, while there are big masto servers the same way there are big email providers, anybody who wants to can set up their own Mastodon server.
@starbreaker Haa yes you're absolutely right. Then Mastodon is definitely better. So does that mean there's more freedom but also better monitoring because each server is independent, therefor there's many more ''admin'' ? (am I making sens? English is hard)
@Imanoctopus Your English is much better than my French. You're doing fine.
There is more freedom because if I wanted to, I could start my own instance and post anything I wanted, no matter how offensive.
Nobody would be able to stop me from posting grossly offensive shit from my own server or allowing others to do so, but they *can* refuse to let their server federate with mine.
We can't eliminate crap entirely, but we can keep it contained.
@starbreaker Oooh okok. Now I get it. You explained it very simply, thank you ! That's awesome.
@Imanoctopus You're welcome. You'll find you've picked a good server here on Octodon.
You'll probably like @ayachan and @catoutofbed, and @MissSnarkerson is one of my biggest fans here.
@starbreaker @MissSnarkerson @catoutofbed @ayachan thank you for the suggestions, appreciate ! Already said hi to MissSnarkerson 
@Imanoctopus @catoutofbed @MissSnarkerson @starbreaker Matthew's pretty awesome like that. ^_^ He was one of my first friends here.
@ayachan @MissSnarkerson @catoutofbed @Imanoctopus Thanks. Trying to be a good kitty. *meow*
@starbreaker @Imanoctopus @catoutofbed @MissSnarkerson You're a wonderful kitty and a great friend. ^_^ Nyan.
@starbreaker @catoutofbed @ayachan @Imanoctopus If you're a fan of sci-fi, I highly recommend Matthew's Silent Clarion - super badass catwoman protagonist with all sorts of suspenseful twisty turns!
@MissSnarkerson @Imanoctopus @ayachan @catoutofbed I honestly wasn't expecting a plug, but THANK YOU!
@MissSnarkerson @Imanoctopus @catoutofbed @starbreaker He also posts little quotes and passages from his fiction here in Octodon; they're lots of fun to read. ^_^
@ayachan @catoutofbed @Imanoctopus @MissSnarkerson
Thanks. I'm glad you like them.
@starbreaker @MissSnarkerson @Imanoctopus @catoutofbed You bet I do!! ^_^
@starbreaker @MissSnarkerson @catoutofbed @Imanoctopus Ah, welcome, my new friend. ^_^ Octodon is a great instance, no question about it; I made it my first home in the Fediverse.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. ^_^
I wouldn't say it is "bigger" per se.
https://instances.social/list/old
"There are currently 1.985 instances being tracked, with a total of 1.083.717 users."
BUT, it is certainly better to have 1.985 servers by normal, private people than one large corporation (e.g. twitter)!
Each server is 'federated' with many of the other servers and each has its own admin. You could do it yourself.
Most just have 1 rule: don't be an asshole ;-)
I'd say that a user base of 1 million across 1,985 servers is pretty respectable considering that Mastodon is at most a couple of years old.
@starbreaker @Imanoctopus Yes, it's wonderful! I'm not belittling masto at all and I've never used the corporate sites of fb and twitter. Just that twitter is claiming over 300 mm active users per month vs the 1mm of masto, but masto can get there in time too I hope.
I was simply correcting Imanoctopus and pointing out the good part that is bigger: federation.
@Imanoctopus I think of it more like twitter meets email/usenet, but I'm old. :)