Mastodon help required. I've got an account here on mastodon.social. I'm interested in another instance, tabletop.social, which is about RPGs. What's the best way to get a sense of what's going on there, find a place in that community, etc? I can create a second account there, but doesn't Mastodon's nature mean I don't have to? I can browse their timeline (e.g., http://www.unmung.com/mastoview?url=tabletop.social&view=local) and follow individuals; is that the way to do it? Bit confused.

I am not, it seems, the first person to ask this. Or even the ten-thousandth person to ask it, looking at the github issues list. And it looks like there isn't really a good solution. Some instances show their local timeline on their /about page (tabletop.social doesn't; I don't know whether that's admin choice or not); you can't follow a whole timeline from another instance (many bugs requesting this have been closed). The answer is: have two accounts. I am sad about this answer, but OK, fine.