Britt DK Gratreak 🖖 @Britt@qoto.org

Not using a hashtag in your toot seems almost like limiting it to your followers only. Which could be useful.

Some Mastodon thoughts, for bird-site expats (which include myself). I'm aggregating these from posts I've boosted before, so little of this is my own brain.

- There's no algorithm here. That means favoriting/liking doesn't do anything except communicate approval to the OP and others (which is still nice!).

- No algorithm means boosting ("retweeting") is the true method to increase a post's visibility. Do that more than you did on birdsite.

- There's no post-quoting here, and that's by design. Look at quote-tweets on the birdsite; it's a feature primarily used for toxicity.

- There's no direct word-search here either; that means you want to use hashtags to make posts more searchable. This is also intended, since word-searching posts was often used to harass/stalk on the birdsite and elsewhere, so that was left by the wayside here. This also means hashtags are much more a thing here than any of the algorithm-powered sites.

- It's encouraged to put in text descriptions when you post images; a lot of Mastodon users use screen-readers due to various disabilities, and getting an image description read out loud helps them immensely.

- Speaking of screen-readers: using capitalization in your hashtags allows the screen-readers to read them more easily, especially if you're smashing multiple words together. #rockmusic = unreadable. #RockMusic = readable.

- The best way to make threads is to make set your first post as public, but "unlist" all of your replies. This prevents your whole thread from clogging up feeds.

- Content Warnings should be used more liberally here. If you haven't gotten the impression yet, much of Mastodon was built and populated by marginalized groups who were harassed/bullied off of other platforms. This is the culture they built, to respect each other's mental health. It's not a rule, but it's well-appreciated.

- Consider chipping a few bucks towards whomever runs the server you're on; the strain is real, and most server admins were likely paying out of pocket before so don't have an existing donation base. The growth here has been extremely fast, and that means money's needed.

- DMs are just posts with privacy settings. So if you @ someone in a DM, you pull them into the thread. That could be embarrassing.

- Also, no, DMs aren't end-to-end encrypted, but they aren't on Twitter either. Don't use either if you want true privacy.

- Including your Mastodon handle in your birdsite profile will help people find you here; there's a tool (pruvisto.org/debirdify/ is one of them that's used) people can use to pull Mastodon handles from Twitter profile.

- Use the blocking and reporting features liberally, if needed. This should go without saying, but they work, and work well!

- If there's an entire Mastodon server you don't want to hear from, you can block the whole thing too.

- Preferences -> Appearance -> "Slow Mode": this can make larger "Local" feeds and any "Federated" feed much more readable.

I'll reply with some more as I see them, or reply here too. I've only been here 4 days but I'm loving it so far.

Hello world! I’m new on Mastodon. This is my first post.
If you are interested in climate change, weather extremes, oceanography or paleoclimate, you are very welcome to follow me.

❌ we should have daylight when we go to work in the morning

❌ we should have daylight when we come home from work at night

☑️ we shouldn’t have to work so many hours that we have to ration The Sun

Hello! I recently completed my PhD at NYU English with a dissertation making connections between poets in Canada and Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s. I am currently a postdoctoral teaching fellow at NYU. I am also a poet and translator. My first full-length book of poetry is Harbour Grids (Invisible, 2022), and I am the co-translator of Hugo García Manríquez's Commonplace (Cardboard House, 2022). I'm here to talk poetry, literatures of the Americas, academia, CanLit, and so on.

Holy hell the twitter exodus is **still** accelerating. The influx of new users is up about 33% from yesterday, our biggest day so far. We are now seeing over 1,300 new users every day on QOTO!

Hey there #accessibility Mastodon... what are some of your favorite screen readers?

I'd like to try and use some of the most popular ones to gain an understanding of how they work, what the most common key-bindings are, etc.

Also, if you could improve or change one thing about your favorite screen reader, what would it be?

(asking for myself since I'm trying to create an accessibility-first interactive fiction game engine)

#introduction I’m Faith, a Masters student at Nova Southeastern University studying sponge symbioses! I love invertebrates, scuba diving, photography, and swimming. Looking forward to getting to know the scientific community here!

Hello fellow Mastodonians! I'm a #Neuroscientist studying #glia at # UCLA!!!

Hi! I’m new and don’t really know how to interact online, but here’s my #introduction.

I’m currently a first year student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in #biology.

I have experience volunteering with #seaturtles and will soon train in a lab that studies #biodiversity and #frogs.

My favorite animals are
#jellyfish
#bats

My interests are
#animals
#conservation
#marinescience
#writing
#horror
#languages

Flying to San Diego for #SFN22 #SFN tomorrow...

Going primarily to support the great students & postdocs in our lab who are presenting their work (and looking for new positions!)

#neuroscience #systemsneuroscience

Know any #ActuallyAutistic people into ecommerce, web development, or graphic design who are interested in doing good and being a part of something that supports our community?

We're looking for help with our MVP for our #neurodivergent lead company that (ironically?) helps ... neurodivergent people!

I would love to connect with the #ActuallyAutistic community on here. I’m going through the diagnostic process with my psychiatrist at the moment, aged 27, after a whole lifetime of traumatic struggles that I have always struggled to put into words.

I didn’t feel overly welcome in the #autistic #autism community on that bird app without a diagnosis, so I’m hoping to enter Mastodon as my true #neurodivergent self without feeling like I have to stay on the sidelines.

So, hi! 👋🏻

Another note for new #TwitterMigration folks like me: social norms here are that we don’t censor names like “Musk.” It shouldn’t be necessary, because full-text search isn’t really a thing and trolls are actually moderated.

If content is potentially offensive, put it behind a CW, but don’t “c*nsor” it because this breaks people’s filters (i.e., prevents them from being able to mute words).

Wondering if I can connect with chronic grad students? I am an older grad student in counseling internship and it feels hard some days to balance health and the demands of grad school #gradstudent #chronicillness #DisabilityMastodon #counselingmastodon

Allow me to reintroduce myself:
I am an emergency medicine physician and addiction medicine specialist with a focus on health policy and advocacy.

Join me for discussions of healthcare, social justice, and occasional humor.

@nick thanks for launching this @nick. I actually am hopeful to see enough migration here that this could become a better, safer, friendlier space than #MedTwitter. Looking forward to more of the #Medodon #MedMastodon revolution.

Hi folks! I’m Aimee, a clinical ethicist, former long time ICU nurse, and current professor of nursing and ethics. Looking to find other #medtwitter #nursetwitter converts! #introduction

Hey, #MedMastodon 👋🏽 I’m a pulmonary and critical care doc at Mass General in Boston. I research mechanisms of pulmonary vascular #thrombosis and pulmonary vascular dysfunction in #ARDS. I also study acute and chronic pulmonary complications of #COVID and co-direct our Pulmonary post-COVID clinic. I mostly post about science and medicine, but I’ve been known to repurpose memes about prestige TV to highlight the absurdity of our times. Look forward to seeing how this community grows!

Hi #MedMastodon. I'm an Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba. My lab studies the circulation, transmission, and pathogenesis of emerging zoonotic viruses. We focus primarily on Ebola virus, monkeypox virus, and SARS-CoV-2. Currently overwhelmed with a new international #monkeypox program but will try to keep up to date around these parts