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After 18 years, the original @JASPAR_DB paper has reached 2000 citations. Glad it has been useful.
doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkh012
The all-star team:
@albin Wynand Alkema @par_engstrom @BorisLenhard

It's actually pretty amazing that a open source product developed by a tiny non-profit, running on a network of servers self-funded by volunteer administrator and moderators has managed to absorb some portion of one of the world's largest for-profit social networks.

It's a miracle the whole thing didn't collapse or catch fire.

Great job everyone.

Okay this might be a long post :blob_grinning_sweat:

One thing that I realised is making harder for people to switch is because the whole concept can feel daunting & overwhelming for non-tech savvy people.

With Twitter to them it was straight forward and easy to find topics they enjoy but with mastodon its a bit different.
So if you're new to mastodon or you want to introduce someone to mastodon here are some tips, useful sites & tools:
### Tips:
- Choosing a home instance isn't as importance as it seems, don't overthink it. Yes moderation rules & policies may differ but they all have one thing in common: Be a decent human. You **always** have the option to migrate your account to a new instance.
- Toots (or posts if you think toots are cringe :sad_cat:) are what we call micro-blogging instead of tweets
- You’re supposed to "boost" AKA "reblog" toots that you like.Since Mastodon does not have an algorithm that surfaces toots that have been liked a lot, boosting is the best way to help spread stuff that you like, and to show appreciation. (credit to @orsvarn for this comment)
- Another way to fill your timeline with content you enjoy is to: Find other people with similar interests, follow them, favourite their posts, boost their posts, use hashtags. rinse, repeat. (credit to @garry)
- If you ever feel yourself getting sucked into arguments on the , you might want to take advantage of the instance mute/block feature!
Instances tend to foster a culture, so if you find people from a specific site tend to be bothering you, muting/blocking that instance will keep other members of that community from bothering you as well.
- Finally do not share private/sensitive information via DMs on Mastodon. Direct Messages are not E2E. **Keep it in mind**

### Useful tools & resources:
[Twitodon](twitodon.com/) - Find your Twitter friends on Mastodon
[FediFinder](fedifinder.glitch.me/)- Similar to Twitodon
[Fedi Tips](fedi.tips/) - an informal, unofficial guide for non-technical people who want to use Mastodon and the wider Fediverse
[Fedi Directory](fedi.directory) - A human-curated small selection of accounts to spice up your timeline.
[Trunk](communitywiki.org/trunk) -Trunk allows you to mass-follow a bunch of people in order to get started with Mastodon or any other platform on the Fediverse
[Fediverse.info](fediverse.info/explore/people) -growing list of people and topics can help you discover mutual interests with people around the world
**Mobile Apps:**
[Metatext for iOS :apple_inc:](apps.apple.com/us/app/metatext)
[Tusky for Android :android:](play.google.com/store/apps/det)

Lastly if you are interested in setting up your own instance you can learn via learnfoss.org/ its completely free and its made by the wonderful @stux

I apologize for the long post lol, just hope this helps anyones transition over :ablobsmilehappy:

I am having a blast reading all the #introduction toots! I am Alice, an assistant professor at UCLA. My lab focuses on a couple different things. We have an interest in protein aggregation in cancer.
We also develop organoid models for rare and ultra-rare tumors, to learn more about their biology and for functional precision medicine applications.
Here you can find more on our work: alice.mbi.ucla.edu/publication

The tools people are using to find the Mastodon/Fediverse handles of their Twitter friends.

The first two are similar, they search for Mastodon handles in profiles (with false positives). The third one lets you specify an account, encouraging repeat visits to see if friends have added theirs.

1. Debirdifier
pruvisto.org/debirdify/

2. Fedifinder
fedifinder.glitch.me

3. Twitodon
twitodon.com

#TwitterMigration

Use at own risk (data scraping possible). Revoke access after use.

RT @cfiesler
There are actually different Mastodon feeds you can view--one that is based on the people you follow across any instance, one based on people in your instance, and one based on folks across lots of instances who are engaged with by people you engage with. (7/?)

I'm writing an article about this glorious, weird weekend on Mastodon during the nascent Twitter exodus.

My theory is that Mastodon's shortcomings are the very reason it's working. We're having to help each other find our way. No one is boss, and the kinda crappy experience brings us all to the same level as co-newbies (not to belittle those who have been on Mastodon for years).

Are you feeling the same? I'd love to hear your opinions. #NZTwits #twittermigration #introduction #mastodon

In 2 days, my Mastodon account akundaje@genomic.social has recovered over 100 Twitter friends who migrated, mostly automated via twitodon and fedifinder.glitch.me/ + lots of activity with automated cross posting via crossposter.masto.donte.com.br 1/

<test, #introduction, two-three>

Same username, same profile, still same job - computational biologist in Melbourne working on (clinical) cancer #genomics, standards via #GA4GH and national infrastructure as part of #AustralianGenomics

Howdy #introduction. I'm a new prof at UofToronto interested in #RNA virus discovery and ultra-massive #bioinformatics. Also avid climber.

My greatest accomplishment to date is converting fasta files to ASCII DNA art (script: biosyntax.org/drawHelix.sh)

Looking to hire some postdocs to join the adventure
--> Comp Biologist: rRNA.ca/id0001
--> Bioinformatician: rRNA.ca/id0002

I have set up a cross-posting service with moa.party to share tweets and toots across platforms with Mastodon. This tweet is from my Twitter account.

Thanks for your patience while I get the kinks worked out. I am using the moa.party cross-posting application. Posting from @WyWyWa and hope to see it on Twitter soon.

Very helpful! How to efficiently establish a bridgehead on #Mastodon as a #Sciencetwitter user.
---
RT @d_brueckner
Will #ScienceTwitter🐦 -> #ScienceMastodon🐘 work?

The response to this was massive & my #Mastodon has gone from a quiet void to a science party in just 3 days!

Many are worried about servers, network effects & losing followers

Follow these tricks to make it work for you! 🧵
twitter.com/d_brueckner/status

Excited to create new community as we all deal with the fall out of the Birdy blues. I am a Bioinformatics researcher with passions for transcription factors and the journey towards equity in Indigenous genomics.

Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.