It seems to be a quiet time today here at Qoto. 😺

Since there's not so many replies to be written, new posts to be followed, I am taking the time to look at another Fediverse network area I had seen mentioned. It's called Friendica.

Basic info: https://friendi.ca/about/

And it seems interesting - the main idea being that information on it is organized and displayed in a way similar to the Facebook site. Without all the algorythm massaging and massive advertising that floods the timelines there.

I am attaching a screenshot below, from the Friendica's Screenshots page. Visit and take a look around; https://friendi.ca/about/screenshots/

So, to start with, you will have an account, edit your profile, etc. And if you find new friends there, their posts will show in your timeline. Friendica also supports connecting to other networks and even places like Blogs, to export or import content.

I have looked at the directory of instances in the Friendica network and there's one specially for Trying it out.

Your account there will be deleted after a week or two of testing, by then you should know if you want a permanent account or not.

Try out Server -- https://tryfriendica.de/

after registering an account, the server has some extensive documentation to guide new users, see it at : https://tryfriendica.de/help/Quick-Start-guide

There's detailed info, you just need a quiet time to read, try things out and learn how this works.

Thanks to the nice administrator who created this server, we can create an account without messing up a live and active server instance.

And learn without feeling embarrassed! 😜

Go on, find out how it is, write that first post. Hello World!!

(the admin who runs this site also has two other full fledge nodes, both open to registration, free service.)

The screen cap below shows my user profile 'home' with my first post.

Honestly have to say that I did not RTFM (read the friendly manual) yet, but am investigating the basics and posting things here as I find them out. 😉

While in Mastodon instance posts we don't have ANY option of text formatting, here in Friendica, the post editor already hints it's different -- just look at the Bold[, Italic, Underline buttons below! :)

Aha! And the formatting is done using the super easy BBCode, which anyone who spent time in Forums will instantly feel familiar with.

Nice!

While in the text editor, you can easily clink on the Tabs at the top of the editor to:

- Set or Change permissions.

- Get a Preview of what your post will look like!

I am really liking this - text formatting even done lightly can really emphasize words or meaning.

Uploading and attaching files is also possible, and easy too.

It can be done via the post editor.

- Click on the last tab on the right.
- select files via the highlighted button on my image.
-click on Upload and you can select the files you want.

Later, these files will be available to be attached to any message you write.

You can upload images similarly; thru the Browser (which means, look at my resouces) tab. Click on Image (little landscape icon).

It will show any images you already have.

- Either on your Profile itself (avatars).
- Or in your Timeline posts.

There's an UPLOAD button, you use it to add new images to your account.

Later, any of those can be selected and entered into posts.

Once you have uploaded images, you can select any of them in teh Browser tab.

That will place link text into the post editor box -- at the location you were currently typing. So place your cursor in the right place, before clicking on the image.

A Preview of the post, this one already using most of the Text Formatting options and an inserted Image follows.

And once the post is SHARED (posted), it gets added to the list of all post in your User Profile.