#feditipps #askfedi #askfediverse

# Follow, Timelines (TLs)

On the chronological Twitter-TL, you see when they post. You have to trust Twitter here. On the magic frontpage, Twitter decides when you'll see their posts.
On Mastodon, you see the post when they post. (Trust the instance.) To follow is a very basic principle here. Without it, you won't see content of other instances in your Home Screen.
Mastodon instances offer two more TLs: Local and Federal.
Local shows posts, other accounts on your instance posted. Those are a free byproduct of using the instance, it doesn't have to download anything from other instances. (Listing according their public restrictions)
Federal shows what local accounts received by following other accounts. That's a byproduct of following other users.
If users wouldn't follow, like if they used only lists like in Twitter, content of not-followed users would never be downloaded.
Note: Some instances, e
g. qoto.org, offer an additional "subscribe" button. You get their public posts without requiring permission to follow (optional.)

# Likes

💙-Likes are like the Mastodon ⭐-Star, but Twitter /sometimes/ puts starred posts in the TLs of your followers. /Who knows under what conditions?/ 🕵️

# Lists

On Twitter you can collect accounts in lists without following them. That feels very creepy, much like stalking users in the shadow. At least, users get notified on being added to lists. Seeing content of not-followed accounts is much like seeing the local timeline. Twitter is one big instance (at least it acts like one.)
When adding an account to lists on Mastodon, you need to follow them aswell. Otherwise you won't see any content, remember?
This circumstance shifts your home screen to another level. Because you have to subscribe your listed accounts, you will see all kinds of content there. So, before starting any other list, create one that contains your current followed accounts and name it "Twitter-like followees" or simply "home screen".

# Publicity

Twitter offers two publicity settings: Public and Circle.
Mastodon has more TLs, hence more settings.

# Retweets

Twitter offers quoting complete posts (re-posts, retweets, re-toots.) That way users can be pointed towards users they don't yet follow and their content.
That is the same on Mastodon, but also more critical on Mastodon. Without it, seeing users from other instances would only be possible on the federated TL which happens to be quite noisy from time to time.

# Commented Retweets

Twitter offers quoting posts with custom text above a retweet. Some call it's introduction the one evil design decision which made Twitter feel like hell sometimes.
Mastodon does'nt have it. However what you can do is copying the url (at the datetime of a post) and write a regular post containing that as a link. By the way, that's exactly how it started on Twitter.
Some instances, e.g. qoto.org implemented a quoting retoot button themselves.

# Character limit

As you can see, Mastodon posts are allowed to be longer than on Twitter.
Some instances, e.g. qoto.org customized the maximum length of a post. You can have 65535 characters there. Let's put an end to that unheavly format called "Twitter thread"!