@bugthebard
Hi and welcome.
You are on ActivityPub/Mastodon, on the default server for Mastodon, part of a wider Federation of different software called The Fediverse.
For example, I am on a Sharkey instance.
I would suggest you give Feditips a look for how things work.
Fedi.Tips
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services
"Posting hints and tips about Mastodon and the Fediverse"
For fun and seriously, you may want to follow
myrmepropagandist - @futurebird
"pro-ant propaganda..." (one of your boosts BTW)
A place to look for new instances by software type is
https://sharkey.fediverse.observer/list
you can choose which software at the top.
As well as using hashtags, there are two main Group Servers in the Fediverse - https://a.gup.pe/ and the newer
https://about.fedigroups.social/ - another way to follow interests and get your own posts boosted more widely.
There's no right or wrong way do do Fedi, just be nice to everyone, ignore the Home Owners Associations & don't feed the trolls.
It's meant to be fun after all.
@AnguaDelphine Oh wow thank you, I'm bookmarking this! The Fediverse stuff is so interesting. When I first heard of Mastodon I assumed it was just a Twitter clone and since I didn't really like Twitter I didn't think of checking it out. Now I wish I had sooner — love getting back to that feeling of a more decentralized internet.
@bugthebard
Cool. You're welcome, glad it helped.
There are numerous traditions like # Follow Friday (all one word but I didn't want to tag it) which is really useful for finding new people.
The closest the Fediverse comes to an algorithym is @LisaMelton
I had a similar experience 2 years ago.
6 weeks of Mastodon and I didn't like it. Too Twitterlike.
I heard of akkoma, misskey, pixelfed, friendica ... and went looking.
We are REALLY weird outside Mastodon, but friendly.
The best of Fediverse is when we help each other.
There really shouldn't be any such thing as a silly question.
I got so much help starting out and try to pay forward.
@AnguaDelphine Thank you so much for the recommendation! 💖
Just so you know, I'm not boosting today due to problems with the latest version of the advanced Web interface on mastodon.social. Hopefully that problem will be resolved tomorrow.
@lisamelton
No problem. When I hear a newbie ask for help I automatically think of you and FediTips.
@AnguaDelphine Awwww, that is very sweet of you. 😊