ESCMID has just joined the fediverse and set up our own official Mastodon account. Joining Mastodon may not be the most straightforward and so we have some tips below to help you get started.

Tip #1: Pick a server to join: Joining Mastodon is not quite the same as other big name social media services.

• When you first create your account, you will need to join a server or "instance”. 
• Pick one that aligns with your interests and don't worry, you can change server and see content from all servers no matter which you join.
• Some servers that might be of interest to ESCMID members are: mstdn.science (which focuses on Microbiology and where ESCMID is hosted) and med-mastodon.com (with a significant #IDMastodon community) but there are many more (see here).
• Mastodon is the official app to access this social network from you mobile device. But there are several other free apps for instance Metatext which also has high recommendations.

Tip #2: Setting up your profile 

• Once you create an account you can access your profile to edit your profile picture, banner image, biography, and set your preferences on how to be interacted with.

Tip #3: Mastodon semantics: Mastodon functions much like Twitter, but has its own terminology

• Instead of "tweets" posts are “toots"
• “Boost" is the Mastodon equivalent to retweet, and there is no quote tweeting.
• Instead of liking a post, you favourite it.
• Timelines: There are 3 timelines. Your "Home" timeline is a collection of Toots from people you follow, the "Local" timeline is made of toots from users also on the server you joined, and finally the "Federated" timeline shows you all public posts from users that people in your server follow.

Tip #4: Mastodon etiquette: Each social media has its own rules and codes of conducts. Here you have some specific to Mastodon:

• Mastodon users frequently start posting with a brief #Introduction. It is useful to pin it so that it can be easily found.
• Use hashtags (#) generously. Hastags are the only way to search for content. Using # helps others to find your posts, and you can even follow specific hastags which will then show up on your timelines.
• Boosting is the only way to spread content.
• Favorites are commonly used to bookmark.

Did our tips help you? If so, follow us and let us know on Mastodon!