There was a lot of interest in the Mastodon resources list I put together last weekend, so I took today and made another. I carried over the “Academics on Mastodon” resource because it’s been growing a lot, and added another 41 resources.

If you know of anything I missed leave a comment, or tag me on Mastodon at researchbuzz@researchbuzz.masto.host .

Primers

An intro to Mastodon from a relative newcomer! | Skulls in the Stars – Imagine you and your friend meet at the pub for root beer and french fries. You’re supposed to be there for fifteen minutes so they can set up a Mastodon account for you. Instead you get two hours of Mastodon background, asides, useful tips, and that conversational information that never seems to get transmitted any other way AND you get your Mastodon account set up. Also the fries are good. That’s this article.

How to switch from Twitter to Mastodon | Opensource.com – If you started reading the article above and thought “JUST TELL ME HOW TO PICK A SERVER” then you want this primer. Succinct, no-nonsense, plenty of screenshots.

Coming to grips with Mastodon — MATH VALUES – Some math/science resources but mostly an extended look at how Mastodon works, with focus on the norms and expectations of that platform.

How-To

Screen Rant has a walkthrough showing how to transfer from one Mastodon instance/server to another.

How Mastodon Search Works: Why Can You Only Use Hashtags? – Does Mastodon have the big, powerful, oh-so-useful search reach that Twitter has? Alas, no. And that’s intentional. (I think we’ll see that change over time; Mastodon’s open structure and RSS feeds have me suspecting we’ll see all kinds of search options).

Add a verified website to your Mastodon account • barrd.dev – Some steps to turn the links in your profile green. A couple of additional resources if you’re on WordPress.

Linking from GitHub to Mastodon – Three different options for verification with the pros and cons of each. (Or in the third case, just the cons.)

How to get your Wix website verified on Mastodon – It’s simple but fiddly. Simon Cox unfiddles it for you.

Finding People to Follow

Fedified – Fedified is a project managing a spreadsheet of 207 (at this writing) Mastodon accounts of Twitter verified users. You can download the spreadsheet, edit out the people you don’t want to follow, then import the edited sheet into your Mastodon account. That gives you a follow list to start with.

Fedi.Directory fedi.directory – A searchable subject index of interesting accounts to follow on Mastodon/ the Fediverse. “Fedi.Directory generally lists public accounts about specific topics.”

Trunk for the Fediverse –   A huge list of people to follow by topic, from 3D Printing to Writing. I looked at the Geology topic and found it had 7 people on it. (This list looks pretty seriously vetted so I would assume they are high-quality.) This site is for English-language content but there are other sites available for Dutch, Spanish, and French content.

If you prefer ongoing suggestions, follow https://mastodon.online/@FediFollows .

Google Sheets / Google Docs / Lists of People in Various Communities

I mentioned the GitHub project Academics on Mastodon in my first article, but it’s very busy and has grown a lot, especially with new topic lists. If you’re part of Academic Twitter take a look.

New to Mastodon? Here Are 10 Fun Accounts to Follow – If you just want to follow some basic accounts while you get your feet under you, this is a good way to get started.

Mastodon servers for journalists – Information about instances and even a verification service.

These are all Google Sheets / Docs.

TechInfoSecMastodon  – 285 listings at this writing .

Queer Studies Mastodon – 35 listings at this writing (I have not seen this one shared as much as other lists.)

The Therapist List  – Very new list, not much here yet.  For mental health professionals.

Progressives on Mastodon – 90 listings at this writing.

Idaho tweeps on Mastodon – 35 listings at this writing.

Finding Conversations

Guppe Groups – A tool to make topic-based conversation groups on Mastodon and in the greater Fediverse. The two busiest groups at this writing are Classical Music and Actually Autistic.

Apps

8 Best Free and Open Source Graphical Mastodon Clients – LinuxLinks – Each client gets its own page with a ton of details about each program. I think for the most part these are oriented towards desktop computing.

Tools for End Users and Non-Technical Users

Will Mastodon replace Twitter? Sее for yourself with Inoreader! – RSS feed reader Inoreader is taking advantage of Mastodon’s open structure to integrate it into its product. You can even share to Mastodon from Inoreader.

Republish from Mastodon to Twitter – IFTTT – A recipe for IFTTT. Add a little JavaScript and you have a nice filtered crossposter.

Mastodon – Simplified Federation! – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US) – “Simplifies following or interacting with other users on remote Mastodon instances in the Fediverse.” Open source, last updated in June.

How to schedule a Mastodon post | Tech Help Knowledgebase – Slightly clunky but easy way to schedule posts for Mastodon.

Tools for Technical Users and Programmers

TuM’Fatig – Read RSS feeds on Mastodon – A bot, a little Python, some RSS feeds, and voila.

rtoot: Collecting and Analyzing Mastodon Data | R-bloggers – an introduction to rtoot with instructions on how to install and use it.

mastodon-bot – Dmitri Sotnikov – “A bot for mirroring Twitter/Tumblr accounts and RSS feeds on Mastodon”

Python bot for cross-posting reddit posts to Mastodon. – tootbot – Codeberg.org – Part of MarvinsMastodonTools.

i.j / Mastodon timeline feed · GitLab – Simple setup to embed Mastodon timelines in your Web site. Looks like the project is maybe a year old.

GitHub – kensanata/mastodon-backup: Archive your statuses, favorites and media using the Mastodon API (i.e. login required) – “This tool allows you to make an archive of your statuses, your favourites, bookmarks and the media in both your statuses, your favourites and your bookmarks.” Created several years ago, still actively maintained.

Curated list of awesome Mastodon-related stuff! – A big list, not a lot of annotation.

Twitter Transfer / Archive Tools

GitHub – timhutton/twitter-archive-parser: Python code to parse a Twitter archive and output in various ways – Makes the archive you download from Twitter a lot easier to use. Also has a list of a bunch of other similar tools in case you don’t like this one.

GitHub – shawnhooper/twitter-archive-to-wp: Import Twitter Data Archive using WP-CLI – “This plugin contains a custom WP-CLI command to import a Twitter data archive into WordPress.”

Security

Mastodon Safety: How To Protect Against Security and Privacy Risks – The Mac Security Blog .  Ignore the blog title; you need to read this no matter what your platform is. Lays out the various security risks and privacy considerations you should be aware of when using Mastodon. (Also, unlike many articles I’ve seen, it recommends against deleting your Twitter account.)

How to enable two-factor authentication on your Mastodon account – Uses authenticator apps instead of physical keys like a YubiKey.

Hosting

How to Set Up Your Own Mastodon Instance – A thorough overview of setting up your own Mastodon instance using a “droplet” from DigitalOcean, courtesy FreeCodeCamp. You will have to have some other chops to completely set up your instance (setup for a cloud storage, SMTP server, etc.)

Setting up a personal Mastodon instance – If you looked at the previous article and considered it a bit basic for your taste, check this offering from has_many :codes. This bypasses the DigitalOcean “droplet” in favor of more hands-on codes, settings, and Terminal work.

Your organization should run its own Mastodon server  – An argument in favor from Julien Deswaef, with a few resources thrown in.

Scaling Mastodon in the Face of an Exodus | Nora Codes – This article is far too technical for me so I’m going to reproduce its TL;DR: “Mastodon’s Sidekiq deferred execution jobs are the limiting factor for scaling federated traffic in a single-server or small cluster deployment. Sidekiq performance scales poorly under a single process model, and can be limited by database performance in a deployment of the default Dockerized configuration.”

Twitter’s Impact

Mapping the Mastodon Migration: Is It a One-Way Trip or an Each-Way Bet for Science Twitter? – Absolutely Maybe – A deep dive from PLOS blog Absolutely Maybe on Twitter’s importance to the science community, and how that community might be moving to Mastodon.