We all come to Mastodon with expectations of what it will be like and what we want to get out of it. We also unconsciously come with a handbook that we were taught by corporate systems and platforms on how to be seen and to get engagement. However, on a system not driven by an algorithm and with other features and social structures, are these old habits helping you get the most out of your Mastodon and fediverse experience?
This is a big thing on corporate platforms, having a higher ratio of followers to following gives visibility, and an air of credibility and the reputation of being a person with great content. If you had a high number of followers to following then you were definitely someone to be followed, and it most probably helped you get priority with the algorithm.
On Mastodon, if you’re on a large server you can manage by not following people and still find a lot of content via the local, trending and global timelines. The search and hashtag functions also work really well. However, if you are on a medium or small server following connections are fundamental to getting posts and content known and shared between servers.
When you follow a hashtag you will only see the posts from accounts that someone follows on your server, it’s like a community mail room. Imagine that someone at the community mail room gets a newspaper delivered regularly and they share it out with all the people who use the mail room. If no-one on the server subscribes to have that newspaper delivered, then no-one in the communal mail room can see it. However, if many users of the mail room subscribe to many newspapers then there is plenty of interesting material to see and share.
Following people gives you content, but it also means you are potentially providing content to the other members of your server that they can use by checking the hashtags and doing searches. An account with a high number of following shows they like getting content and they are providing structure and content to their server. It can also mean they are friendly and an extra added bonus is they are seen more as people often get notified when someone follows them.
This is something that is common to creatives that join Mastodon from places like Instagram where they have a gallery of photos of their work. If someone boosts and replies on their account it breaks up the aesthetics and flow of seeing an unbroken line of photos and posts of their work.
Mastodon post feed isn’t designed to be an art gallery, the gallery part is the far right section under the follower and following information with the header “Media”. Here you will find a gallery of the photos that the account has posted.
Mastodon post feed may look messy to those used to seeing neat photo galleries, but it’s a record of the interactions people have on their accounts, a sign of how much they engage with the community and the fediverse. Boosting is another way that content and accounts connect with servers and spreads the content across the fediverse.
When there is no algorithm, people and community are the motor of the system and the network and joining in and interacting is rewarding and often valued more than a perfect photo gallery feed.
There are many new accounts on Mastodon that fill out their profiles and add links to other platforms and even a comment or two in the description that gives the impression that they expect their profiles to be promoted for them even though they don’t actually post anything. This is the case with some networks, just the act of signing up and filling out a profile means that the algorithm promotes and shares the account as part of being new to the system.
This does not happen on Mastodon, an account needs to be active to be seen by others. Public posting regularly means your account will be seen on the local timeline of your server, and if your post gets sufficient interaction it will also appear on the trending pages. Making posts with some well chosen hashtags can also help your post travel across the fediverse. The right number and combination of hashtags is like seasoning on food, not enough and too much can both ruin the effect, but exactly how much is right depends on the exact post and personal taste.
Talking to others and boosting their posts also helps you be seen and to build connections with others. There is the domino effect, if you get talking to one person and follow them, then you see the posts they boost and have more people to talk to and content to boost and so on.
Broadcasting is done and brings success for some, but not like the past or on other networks. On the fediverse one usually has to be famous, or a fabulous artist for broadcasting to work well.
As there’s no algorithm the system and network relies on people interacting with each other to get posts and accounts seen. There's more of a feeling of everyone mucking in and getting involved, which means having two-way interaction with people. Not exactly a quid quo pro “I’ll boost your post if you boost mine” but definitely a sense of let’s build this community together, being in it for the craic and reaping the rewards of being human (or furry or whatever being you identify as) rather than having influencers or broadcasters.
It helps if people have a reasonable expectation of the network and how they measure “success”. If you are looking for major engagement figures that are comparable to the other larger platforms, or wanting to be a major influencer, or you’re someone who uploads photos and posts but doesn’t interact with others, then you mayn’t find what you are looking for on Mastodon or the fediverse.
Nonetheless, if you want a community or bubble and people to talk to and feel like you are in a cosy café where you can chat to many people, and are happy to embrace the ethos of “you get out what you put in” then there’s a good chance you’ll find what you’re after.