I hope this helps:

Mastodon (and the Fediverse in general) works like email: decentralized servers communicate through standard protocols and every user can post / read information from every other user (except when posts or servers have restricted access).

Just like with email, choosing a server is important but not crucial. You easily can start on any server and then also easily migrate with your content and contacts to another server. It’s like when you move to a big city in another country: first you find whatever allows you to land, then, with time, more local knowledge and contacts, perhaps you’ll find another place in another neighborhood that suits you better.

There are two main ways to find interesting people and interesting conversations: tags and patience. :slight_smile:

You can search and follow tags, which will bring topics using those tags to your timeline. Some tags I’m following: linuxaudio, bitwig, plugdata. Some communities create tags to communicate between themselves openly and be found (bonkwave comes to mind). Also, use specific tags in your posts, and that will help you be found by others.

Following hashtags over time will allow you to find authors talking about their creations, authors reporting about these topics, and also people very good at filtering and resharing. These are the people you can start following, read their discussions, and in these discussions you can find more people with common interests (and, probably like you, less invested in posting or less pro in the topic), and your comments will also be seen by like-minded people. This, over time, will form your Mastodon circle of people you follow and follow you for more social reasons, beyond specific topics.

Or at least this is how it worked for me and many people I know. There are many other ways to use Mastodon, just like there are many reasons to join Elektronauts and many ways to use it, your usage may evolve, and so on.

If you have specific questions, please ask. I’m a very happy Mastodon user and I’ve been helping people to try the Fediverse for a while now. And this is my account, usually mostly about music, lately a bit more into political stuff because [reasons], but I want to get back to music production / Linux audio, Bitwig… icaria36 🎶 (@icaria36@sonomu.club) - SoNoMu

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