Mastodon Basics: Getting Started on a Community Server

There are many different communities on Mastodon, and the greater Fediverse. In many ways, they’re like villages, with different personalities, topics, and rules. Almost all of them are run by volunteers, and server expenses are covered by donations from community members. A very different model from centralized platforms that rely on advertising.

Before joining a community instance, you should check to see if it looks like a good fit for you. Check the instance ‘Rules’. Some might surprise you, but they usually exist for good reasons…