Roll Up! Take Your First Steps Into... Mastodon!

[AgentPete]

Everyone is talking about Mastodon at the moment – the free and open-source alternative to Twitter.

Although at first glance it looks very similar to Twitter, it works in a very different way. Twitter is a highly-centralized system. Should you dare to tweet anything that offends whoever the boss happens to be - then you may find your presence on his platform is… limited. Or shadow-banned. Or something equally oubliette-ish.

That’s not possible with Mastodon, because it's a network of independently-run servers. There is no Mr. Big: therefore there’s no possibility of being banned from the platform. It’s not corporate-controlled social media – it’s user-controlled.

Mastodon has been around for seven years but has only recently seen a surge in growth and media attention.

Litopia has always been at the forefront of tech innovation (think about all the early podcasts we did) and so yes, we’ve just set up our own Mastodon server, which is now a constituent part of the 5000-strong network of Mastodon servers collectively known as the “fediverse”.

The hard part has already been done, i.e. setting it up.

Now it's over to you to experiment with! Will Mastodon overthrow Twitter - and could it become a valuable new way to discover authors and their works?

Sign up on Litopia's Mastodon server now and kick the tyres a bit!

​

 

[CarolMS]

Hi, Carol...

I don't know about the e-mail. I approved your account manually, so you're in.

Thanks, Bloo!

 

[CarolMS]

Thanks for that, Jake. Some confirmation e-mails wound up in spam. Always a good idea to check.

However, it looks like a few e-mails don't make it through. For example, I never got a confirmation. Agent Pete had to approve mine manually. That's what I do when someone here kvetches.

So if someone doesn't get a confirmation, do what Carol did and let us know. We can fix it

Otherwise, simply try logging in after a day or so. Even if you haven't gotten an approval, chances are one of us pulled a lever behind the scenes.

After reading Jake's and your added comments, I did find the email in my spam. (I should have thought to look there in the first place! Duh.) I guess, @Bloo✒️, since you set me up, I don't need to click on the "verify email address" button on that email. Is that right? I can just ignore it? Thanks again!

 

[CarolMS]

@Bloo✒️ and @Eva Ulian or whoever else might have some clues -- I've been trying to (1) upload the same image I used on my Twitter @martta_karol profile page but couldn't do so because the sizing didn't work and (2) I was trying to search for other accounts or, I guess, "instances," to perhaps connect with but couldn't come up with anything via the search box (trying hash tags and names in the same way one does on Twitter or Facebook). Only a few hashtags came up as existing at all (I was trying generics like #writers #authors etc.) and only one (#fiction) came up with an actual post (they only link to posts from the last 2 days) by an author saying she was happy to join the Mastodon Writing Exchange (or something like that). So I searched that in different ways, but again came up with nothing. So far it pretty much seems I can only interact with Litopia members in the same way I do on this site, and even in a more limited way. Any thoughts about being able to connect with a larger community on Mastodon? That's what will make it worthwhile. Re: the profile image, I found an image size of 8MB (which means nothing to me; I need dimensions) and one indication of 1500 x 500 max pixels advised. I have no pictures that large, but couldn't upload amything smaller to fit into the profile header, no matter how small I made the image. Weird. Haven't had such problems with Twitter or Facebook headers, which I've fiddled with and deigned them to fit just as I wanted, including the info and design desired. I ended up just sticking a blah photo with most of it cut off so as to at least have something there. Anyway, I"m open to advice. Inspiration. Whatever.

 

[Eva Ulian]

@Bloo✒️ and @Eva Ulian or whoever else might have some clues -- I've been trying to (1) upload the same image I used on my Twitter @martta_karol profile page but couldn't do so because the sizing didn't work and (2) I was trying to search for other accounts or, I guess, "instances," to perhaps connect with but couldn't come up with anything via the search box (trying hash tags and names in the same way one does on Twitter or Facebook). Only a few hashtags came up as existing at all (I was trying generics like #writers #authors etc.) and only one (#fiction) came up with an actual post (they only link to posts from the last 2 days) by an author saying she was happy to join the Mastodon Writing Exchange (or something like that). So I searched that in different ways, but again came up with nothing. So far it pretty much seems I can only interact with Litopia members in the same way I do on this site, and even in a more limited way. Any thoughts about being able to connect with a larger community on Mastodon? That's what will make it worthwhile. Re: the profile image, I found an image size of 8MB (which means nothing to me; I need dimensions) and one indication of 1500 x 500 max pixels advised. I have no pictures that large, but couldn't upload amything smaller to fit into the profile header, no matter how small I made the image. Weird. Haven't had such problems with Twitter or Facebook headers, which I've fiddled with and deigned them to fit just as I wanted, including the info and design desired. I ended up just sticking a blah photo with most of it cut off so as to at least have something there. Anyway, I"m open to advice. Inspiration. Whatever.

I see in Mastodon that you've sorted everything out as far as the pictures go. I haven't been into any outside account- I'm still trying to figure out how to master the Litopia one first. You'll probably get there before I do. I find it easier to get to interact and get to know people in Mastodon. That's why I say it's cozy there.

 

[CarolMS]

I see in Mastodon that you've sorted everything out as far as the pictures go. I haven't been into any outside account- I'm still trying to figure out how to master the Litopia one first. You'll probably get there before I do. I find it easier to get to interact and get to know people in Mastodon. That's why I say it's cozy there.

I didn't get the header photo figured out, just stuck something in. The post photo I tried worked just fine. It's the profile header that has me puzzled. I'd like to use the one I used on Twitter, with some words in it, but I can't get that image to fit the Mastodon profile photo spot for some reason. I'll keep trying, I guess. I'm glad you're finding it a cozy and comfy place to interact. Is that just with the litopia people, or have you connected with others on Mastodon? I did find some other "instances" by googling for Mastodon instances, but was frankly just confused and even turned off. Many people or groups seem to have created such lists and some of the instances were things I'd expect to be not allowed (such as one called Lewdie something-of-other and having all kinds of sexual references that made me think it's soft porn of some kind--not okay on Mastodon in my view). I'm not sure I'll stick with it at all. We'll see.

 

[Eva Ulian]

@Carol MS Can you upload the header here and I'll see what can be done.

 

[CarolMS]

@Carol MS Can you upload the header here and I'll see what can be done.

Okay, Let me see what I can do. I'll do it in the largest size I have, which is much smaller than 1500x500 (a 3:1 ratio, I guess). When I've uploaded it, it's seemed to work fine on the profile editing page, but then when I've looked at the finished product by going back to my profile (not the editing page, but the actual profile page), it no longer fits in the frame. I want ALL of the photo to fit, including all the words, and with at least a little margin around the edges, just as is true on this original. It has almost seemed as though once it's put into Mastodon, it is made larger for some reason. I know they adjust photo sizes when we upload photos, but that's usually been to make an image smaller when I've uploaded images in the past, not to make them larger and end up cropping off parts. I don't want it cropped at all. That shouldn't be necessary. If you can figure out a way to fix this, that would be great. Thanks for offering to help. You're a sweetie!

Uploaded two sizes. I couldn't get either to work without problems described above.

 

[CarolMS]

Okay, Let me see what I can do. I'll do it in the largest size I have, which is much smaller than 1500x500 (a 3:1 ratio, I guess). When I've uploaded it, it's seemed to work fine on the profile editing page, but then when I've looked at the finished product by going back to my profile (not the editing page, but the actual profile page), it no longer fits in the frame. I want ALL of the photo to fit, including all the words, and with at least a little margin around the edges, just as is true on this original. It has almost seemed as though once it's put into Mastodon, it is made larger for some reason. I know they adjust photo sizes when we upload photos, but that's usually been to make an image smaller when I've uploaded images in the past, not to make them larger and end up cropping off parts. I don't want it cropped at all. That shouldn't be necessary. If you can figure out a way to fix this, that would be great. Thanks for offering to help. You're a sweetie!

Uploaded two sizes. I couldn't get either to work without problems described above.

View attachment 15518 View attachment 15519

Oh, dear, @Eva Ulian! I just noticed I got one of the images mixed up, so these are two different quotes. It's the smaller one I've been trying to upload, and I prefer that quote for a header, but I guess the larger one is okay, too, if that's the one you can get to fit. IF you can get it to fit. THANKS so much!

 

[Eva Ulian]

Okay, Let me see what I can do. I'll do it in the largest size I have, which is much smaller than 1500x500 (a 3:1 ratio, I guess). When I've uploaded it, it's seemed to work fine on the profile editing page, but then when I've looked at the finished product by going back to my profile (not the editing page, but the actual profile page), it no longer fits in the frame. I want ALL of the photo to fit, including all the words, and with at least a little margin around the edges, just as is true on this original. It has almost seemed as though once it's put into Mastodon, it is made larger for some reason. I know they adjust photo sizes when we upload photos, but that's usually been to make an image smaller when I've uploaded images in the past, not to make them larger and end up cropping off parts. I don't want it cropped at all. That shouldn't be necessary. If you can figure out a way to fix this, that would be great. Thanks for offering to help. You're a sweetie!

Uploaded two sizes. I couldn't get either to work without problems described above.

View attachment 15518 View attachment 15519

The second one (smaller) is fine- I uploaded it on my banner without a problem. If you upload this precise card it should fit like a glove. Try again. Otherwise there must me a problem with your uploading system.

 

[CarolMS]

The second one (smaller) is fine- I uploaded it on my banner without a problem. If you upload this precise card it should fit like a glove. Try again. Otherwise there must me a problem with your uploading system.

I'll try again and see. But did you only look at it uploaded on your profile editing page, where you do the upload, versus going to your profile as someone else might by clicking on your name on one of your posts in the Litopia thread of posts? That's when I saw there was a problem, even though it seemed to upload fine when I did it on the "edit profile" page where the uploads are done. The sizing had changed when I looked at what others see. Anyway, I will try again. (And I probably should go to bed, since it's now going after 3 a.m. here. I really shouldn't stay up like this. I end up having to stay in bed until noon trying to get at least six hours of sleep as a result, and with my health, that's not good. Silly me. Bad habit.) Thank again. Maybe it'll work this time.

 

[Eva Ulian]

You are right- it cuts bits off. I'll see if I can re-dimension it.

 

[CarolMS]

You are right- it cuts bits off. I'll see if I can re-dimension it.

Right. It happened again for me, too. It looks like the words are bigger, so the image was made larger than the one uploaded. Weird. Anyway, thanks for seeing if you can do anything with it. I tried by making the image even smaller, but that didn't work either. Very strange, if you ask me. I think I'll put it to rest for now and go to bed like a good little girl. Mastadon is taxing my limited brain. I noticed when I responded to the delightful family get-togeher pictures you shared that Pete somehow came up on the "to" line as well. No idea why that occurred. Oh well. Sometimes I really long for the days when we had only our simple telephones and televisions and were happy as can be. Life was much more peaceful, less harried. Sigh.

 

[Eva Ulian]

@Carol MS Done it. Take a look at my banner (click on my profile) It now fits beautifully.
You need to upload this file that I am attaching here- these are the right dimension 180x400 px
Let me know when you've seen it and I'll take it down.

 

[Eva Ulian]

Right. It happened again for me, too. It looks like the words are bigger, so the image was made larger than the one uploaded. Weird. Anyway, thanks for seeing if you can do anything with it. I tried by making the image even smaller, but that didn't work either. Very strange, if you ask me. I think I'll put it to rest for now and go to bed like a good little girl. Mastadon is taxing my limited brain. I noticed when I responded to the delightful family get-togeher pictures you shared that Pete somehow came up on the "to" line as well. No idea why that occurred. Oh well. Sometimes I really long for the days when we had only our simple telephones and televisions and were happy as can be. Life was much more peaceful, less harried. Sigh.

That's because you replied to my post that contained his name.

 

[CarolMS]

@Carol MS Done it. Take a look at my banner (click on my profile) It now fits beautifully.
You need to upload this file that I am attaching here- these are the right dimension 180x400 px
Let me know when you've seen it and I'll take it down.

It's not working, @Eva Ulian. Not on your profile page or mine. In both cases it works on the "Edit Profile" page where we do the work of uploading the photo but then when I go to the Mastodon posting thread for Litopia and click on my (or your) name on a post, it takes me to profile pages with the image significantly cut down and words only partly appearing. Again, the image has clearly been made larger by Mastodon so that although it fits on the upload page it no longer works on a finished profile page that people will see. Truly weird. Anyway, I really do have to get to bed. (Me sleeping and having sweet dreams.)

 

[Bloo]

It's not working, @Eva Ulian. Not on your profile page or mine. In both cases it works on the "Edit Profile" page where we do the work of uploading the photo but then when I go to the Mastodon posting thread for Litopia and click on my (or your) name on a post, it takes me to profile pages with the image significantly cut down and words only partly appearing. Again, the image has clearly been made larger by Mastodon so that although it fits on the upload page it no longer works on a finished profile page that people will see. Truly weird. Anyway, I really do have to get to bed. (Me sleeping and having sweet dreams.)

Hi Carol...

Try this attachment. I pulled it directly from Eva's background.

The one on your page right now is not an exact fit. However, the far bigger problem is that the text is missing. It looks like the text is a transparent overlay to the background in the original (GIFs do this). I'm not sure that's supported.

Anyhoo...try using this one and let us know if it works.

EDIT: Ugh! It looks like Litopia resizes the file after I attach it. It wound up exactly like Eva's.

I'll need to work on this.

 

[Eva Ulian]

Hi Carol...

Try this attachment. I pulled it directly from Eva's background.

The one on your page right now is not an exact fit. However, the far bigger problem is that the text is missing. It looks like the text is a transparent overlay to the background in the original (GIFs do this). I'm not sure that's supported.

Anyhoo...try using this one and let us know if it works.

Hi bloo, this is the same pict as the one I uploaded on Carol's post above- Carol is saying it's not working to the pict I had posted prior to this post.

 

[Bloo]

I Hi bloo, this is the same pict as the one I uploaded on Carol's post above- in case she thinks it's different.

Thanks, Eva...I just realized it. Litopia is resizing the files we post, even if they're already small.

 

[Eva Ulian]

I just realized it. Litopia is resizing the files we post, even if they're already small.

Not in this case- I resized Carol's pict to fit mastodon with a special programme on Photoshop which Litopia or Maston doesn't do. I also had to change the proportions.

 

[Bloo]

@Carol MS...
I just DM-ed you on Mastodon. Download the file from the message there. That one should work.

@Eva Ulian...
I see the issue now. If I download the image by long-pressing the file and selecting the option, it's compressed to 239x130. However, if I open the file then select download from the options, the size is 400x180.

Strangely, it doesn't matter which method I use on the Mastodon site. Either way I get the full 400x180. It could be how my mobile browser (DuckDuckGo) handles it.

 

[Eva Ulian]

@Carol MS...
I just DM-ed you an Mastodon. Download the file from the message there. That one should work.

@Eva Ulian...
I see the issue now. If I download the image by long-pressing the file and selecting the option, it's compressed to 239x130. However, if I open the file then select download from the options, the size is 400x180.

Strangely, it doesn't matter which method I use on the Mastodon site. Either way I get the full 400x180. It could be how my mobile browser (DuckDuckGo) handles it.

Have no idea what this is about- What I know is that the 180x400 is the size I asked the photoshop programme to do for me. For which I am grateful.
However, to make things simple for Carol, I should let her just upload the new resized picture I had made for her, don't you think?

 

[Bloo]

Have no idea what this is about- What I know is that the 180x400 is the size I asked the photoshop programme to do for me. For which I am grateful.
However, to make things simple for Carol, I should let her just upload the new resized picture I had made for her, don't you think?

Saw your message before the edit. I sent the DM only to Carol; that's why you didn't see it.

I know you encoded the size at 400x180. However, it doesn't always download that way. Did you try downloading the images that we uploaded? I got different sizes depending on the browser and method I used.

It looks like DuckDuckGo downloads the lower-quality webpage image with a simple long press, whereas Firefox downloads the actual file behind the image. I can get DDG to download the actual file, too - but only if I open it first.

However, I was able to download the full 400x180 off Mastodon no matter what method I used. I think the Masto site is more browser agnostic.

 

[Eva Ulian]

You are making my life too complicated Bloo. I can't imagine what it's doing to Carol. Remember we are not youngsters anymore Be compassionate!

 

[Bloo]

Ooh...I'm sorry about that, Eva. What I am saying is that the file you posted may get changed when someone downloads it. In my case, it got smaller when I used the DuckDuckGo browser on my mobile. That could also happen on a desktop, but I can't test that now coz I'm at work.

In any case, I made a few assumptions. A big one was that most of us are using mobile devices (like I am).

 

[Eva Ulian]

Ooh...I'm sorry about that, Eva. What I am saying is that the file you posted may get changed when someone downloads it. In my case, it got smaller when I used the DuckDuckGo browser on my mobile. That could also happen on a desktop, but I can't test that now coz I'm at work.

In any case, I made a few assumptions. A big one was that most of us are using mobile devices (like I am).

Let Carol see about that- I don't think she has a duck-duck browser - Just a normal one like me.

 

[CarolMS]

I've been reading your conversation, @Bloo✒️ and @Eva Ulian--So grateful to you both for looking at this to help me as you are!--and I have to admit I'm very confused. I'm not very tech savvy, just in certain areas, most of which have to do with setting up a WordPress blog (with a previous approach, not the template one they have now), and otherwise just document sharing. I've played around with Canva and Scrivener, but don't use them regularly. So REALLY limited.

A couple of things: I use Chrome as my browser on my laptop, and, believe it or not, I don't even have a smart phone. Since I'm pretty much homebound these days and have my laptop on my lap much of the day, I've no reason to have one. An issue on both a smart phone and newer laptops is the need to scroll with fingers on the screen, a repetitive motion that causes me increasing pain (so can typing, but not as bad--yet) due to both severe nerve damage from longterm carpal tunnel and worsening arthritis. I have a lot of swelling in my hands, especially the right one, and some of my fingers are trying to cross over the ones next to them (makes for a lot of typos). My right hand even cramps like a "Charlie horse" sometimes. Ugh. I'm investigating voice programs, by the way,

So anyway, don't consider me at all up to date and think dinosaur.

I'll go to Mastodon and try to find your DM, @Bloo✒️ . Wish me luck.

 

[CarolMS]

@Eva Ulian -- Hi Eva! Just noticed that when I browse Profiles on Mastodon (a hopless thing to do because of the way it's set up), your profile still shows my header image on your profile, so you probably want to delete that for sure. I searched the profiles by selecting doing so from the tiny paragraph-like list of things in the left column, and don't know if that matters. I chose litopia only also, but don't think it included everyone who's signed up because it only shows those who are recently active (annoying) and you can't change that. I think that means within the past 2 days only. Dumb system.

 

[Bloo]

@Eva Ulian -- Hi Eva! Just noticed that when I browse Profiles on Mastodon (a hopless thing to do because of the way it's set up), your profile still shows my header image on your profile, so you probably want to delete that for sure. I searched the profiles by selecting doing so from the tiny paragraph-like list of things in the left column, and don't know if that matters. I chose litopia only also, but don't think it included everyone who's signed up because it only shows those who are recently active (annoying) and you can't change that. I think that means within the past 2 days only. Dumb system.

Hi, Carol...

Looks like you found a slightly different image and applied it to your background. And it's better quality than the one I gave you

Did someone help, or did you figure it out ?

 

[CarolMS]

Hi, Carol...

Looks like you found a slightly different image and applied it to your background. And it's better quality than the one I gave you

Did someone help, or did you figure it out ?

Hi @Bloo. Yes, I was going through my images and found a header template I'd used a while back for, I think, my Facebook page, and found it fit better, so with a little more cropping and adding the quote words in anew I got it to fit fairly well. Whew! Thanks so much for your help, though. Soooo appreciated!

 

[CarolMS]

@Blue, this'll make you chuckle, I suspect. I still use good old Paint for all my photo and quote work (I like to put quote on images and use them for quick and easy posts).