yttrx is a Mastodon community server for English users operated out of Canada and the USA.

Things to do if you’re a new user

If you’re new to Mastodon, the first thing you’ll want to do is discover interesting people, topics and conversations. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon doesn’t have engagement algorithms to steer. You, the user, is responsible for this, and we’d like to help to get you started.

Finding your way around the client

If you’re using iOS, you might want to look at alternative apps, as the official app isn’t optimized for finding new content. We recommend mammoth for iOS. It includes ways to explore trending topics, find recommended users and see what the wider Mastodon network (AKA “the fediverse”) is talking about.

For now, we’ll reference the web application for:

This should be enough to get your started. Follow some users, boost some content, and explore a little before coming back here. ☺️

How does Mastodon work?

There is no single Mastodon server. Instead it’s a collection of community run instances, or “community servers”. Ours is masto.yttrx.com. This is where your account lives if you signed up with us, and it will be the basis of your username, for example @waffles@masto.yttrx.com is one of the admins (go say hi!).

Community servers communicate with other community servers to share posts, likes, boosts, etc. It’s the responsibility of each community server to set rules and enforce these rules via moderation to create a safe and enjoyable experience for its users.

One way to think about how Mastodon works is to think about email. When you sign up for email, you might sign up with a big hosting provider, like gmail.com or outlook.com. To send someone an email, you need their full email address ending in gmail.com, outlook.com, etc. So even if you have a gmail address, you can email someone with an outlook.com or any other kind of valid email address.

Mastodon is similar. Your full username looks like ‘@username@masto.yttrx.com;’ people can follow you at this address, and you can follow people on other instances as long as you have their full username.

Don’t worry if you still don’t quite get it! Mastodon makes finding and following people pretty easy. So see the tips above for finding and following people and just jump in! 🤠

(Almost) everything you wanted to know about Mastodon

If you’re finding that you have more questions than answers, then you might enjoy the increasingly less brief guide to Mastodon. It’s a great resource.