mstdn.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
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You don't need to use the official Mastodon apps, they're not the best way to use Mastodon. The official apps only arrived last year, and they were intended as "Fisher Price My First Mastodon" things with a restricted set of features.

Third party apps have been around longer than official ones, and include way more features. You can sign in with the same account on all apps.

:android: On Android try Tusky, Fedilab, Megalodon, Tooot

:apple_inc: On iPhone/iPad, try Toot!, Ice Cubes, Ivory, Mona

@feditips I've been happy using a browser with the web interface.

I use the advanced option when I want columns for tracking different hashtags. But usually I like the single column view so images are larger.

Just curious - what features have the apps got that make folks want to use them instead? Thanks!

@ahimsa_pdx @feditips I’m brand new here but I will say the app understanding that I want to follow someone off-server and just letting me do it, instead of telling me to go copy and paste their address into my own server search, gets rid of one of the WEIRDEST and most tedious aspects for someone coming from Twitter/Tumblr/anyone without multiple servers.

@winged @ahimsa_pdx

You can follow someone off-server and just do it on the web and on the app. However, servers don't always know about every address on every other server.

Copy/pasting the address means your server is guaranteed to find the right person to follow. It's like a backup way of following someone if you can't do it directly.

It's technically the same thing as copy-pasting an email address into Gmail or whatever, people just aren't used to doing it on social media.

@feditips @ahimsa_pdx that’s fair! I was just getting frustrated last night opening a lot of profiles of notable-in-their-field people to see if I liked them, and then realizing I couldn’t just hit follow. But you’re right; it is an adjustment period more than anything else.

@winged @ahimsa_pdx

You can hit follow if their profiles are displayed on your server, it's just getting it to display on your server that can be tricky 😁

Another thing is if you're looking at someone's profile on their server's website is just copy-paste the page's web address into Mastodon. This will also display the profile within your own server so you can interact directly.

If you're using a computer, there's a plugin for Firefox or Chrome called FediAct which does this automatically.

@feditips @ahimsa_pdx Oh NICE, that’s super helpful — thank you!!

@winged @ahimsa_pdx

FediAct is really nice because it lets you click on follow buttons etc directly even when they are on other servers' websites :)

@feditips @winged
I just installed it, configured it, and tested it. I clicked "follow" on a user on a different server that was shown in another tab.

Saw a waiting symbol (the moving circle of dots - what is that called?) and then ... success!

Thanks ❤️

FediTips has moved!

@ahimsa_pdx @winged

Yay, glad it worked!

You can also favourite posts etc.