Using Mastodon

Mastodon is a lot like Twitter, but with some differences. This section describes the different tabs on your home screen.

Note that you can use different sites or apps for Mastodon. This list only includes info on the default Mastodon site or app.

• Home: This is your default view. It includes a timeline of content shared by people you follow.

• Notifications: Things that have happened that might matter to you. This is the same concept as notifications on Twitter.

• Explore: Search Project Mushroom for posts, hashtags, people, or other content. If you are on Spore, search Spore, Project Mushroom, and much of Mastodon.

• Local: See content from all Project Mushroom users, even if you don’t follow them. If you use Spore, then you this displays posts from all Spore users.

• Federated: If you use Project Mushroom, this will be the same view as Local. If you use Spore, see posts from people inside and outside Project Mushroom. 

• Direct messages: Direct posts that mention you. These messages can only be seen by someone mentioned in them. These are not encrypted messages.

• Favourites: Posts that you have favourited.

• Bookmarks: Posts that you have bookmarked. 

See the explanation above for the difference between favourites and bookmarks.

• Lists: You can create lists of users so that you can view timelines of content posted by those users. You can only add users to a list if you follow them. The timeline of the list also only includes content posted after the user was added to the list.

Your lists also appear in the browser side-bar.

• Preferences: Open your Mastodon preferences. This includes profile settings like avatar and banner, as well as many other configuration options. 

• Page settings: This option appears on several pages, such as on Home or Notifications. It allows you to customize what kinds of information you see on that page. This is especially useful on the notifications page.