I currently use mbin and I like it because I like reddit-style social media, but for stuff from specific people and organizations microblog is sometimes better. I want to use the microblog part more (for example, make a post asking the Vivaldi account if there is any possibility of Vivaldi switching to a Firefox base instead of chromium. also I know it’s not that easy no need to discuss that on this thread) but tbh I don’t understand microblog stuff at all. in particular I want to know how I’m supposed to use @s and #s, and how I’m meant to interact with it. I know this seems kind of silly but I’ve never really used microblog-style social media until I got into the fediverse a couple months ago.
edit: to clarify, I am not asking how to use the microblog feature of mbin. I am asking about microblog in general.
I find microblogging is a really hard format to work with. Being short is super important - the default for Mastodon is 500 characters, on Bluesky it’s 300. On Twitter it might be even less, who cares.
So you need to try to get your message across super efficiently. Even if you can write longer in mbin, people might not have the attention span to read long texts. So watch the character counter.
Some other things:
Getting attention
On Mastodon there are two ways of getting attention to your post. The first is by getting followers; the second is by getting boosts. Until you have your own following, the best you can hope for is that people reading your post thinks it’s worth promoting and then boost it. Hashtags can also be moderately effective - it’s certainly good for discovering content - but you’re probably not going to reach very far by shooting things into the void with an hashtag attached if you have no followers.
What helps is to interact with other users. Follow them, boost interesting content you see from them, favourite/upvote their content as a “compliments to the chef”, and leave a comment when you have anything to say. Doing this, they might follow you back, which will dramatically increase your reach on the fediverse.
Hashtags
There are two general ways of using hashtags. First, you can add it to some word in your post that nicely summarizes what you’re talking about. This is not too distracting, and common practice in most parts of the #fediverse. We don’t expect it in forum-style content of course, so for some users it’ll look a bit out of place.
The second way of doing it is by listing hashtags at the bottom of your post. Mastodon has a way of hiding these a little, so that they don’t get in the way.
As for which hashtags to use, you can of course get creative. But some hashtags are more common than others. When drafting in Mastodon the interface tells you how many people visible from your instance are using the hashtag, which is useful. We sadly lack that on Mbin. In general, maybe include some general and some more specific ones, but don’t over-do it.
Mentions / @s
Mentions play a very specific role in the Fediverse. Inherently they’re of course simple enough - @user@example.com - but they play a fundamental role in how different Mastodon instances are stitched together.
Of course, they can be used to notify someone - if I tag you (@unknown1234_5@kbin.earth), you’ll probably be notified that I did so. But more importantly, it serves the same purpose as an address on an envelope. If you respond to someone on a different instance without @ing them, your post might never reach them, as your post wasn’t told it needed to travel to their instance. This is a bit weird and not very intuitive, but that’s the reason why Mastodon users always tag each other like crazy in the comments.
@s are also useful to point people towards a specific account, or to include someone in a conversation that might not have been aware of it.
Not sure if that’s helpful, but at least it’s something!
A couple of fun things as a bonus:
- If you follow @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy, your microblog posts will all be sent to Bluesky as well. I have been testing this a little, and it works: if you search for Aasatru on Bluesky, you’ll find my Mbin account. I don’t really microblog much from here though.
- If you get followers on Mastodon, everything you boost will pop up in their feed. So if you see a comment you find to be particularly fun or insightful, and that ideally also works well as a free-standing text, you can boost it to give it attention on Mastodon and similar sites. Sometimes random comments can “escape” this way and get much more attention than the post they are responding to.
There are different ways of approaching microblogs — reading, writing and interacting. You have @s and hashtags in mind already, they’re a good way of finding conversations and engaging with people.
You’ll find users who write interesting stuff about your favourite subjects — you’d want to follow those to get all their updates. That includes boosts/reposts, i.e. posts by others that those you follow share to spread a message. That will also help you find more interesting people and organisations.
Now, interaction. I have come recently to Lemmy from Mastodon instances, and I see quite a bit of difference in the etiquette and forms of socialising. Two generalisations that I can think of:
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Mastodon and other fedi microblogs were built by users who were fed up by Twitter’s lax moderation of harassment, so they built in safeguards against that; Lemmy was made in reaction to the commodification and heavy handed enshittification of Reddit, but largely expect the same conversations here. They are not the same mentality.
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On Lemmy, you post a question or thought in a dedicated community to get answers or start a discussion. Each community has its own room where the discussion is centred around one subject. On the microblog side, you might imagine one big, sprawling social club where people mingle and form smaller groups to talk about one thing, then disperse and join other conversations. And sometimes they just talk about their pets or hobbies to nobody in particular.
Sorry, I’m writing this over morning coffee and I know I’m only covering broad fragments of the microblog experience as it differs from using a forum. I hope it helps though.
@unknown1234_5@kbin.earth
- First of all I think it would fit better in !mbinmeta@gehirneimer.de
- To answer your question, MBin has “microblog” tab, when you open it you can see a text field, this is where text that you wanna write goes. To mention people you write @ username @ instance.name , like I wrote at the start of this message. You also have to choose a magazine, if you’re unsure you can just choose “random”.
I didn’t mean how to use the microblog feature, I meant how to interact with microblog content and how I should format it when I post it. also, even if the topic was how to use the feature, there is nobody in mbin meta.
Are you looking for a one off? Or to start microblogging in general? If the latter, I recommend creating an account on Mastodon or one of the *keys as you’ll have a much better time than using the built in bit here. While federation is great and I do cross-follow, I still have accounts here, on Sharkey, Pixelfed, etc.
If you’re looking for a one off, others have answered that above.
On the fediverse the core point of microblogging is: you have to follow people. So if you see a post that is in your opinion good for whatever reason, just go ahead and follow them. The next thing to do is to use hashtags. On mastodon this will greatly improve the visibility of the post. And third for me is: just comment on other people’s posts and post your own and you will be golden
Using @ just sends a notification to the person tagged, or sort of threads the conversion if it is a reply.
The # is for tagging. A good way to get a sense of how it is used would be to frequently check the trending or popular hashtags. Basically anything with the same tag will show up together when someone is interested in the topic. Sometimes people also use them ironically like #ThisIsAReallyLongAndSpecificTagThatWillNotConnectWithAnyOtherPost
