Intro
When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, my suggestions to move to Mastodon were met with resistance and outright hostility. When I informed my peers where my "backup" VTuber account was, most of them worried for me. I let it roll off my back; you can say Mastodon didn't have the best first impression. You may have heard that it has the aptly-earned rep of being difficult and perilous, especially for Black people.
I'm not here to refute that.
Years later, when X-Deadnamed-As-Twitter finally pissed off enough people to warrant a mass exodus, I was not surprised when the masses and my friends flocked to BlueSky instead.
Before We Start
This essay is for those who are curious about this particular Other Option besides the Big Three: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. We'll just focus on the last, a microblogging platform. This essay's goal is to rip off those rose-colored glasses, if you got them. And, hey, if you're just a nosy bitch, pull on up! It's good to be in the know.
Disclaimers include "this is a very casual essay," "my opinions, my experiences," and "if you don't like it then fuck off, I guess."
The Damn Tea
Yeah, yeah, let's get to it. Here's some pertinent history and general vibe you should be aware of.
PlayVicious
It was an early, if not the first, Black-run instance on the fediverse. ... As Mastodon grows, a big stain has been not only the end of Playvicious.social, but also the experience of Black Mastodon members more generally. FOSS Academic
If you have been paying attention to history, you can see how it was repeated here: people of color carve out a space for themselves, and it gets destroyed. It's sadly the same online as it is offline, and frankly what happened to PlayVicious. PV received so much backlash and harassment that it was eventually closed down for the health of its members.
Who you need to know are Marcia X and Ro. They have recounted and reflected on their time during this period, with the former being interviewed and the latter writing posts about the entire experience.
I urge you to read everything linked here, because it's much more reliable than what I can personally recount. Especially since, well, I wasn't really there. I witnessed their struggles second-hand. And when PV shut down, I wasn't long for Mastodon myself. That incident showed me that Mastodon wasn't much better than Twitter. So I just went back-- that was the devil I knew, after all. And at least my friends were there.
Protect Ya Neck
For Mastodon to not only supersede Twitter but to thrive in its own merit, it needs to not only listen to the vulnerable among us, but implement changes for a better Internet culture. The tools have been there, and so have been their highlighted shortcomings.
Now what will they make of it? Background Radiation
Spoiler alert: Jack and Shit.
The overall vibe does not appear to give a single solitary fuck about actually implementing useful tools and updates for marginalized groups. Feature requests-- particularly accessibility and better community safety-- have been languishing for years. Genuine concerns are brushed off, so many people either forked the software (Glitch-Soc and Hometown) or created the tools themselves. (All this and more have been documented in this page, "Mastodon, Two Years Later".)
The impact of PV persisted. It showed how moderation and community are fundamentally important for online spaces. Because, what happens when you find yourself in a cesspool? You could isolate yourself in an island of misery, feeling that is all there is, or you just never come back. Or roll up your sleeves and make A Third Option. Marcia X began the Fediblock tag. And not long after that, The Bad Space ("TBS") came online, inspired by that tag. Both are used to inform admins and users alike of what may warrant action against. Some examples are:
- spambots
- trolls
- bigotry
- harassment campaigns
- users telling on themselves as they troll the fediblock tag
- instances still federating with Meta (and with good reason, IMO)
- annoying ass sealioning motherfuckers
- whatever an individual deems concerning
Note the final point. It goes without saying that there's serious contention on what FediBlock is supposed to be. In my own words: FediBlock posts are recommendations at the end of the day, and everyone has to actively choose who/what to block. Friction comes in as one person's "ok" is another person's "wtf." Or, in my experience, one PoC's hard line is another white techbro's boundary violation.
A pause as I highlight for the cheap seats: FediBlock was started by a Person of Color to help marginalized identities stay safe on the Fediverse. Don't let them whitewash its history. This is important context, and adds an unsavory angle as to why calling FediBlock and TBS the "FediHOA" is... a very horrible look, ya fucking racists.
Those Ol' Tropes
I'll shorten this up because what it boils down to is the Same Ol' shit. White people be white peoplin'.
- TechBros allergic to consent
- marginalized identity used as a shield (a level up of White Tears)
- Derailing for Dummies
- People Don't Like It When Your Assert Your Boundaries by Defederating or Blocking
Recuerda:
Who Keeps Us Safe? We Keep Us Safe.
Because no one else is going to fucking do it.
Getting Started
If that didn't scare you off, let's continue.
Every other app is setup to be quick, simple, and easy. But Mastodon requires, and I really mean it, requires that you investigate the server you’re looking into joining. It’s like we’re back in the 90s, and your avenue for social interaction online is internet forums, and you definitely don’t want to join a forum full of people with interests you don’t enjoy. The Fediverse, For Those Who've Never Used It
You read that right! There's no algorithm. There's no demand that you follow people. There's a lot of garden metaphors you'll come across, because of the simple fact that you have to actively cultivate what you want to see. This is not Twitter. We content warn, add image descriptions, and understand that we don't have to put up with somone else's Freeze Peach Bullshit.
If that didn't scare you off either, here's the fun stuff!
Important Links
FediTips; the front page has a Quick Start guide with a lot of additional information. For everything I don't go in depth about, you can find it here.
Awesome Fedi Admin Resources; good to look over, even if you don't plan to self-host or admin.
Generally
Follow #Fediblock and bookmark The Bad Space.
I also strongly recommend Importing a Tier 0 Blocklist into your account. This is particularly important when self-hosting, and if you are on a good instance with competent admins you shouldn't need to do this step-- but it wouldn't hurt.
Also, honestly? Blockity block block. Full disclosure, I'm not a MastoAdmin. I'm just a user who uses the Block feature liberally and with extreme prejudice-- and I recommend you have this same outlook as well. Hell, treat yourself and block someone who is just fucking annoying. Don't feel bad about it. If anyone gives you shit about blocking not "being in the spirit of Mastodon," block them too-- because if it was, it wouldn't be an option. Do what it takes to keep yourself safe and your experience pleasant.
Finding An Instance
Let's get this one out of the way: You don't want to be on mastodon.social. It is the "default"/flagship instance, and the first one you're greeted with looking into this. It is also notorious for nigh-zero moderation (flying in the face of their own covenant) and is defederated (blocked) from many other instances for that reason. Not only would you be cut off from the more pleasant parts of Mastodon, but you'd be stuck with a bunch of trolls. (It's basically Twitter. If you want Twitter, just go back to fuckin' Twitter!)
With so many servers available, you can do so much better. No, seriously, there's so fucking many. It can be intimidating.
To narrow it down, if you wish: Fedi.Garden has a curated list for ones that vow to "meet certain standards of reliability and responsible moderation." I'd also consider instances that have contributed information to The Bad Space, listed on its About page.
If you'd like to know my personal recommendations, ask me.
And to note, you're not stuck anywhere. You can move between instances if you need to.
What About Self-Hosting? Of course, there is the option to just roll your own. Unless you want the headache or have server administration experience, use a hosting provider to get started. Awesome Fedi Admin Resources, once again, comes in clutch. It has some hosts listed as well as setup instructions.
Get Comfortable
Hey, this is the fun part!
Fill out your profile. Upload an avatar and banner. Check out the local and global timelines, click or search for topics you're interested in, and all that good stuff. Tell people about your new place; see if any of your friends are already there. Respond to things! Leave comments, send toots. Poke around.
Make an #Introduction post to make friends-- and use that hashtag! Give the #BlackMastodon and #BlackFedi tags some love, too.
Be patient! It may be slow going due to the nature of the lack of "alligator drumming emoji," but stick with it.
If you're about that Mobile App Life (or alternative interfaces, or desktop apps), get yourself a 3rd Party App. The official one (simply titled "Mastodon") lacks quite a few features-- just scroll down until you see "Browse third-party apps" and tweak your search from there. I like FediLab, personally.
Outro
I remember more vividly when I came back, [when Twitter became truly intolerable for me]. I logged into my .xyz account, and two familiar faces were still fighting the good fight. It showed me that at least somebody was giving a fuck, and I could learn how to be better. The Minimum Dosage
That's all I have for you! And. Hey... you're probably wondering: This sounds like a shitshow! Why the fuck are you still there, then?
My flippant answer has a nugget of truth in it. It took me years to get where I am: after three instance moves I have found my oasis, and I now have the knowledge and hindsight to navigate better. So why not yap about it on the Internet?
But here's the part where I put my elbows on the table and Get Serious.
As of this writing in 2025 I've long left Twitter, refuse to be on BlueSky, and have deleted my Meta accounts. I'm sick of Web3. I'm sick of corpo shit. And I'm sick of the impression that Web3 Corpo Shit is the only way to be online. I remember how good it felt in the early 2000s, when things felt new and personal and colorful and creative-- before capitalism got its roots in. We could do that again, but since you can't go home again-- we can be better.
While I implore people to leave Facebook, I understand why most stay. I'm doing the same, right here: you ain't gonna run me off that easily. I am here, and I deserve these spaces too. Like I said, I'm stubborn...
But if it comes to the point where I'll have to build my own over the corpse of what could have been, then that's fine too. I've done that before.
Ultimately, I made this tutorial so it'd be easier for my Black peers to get started. So they didn't have to struggle like I did. It took me quite awhile to get where I am-- safer, comfortable, and surrounded by good people and true connections. I don't want others to have to wait as long for the community they need.
So, I hope this helps.