CLOSED: [2020-05-17 Sun 12:42] SCHEDULED: <2020-05-17 Sun>
:PROPERTIES:
:ID: 2020-05-17-graz-social
:CREATED:  [2020-04-29 Wed 10:10]
:END:
:LOGBOOK:
- State "DONE"       from "NEXT"       [2020-05-17 Sun 12:42]
:END:

On December 28 2019, I received following email from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(software)][Mastodon]]
instance [[id:2017-11-26-Mastodon][I'm using since 2017]]:

#+BEGIN_QUOTE
While your account is limited, only people who are already following
you will see your toots on this server, and you may be excluded from
various public listings. However, others may still manually follow
you.
#+END_QUOTE

I violated [[https://mastodon.social/about/more][their rule-set]] which includes a ban of [[id:2017-12-17-Mastodon-Twitter-Xposter][cross-posting]]
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retweet][retweets]] to Mastodon.

After some stupid whining, I understood that I had to migrate my
active but limited account to a different Mastodon instance. Their
instance, their effort, their rules.

While this was not a high-priority task for the longest time, it got
some attention after I learned about [[https://graz.social/@linos/103957663748024144][a brand new local community
server]] that ran a Mastodon instance: [[https://info.graz.social/][Graz.social]].

They do not only provide Mastodon service. They also have [[https://info.graz.social/dienste/mumble/][Mumble]],
[[https://info.graz.social/dienste/peertube/][Peertube]], [[https://info.graz.social/dienste/jitsi-meet/][Jitsi Meet]] and [[https://info.graz.social/][other services]]. I support them financially
with a few bucks each month.

**** Moving to Graz.social

Joining a local Mastodon instance has several advantages. My biggest
hope is that the local time-line finally makes any sense at all. At
Mastodon.social, the sheer amount of arbitrary content did not provide
any substantial difference compared to the global time-line. All kind
of topics mixed in one endless flow of [[https://kevq.uk/how-does-mastodon-work/][toots]]. If this local instance
from [[id:tags-graz][Graz]] is gaining more and more users, I get a nice flow of
messages from people living nearby. Serendipity at its best.

#+CAPTION: Screenshot of a toot by my Mastodon instance maintainer.
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Wir haben ein neues Logo: Vielen dank an die liebe Nadja Wrisk für das wundervolle Logo. Lizenz: CC-BY-SA #logo #graz #uhrturm #artwork
#+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 565
[[tsfile:2020-04-20T00.19 graz.social - Andre - Wir haben ein neues Logo -- screenshots publicvoit.png][https://graz.social/@linos/104027572675017412]]

Furthermore, I do have a direct connection to [[https://graz.social/@linos][the local Mastodon
instance administrator]]. We can share thoughts and ideas on how to
maintain and improve local services. This personal relationship is a
huge value to me. It further strengthens my relationship with the
whole [[https://info.graz.social/][project of Graz.social]].

I moved my Mastodon account from Mastodon.social to Graz.social on
April 25. You can find me by searching for: =@publicvoit@karl-voit.at=

#+CAPTION: Screenshot from my Mastodon account.
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt Hello graz.social! Account moving on Mastodon is really painless. Crossposter is changed as well. Let's get this party started!
#+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 574
[[tsfile:2020-04-25T14.13 graz.social - Hello graz.social. Account moving on Mastodon is really painless -- screenshots publicvoit.png][https://graz.social/@publicvoit/104059163914140433]]

[[https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/][Moving a Mastodon account]] is really painless. However, being on this
fresh instance, I quickly realized that my hashtag-columns are more or
less empty except for my own toots: [[https://graz.social/tags/graz][#graz]], [[https://graz.social/tags/orgmode][#orgmode]], [[https://graz.social/tags/emacs][#emacs]],
[[https://graz.social/tags/decentralization][#decentralization]], [[https://graz.social/tags/österreich][#österreich]], [[https://graz.social/tags/pim][#pim]]. This is because this new
instance does not have much connections to peer instances. Therefore,
toots I was able to locate using hashtag-searches were out of reach.

Since my old account on my previous instance is in sleep more, I could
not access my old hashtag-columns in order to write down some accounts
I could follow directly. So I had to [[https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/gce34t/mastodonaccounts_to_follow/][create posts like this]] where I
asked other people to recommend accounts to follow.

This was not anticipated by me and this is the only really
disadvantage when changing to a brand new instance without a
substantial number of people. The admin added some relay connections
to other instances. So far, I did not see any difference. Let's
observe this over the next months.

I did some advertisement in my bubble to motivate people switching to
this Mastodon instance. It's progressing, but at a slow rate.

#+CAPTION: Screenshot of a toot by my Mastodon instance maintainer.
#+ATTR_HTML: :alt 🎉 graz.social ist zweistellig geworden! 🎉  Jetzt darf die Werbung rollen, mit ein bisschen Glück wachsen wir ja auch exponentiell, ähnlich wie dieses Corona. #fediverse #mastadon #graz
#+ATTR_HTML: :align center :width 568
[[tsfile:2020-04-25T19.34 graz.social - Andre - graz.social ist zweistellig geworden -- screenshots publicvoit.png][https://graz.social/@linos/104060423890695082]]

Using a not so well connected Mastodon instance is a drawback after
using one of the biggest instances before. However, my Mastodon
motivation is higher than ever thanks to the wonderful service of
Graz.social. I'm positive that the instance gets more and more feeds
in the future.