WHO’S ON THE FEDIVERSE?

There are millions of people on the Fediverse, and as a rule, they tend to be a lot more interesting than who you’d find on Facebook or Twitter. Because servers tend to be organised around themes, once you find one person you like to follow it’s fairly easy to find more thanks to the federated timeline. Here are a few of our favourite servers and individuals:

Free software and related matters:

Fosstodon.org

Hard-core Linux and programming:

nixnet.social

Writer and Linux historian:

https://mastodon.social/@glynmoody

M’aiq the Liar – a wisdom-filled catperson from Skyrim. https://fandom.ink/@lyingkhajiit

The latest news from the UK’s greatest popular science mag:

https://mstdn.social/@newscientist

Wired magazine – the second best tech publication on Earth:

https://mstdn.social/@Wired

The official account of the desktop environment adored by millions:

https://floss.social/@gnom

These are good starting points, but tend towards the tech end of the spectrum and the type of people who list PGP keys in their email signatures. Our type of people, if we’re honest. But the Fediverse is huge, and we have, entirely by accident, managed to stray into servers devoted to what could euphemistically be called adult material. We have also stumbled into furry fandoms, right-wing strongholds and anarchist dens, where we read some very interesting things about battlefield first-aid as applied to riots.

You’ll find that most users and admins won’t mind you following and conversing with them, so long as you have something relevant(ish) to contribute. If you’re seen as a troll, you may find yourself and your instance blocked. If you act with a degree of civility, stay more-orless on topic, and don’t act like you own the whole Fediverse, you and your users should have a great time.