Moving to Mastodon? Three settings first
Millions are trying Mastodon this month. Turn on 2FA, choose your server with care, and verify your identity.
Lots of people joined Mastodon this month. It works differently from Twitter: you sign up on one of thousands of independent servers, run by volunteers or organisations, and they all talk to each other.
Three things to do on day one:
- Turn on two-factor authentication in your account settings. It isn’t on by default.
- Choose your server carefully. Its admins can read your account data and decide its rules, and if the server shuts down you’ll need to move. Larger, well-run servers or your organisation’s own are safer bets.
- Verify yourself with a link. Add your website to your profile, and put a
rel="me"link back to your Mastodon profile on that site. Mastodon then shows the link as verified. It proves you control the site, which is better than a bought badge.
And remember direct messages on Mastodon aren’t end-to-end encrypted. Server admins can see them. For private conversations, use an encrypted messenger.