Django: Join the community on Mastodon

Sign up on a server

Mastodon is federated across many independent servers. You pick one to host your account but can receive posts from anyone on other servers.

Fosstodon is a server dedicated to those interested in free and open-source software (FOSS). Many of the Django community use it, including myself. It used to be open for signups but transitioned to an invite-only model in September 2023. If you’d like an invite, email me with a little about yourself.

Otherwise, you can join another server, and things will work fine. The Mastodon website has a server listing page to pick from. You might select one dedicated to your region or another interest. Picking a server is not a huge decision that locks you in: you can migrate to another one later, carrying across your followers.

For more information on signing up, see the relevant Mastodon documentation.

Set up your profile

Once you’ve signed up, set up your profile. This works like most social media sites: add an avatar, header image, bio, and maybe some links. If you want to help others find you, add relevant hashtags to your bio, such as #django and #python.

See the Mastodon profile docs for details.

Write an introductory post

To let others know more about yourself, it’s common to write an introductory post, signed with #introduction. Add interest-related hashtags like #django to make your post more visible to people following hashtags. For inspirational examples, search for #introduction #django posts on your server!

After posting, you can pin your introductory post to keep it at the top of your profile page, above newer posts. This way, anyone glancing at your profile can read your post.

Follow some accounts

To mesh into the Django community, follow some Djangoey accounts. Below is a selection of accounts intended as a starting point. It is far from complete, as there are too many great folks to mention. Find more in my following list (or others’), on the Fedidev Django section, by reading posts, and spotting Mastodon links around the rest of the web.

Follow an account by clicking its name, which links to its profile page. The “Follow” button there will work straight away if you use the same server; otherwise, it will open the “Take me home” modal to load the profile page via your server.

Alternatively, follow all at once by downloading this CSV file and importing it with “Preferences > Import”:

(If there’s an account I’ve missed, let me know!)

Follow hashtags

Mastodon has no recommendation “algorithms” for posts or people. Instead, hashtags and manual post “boosting” (re-posting) make things discoverable.

You can follow a hashtag to have its posts appear in your feed. Then, you might choose to follow people from their relevant posts. Try following #django or #python to fill your feed with interesting posts.

Get an app

There are many apps for Mastodon. There’s the official one and a whole bunch of third-party ones, all listed on the apps page.

I currently use Toot! on iOS. I haven’t tried many, but this one works for me. I like that it remembers my position in the feed, even across days, so I never lose track of something I saw.

Get a digest with Fediview

Mastodon’s feed is strictly most-recent-first. This lack of “algorithm” can be quite refreshingly predictable, and you can’t lose your place. But it does mean that you can miss interesting things.

To help with this problem, Another Django-loving Adam called Adam Hill created Fediview. This tool generates a digest of your feed with the most favourited and boosted posts and all links. The premium mode will email this digest to you daily.

(He also made some kick-ass Django stickers, among other projects…)

Fin

See you on the fediverse,

—Adam