Turtle Island Mastodon user recommendations

Properly setup, the Turtle Island Mastodon instance can be a far superior experience compared to corporate social media…
But it’s up to you to create your own algorithm!

There is a certain portion of new users that sign up on TurtleIsland.social (or any Mastodon/Fediverse instance) that do not set up their account optimally. This likely will ensure a sub-optimal experience and before you know it, they are gone and maybe never come back.

One of the most positive aspects about Mastodon is there is no algorithm. No corporation is choosing what you see in your feed. There are no ads. The power is in your hands. You choose what to see in your feed. That said, you need to choose it. The responsibility is yours. You need to create your algorithm.

Edit your profile and bio

Many people on the Fediverse pay no attention to users with blank or minimally populated profiles. Personally, I’m thrilled to boost and promote accounts on TurtleIsland.social, but will not do it until the avatar is uploaded and the bio is populated. It’s just not effective when blank or minimally populated.

1. Upload an avatar – Upload anything – just don’t leave it default.

2. Fill out the bio – To avoid confusion, as a Native/Indigenous instance, Turtle Island requests that the first line of your bio be either your Native/Indigenous Nation or Ally. Other than that it’s up to you but do add some info, it is essential. Consider what communities you may want to be a part of (or not be a part of), personal or professional. An informative bio goes a long way towards bringing you closer to your people, whoever that may be.

3. Consider adding your pronouns – The Fediverse is generally a left leaning place and your pronouns will help people respectfully address you.

Make an #Introduction post

Introduce yourself! An #Introduction post is extremely useful for others to boost (share) and get the word out that you have joined the Fediverse. Be sure your profile and bio are done first.

Follow at least 100 people and 10 hashtags

I personally follow back everyone that follows me (over 2000 people) and follow over 100 hashtags. I use lists for more specific feeds. You don’t have to do that much but do follow at least 100 people, preferably a few hundred or more. Figure out your favorite hashtags and follow those. Don’t stress out about this, just do it. It is super easy to unfollow people/hashtags and refine your follows over time.

Like (⭐️) and boost (share) regularly

The Fediverse is big on engagement. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and you will have engagement with your posts, and likely make some friends along the way.

If you do all the above, your follower count and engagement can by far exceed Twitter, Bluesky and Threads. Good luck!

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Migrating to the Turtle Island Mastodon instance

Migrating your Mastodon account to a new instance can be scary if you have never done it before, but it is relatively simple

For starters, I recommend doing this using a browser on a desktop/laptop computer. If you must use a mobile device, use a browser like Chrome, Firefox, Safari or whatever. Do not use one of the myriad of Mastodon mobile apps. At least this way you will be assured of the same basic functions as described in this tutorial.

It can be very helpful if you have the luxury of two computers, two monitors, or two browser windows (not tabs), one for your old instance and one for your new TurtleIsland.social instance.

There are essentially 5 steps. These steps should be done in order. You can do these steps one after the other in a single browser, logging in and out as needed, or back and forth between two browsers, monitors or computers that you are logged into both instances at the same time.

Any amount of time can elapse between steps. Steps 1-4 perform no irreversible actions. Hopefully this guide will help relieve migration anxiety if you haven’t done this before. It really is a pretty straightforward process. Hopefully in a future version, it will become more automated, but for now this is it.

It is important to note, you cannot migrate your posts. Maybe in a future version you will be able to, but not for now. Personally, I think old posts are of negligible value. You will also gain traffic and followers from re-posting your best content. Your followers will automatically migrate. Your follows, lists, blocks, mutes, domain blocks, and bookmarks can be downloaded and re-uploaded quite easily.

The abbreviated version

1. Sign up for a new account on TurtleIsland.social

2. On your old Instance/Server account:
Export/Download: follows, lists, mutes, blocks, domain blocks, bookmarks

3. On your new TurtleIsland.social account:
Import/Upload: following lists, bookmarks, lists, muting list, blocking list, domain blocking list

4. Still on your new TurtleIsland.social account:
Go to Account -> Moving FROM a different account
Enter old account’s handle

5. On your old Instance/Server account:
Go to Account -> Move TO another account
Enter new account’s handle

That’s it! Depending how many followers you have, it can take an hour or more for all your followers to migrate over to your TurtleIsland.social account. Depending on the system resources and load, there may be freezes, slow downs, or messages. If there are, just leave it alone while it does its thing and all will be fine.

The detailed version

1. Sign up for a new account on TurtleIsland.social

Go to https://TurtleIsland.social/about and click the ‘Create Account’ button in the right upper side of the screen. The rest should be self-explanatory. Waiting for account approval is probably the most time consuming part of this process. Depending what time of the day/night you create an account and the availability of admins/moderators, account activation can take as little as 5 minutes or as long as multiple hours. Unfortunately as a semi-private instance, this is unavoidable to keep Nazis, bigots and other losers out. In the end you benefit.

2. On your old Instance/Server account:

From your profile page, click on ‘Preferences’ on the right lower menu. In the next screen click on ‘Import and export’ on the left menu. Be sure ‘Data export’ is highlighted on the left menu.

Now on the right side of the screen, you can click each of the CSV icons to download Follows, Lists, You block, You mute, Domain blocks, and Bookmarks (if it is more than 0) to download the files.

3. On your new TurtleIsland.social account:

From your profile page, click on ‘Preferences’ on the right lower menu. In the next screen click on ‘Import and export’ on the left menu. Be sure ‘Import’ is highlighted on the left menu. You can only import one file at a time.

• Select Import type: Following list, Bookmarks, Lists, Muting list, Blocking list, Domain blocking list.
• Select: Merge or Overwrite. Ordinarily Merge is fine.
• Choose file: Select file previously exported. Be sure it matches Import type selected.

4. Still on your new TurtleIsland.social account:

Still in ‘Preferences’, click on ‘Account’ (above ‘Import and Export’) on the left menu. Be sure ‘Account settings’ is highlighted on the left menu.

Scroll down

Near bottom of page, in ‘Moving FROM a different account’:

• Select ‘create an account alias’
• Enter OLD account’s handle

5. On your old Instance/Server account:

Near bottom of page, in ‘Move TO a different account’:

• Select ‘configure it here’

Next:

• Enter ‘Handle of the NEW account’
• Enter ‘Current password’ (of the OLD account you are currently logged into)
• Ok, now here is where there is no turning back, you will not be able to use your OLD account after this. This is irreversible: ‘MOVE FOLLOWERS’

That’s it! Depending how many followers you have, it can take an hour or more for all your followers to migrate over to your TurtleIsland.social account. Depending on the system resources and load, there may be freezes, slow downs, or messages. If there are, just leave it alone while it does its thing and all will be fine.

I hope this helps. If you are migrating to TurtleIsland.social and still need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

Thanks!
-Yehuda

Mastodon

About TurtleIsland.social

Saabe Dream by Mishiikenh Kwe
Used with permission ©Mishiikenh Kwe https://www.instagram.com/mishiikenhkwe

Note: We try to keep all copies of this document in sync, but https://turtleisland.social/about can contain newer edits.

This is a Native/Indigenous and true Allies only instance.

To successfully register here:

If you are Native/Indigenous, when the ‘Create Account’ screen asks ‘…why you want an account on turtleisland.social’, enter your Native/Indigenous Nation and other Fediverse account(s) to help the moderators approve your account.

OR

If you are non-Native/Indigenous, when the ‘Create Account’ screen asks ‘…why you want an account on turtleisland.social’, yes it’s awkward, but list reasons and other Fediverse account(s) to help the moderators approve your account.

Anything else or less specific may not get approved. Failure to do the above WILL result in your registration rejection.

You MUST read and agree to this entire document.

Mvskoke Nation citizens own and admin TurtleIsland.* instances. Native/Indigenous people and Allies moderate TurtleIsland.* instances.

If you have any official questions, reach out to one of the admins:
@Yehuda@TurtleIsland.social or @Tzipporah@TurtleIsland.social.

Welcome to TurtleIsland.social!

• TurtleIsland.social is a (Twitter-like) Mastodon instance est. Dec 2022

Fediverse?

The Fediverse is a social media network that uses the ActivityPub protocol. TurtleIsland.* instances and other applications/network nodes (instances) are connected and communicate with each other via the Fediverse (ActivityPub) network. You only need to join one instance to like, follow, post, view and share content with the thousands of other instances in the Fediverse.

Why?

TurtleIsland.* instances are ad-free, corporate-free, bigotry-free, and culture respectful environments for Native/Indigenous people and true Allies to be in community and safe spaces.

• Ultimately, we are helping to build an Indigenized social network.
• We stand with our people.
• We know and support their struggles.
• We moderate to Indigenous standards not colonial standards.

Who? Where?

TurtleIsland.* instances accept user registrations from Native/Indigenous people and true Allies only.

• TurtleIsland.social user registrations are available through the ‘Create Account’ portal at https://TurtleIsland.social/about

How much?

TurtleIsland.* instances are 100% free. We will never charge fees or pressure anyone for donations. All expenses are paid for by the administrators and donations.

If you’d like to help with Turtle Island expenses:

• https://ko-fi.com/TurtleIsland
• https://cash.app/$Yehuda1491
• https://venmo.com/Yehuda1491

If you receive Pension/Social Security/Disability or less please don’t. But if you can help Native/Indigenous Fediverse instances thrive and grow, it would be much appreciated.

What?

TurtleIsland.* instances are small/medium sized instances due to our specialized nature.

• TurtleIsland.* instances will never be large general purpose instances and will be Indigenized as much as possible.
• We are federated with 99% of the Fediverse but use no relays in order to maximize content relevant to our users.

TurtleIsland.* instances believe 100% in true Native/Indigenous Nation sovereignty, physical and digital LandBack. We reject calls to assimilate into the nearly all white culture Fediverse. The whole ghettoization theory is white supremacy garbage.

Blocked instances

We now use the Oliphant Tier 0 blocklist, which is a composite of Seirdy’s Tier 0, Gardenfence, and the IFTAS DNI list, and blocks the majority of the bad actors without getting crazy aggressive. If you see anything blocked or not blocked that you believe is in error, let us know.

• All TurtleIsland.* instances block Threads.

Commitment

• TurtleIsland.social is committed to 3 months notice in the extremely unlikely event we should decide to pull the plug.

Backup and Maintenance

• TurtleIsland.social configuration files, media and database storage are backed up daily to a remote secure object storage. All other instances are backed up weekly, generally on Wednesdays at 5am CST with a full virtual server snapshot.
• TurtleIsland.* instances may have unscheduled maintenance or upgrade events. We have over 99% uptime availability.

Data, Image and File Warranties/Guarantees

Even though there are regular backup procedures, there are no data, image and file warranties/guarantees. Images may be compressed or resized. It is user responsibility to keep copies of all data, images and files uploaded to or created on Turtle Island instances.

Post-Migration

For voluntary migrations from TurtleIsland.social to another instance, there is a 7 day period afterwards that you can download or access your content. After 7 days, there is no guarantee that anyone will be able to access your content.

Turtle Island Rules

1. These are Indigenous instances.

• Any anti-Indigenous activity from a Turtle Island account at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for account(s) termination.
• Any anti-Indigenous activity from an external instance at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for user blocking, report filing, and/or domain blocking/de-federation.

2. We can’t stress this enough – Absolutely no racism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, pro-genocide, pro-ethnic cleansing, pro-terrorism, pro-rape, pro-sexual assault, pro-hostage taking, pro-child abuse, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. 95%+ of our issues fall in this category; we take this seriously.

• Any infraction of this category from a Turtle Island account at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for account termination.
• Any infraction of this category from an external instance at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for user blocking, report filing, and/or domain blocking/de-federation.

Extra clarity current events note:

River to Sea is ethnic cleansing and anti-Semitic. Promoting settlements in the West Bank is ethnic cleansing and Islamophobic. It doesn’t matter how many misinformed or disingenuous articles you read or who counsels you otherwise, these acts cannot be sanitized. The majority of the Jewish population will see River to Sea as ethnic cleansing and very anti-Semitic, and the majority of the Palestinian population will see settlement building in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing and very Islamophobic. These are just a couple examples that come up frequently.

You can criticize the Israeli or Palestinian governments all day and night long if you wish, but the moment you add anti-Semitic or Islamophobic material to your post, the whole post becomes anti-Semitic or Islamophobic.

Turtle Island instances officially support a two state solution in Israel/Palestine as the only realistic and fair solution for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Both peoples are factually Indigenous to the region by the same standards that apply to North American Indigenous peoples. If this is not clear to you, you need to go back to non-propaganda history study.

If any part of this current events note makes you chafe, Turtle Island may not be the place for you. Peace and co-existence are the only acceptable goals on Turtle Island.

3. Advertising authentic Indigenous products and genuine Indigenous businesses is allowed and encouraged.

• Advertising fake inspired appropriated products by non-Indigenous businesses is not allowed.

4. We strongly support and encourage Mutual Aid with #IndigenousMutualAid, #SettlerSaturday and #MutualAid hashtags.

• Requests for mutual aid must be on your original post. Requests cannot be made in unsolicited comments or private messages to other users.
• Posts cannot tag other users, especially bulk user lists.
• Inappropriate hashtag bombing is not allowed.
• Guideline violations could result locally in post deletion or user suspension, or remotely in user or instance defederation.

5. No Native/Indigenous gatekeeping of accounts on Native/Indigenous instances.

• If you have an issue with the Indigeneity of an account on an Indigenous instance, DM or email the admins and/or moderators of the instance.
• Regardless of the opinions and seriousness of this subject or what instance a user of questionable Indigeneity may be on, immature and abusive posts, dogpiling, parody or sock puppet accounts, etc. are part of a vibe we do not want coming here from Twitter and are expressly not allowed.
• None of this is to say the Pretendian subject is forbidden, but keep it mature please.

6. Promotion of Right-Wing, Conservative, Republican, Fascist, Nazi or other equally stupid political views is not allowed.

• If moral deficiency is your inclination, go somewhere else.

7. This goes against Turtle Island’s preferences, but in acquiescence to Fediverse community standards, NSFW content requires Content Warnings (CWs). Nudity, porn or gratuitous violence requires CWs. Turtle Island does not require CWs for other types of content. If you are in doubt, please ask. Generally speaking though, if you are easily offended, Turtle Island may not be the place for you.

8. Any other issues not covered by these rules will be settled by the sole determination of the administrators or moderators.