How are people finding interesting follows on Mastodon? Say I'm interested in finding people who post about horror movies, gaming, etc... where do I go to find instances and/or people to follow? Fediverse is cool, but a bit daunting. #question #introduction

@HollowNotion There are two ways of doing that, the first is to follow a hashtag, just search for it and you can find the button to follow it, the other (and better one) is to go to https://fediverse.info/explore/people and search for the topics you want. If you want tips to use Mastodon better you can follow @feditips

@kamunra @HollowNotion

There are lots more ways of finding people to follow, here's a summary of all of them:

https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-find-accounts-to-follow-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-how-do-i-find-my-friends/

@HollowNotion I tend to use the hashtag option. I follow a hashtag, in my case, #digitalart #art #photography #cooking #baking for example, and browse the posts looking for people who resonate with me. As I follow those people, I see the posts they boost, which introduces me to even more people, and so on.

@Laurie @HollowNotion

In a near perfect example of how that works, I now follow Laurie because she tagged cooking and baking (hashtags I follow) and her post showed up in my feed. I cruised her profile for a second and smashed that follow button.

@helplessduck @HollowNotion huh. Well, that's a how do you do! And hellooooooooo!

I admired your bread, so had to follow back. :)

@Laurie @HollowNotion

I do well, thank you! I hope the same for you. I do occasionally remember to photograph the food I make before unhinging my jaw and going for it. ☺️
One of the coolest things about Masto/Fedi is how welcoming folks tend to be. It ~is~ daunting to find connections, especially coming from certain other social medias. The fediverse will feed anyone. But not via algorithm. Someone, somewhere will make actual bread to eat.

@helplessduck @HollowNotion I make actual bread to eat. I haven't in a few weeks - my knees have been acting up and I've barely been able to walk. But I can walk somewhat without assistance again, so I'm back to cooking, and in a few days, making bread. Had to buy bread, but seriously prefer my own. It's so much better!

I should post more food photos. I don't do that like I used to.

@Laurie @HollowNotion
Oh no! I'm sorry you're hurting. Hopefully they continue to cooperate. Last time I had to buy bread I was so put off by it that it got donated to my neighbor lady's dog. He thought it was great. It wasn't bad bread, it just wasn't mine. I totally get it.

@helplessduck @HollowNotion well, I'm #ChronicallyIll, in #ChronicPain, and #disabled, so it's par for the course, just spectacularly worse for the last few weeks.

@Laurie @HollowNotion

Ugh... Par or none, that sucks. Here's to better days ahead.

Incidentally, this illustrates another thing I really like about Masto: It's a generally safe space to be ill, or in pain, or disabled (or almost anything, really) and talk about it. No one is gonna come at you sideways with "quit your bitching" like might happen on, say, Twitter. Most of these communities have absolutely zero tolerance for that. It allows us to be our freer, truer selves.

@helplessduck @HollowNotion true. I'm also old and tired of the shoulds, so I tend to refuse to accept such notions anyway. I don't have the energy to argue, but I also do not have the energy to tolerate such crap.

@Laurie @HollowNotion

You ~should~ continue to do that. 😂
I don't even bother to clap back most of the time anymore like a younger me would have. I just roll my eyes and walk away. I'm tired, and the clock is ticking. Ain't got time for your shit. Unless you'd like me to invoice you for it.