Ask HN: What interesting people are you following on Mastodon?
190 points by null4bl3 2 years ago | 66 comments- oldmapgallery 2 years agoMastodon has been the social media experience we've been hoping to someday find. Much more content rich than twitter, and discussions that go somewhere interesting. There are too many bright people on Mastodon, and it's wonderful... just a few...
Rob Carlson (author of "Biology is Technology...") @rob_carlson@mastodon.world
George Dyson (great for history of science posts) @gdyson@sciencemastodon.com
Rudy Rucker (mathematician, author, artist) @rudytheelder@sfba.social
Alberto Cairo (data visualization - infographics) @albertocairo@mastodon.social
James Gleick (author of "Chaos", "Genius", etc.) @JamesGleick@zirk.us
Anne-Sophie Pereira De Sá (data visualization) @wonderveilleuze@vis.social
Maggie Koerth (Senior science writer at @FiveThirtyEight ) @maggiek@sciencemastodon.com
Vicky Veritas (Geologist, GISMS Earth science, kind person that gets people connected) @vickyveritas@c.im
this is barely scratching the surface.
- beej71 2 years agoI know this is asking about people, but following hashtags are where it's at. And it's a great way to find people, besides.
Here's mine, for example, a giveaway cross section of my interests...
#linux #unix #weather #bendoregon #orwx #railroad #history #caving #caves #seti #train #motorcycle #bicycle #openstreetmap #osm #amtrak #railfan #nasa #usgs #hacking #computerscience #math #programmerhumor (some real groaners) #astrophotography #astronomy #rustlang #space #science #programming
And then mute people whose stuff you don't want to see.
As for people, I follow my friends and:
@openstreetmap@en.osm.town
@royalastrosoc@astrodon.social
@stephenfry@mastodonapp.uk
@georgetakei@universeodon.com
@archlinux@fedi.lynnesbian.space
@nasa@mstdn.social (I think this is unofficial)
@sdf@sdf.org
- safety1st 2 years agoTags are the way, the whole ethos of federation is about not being a sheep who needs to participate in some self-important global cult of personality to feel like they matter. Just follow your interests.
- Ensorceled 2 years agoI ... follow writers and gamers I like on Twitter.
- PaulBGD_ 2 years agoI wish there was an easier way to keep on with tags on more instances though, following users I don't have to worry about that.
- TheAtomic 2 years agoMasto newbie here, how do you follow hashtags?
- AlexCoventry 2 years agoIn the standard web client, search for the hash tag (including the initial `#`) in the "Search or paste URL" form in the top-left corner. Hash tags matching your search will appear just below that form. Click on one you want to follow. A column of toots with that hash tag will appear. At the top of the column on the right-hand side is a small person icon with a "+" in it. Click on that, and you will be following that tag.
Seems like there ought to be a simpler way. I just kind of stumbled into this approach.
- AlexCoventry 2 years ago
- Ensorceled 2 years ago
- asmor 2 years agofedi.lynnesbian.space has been gone for a while, and no way that wasn't a shitposting account
- beej71 2 years agoWell, shit. It doesn't show up for me when searching (edit: unless I search for it exactly), but this appears to be the official: @archlinux@fosstodon.org
- beej71 2 years ago
- safety1st 2 years ago
- jakelazaroff 2 years agoAnil Dash https://me.dm/@anildash
Julia Evans https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk
Simon Willison https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon
Steve Ruiz https://mas.to/@steveruizok
Molly White https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff
Mekka Okereke https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke
- josefresco 2 years agoJust wanted to share a tool (Chrome extension), that has made following people on Mastodon much easier.
Mastodon View Profile: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mastodon-profile-r...
Basically you click to view someone's profile, then click this extension's button in your toolbar and it will take you to YOUR instance, where you can follow that person with just one click (no copy+paste+search)
- lapcat 2 years agoFrom looking at the source on Github, it appears that this extension attempts to work with simple string rearrangement AFAICT. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't generalize, as I discovered myself while attempting to build a similar extension.
It will work in many cases, but it will also fail in other cases. It's not universal.
The only reliable method is to use the search field on your instance, or to directly query the Mastodon API.
- mg 2 years agoThis simple code works for me:
Before you turn it into a bookmarklet, set your_instance to the Mastodon instance you use.let your_instance="masto.ai"; document.location=( "https://" + your_instance + "/authorize_interaction?uri=" + encodeURIComponent(document.location) )You can use my bookmarklet editor to turn it into a bookmarklet:
- josefresco 2 years agoYour code works, but there's a slight delay in comparison to the extension. Thanks for sharing!
- lapcat 2 years agoThis seems to work, thanks!
- josefresco 2 years ago
- josefresco 2 years agoGood feedback. I've used the button now around 60 times. The times when it "failed" were typically related to a temporary outage of the instance, or rate limiting. For example I used this thread to follow about a dozen new people, and eventually was blocked by "rate limiting".
- lapcat 2 years agoThe issue I'm talking about isn't about rate limiting, it's about user name and server name mapping.
Take one example below: https://fedi.simonwillison.net/@simon
This does not map to https://myserver/@simon@fedi.simonwillison.net but rather https://myserver/@simon@simonwillison.net
- lapcat 2 years ago
- mg 2 years ago
- weinzierl 2 years agoNot a Chrome user, but thanks for creating this. I generally find Mastodon's UX better than its reputation, but following from the web is terrible.
- josefresco 2 years agoJust a clarification: I did not create this, just sharing it ;-)
- josefresco 2 years ago
- lapcat 2 years ago
- 4ad 2 years agoPlease don't just post a bunch of links! Try to give a short introduction or explanation on why that person is interesting or otherwise worthy of following.
@breakingtaps@universeodon.com: electron microscopy images and hobbyist nano-scale maker and tinkerer. Has a youtube channel.
@gregeganSF@mathstodon.xyz: the science fiction author, mostly posts about math.
@danluu@mastodon.social: tech writer/blogger, his articles often make HN's top page.
@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz: famous physicist, posts about math.
@TechConnectify@mas.to: whimsical and eclectic youtuber, thorough explainer of things like dishwashers, toasters, and LEDs.
@TomDuff@mastodon.social: inventor of Duff's device, posts about music and pen plots.
@robpike@hachyderm.io: inventor of Plan 9 and Go.
@aram@mastodon.sdf.org: don't follow this guy!
Also mathstodon.xyz, math-oriented mastodon instance.
- ninethirty 2 years agoKind of reminds me of the early days of the web, you have a feeling there's good websites out there, but there's no established mechanism to find them.
- etrautmann 2 years agoYep, which is exactly what makes it exciting an awesome too. Lots of people experimenting and no centralization of dominant ideas. it’d be cool if mastadon stays more like the early web
- Daviey 2 years agoHas this problem been fixed?
- sneak 2 years agoI started building a fediverse spider and search engine but the death threats and toxicity made me decide to work on other stuff.
- ipaddr 2 years agoSounds like you are on to a billion dollar idea. Push on..
- ipaddr 2 years ago
- fatneckbeard 2 years agowhat if it's not a problem. what if it's a feature?
- sneak 2 years ago
- etrautmann 2 years ago
- proactivesvcs 2 years agoThe people who post to hashtags that I'm interested in, mostly. Try searching for your interests and you'll get cross-server results that should help you build up a network of people from other servers.
- anotherevan 2 years agohttps://mastodon.social/@PragmaticAndy - Andy Hunt, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer among other endeavours. Also tends to boost interesting or funny stuff.
https://mastodon.social/@jonoxer - Jon is an awesome bloke in Melbourne, Australia who is really in to electronics and home automation.
https://theblower.au/@cathywilcox - Australian political cartoonist. If you followed on Twitter, follow here instead.
https://blackrock.city/@spolsky - Joel Spolsky. If you followed on Twitter, follow here instead.
https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix - Matrix, Element, etc.
https://mastodon.social/@oatmeal - Because he is a funny bugger.
- ragebol 2 years ago@simonstalenhag@mastodon.art Great Sci-fi art
@fasterthanlime@octodon.social Hacker
@tlalexander@queer.party Working on open source farming robots
@fchollet@sigmoid.social Deep learning stuff, creator of Keras
- TaylorAlexander 2 years agoHey that’s me! Thanks for the shout out.
- TaylorAlexander 2 years ago
- mcv 2 years agoUntil recently, I most of my stream was politics, and I was missing the gamer crowd I used to hang with on Google+. Turns out they're all on dice.camp, and now that I found them, my stream is happy again.
So I'm mostly following a lot of RPG designers, but a few non-RPG-related names are: Cory Doctorow (super interesting of course), Neil Gaiman, Stephen Fry (sometimes receives a lot of pointless responses, which makes it frustrating to engage) and George Takei (always receives a lot of pointless comments; I'd like to be able to hide other people's comments from his posts, because it's all noise).
Of course not everybody I'm following is on Mastodon. I'm not even on Mastodon. The Fediverse is a lot bigger than that.
- OscarCunningham 2 years agoHere are some of the more notable mathematicians from Mathstodon.
John Baez (https://mathstodon.xyz/@johncarlosbaez)
Vi Hart (https://mathstodon.xyz/@vihart@mastodon.social)
Greg Egan (https://mathstodon.xyz/@gregeganSF)
Katie Steckles (https://mathstodon.xyz/@stecks)
Marcus du Sautoy (https://mathstodon.xyz/@MarcusduSautoy)
Eugenia Cheng (https://mathstodon.xyz/@DrEugeniaCheng)
Terry Tao (https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao)
Tim Gowers (https://mathstodon.xyz/@wtgowers)
Matt Parker (https://mathstodon.xyz/@standupmaths)
- barathr 2 years ago@futurebird@sauropods.win -- science, math, entomology
@librarianshipwreck@mastodon.social -- pithy critiques, cats
@nomdeb@mstdn.social -- history and other random things
@OkieSpaceQueen@scicomm.xyz -- science communications, conspiracy deconstruction
@tprophet@defcon.social -- writer at 2600
@kjhealy@mastodon.social -- pithy sociologist
@notjustbikes@notjustbikes.com -- urban planning
@enron@tilde.zone -- hacks and snark
@HelenBranswell@scicomm.xyz -- infectious disease reporting
@Jessicascott09@infosec.exchange -- misc infosec
@harshad@sharma.io -- farming in india
- louismerlin 2 years agohttps://mastodon.social/@Gargron
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs
https://infosec.exchange/@troyhunt
https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog
https://infosec.exchange/@malwaretech
https://infosec.exchange/@hacks4pancakes
- thebiglebrewski 2 years agoHas anyone written a Chrome extension yet to take the username/server combinations of the top posted names and make them easy to click links? Like I can't click: "Rob Carlson (author of "Biology is Technology...") @rob_carlson@mastodon.world"
- TaylorAlexander 2 years agohello I found it for you
- thebiglebrewski 2 years agoThank you so much! I found it initially didn't work but once I put in my instance in the extension settings, it worked great. Awesome find.
- thebiglebrewski 2 years ago
- TaylorAlexander 2 years ago
- ttrrooppeerr 2 years agoThe, one and only, Ron Gilbert: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@grumpygamer
- stjohnswarts 2 years agoMaybe just list your top 4 or 5 and a brief summary why you like them would be more helpful than just dropping a long list of people.
- waynesutton 2 years agoThere's an Observable notebook on this topic too who-to-follow-on-mastodon https://observablehq.com/@mauforonda/who-to-follow-on-mastod...
- bhoops 2 years agoFor folks from India, these are some random India specific accounts which toot frequently:
@tendstofortytwo@tech.lgbt
@rashi@mas.to
@chenthil@mastodon.social
@sridala@mastodon.social
@anniezaidi@mastodon.social
@sharanyamanivannan@mastodon.social
@vaditi@india.goonj.xyz
@Calamur@mastodon.social
@nixxin@mstdn.social
@rahulbhatia@mastodon.social
@nilanjanaroy@mastodon.social
@hackiechan@mastodon.social
@nikita32@india.goonj.xyz
- fattybob 2 years agoI feel that everyone should follow God on mastodon - quite refreshing!
- themusicgod1 2 years agohttps://shitposter.club/users/nousnaut / @nousnaut@shitposter.club
- ThinkingGuy 2 years agoBrewster Kahle (Internet Archive) @brewsterkahle@mastodon.http://archive.org
- Tomte 2 years agoRichard McElreath of Statistical Rethinking: @rlmcelreath@nerdculture.de
- INTPenis 2 years agohttps://social.growyourown.services/@FediFollows
https://mastodon.online/@streetartutopia
https://spacelase.rs/@dekaminski
https://infosec.exchange/@troyhunt
https://a.gup.pe/u/histodons # This is a group that boosts every post mentioning it. supposed to be history related but it can be abused of course.
https://mstdn.social/@simonegiertz
https://mastodon.social/@elonjet
https://mastodon.social/@Popehat
https://hachyderm.io/@nova # Imho the best fediverse admin.
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs
https://infosec.exchange/@cisacyber
https://mastodon.social/@oatmeal
https://wandering.shop/@cstross
https://mastodon.world/@JeriLRyan
https://bitbang.social/@NanoRaptor
https://universeodon.com/@georgetakei
https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff
https://atomicpoet.org/users/atomicpoet
https://social.data.coop/@cryptohagen
https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive
https://mastodonapp.uk/@aliceroberts
https://mastodon.social/@neilhimself
https://mastodonapp.uk/@stephenfry
https://mastodon.nu/@gretathunberg
https://mstdn.social/@kathygriffin
https://social.network.europa.eu/@EUSPA # Just a twitter relay so far
- etherpaul 2 years agoVitalik Buterin
- randomcarbloke 2 years agoTerry Tao and Zack Weinersmith
- t0bia_s 2 years agoNobody. I'm not interested in social media at all.
- weinzierl 2 years agoIn no particular order within the respective sections.
No BS, down to earth infosec folks
Filippo Valsorda - https://abyssdomain.expert/@filippo
Marcus Hutchins - https://infosec.exchange/@malwaretech
Tavis Ormandy - https://social.sdf.org/@taviso
Royce Williams - https://mastodon.social/@tychotithonus
The Grugq - https://infosec.exchange/@thegrugq
Alex Bloor - https://bloor.tw/@bloor
Andrew Tierney - https://infosec.exchange/@cybergibbons
The usual Rust crowd
Mara Bos - https://hachyderm.io/@Mara
Aaron Turon - https://hachyderm.io/@aturon
Luca Palmieri - https://hachyderm.io/@algo_luca
Tim McNamara - https://mastodon.nz/@timClicks
Raph Levien - https://mastodon.online/@raph
Game Dev
Ólafur Waage - https://mastodon.social/@olafurw
Godot Engine - https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@godotengine
Celebrities(Stephen was one of the first people I followed on Twitter, so it is a tradition. The others are canaries.)
Stephen Fry - https://mastodonapp.uk/@stephenfry
Kathy Griffin - https://mstdn.social/@kathygriffin
Greta Thunberg - https://mastodon.nu/@gretathunberg
Honorable mention
Dan Luu - https://mastodon.social/@danluu
- goldforever 2 years ago[dead]
- SecurityMinded 2 years agoAbsolutely nobody. I refuse to play in some capricious individual's walled garden. After Elon's acquisition, twitter became good enough for me.
- kgwxd 2 years agoBut...
Nevermind.
- kgwxd 2 years ago
- tgv 2 years agoYeah, let's repeat twitter, but with an even less controlled messaging system. That'll go well.
- INTPenis 2 years agoClearly troll bait, but I just wanna say that no one is repeating twitter. This is decentralized. Even if corporations move in and create their own instances it will still remain decentralized. Even if it splinters into pockets of federation, it will still be more of a public domain than twitter ever was, being owned by one corporation.
- tgv 2 years agoWith all the dangers of disinformation and "echo chambers", but a bit bigger. And what for? So more people can feel they have followers and spend time cultivating that?
- INTPenis 2 years agoYou have to take the good with the bad. People seem to like being social online.
I never understood it myself, was never active on anything but IRC. But ActivityPub seems truly magic when it comes to promoting communication across boundaries such as corporations and software stacks, so I jumped on it back in 2017 and loved seeing it blow up in 2022.
There are clearly a lot of very nice, and very normal, people on there who just love the concept of microblogging. Who am I, or you, to stand in their way? And why should they depend on one corporation to communicate when they can take it into their own hands?
It's really a very natural progression, just like we have many ISPs, phone companies, or anything else in society.
- 4ad 2 years agoYes, let's all stay in the existing disinformation echo chambers.
If you see disinformation and find yourself in an echo chamber on a platform where you can chose who you see and engage with, I am afraid it's not the platform's fault.
- INTPenis 2 years ago
- tgv 2 years ago
- karaterobot 2 years agoPeople need to see this play out again in order to rule out the possibility that the problems Twitter had and caused were just due to that particular platform, in that particular scenario. If Mastodon (or any of the other alternatives) go down the same road, they'll begin to wonder if the cause may be something deeper. But, they won't arrive at that conclusion by abstraction, or else they would have already.
Another possibility is it'll work out great.
- tgv 2 years agoI admire your positive attitude, but facebook nor snapchat nor tiktok have shown any other trend. "Social" media are social in name only.
> else they would have already.
Except it doesn't work that way. People are some mixture of dumb, greedy and vain.
> Another possibility is it'll work out great.
What would be the positive outcome? Preferably one that wasn't heralded 20 years ago and has not borne out.
- anticrisis 2 years agoI'm a pessimist too, however you may be discounting the effect of capitalism in your analysis. To me it seems reasonable that efforts of a group of cooperatives instead of a group of for-profit companies could lead to a different result.
Of course there are and will also be highly negative effects, but the hope is they will be more easily isolated as a result of many cooperatives taking action to exclude those negative effects and their propagaters, rather than rely on policies and practices of a small number of profit-seeking companies.
- anticrisis 2 years ago
- tgv 2 years ago
- INTPenis 2 years ago