@danieldekay

So, you have taken the first step into a friendica server? And you log in, and then what?

Here are the first three steps you should take:

1. New Members Section
2. Understand the Navigation Menu
3. Create your first post as an Introduction with hashtags

Step 1: New Members Section

After the first log-in, it will ask you for a profile picture. You can do that now, or later. If you skip, you will probably end on a page that looks like this:

There is one thing that will help you get started: do you notice the “New Member” section on the left? There you will find a “getting started” section.

Step 2: The Main Navigation

Familiarize yourself with the user interface. It is different than Facebook, of course.

Here are the main sections you will usually see. In Friendica everything is customizable, so you can have these or different icons.

1. The “9 boxes” icon is called “network”:
   • here you will see the post of people you follow.
2. The “home” icon:
   • here is your profile, and your content.
3. The “circles” icon is called “community”
   • Here are two sections
     • Local: this contains all public posts of your Friendica server. Since it is your server, these posts are all there — in contrast with the global community, see below.
     • Global: this contains all global posts your server knows about. In the Fediverse there is no database of all content, so you have to actively receive content or you won’t see it. This is why a niche community can be quite empowered when all their users are on the same server.
4. The “envelope” icon is called “messages”
   • Here are private messages between you and your contacts.
5. The “calendar” icon is called “calendar” or “events”
   • Here you will see your events, and events you have been invited to, or events that have been shared in your feeds.
6. The “people” icon is called “contacts”
   • Here you can find new contacts, and manage your own contacts.
   • Friendica allows for asymmetric relationships.
     • First one person follows another person. That means, the follower will see the public posts shared by the other person.
     • When that person follows you, as well, then you are “mutual friends”, and each sees the public posts of the other person.
     • Friendica has a fine-tunable permissions system, so that you can share content e.g. only with your friends, or even only with people you group into circles.
   • You can group contacts into so-called “circles”, e.g. friends, groups and pages.
7. The “bell” icon is called “notifications”, and it is not a page, but just a drop-down.

Step 3: Introduce Yourself

Write your first post. Go to the Home section and click on the “pen” icon in the top right corner.

Write a little bit about yourself. Who are you, what do you do, why are you here? Add the hashtag #introduction, and the hashtags of any other topics you’re interested in. Hashtags are a primary way to find posts on the fediverse, so they’re important to use if you want people to find you. You can also use hashtags to find people of your interest.

While you are at it: go to your profile, and fill in some more details there, and add your interests, so you can find contacts who have similar interests more easily.

Step 4: Explore, but be patient

• Follow some people on your server, for example:
  • help@friendica.tangoverse.org – -a group where you can ask questions and find tipps & tricks.
  • tangoversenews@friendica.tangoverse.org — the official news account for the Tangoverse initiative
  • daniel@friendica.tangoverse.org — my personal account on Friendica
• It will take a while to see more content coming in. There is no algorithm, and no-one wants to feed you with content just to keep you here and sell you advertisement.
• Start interacting with some of the content you see.
• Share your own content
• Use hashtags