Table of Contents
Finding Your People in the Federated Forest: A Real Guide to Pixelfed, Mastodon, Loops, and PeerTube
The corporate platforms have trained us — conditioned us like lab rats in a maze — to expect a certain kind of experience. You open Instagram and it decides what you see. The algorithm reads your dopamine like a map and serves you exactly enough of what keeps you scrolling without ever quite satisfying. You open Twitter and the platform is already outraged on your behalf before you've finished your first cup of coffee. Everything curated, surveilled, optimized for engagement and ad revenue, with your actual desires treated as a minor inconvenience to route around.
The Fediverse works differently. Beautifully, sometimes frustratingly, fundamentally differently.
It's less like a mall — designed to disorient you into buying things — and more like a forest. There are paths, but you make some of them yourself. There's no single map because the territory is genuinely distributed across hundreds of interconnected servers, each with their own community culture and rules, each talking to the others through open protocols like two old-growth trees sharing nutrients through mycelium networks underground. You can stand on a Mastodon server in Scotland and follow someone posting from a Pixelfed instance in Brazil, and the content flows between you as naturally as rain.
This guide is your compass. We're going to walk you through each platform — Pixelfed, Mastodon, Loops, and PeerTube — not as abstract concepts but as living, navigable spaces where the content you actually want is already waiting, if you know how to look.
Before We Begin: The Core Concept That Changes Everything
Before we dive into each platform, you need to understand one idea that unlocks all of it:
In the Fediverse, your account address is like an email address — it includes your server.
Your Mastodon handle isn't just @wendy. It's @[email protected]. This tells the entire federated network where you live, so people on completely different servers can find and follow you. The same logic applies across all these platforms.
This means:
You don't have to be on the same server as someone to follow them
Your server is your home base, but it is not your prison
Different servers have different communities, vibes, and moderation cultures
Choosing your server matters — it's like choosing your neighborhood — but you can still visit (and follow people in) every other neighborhood in the city
Our neighborhood is Thistle and Moss. Come live here, or visit from wherever you are. Either way, the door is open.
Mastodon — The Town Square
Our server: thistlenfern.org
Think of Mastodon as the beating civic heart of the Fediverse. It's where announcements happen, conversations unspool in real time, and community forms around shared language and shared outrage and shared laughter. It's the closest thing to what Twitter used to be before the fire — but governed by people instead of billionaires, and distributed across thousands of independent servers instead of one. Our Instance is Cross federated with Bluesky, so Bsky content also flows through it. If you want to 2 way bridge it, contact and Admin with your account info and we can help you.
Getting Started on Mastodon
1. Create Your Account
Go to thistlenfern.org and register
Choose a username that feels like you — this will be your federated identity:
@[email protected]Fill out your profile fully: bio, profile picture, header image
Add your links — your website, your other Fediverse accounts, your newsletter
Pro tip: Mastodon supports "verified links" — add your website URL to your profile and put a small bit of code on your site, and a green checkmark appears next to the link. No blue-check theater. Just cryptographic proof you own what you say you own.
2. Understanding the Three Feeds
Once you're in, you'll see three distinct timelines. Most people never figure this out and wonder why Mastodon feels thin. Here's the key:
Home Timeline — Posts from people you follow. This is your curated space. It starts sparse and gets richer as you follow more people.
Local Timeline — Every public post from everyone on your server (thistlenfern.org). This is your neighborhood. It's where you discover people with shared values because they chose the same home you did.
Federated Timeline — Every public post that your server knows about from across the entire Fediverse. It moves fast. It's wild. It's also where you'll find unexpected gems from communities your server has connections to.
Start with Local. Build from there.
3. Finding the Content You Actually Want
This is where most new users get lost. Mastodon doesn't have an algorithmic discovery engine pushing content at you. Here's how to find things deliberately:
Search by hashtag — Mastodon's search is hashtag-centric. Search
#Druidry,#EarthBasedSpirituality,#QueerActivism,#FediArt,#BlackFedi,#TransRights,#AntiCapitalism,#Pagan,#Witchcraft— whatever resonates in your bonesFollow hashtags directly — You can follow a hashtag the same way you follow an account. Posts tagged
#MastoArtwill appear in your home timeline automaticallyLook at who follows who — Find one account you love, look at who they follow, and follow that trail like a thread through the forest
Check the Local Timeline daily — Especially in the first week, spend time in your server's local feed and follow anyone who sparks something in you
Use Trunk — Trunk (communitywiki.org/trunk) is a curated opt-in list of Mastodon users organized by interest category. It's old-school and wonderful.
4. Mastodon Etiquette That Isn't Gatekeeping, Just Culture
Use Content Warnings (CW) for heavy topics: politics, grief, food posts (some people have eating issues), eye contact in photos. It's not censorship — it's consent.
Add alt text to every image. The Fediverse is serious about accessibility in a way Instagram never was. Describe your images. It matters.
Boost, don't just like. Likes are private on Mastodon. Boosts (like retweets) are how content spreads. If something moves you, boost it.
Introduce yourself with #Introduction — Post about who you are and tag it
#Introduction. People actively look for these.
5. Following Thistle and Moss on Mastodon
From any Mastodon client or server, search for @[email protected] and follow. You'll receive:
Live stream announcements
New article notifications
Community conversation threads
Real-time commentary on what's burning in the world
Pixelfed — The Gallery That Doesn't Extract You
Our server: thistleandmoss.org
Pixelfed is the federated answer to Instagram — and the contrast is stark enough to feel like stepping out of a fluorescent-lit mall into morning forest light. No algorithmic feed deciding you need to see more of what made you insecure last Tuesday. No ads. No shadowbanning of queer content. No data harvesting. Just images, shared by people, seen by people who chose to see them.
It's chronological. It's clean. It's yours.
Getting Started on Pixelfed
1. Create Your Account
Navigate to thistleandmoss.org and register
Your handle becomes
@[email protected]— visible across the FediverseUpload a profile picture and write a bio that tells people what they're walking into when they follow you
Important: Set your account visibility preferences. You can be fully public, require approval for followers, or make your posts followers-only. Choose what feels right for your safety and openness.
2. Understanding Pixelfed's Interface
Pixelfed's layout will feel familiar to anyone who's used Instagram, but without the surveillance texture:
Home Feed — Chronological posts from people you follow. What you see is what was posted, in order, nothing boosted by ad spend.
Discover — Curated public posts from across the Fediverse. This is your primary discovery engine: trending images, recent posts, featured accounts.
Stories — Yes, Pixelfed has stories. Ephemeral. No algorithm deciding who sees yours.
Collections — You can organize posts into collections, like visual portfolios or curated themes. A beautiful feature for creators.
3. Finding Content Worth Seeing
Explore by hashtag — Search
#FediArt,#NaturalMagic,#DruidLife,#WitchesOfInstagram(yes, it crosses over),#QueerNature,#BlackArtists,#IndigenousArt,#SolarpunkAesthetic,#FiberArts,#CottageCore,#MossAesthetic— whatever feeds the specific hunger in youUse the Discover tab actively — Unlike Instagram's Explore (which is a mood board designed by an engagement algorithm), Pixelfed's Discover shows you genuinely popular content from real communities
Follow the trail of tags on posts you love — Every post you resonate with is tagged with breadcrumbs. Follow those crumbs.
Search for accounts from other servers — You can search for
@[email protected]from within Pixelfed and follow accounts that live on entirely different instances. The federation is real and it works.Cross-platform follows — Your Mastodon account can follow a Pixelfed account. You'll see the image posts in your Mastodon home feed. This is the mycelium network doing its work.
4. Posting on Pixelfed
Maximum image quality: post full resolution. No compression punishment for posting "too often."
Alt text every image. There's a field for it. Use it.
Use hashtags generously — they are the primary discovery mechanism. 10-20 relevant hashtags is not spam here, it's how people find you.
Captions matter. This isn't the platform where you post a fire emoji and call it done. People actually read. Write something.
Post consistently — the chronological feed rewards presence, not virality
5. Following Thistle and Moss on Pixelfed
Search @[email protected] from any Fediverse client. You'll see:
Visual documentation of ritual and ceremony
Art that lives at the intersection of earth spirituality and political fire
Community life, land, and the textures of druidic practice in a modern world
Announcements dressed in images
Loops — The Short-Form Video That Doesn't Watch You Back
Our server: loops.thistleandmoss.org
Loops is the federated answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels — short-form video built on ActivityPub, the same open protocol that ties together Mastodon, Pixelfed, and PeerTube. It's new. It's growing. And it represents something that felt impossible when TikTok became the dominant short-video force: a space for punchy, creative, community-made video content that isn't algorithmically optimized to keep you watching past your bedtime while selling your attention to supplement companies.
Getting Started on Loops
1. Create Your Account
Go to loops.thistleandmoss.org and register
Your handle:
@[email protected]Set up your profile — profile photo, bio, links
Because Loops is newer, the community is smaller but also warmer. Early adopters here are people who made a deliberate choice to be somewhere that isn't surveilling them. The conversations reflect that.
2. Understanding the Loops Interface
Feed — Short videos from people you follow, displayed vertically in the now-familiar scroll format
Discover/Explore — Videos from across the broader Loops and Fediverse network, discoverable by hashtag and trending content
Upload — Post videos up to the server's configured length limit. Keep it sharp, keep it visceral, keep it real.
3. Finding Content Worth Your Time
Search by hashtag —
#LoopsVideo,#FediVideo,#QueerTikTokcontent that's migrated here,#EarthMagic,#DruidryDaily,#TransJoy,#AbolitonistArt,#IndigenousVoices,#SolarpunkLifeBrowse the Discover feed when it's unfamiliar — In a smaller network, the Discover feed will show you the full range of what's being made. Early communities on new platforms have a specific raw energy worth leaning into.
Cross-follow from Mastodon — Mastodon users can follow Loops accounts. If you're already building your Mastodon following, your Loops posts will appear in followers' home feeds without them needing a separate account.
Engage hard when you find something good — Comment. Reply. Boost. The Loops community is small enough that your engagement genuinely matters and directly shapes what grows.
4. Posting on Loops
Short, sharp, purposeful. The format rewards clarity over rambling.
Film in good light when you can. Phone cameras are fine — natural light is better than any ring light.
Speak directly to camera when you want connection. It lands differently than voice-over.
Caption your videos. Auto-generated captions are not yet standard on every instance. Add them manually when you can — it's accessibility and it's reach.
Hashtag with intention: 5-10 relevant tags per video is plenty.
Don't try to recreate TikTok. The audience here came specifically from TikTok. They know what they left. Give them something different — something that breathes.
5. Following Thistle and Moss on Loops
Search @[email protected] from any Fediverse client or from within Loops directly. Expect:
Short-form ritual snippets and nature footage
Quick political commentary when the news demands it
Behind-the-scenes of the writing and streaming life
Community prompts and calls to action
PeerTube — The Archive That Doesn't Answer to Anyone
Our server: video.thistleandmoss.org
PeerTube is the crown jewel of federated media infrastructure. It's where long-form video lives — full sessions, meditations, political deep-dives, recorded healing circles, documentary-length explorations of druidic practice and radical politics — on a platform that uses peer-to-peer BitTorrent-style technology to distribute the bandwidth load. The more people watch a video simultaneously, the more they contribute to serving it. Decentralized hosting built into the architecture itself.
YouTube is an advertising machine. PeerTube is a library.
Getting Started on PeerTube
1. Create Your Account
When video.thistleandmoss.org opens, register for an account
Your handle:
@[email protected]Build your profile — bio, links, your Mastodon handle for cross-platform connection
You do not need an account to watch content. Browse freely. Accounts are for subscribing, commenting, creating playlists, and uploading.
2. Understanding PeerTube's Interface
Home/Browse — Featured and recent videos from your server and federated servers it connects to
Subscriptions — Videos from channels you've subscribed to, in chronological order
Channels — Creators on PeerTube maintain channels (multiple per account is possible), organized by topic or series
Playlists — Curate your own viewing lists or follow playlists curated by others
Trending — What's being watched across the network right now
3. Finding Content Worth Watching
PeerTube's content discovery is the most intentional of all the platforms we're covering. There's no recommendation engine designing a rabbit hole for you. Here's how to navigate it:
Search by keyword and tag — Use the search bar for topics:
druidry,earth spirituality,trans rights,political commentary,permaculture,anarchism,indigenous resistance,radical healing,community organizingBrowse other PeerTube instances — The federated network of PeerTube servers covers everything from gaming to academic lectures to activist media. Sepiasearch.org is a cross-instance PeerTube search engine — use it to search across the entire federated video network at once
Follow specific channels — When you find a creator whose work feeds you, subscribe to their channel. You'll receive every new upload in your subscriptions feed.
Follow from Mastodon — PeerTube channels have ActivityPub addresses. You can follow a PeerTube channel from your Mastodon account and new video posts will appear in your home timeline. One login, multiple content streams.
Save playlists — When you find a collection that resonates — a series of talks, a ritual archive, a set of activist documentaries — save it. Build your own library.
Look at what server admins feature — Server admins curate featured content. The front page of a well-tended PeerTube instance is a handpicked selection, not an algorithm.
4. Watching and Engaging
Comments exist and matter. PeerTube comment sections are not what YouTube comment sections became. They're smaller, more intentional, more likely to contain actual conversation.
Boost to Mastodon. You can share PeerTube videos to your Mastodon account directly, spreading the content through your existing network.
Download videos when allowed. Many PeerTube creators enable downloads. Save content you value — platform independence means content can disappear if servers go down, and having local copies is a form of preservation.
Rate and comment generously. Smaller platforms thrive on engagement signals. If something moves you, say so.
Making It All Work Together — The Fediverse as Ecosystem
Here's where it gets genuinely beautiful, and where the Fediverse reveals itself as something no corporate platform can replicate:
You only need one account to participate across all of it.
Your Mastodon account at thistlenfern.org can:
Follow Pixelfed accounts and see their images in your home feed
Follow PeerTube channels and see new video posts
Follow Loops accounts and see their video content
Receive boosts and mentions from users on any compatible platform
This means your social graph — the network of people and creators you care about — doesn't have to be rebuilt from scratch on every platform. You build it once, in a place that belongs to a community instead of a corporation, and the federation does the work of connecting you across the different media types.
A Practical First Week on the Fediverse
Day 1 — Set up your foundation
Create your account on thistlenfern.org (Mastodon)
Fill out your profile completely
Post an
#Introductiontelling people who you are and what you're aboutFollow Thistle and Moss:
@[email protected]
Day 2 — Find your people
Search 5-10 hashtags that matter to you
Follow every account that resonates
Spend 20 minutes in the Local timeline and follow anyone interesting
Boost at least three posts you love
Day 3 — Expand to Pixelfed
Create your account at thistleandmoss.org
Or simply follow Pixelfed accounts from your Mastodon account
Search visual hashtags related to your interests
Follow
@[email protected]
Day 4 — Explore Loops
Create your account at loops.thistleandmoss.org
Browse the Discover feed and follow anything that moves you
Follow
@[email protected]
Day 5 — Bookmark PeerTube
Save video.thistleandmoss.org — it's coming
In the meantime, explore Sepiasearch.org for video content that interests you
Get comfortable with the idea that long-form video can live outside YouTube
Day 6 — Post something real
Share your thoughts on a platform. Any of them. Start talking.
The Fediverse is warmer than you expect because the people here chose to be here. They're not passive consumers who stumbled in. They made a decision. So did you.
Day 7 — Let it breathe
The Fediverse doesn't reward constant checking the way dopamine-optimized platforms do. That's a feature. Check in, engage, then put it down and live your actual life.
A Note on Imperfection
The Fediverse is not seamless. It is not as slick as Instagram. The onboarding is not as smooth as TikTok. Content discovery requires more intention than algorithmic spoon-feeding. Some instances go down. Some federation breaks. Some content doesn't load.
These are the rough edges of something built by communities of people rather than engineering teams with nine-figure budgets optimizing for retention.
They are worth it.
Every minute you spend building your presence on these platforms is investment in infrastructure that cannot be purchased by a billionaire, cannot be weaponized by a surveillance state, cannot have its terms of service shifted overnight to expose you. The rough edges are the texture of something real — like bark under your hands instead of the smooth, hollow surface of a plastic tree.
The moss doesn't grow on glass. It grows on stone, on bark, on the rough and imperfect surfaces of the actual world. Come be where things actually grow.
Quick Reference: Thistle and Moss Across the Fediverse
Platform | URL | Handle |
|---|---|---|
Mastodon | ||
Pixelfed | ||
Loops | ||
PeerTube |
The forest exists. The paths are real. Come find us in them.
— Wendy the Druid
