So, the issue with Mastodon is that there's no global search and discovery. In order to be found, things have to be hashtagged. The problem with hashtagging is that twitter clout weirdos made hashtagging SO uncool that nobody, anywhere, wants to do it anymore. So, do search hashtags related to your interests and follow folks that are posting to them, but that may not get you too many hits.

If you're on an instance that isn't enormous, try the local timeline to identify some folks to follow. On big instances, that's not usually useful because it's too big a firehose.

For art specifically maybe see the stuff that curator on mastodon.art boosts: https://mastodon.art/@Curator

This is why Lemmy/Kbin is potentially cooler for some applications than Mastodon. Since communities are (a) not stigmitized like tags and (b) also mandatory, plus search exists, it's much easier to find things! (Although there's not yet much to be found)

Thing is mastodon is a microblogging alternative to Twitter. Personally what I enjoy about Twitter is the people, keeping up with certain friends. They are not in Mastodon so the experience felt dull.

Lemmy is a link aggregator alternative to Reddit. Personally what I enjoy about Reddit is sharing content and discuss in a more broad way. I don't care to know the people, but the content.

I love Mastodon. I'm on the Masto.ai instance. I'm helping maintain it so that might help keep me engage. I also love PixelFed (Pixey.org is my instance). Lemmy.world and Geddit.social for Lemmy instances.

I like mastodon but the content you see is only driven by two things: the people you follow and the hashtags you follow. Basically, you follow people and hashtags to effectively create your own "algorithm." Once I understood this and really made an effort to follow both people and hashtags that interested me, my Mastodon feed became way more interesting than my Twitter feed.

I also like the quality of the interactions better on Mastodon. Because of how the whole thing works, you're not going to get bombarded with horrible stuff in most cases (at least the chances seem to be far less for that kind of thing happening).

But it definitely takes more time and energy to curate compared to Twitter.

I’ve been trying Mastodon for about a week now and using hashtags like everyone suggests, but I’m not getting any interaction with my posts. I’ve looked up hashtags as well and they seem to either have posts filled with nonsense gibberish or no posts at all. I’m not giving up on it just yet though.

Lemmy has been excellent in comparison.

I think mastodon is great. It’s not so much for me as I prefer this style of website, but I still have an account and check it occasionally. Also federated.

As far as doing a blog. Try spinning up a WordPress site and hook it up to the activitypub and the fediverse

It takes some work to like it at first, to find an instance you like so you can use the Local feed and follow some people

I like Mastodon, but I find it hard to fully engage with a platform where I feel like I have to share my life. I'm much more into bigger discussions and places like here are better for that in my opinion.

I enjoy Mastodon as a Twitter replacement. I share whatever nonsense is in my head and react to other peoples nonsense too.

Following hashtags is a great way to find like minded people and because there is no monetisation there are no companies or promoted tweets etc.

I gave Mastodon a small chance a couple weeks ago and just hopped on Lemmy today and I can already tell (at least as of right now) I prefer Lemmy as a platform. I'll definitely give Mastodon another chance but I just couldn't really get into it. I think I agree with you on the fact that the content seems to federate better on Lemmy.

Mastodon is great, until servers get shutdown, and you have to move... I moved twice in the past few years, lost so many toots that I faved, to the point that I'm discouraged...

Mastodon is as great as your reach. Make sure you use hashtags though, that's how people find you.

Also link your mastodon and I'll follow you

Mastodon is great. I personally use the Ivory app on iOS.

I have an account and never posted anything because it feels intimidating to post my first...post there. (Do people on Mastodon call it post or is there a different word similar to Twitter's 'tweets'?).

It looks really good though, but I find it more intimidating than Lemmy / kbin!

Easier to get Lemmy on Mastodon than Mastodon on Lemmy right now. Though the other way is supposed to be in the works.

I actually find Mastodon quite engaging.

I got my mastodon feed filled out right off the bat by using one of the followers exporters.

Then to find more you hang out on the federated feed and follow people with posts that you like.