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2025-01-11 17:50:24

Friendica beginner help megathread

Hello, everyone! As we know what Zuck's place is going through, I decided to create a post with all the resources I found online all these years I've been on this place, in a bid to help more people board. Here we go:

List of guides/presentations/quick start

• @anubis2814's excelent guides for Friendica. Available as a playlist on YouTube:
  youtube.com/watch?v=-4wsAmXnaE…
  or on Peertube:
  peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEY…
  (6 videos)
• The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 3: Friendica) by @Elena Rossini ⁂
• The Beginner’s guide to Friendica by @Tio
• no less important, The Friendica Wiki also available under the help section of your instance (click on your pic and name on the top-right where you're logged in -> help)
• The @Friendica Support group for any questions or issues (yes, I intended to post this here).

All of these should be more comprehensive than this guide.

Short Q&A with the most common problems

How do I post stuff?
Easy, on your profile, click the button in the top right that looks like this:

A pop-up window will open, and you can type anything. Make sure to set the appropriate permissions by clicking the tab at the top. If you want your post to be public then choose public, if you don't, select limited/private and add the exceptions or add who can see it. Make sure you properly select these permissions, because you cannot change them later. If you format your post (see below), you can also check the preview pane to see how your post will look. This also applies for comments.

How to format my text?

Unlike Facebook, Friendica allows you to format your text, just like you'd do in a Word document. It uses BBCodes for text formatting like bold text, italic text, underlined text and many others. You can find more example on the usage of it in the Wiki or under https://your-instance-address/help/bbcode. You don't have to style your text, but you can do some nice stuff with it. You can also get suggestions for formatting by typing [ and selecting an option from the drop-down menu, or typing out your option to narrow your search. But do check the wiki, though. Generally, BBCode looks like [option]your-text-here[/option].

If there is any text where you don't want to add any tags on by accident, slide it between these tags: [noparse][/noparse].

How to upload an image (and how to add alt-text to it)
Just drag&drop it into the composing page. Simple. Easy. No frills.

Also, to note is that you can also re-use an image you previously uploaded if you go to the Browser tab in the compose window.

Finally, you can link to any image you find online, without downloading&reuploading it in the 1st place. Right-click an image, click "copy image link", then go to your post and type [img]paste-your image-link-here[/img] (of course, you paste your image link instead, between the img tags). This is generally how images are displayed via BBCode.

I personally use an external site to host my media and link it this way, whenever there is something I want on the internet for as long as possible in order to save some space on my instance. I mostly use postimages.org, but I also used

• files.catbox.moe
• imgur.com

Meta and now also Reddit like to change the URL string to the media posted on their platforms, so don't rely on these if you want your post to still stay relevant after a few days.

You can also add Alt-Text to your image if, instead, you type [img=your_image_url]Your Alt-Text here[/img]. Alt-Text is generally an image description that is displayed when the image fails to load/before loading, and is useful to visually impaired people using screen reading software which can read this out loud. The latter is the reason why it is highly recommended by many people all across the Fediverse (not just on Friendica).

How to upload a video or other media
Just like you do with an image. However, the video will be posted under Browser, and then the "Files" icon:

Select your file, and it will be posted with an tag.

However, there's currently no user facing way to delete these as yet, so feel free to upload them on any other external service and share the direct link to the audio/video if you care about this.

You can use the tags [audio]your-link-to-the-audio[/audio] and [video]your-link-to-the-video[/video] for that.

How do I make a poll/vote at polls
Polls are currently supported by a few Fediverse platforms, but not by Friendica fully, right now (you can see them, but you cannot vote on them and create them).

You can again use an external service for creating polls, such as poll-maker or Strawpoll.

Okay, but do I need to add a title?

No, you don't. I didn't add one either here. You can if you want your post to be more fancy and want to turn your profile into a more of a personal blog. Which would be cool, but it's not necessary. You do you!

How to post to a group

Groups on Friendica, as well as any other ActivityPub platform, are generally just some special accounts that automatically boost/reshare whatever post you added while tagging them. Therefore, just create a regular post and tag them with the ! or @ signs (one of these tags should suffice). The former one creates a post that is visible on the group but unlisted wherever else (i.e. in a public feed). The latter takes account of your permission settings. You will see how you can find groups somewhere below.

How to find various people

There are multiple ways; One is to use any of the established lists:

• Fedi.db's list
• Most followed Mastodon accounts by Stefan Hayden
• Fliboard federated accounts (for news organizations on Flipboard who enabled AP integration) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
• [Public] Popular/famous/notable Mastodon accounts (also available as a website) [Google Sheet spreadsheet]
• The Friendica directory (only for people on Friendica)
• Follow @FediFollows for suggestion

You can also go to Settings>Profile>Miscellaneous and scroll all the way down to add some tags to the profile. Then, you can also go to Contacts and choose "similar interests" in the left pane, get friend suggestions or a random profile.

Finally, you can also follow hashtags to get posts from people that also share your interests directly in your feed, and then follow them from there.

I'm posting stuff here, but how can people discover me?

Just like on Mastodon, you can enhance your posts with #hashtags. Other people who follow the same hashtags can find you and connect with you if they want.

But that's not the only way. You can also add yourself into the aforementioned Friendica Directory or to your server's one by going to Settings>Account>Security and Privacy Settings and check any of these two options:

This way anyone can find you according to your interests.

If, however you would like more privacy, you can check the following box below:

This limits the visibility of your content to only instances that are made aware of it, and people that have access to it based on your privacy settings. Unlogged users will not be allowed to find your content. E.g., open my profile in a new tab to see how this feature works: libranet.de/profile/petrescatr…

How do I find groups?

Same as with regular people. There are multiple lists:

• Friendica Directory (for groups that are on Friendica).
• Check the list of @Fedi.Tips available here.
• Lemmyverse (For Communities on Lemmy - a decentralized Lemmy alternative - be wary of this though)
• Check out the servers of other Fediverse software like Mbin or Piefed. These are more forum-like platforms, centered around communities. Generally, each of these communities has a Fediverse address. Copy that, paste it in the search bar, and you should be able to find it. If it doesn't work the 1st time, try a few more times. If it still doesn't work, look whether the server is not on the banned list by accessing your-server-address/friendica, and/or contact your admin for clarification.

How do I use the search? Is it any useful beyond just searching for people and groups and other accounts?

Yes. Check the Wiki for more information.

Are there any mobile apps?

Yes there are. From my personal experience, Raccoon for Friendica gave me the best results. Relatica is also a great option, as well as Fedilab (the latter is more of a Mastodon client, but you can disable the display of reply in the feeds and enable BBCode - fiddle out in the settings). There are other apps for various platforms as well. If you don't find any of them fitting, you can just access your Friendica server in your browser (e.g. friendica.world, nerdica.net etc.). It's very responsive and easy to use.

I hope this Q&A covers the most common aspects of using Friendica

Bonus: Text colors

One aspect that hasn't really been touched on in the wiki is the colors. You can have text in any color if you type the text like this [color=color_name_or_value]your text here[/color]. Hex values are accepted, however there are also some human readable names that can be used (based on this thread):
Antiquewhite
Aqua
Aquamarine
Azure
Beige
Bisque
Blanchedalmond
Blue
Blueviolet
Brown
Burlywood
Cadetblue
Chartreuse
Chocolate
Coral
Cornflowerblue
Cornsilk
Crimson
Cyan
Darkblue
Darkcyan
Darkgoldenrod
Darkgray
Darkgreen
Darkkhaki
Darkmagenta
Darkolivegreen
Darkorange
Darkorchid
Darkred
Darksalmon
Darkseagreen
Darkslateblue
Darkslategray
Darkturquoise
Darkviolet
Deeppink
Deepskyblue
Dimgray
Dodgerblue
Firebrick
Floralwhite
Forestgreen
Fuchsia
Gainsboro
Ghostwhite
Gold
Goldenrod
Gray
Green
Greenyellow
Honeydew
Hotpink
Indianred
Indigo
Ivory
Khaki
Lavender
Lavenderblush
Lawngreen
Lemonchiffon
Lightblue
Lightcoral
Lightcyan
Lightgoldenrodyellow
Lightgreen
Lightgrey
Lightpink
Lightsalmon
Lightseagreen
Lightskyblue
Lightslategray
Lightsteelblue
Linen
Magenta
Maroon
Mediumaquamarine
Mediumblue
Mediumorchid
Mediumpurple
Mediumseagreen
Mediumslateblue
Mediumspringgreen
Mediumturquoise
Mediumvioletred
Midnightblue
Mintcream
Mistyrose
Moccasin
Navajowhite
Navy
Oldlace
Olive
Olivedrab
Orange
Orangered
Orchid
Palegoldenrod
Palegreen
Paleturquoise
Palevioletred
Papayawhip
Peachpuff
Peru
Pink
Plum
Powderblue
Purple
Red
Rosybrown
Royalblue
Saddlebrown
Salmon
Sandybrown
Seagreen
Seashell
Sienna
Silver
Skyblue
Slateblue
Slategray
Snow
Springgreen
Steelblue
Tan
Teal
Thistle
Tomato
Turquoise
Violet
Wheat
White
Whitesmoke
Yellow
Yellowgreen