FTBS: Community Support

communitysupport@freetobe.social

From our HOWTO collection: How to connect to other users on the FEDIVERSE

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 21:25:42 -0500

FTBS: Community Support wrote the following post Wed, 21 Oct 2020 12:34:12 -0400

I know someone on the Fediverse - How do I add their connection?
Quick and easy!

Click on the "Hamburger menu" at the top right of your screen.

Select "Connections"

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.21-12_21_59.png

Type their address in the "Add New Connection" box on the left

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.21-12_19_03.png

(NOTE: If you are on a cell-phone or other device with a small screen, you may need to click the "circle-arrow"

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.21-12_29_19.png

on the top of your screen to open up the side menu)

(NOTE 2: The procedure for RSS feeds is different - but we've got you covered with instructions here!)

A little different from other "social media" platforms

FTBS: Community Support

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 10:40:36 -0500

Here at FTBS, we tend to focus more on the social and less on the media.  From our platform, you have access to a global network of people and information.  But, let's face it, screaming into the ether doesn't really help anyone or do anything.

So what becomes important is CONNECTION.

We believe that you have control over who gets access to your attention.  You must accept connections from people for their information to show up on your feed.  Your feed won't just automatically fill up with stuff.

But, then again, your feed won't just automatically fill up with stuff - stuff you're not interested in or stuff from people who themselves are just screaming into the ether.

Your feed is YOURS.

We give you control.

You have control over your posts and who they go to.

You have control over what posts reach you.

With great power comes great responsibility.  But we trust you to use it wisely.

If you're wondering why your feed isn't full the day after you signed up.  That's why.

Add some contacts.  If you know somebody on Mastodon or another platform like PeerTube, you can add them too!

We even allow you to add RSS feeds from your favorite blogs and news outlets.

Here's some info on getting started:

FTBS: Community Support wrote the following post Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:48:38 -0400

Where Is Everybody?!?!
If you are used to the Big Tech players model of social media - you're used to logging in and quickly having your newsfeed populated with things THEY think you will like.

Things are different around here.

There are no algorithms studying you. There are no electronic sensors watching how long you hover on images, how quickly you scroll through your feed, what you click, like, or share.

This is a social communications platform. It will require a little effort on your part to populate your feed with information you want to read and see.

Here are a couple of hints and tips:

Don't sign up alone. Get at least one or two friends that you talk with regularly to sign up with you.

Let others know where to find you! You may be surprised to find out that you already have friends who have signed up for accounts on compatible servers!

Use RSS Feeds. Get your FREE UPGRADE and then see our article about adding RSS Feeds. "Really Simple Sindication," (RSS) is a tool used by many news outlets and blogs to publish their info. With FreeToBe.Social, you don't need to wait until someone shares articles with you, you can tell our servers to go out and get them! Find the RSS web link for your favorite sources and add them to your FreeToBe.Social stream quickly and easily.

Ask people you know which alternative social media platforms they are on. If they "toot" on a Mastodon server, or if they upload to a Pixelfed server instead of Instagram, or if they publish on a PeerTube server rather than YouTube, ask them their address and set up a connection !

Ask in your existing social media groups on the "big players" if anyone is using Mastodon, Zap, Hubzilla, or any of the other projects that communicate on the Federation.

Visit other servers on the Federation and see if there are users that interest you and then connect with them.

Things seem slow? Check this out to speed things up!

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 19:26:00 -0500

FTBS: Community Support wrote the following post Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:20:05 -0400

QUICK TIP to speed up your newsfeed
You've got more friends, you're getting more items on your news feed, and the system now seems sluggish and slow.  We've been there.

Here's a tip our engineers use in their own newsfeed to keep things zippy:  Reduce the number of items loaded at a time.

Each item takes time to search and compile and display.  If a thread has a number of responses, it takes even longer.  If you have just a couple of long threads in your feed, it can seem like an agonizingly long time for your newsfeed to load.  Your newsfeed will also take longer if you have embeded content from remote sites since our servers will check for the availability of the embeded content and the best way to display it each time you attempt to load the item.  All this takes time - and in many cases we are simply waiting for 3rd parties to send the data back to us so we can send it to you.

You can speed up how long it takes to get your newsfeed loaded by simply lowering the number of items that we return to you on each request.  This is definitely a "less is more" setting.  The less time you spend waiting for items to load, the more time you spend reading!

Since your newsfeed will automatically ask for the next group of items when you get to the end of the current list, a small number helps keep things moving along so you aren't waiting.  A setting of 1 or 2 is a bit too low.  Most of our staff uses between 3 and 5.  4 is a pretty good number we've found.

Here's how to make the change:

Go to your DISPLAY SETTINGS

Click on your profile image on the top left of your screen. Click "Settings" then find "Display Settings" in the left menu and click on it.

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.09-09_57_04.png

Set "Maximum number of conversations to load" to a smaller number. (We recommend between 3 and 5)

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.09-09_58_33.png

Get your FREE Upgrade!

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 19:21:35 -0500

Add storage space - create a second or 3rd identity - access your file space (like dropbox/google drive) and more - including share to facbook and snooze posts!

Visit: https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog

I know someone on the Fediverse - How do I add their connection?

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 12:34:12 -0400

Quick and easy!

Click on the "Hamburger menu" at the top right of your screen.

Select "Connections"

Type their address in the "Add New Connection" box on the left

(NOTE: If you are on a cell-phone or other device with a small screen, you may need to click the "circle-arrow"

on the top of your screen to open up the side menu)

(NOTE 2: The procedure for RSS feeds is different - but we've got you covered with instructions here!)

Where Is Everybody?!?!

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:48:38 -0400

If you are used to the Big Tech players model of social media - you're used to logging in and quickly having your newsfeed populated with things THEY think you will like.

Things are different around here.

There are no algorithms studying you. There are no electronic sensors watching how long you hover on images, how quickly you scroll through your feed, what you click, like, or share.

This is a social communications platform. It will require a little effort on your part to populate your feed with information you want to read and see.

Here are a couple of hints and tips:

Don't sign up alone. Get at least one or two friends that you talk with regularly to sign up with you.

Let others know where to find you! You may be surprised to find out that you already have friends who have signed up for accounts on compatible servers!

Use RSS Feeds. Get your FREE UPGRADE and then see our article about adding RSS Feeds. "Really Simple Sindication," (RSS) is a tool used by many news outlets and blogs to publish their info. With FreeToBe.Social, you don't need to wait until someone shares articles with you, you can tell our servers to go out and get them! Find the RSS web link for your favorite sources and add them to your FreeToBe.Social stream quickly and easily.

Ask people you know which alternative social media platforms they are on. If they "toot" on a Mastodon server, or if they upload to a Pixelfed server instead of Instagram, or if they publish on a PeerTube server rather than YouTube, ask them their address and set up a connection !

Ask in your existing social media groups on the "big players" if anyone is using Mastodon, Zap, Hubzilla, or any of the other projects that communicate on the Federation.

Visit other servers on the Federation and see if there are users that interest you and then connect with them.

QUICK TIP to speed up your newsfeed

FTBS: Community Support

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:20:05 -0400

You've got more friends, you're getting more items on your news feed, and the system now seems sluggish and slow.  We've been there.

Here's a tip our engineers use in their own newsfeed to keep things zippy:  Reduce the number of items loaded at a time.

Each item takes time to search and compile and display.  If a thread has a number of responses, it takes even longer.  If you have just a couple of long threads in your feed, it can seem like an agonizingly long time for your newsfeed to load.  Your newsfeed will also take longer if you have embeded content from remote sites since our servers will check for the availability of the embeded content and the best way to display it each time you attempt to load the item.  All this takes time - and in many cases we are simply waiting for 3rd parties to send the data back to us so we can send it to you.

You can speed up how long it takes to get your newsfeed loaded by simply lowering the number of items that we return to you on each request.  This is definitely a "less is more" setting.  The less time you spend waiting for items to load, the more time you spend reading!

Since your newsfeed will automatically ask for the next group of items when you get to the end of the current list, a small number helps keep things moving along so you aren't waiting.  A setting of 1 or 2 is a bit too low.  Most of our staff uses between 3 and 5.  4 is a pretty good number we've found.

Here's how to make the change:

Go to your DISPLAY SETTINGS

Click on your profile image on the top left of your screen. Click "Settings" then find "Display Settings" in the left menu and click on it.

Set "Maximum number of conversations to load" to a smaller number. (We recommend between 3 and 5)

Quick Tutorial: FREEBASIC Users - Add RSS feeds

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 21:55:45 -0400

We have opened up the ability for our FREEBASIC users to import items from RSS feeds. This brief tutorial shows how to install the "app" and navigate to the settings screen:

STEP 1: Install the BetterRSS App

Click on the "Hamburger" menu in the upper right of your screen.
Click on "Add/Manage Apps"

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_00_36.png

Step 2 - Select "Available Apps" in the left sidebar.

NOTE: If you are using a small screen, it may be necessary to click on the circle-arrow in your toolbar to view the left sidebar.

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_04_59.png

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_06_20.png

STEP 3 - Install App

Find the "BetterRSS" App
Click on "Install"

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_08_31.png

CONGRATS! The "BetterRSS" application is now installed and ready for you to start pulling in RSS feeds!

You can visit the "Add/Manage Apps" page and click on the "Better RSS" Link to visit the settings page. Or, follow these instructions to add it to your FEATURED apps in the Hamburger Menu - or PIN it to your toolbar.

STEP 1 - Navigate to "Add/Manage Apps" using the Hamburger Menu

STEP 2 - Select "Feature" (click the "star") and/or "Pin" (click the "pin").

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_11_26.png

STEP 3 - Enjoy your quick access from the tool bar or any of the "Featured App" menus!

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-20_16_47.png

From there, adding new RSS feeds is as easy as "1-2-3"

screenshot-freetobe.social-2020.10.05-21_50_47.png

A FEW NOTES

To prevent overloading our servers (parsing RSS is processing intensive), the FREEBASIC account has a number of limitations regarding polling external servers. But, it shouldn't hamper your ability to enjoy RSS feeds if you are accessing popular feeds that others of our users enjoy. If you anticipate being a power RSS user, you may wish to consider pestering us to put the finishing touches on our paid account offerings.

FREEBASIC accounts will check to see if new content has been downloaded from a remote RSS server at most every 60 minutes.If someone else has recently polled that remote host, your content will be imported from the cache instead of polling the remote feed.
FREEBASIC accounts can poll a remote feed at most once every 120 minutes.
FREEBASIC accounts can have up to 10 RSS feeds.
Up to 2 feeds are imported/polled per page load. If you have several feeds, they will be imported/polled over time as you use the website.

Take MORE Control of your stream!

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 14:29:53 -0400

FreeToBe.Social puts you in control of your network stream.

There are no algorithms that hack your brain and try to get you to stay on the platform more.  We simply want to be a tool to help you interact and make real connections with real people in the way you desire.

We don't censor what appears on your feed.  We don't pre-select the items you should see or manipulate when you will see them.  Those are choices you should make.

We are proud to announce our new SNOOZE and HIDE features to give you MORE control!

Our engineers grew frustrated with needing to constantly scroll to find the next item of interest.  Scrolling, Scrolling, Scrolling past item after item that they either weren't interested in at all -- or, that wasn't relevant now, but may become relevant later.  So they set to work doing what they do - making our platform better!

Beginning October 1 (or maybe sooner!), users of our FreeBasic account (You did get your FREE UPGRADE!  Right?!) will be able to SNOOZE items for 1 hour that they don't want to interact with right now.

Snoozed items will still be visible if you view the recent activities of the person you are connected to.  They will also show up if you use SEARCH.  Snoozed items are only hidden from your regular network stream so that you don't need to constantly scroll past them when if they are not relevant.

When we launch our paid services, other SNOOZE options will be available (snooze until the next comment arrives, snooze 4 hours, 8 hours, or 1 day!).  Users will even be able to HIDE individual items permanently from their main network stream.

Hide and Snooze are in addition to the "Friend Zoom" feature that allows you to see items from all your connections, or only items from those connections that are "close" to you (configurable on a PER CONNECTION basis).

Now our users have even MORE control over what appears on their network stream and when it appears!

We are also putting the finishing touches on our RSS feature that will allow users to subscribe to their favorite news outlets, podcasts, vlogs, youtube channels, etc. by using FreeToBe.Social as their RSS feed aggregator.

RSS Feeds also will have a "closeness" setting just like every other connection does so that it integrates with the Friend Zoom feature so many of our users already love.  Items that are imported using RSS also can be SNOOZED and HIDDEN!

show all 4 comments

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:01:10 -0400

We're working out the specifics, but there will be some level of RSS support in the free package. The main difference between packages will be the frequency that a user can grab a new feed and have new items show up from feeds. There may also be a limit on how many feeds a given user can have based on level.

Wed, 30 Sep 2020 16:02:19 -0400

Thanks for your reply.

FTBS: Community Support

Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:38:12 -0400

Our apologies - rollout of the SNOOZE/HIDE feature was delayed a couple of days due to unexpected events related to a planned server move at one of our upstream providers. Things never go exactly as expected, but everyone involved was able to work to fix things quickly.

As of the datestamp on this message, users of our FREEBASIC accounts should be able to hide items from their feed and "snooze" items for an hour using the buttons in the upper right of the topmost item in a thread.

Also, the final tests are being run on the RSS feed aggregation tool. We are hopeful that we can release it the early part of this coming week.

Just a reminder - FREE UPGRADE

FTBS: Community Support

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 22:19:29 -0400

Upgrade your storage - and increase the number of identities you can have (also called "channels") and get some added functionality as well!

You can upgrade your account for free by visiting: https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog

Free Upgrade

FTBS: Community Support

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:05:19 -0400

For those who have recently joined, FreeToBe.Social offers a FREE UPGRADE.

You can upgrade your account for free by visiting: https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog

FREE UPGRADE!

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 20:13:10 -0500

WELCOME to all the new users who have joined in the last month or two. In case you weren't aware, FreeToBe.Social has a FREE UPGRADE available.

Our basic trial account is simply intended to be a "foot in the door" so you can establish your presence on the ZOT network and begin looking around.

If you like what you see and think you may make this home, you will definitely want to upgrade to our BASIC-FREE account. It gives you the ability to create multiple "identities" (separate channels) and also adds a number of added features, allows you to initiate connections to more other users and gives you more upload space among other things.

Visit our catalog at https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog and get your FREE upgrade today!

Tofeo ⚡

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 06:11:35 -0500

Hello community support, I just notice that I don't receive my message from my zap account in my mastodon account. But I receive many mastodon messages.

show all 5 comments

lotfi

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 13:12:15 -0500 last edited: Sat, 30 Nov 2019 13:14:58 -0500

@tofeo ⚡ @FTBS:Community Support
If it can help to solve the problem, I noticed that messages sent through "Access list" reach Mastodon contacts successfully. The problem is with messages posted in "Public".

FTBS: Community Support

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 14:11:24 -0500

@tofeo ⚡ @FTBS:Community Support @lotfi Now THAT is interesting - thanks for the input! (And THAT is why the channel is called, "Community Support"!)

FTBS: Community Support

Sat, 30 Nov 2019 20:54:31 -0500

Just a quick update: Unfortunately, nobody around here speaks Ruby, but we did find this that was very recently closed by the Mastodon team with a fix to the Mastodon code:

https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/11137

Unfortunately, I have no idea when that fix will roll out to various Mastodon instances - or whether or not it will actually fix the problem for certain.

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 21:57:16 -0500

Free Upgrade!

We've had a number of people sign-up recently so it seemed like a good time to remind everyone of the FREE UPGRADE available.

Our basic trial account is simply intended to be a "foot in the door" so you can establish your presence on the ZOT network and begin looking around.

If you like what you see and think you may make this home, you will definitely want to upgrade to our BASIC-FREE account. It gives you the ability to create multiple "identities" (separate channels) and also adds a number of features like the ability to share PUBLIC posts to Facebook easily.

Visit our catalog at https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog and get your FREE upgrade today!

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 23:16:16 -0500

FTBS:Community Support updated their cover photo

Another periodic reminder - FREE UPGRADE!

FTBS: Community Support

Sat, 09 Nov 2019 15:18:30 -0500

Did you have trouble upgrading?

FTBS: Community Support

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 14:46:52 -0400

We had a few accounts whose free upgrades didn't process for some reason. We have manually processed the upgrade and are investigating the cause.

We apologize for the trouble. If you ordered your free upgrade and it didn't process, you should now be all set.

We will be monitoring for future errors as well.

Thanks for choosing FreeToBe!

FREE UPGRADE

FTBS: Community Support

Sat, 05 Oct 2019 10:27:04 -0400

Concerned Citizens Cooperative

Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:46:05 -0400

FREE UPGRADE

FTBS: Community Support

Thu, 18 Jul 2019 17:47:46 -0400

Our basic trial account is simply intended to be a "foot in the door" so you can establish your presence on the ZOT network and begin looking around.

If you like what you see and think you may make this home, you will definitely want to upgrade to our BASIC-FREE account. It gives you the ability to create multiple "identities" (separate channels) and also adds a number of features like the ability to share PUBLIC posts to Facebook easily.

More info will be coming out, but we wanted to make it possible for you to grab your free stuff ASAP...

Visit our catalog at https://freetobe.social/cart/admin/catalog and get your FREE upgrade today!

FTBS: Community Support

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:47:51 -0400

Just a bump to remind you to get your FREE upgrade! Visit our catalog, then add the upgrade to your cart anc "check out" (since it's free, we don't need any payment information).

FTBS: Community Support

Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:06:21 -0400

Community Support updated their profile photo