The Not So End Times (of warhammer.social)

A while back I scribbled up a a piece of the The End Times (of Hobby Twitter) which was really more about finding Mastodon than anything else. In the fullness of time - people have realised maybe they shouldn't have lingering on a site owned by a man whom one might find deeply and inherently unpleasant, even if it was easier for you to get those sweet, sweet "likes". 

Now, I appreciate that this round of 'mass' exodus has headed to BSky, a venture capital backed alternative (Brilliant mutli-toot on that here) and not mastodon - so fucking big LOL for any of us learning anything. All cards on the table, I have a BSky account, and have done so since August of last year. I've used it for the grand sum total of asking hobby folks to bridge to the Fediverse, so that we can see what decentralised social media could look like. That's a whole other post. The point is, I just am not interested - I've very much found a nice corner of the internet - and I'm not for leaving it. 

Which leads me to the core of this post - with the mass migration of hobby people from Twitter to Bsky, it looks like warhammer.social will run it's course. First, a massive thank you to Ian who has funded this instance himself from some point in Nov '22. While I know more about systems and the like than I am comfortable with knowing - I'm miles off being comfortable being anything more than a Moderator on one of these yokes! Which is a quick way of saying - I am not comfortable taking that on right now. It's been a mostly a treat looking after folks on warhammer.social - and I hope I'd done okay by you all. 

So, what should we do? Head to BSky? My, and I cannot stress the metaphorical nature of this enough, hairy hole. (P.S. if you are going there - I'd recommend bridging across, I'll miss you on Mastodon, but I'd rather show a glimmer of practicality here and keep you in my circles - you all are rather nice!). Well, what then? 

We migrate. Like a big hairy herd of dead not-elephants. 

Mastodon has been set up in such a way that the risk factor of it's small scale instances going pop has been somewhat catered for. You can migrate your followers, follows, lists, bookmarks, blocks (individuals & instances), and mutes across to another server. 

In a nutshell, you sign up to another server (more on those in a moment), as you did when you joined warhammer.social. Then you need to do some steps on both your old account and your new account that will transfer all your followers across. The other stuff is really much simpler - it's just a case of taking a CSV download from the old account, and uploading them to the new account. 

I recommend reading this excellent guide here from fedi.tips. It's clear and concise, and makes everything feel much less daunting. 

So, where are we all going to? I'm running a short Mastodon Poll here so folks can kind of get a feel for where people are going to end up! 

From my interactions with people on other Mastodon instances and some research I'm going to compile a short list here, additionally - please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments and I'll update the post. 

dice.camp 

This is probably one of the bigger relevant-adjacent instances, it looks extremely well moderated, and you'll have seen some of the regular interactors of the Hobbyodon community with handles from here. It's primary focus is TTRPG, but it does look very friendly to the antics of lots of us miniature painters and hobbyist.

"We're a Mastodon server for RPG folks to hang out and talk. Not owned by a billionaire.

We don't want your attention or your clicks. We're not the One TTRPG Network To Rule Them All. Just a place for people who enjoy tabletop RPGs to talk about stuff, not at all limited to games."

tabletop.social

I have yet to meet a bad egg operating out of here and if proactive moderation is a concern for you - this is a great space to be. 

"We are an inclusive Mastodon community for everything tabletop (& more). We welcome everyone that wants to be part of the community, boardgamers, RPG players, casual gamers, party gamers, hobbyists, LARPers, game designers and publishers, RPG characters, artists, writers, vlogers, podcasters, reviewers, streamers, lego builders and more."

gamepad.club

Maybe initially targeted for digital gaming - but very friendly towards Miniature hobbyists, this is another small scale instance. It's like the other two in so far as it's well maintained, and it's very well moderated. The Admins are also especially lovely and there's at least one miniature hobbyists amongst them too!

"Whether it's those intense couch battles playing Mario Kart, chilled sessions with Stardew Valley or franticly building barricades in Fortnite, Gamepad.Club is for you. However you play, this place is a home for everything gaming. Join us and chat about the latest releases, what you’re currently playing, and what upcoming launches you’re hyped for!

Don't worry about staying on topic though. Create an account, share your interests in an introductory post, and enjoy being part of a growing community on a network of connected Mastodon instances around the globe!"

There's also other excellent Fedi resources to help you widen your search from my suggestions above. Check out https://fedi.garden/ and https://joinmastodon.org/servers

What Next? If you've got this far - and I'm shocked you have, you may want to go and get a copy of all your media etc you'll find that at https://warhammer.social/settings/export, and if there's anything you need to ask - toot me! I'll update this to say where I have gone once I make the decision. 

Anyway - it's been really rather lovely being part of warhammer.social and I am genuinely quite sad to be moving on to other pastures. I hope that we stay in touch there, you've all been great.