Hello, everyone! As we know what Zuck's original project 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 - click through the table of contents below to get where you want, or keep scrolling.
Embedded Files
List of guides/presentations/quick start
List of guides/presentations/quick start
@anubis2814@friendica.myportal.social's excelent guides for Friendica. Available as a playlist on YouTube or on Peertube:
The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 3: Friendica) by @_elena@mastodon.social
The Beginner’s guide to Friendica by @tio@social.trom.tf (update 24.12.2025: the way of turning Facebook pages into RSS feeds seems broken. As an alternative, I'm currently following the Instagram accounts of the same publishers using the same method via RSS and/or via the kilogram.makeup website - but of course, not every Facebook user has an Instagram account. If you are aware of any other free (preferably as in beer) service to turn an unlimited number of Facebook pages into RSS feeds, let me know)
When to use Friendica over Mastodon (updated) by @ericbuijs1@squeet.me
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
Short Q&A with the most common problems
How do I post stuff?
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?
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, if you've never been on any forum so far, 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)
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
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
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 [attachment][/attachment] 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
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?
Okay, but do I need to add a title?
This should have been the first question to respond to, but no, you don't. 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
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 (just using 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
How to find various people
There are multiple ways; One is to use any of the established lists:
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@social.growyourown.services for suggestions
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?
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, depending on the public keywords that you set under Settings>Profile>Miscellaneous.
If, however, you would like a bit more privacy, you can check the 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 this profile in a new tab to see how this feature works: https://libranet.de/profile/petrescatraian.
How do I find groups?
How do I find groups?
Same as with regular people. There are multiple lists:
Check the list of @FediTips@social.growyourown.services 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?
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?
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
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):
[color=Antiquewhite]Antiquewhite[/color]
[color=Aqua]Aqua[/color]
[color=Aquamarine]Aquamarine[/color]
[color=Azure]Azure[/color]
[color=Beige]Beige[/color]
[color=Bisque]Bisque[/color]
[color=Blanchedalmond]Blanchedalmond[/color]
[color=Blue]Blue[/color]
[color=Blueviolet]Blueviolet[/color]
[color=Brown]Brown[/color]
[color=Burlywood]Burlywood[/color]
[color=Cadetblue]Cadetblue[/color]
[color=Chartreuse]Chartreuse[/color]
[color=Chocolate]Chocolate[/color]
[color=Coral]Coral[/color]
[color=Cornflowerblue]Cornflowerblue[/color]
[color=Cornsilk]Cornsilk[/color]
[color=Crimson]Crimson[/color]
[color=Cyan]Cyan[/color]
[color=Darkblue]Darkblue[/color]
[color=Darkcyan]Darkcyan[/color]
[color=Darkgoldenrod]Darkgoldenrod[/color]
[color=Darkgray]Darkgray[/color]
[color=Darkgreen]Darkgreen[/color]
[color=Darkkhaki]Darkkhaki[/color]
[color=Darkmagenta]Darkmagenta[/color]
[color=Darkolivegreen]Darkolivegreen[/color]
[color=Darkorange]Darkorange[/color]
[color=Darkorchid]Darkorchid[/color]
[color=Darkred]Darkred[/color]
[color=Darksalmon]Darksalmon[/color]
[color=Darkseagreen]Darkseagreen[/color]
[color=Darkslateblue]Darkslateblue[/color]
[color=Darkslategray]Darkslategray[/color]
[color=Darkturquoise]Darkturquoise[/color]
[color=Darkviolet]Darkviolet[/color]
[color=Deeppink]Deeppink[/color]
[color=Deepskyblue]Deepskyblue[/color]
[color=Dimgray]Dimgray[/color]
[color=Dodgerblue]Dodgerblue[/color]
[color=Firebrick]Firebrick[/color]
[color=Floralwhite]Floralwhite[/color]
[color=Forestgreen]Forestgreen[/color]
[color=Fuchsia]Fuchsia[/color]
[color=Gainsboro]Gainsboro[/color]
[color=Ghostwhite]Ghostwhite[/color]
[color=Gold]Gold[/color]
[color=Goldenrod]Goldenrod[/color]
[color=Gray]Gray[/color]
[color=Green]Green[/color]
[color=Greenyellow]Greenyellow[/color]
[color=Honeydew]Honeydew[/color]
[color=Hotpink]Hotpink[/color]
[color=Indianred]Indianred[/color]
[color=Indigo]Indigo[/color]
[color=Ivory]Ivory[/color]
[color=Khaki]Khaki[/color]
[color=Lavender]Lavender[/color]
[color=Lavenderblush]Lavenderblush[/color]
[color=Lawngreen]Lawngreen[/color]
[color=Lemonchiffon]Lemonchiffon[/color]
[color=Lightblue]Lightblue[/color]
[color=Lightcoral]Lightcoral[/color]
[color=Lightcyan]Lightcyan[/color]
[color=Lightgoldenrodyellow]Lightgoldenrodyellow[/color]
[color=Lightgreen]Lightgreen[/color]
[color=Lightgrey]Lightgrey[/color]
[color=Lightpink]Lightpink[/color]
[color=Lightsalmon]Lightsalmon[/color]
[color=Lightseagreen]Lightseagreen[/color]
[color=Lightskyblue]Lightskyblue[/color]
[color=Lightslategray]Lightslategray[/color]
[color=Lightsteelblue]Lightsteelblue[/color]
[color=Linen]Linen[/color]
[color=Magenta]Magenta[/color]
[color=]Maroon[/color]
[color=Mediumaquamarine]Mediumaquamarine[/color]
[color=Mediumblue]Mediumblue[/color]
[color= Mediumorchid]Mediumorchid[/color]
[color=Mediumpurple]Mediumpurple[/color]
[color=Mediumseagreen]Mediumseagreen[/color]
[color=Mediumslateblue]Mediumslateblue[/color]
[color=Mediumspringgreen]Mediumspringgreen[/color]
[color=Mediumturquoise]Mediumturquoise[/color]
[color=Mediumvioletred]Mediumvioletred[/color]
[color=Midnightblue]Midnightblue[/color]
[color=Mintcream]Mintcream[/color]
[color=Mistyrose]Mistyrose[/color]
[color=Moccasin]Moccasin[/color]
[color=Navajowhite]Navajowhite[/color]
[color=Navy]Navy[/color]
[color=Oldlace]Oldlace[/color]
[color=Olive]Olive[/color]
[color=Olivedrab]Olivedrab[/color]
[color=Orange]Orange[/color]
[color=Orangered]Orangered[/color]
[color=Orchid]Orchid[/color]
[color=Palegoldenrod]Palegoldenrod[/color]
[color=Palegreen]Palegreen[/color]
[color=Paleturquoise]Paleturquoise[/color]
[color=Palevioletred]Palevioletred[/color]
[color=Papayawhip]Papayawhip[/color]
[color=Peachpuff]Peachpuff[/color]
[color=Peru]Peru[/color]
[color=Pink]Pink[/color]
[color=Plum]Plum[/color]
[color=Powderblue]Powderblue[/color]
[color=Purple]Purple[/color]
[color=Red]Red[/color]
[color=Rosybrown]Rosybrown[/color]
[color=Royalblue]Royalblue[/color]
[color=Saddlebrown]Saddlebrown[/color]
[color=Salmon]Salmon[/color]
[color=Sandybrown]Sandybrown[/color]
[color=Seagreen]Seagreen[/color]
[color=Seashell]Seashell[/color]
[color=Sienna]Sienna[/color]
[color=Silver]Silver[/color]
[color=Skyblue]Skyblue[/color]
[color=Slateblue]Slateblue[/color]
[color=Slategray]Slategray[/color]
[color=Snow]Snow[/color]
[color=Springgreen]Springgreen[/color]
[color=Steelblue]Steelblue[/color]
[color=Tan]Tan[/color]
[color=Teal]Teal[/color]
[color=Thistle]Thistle[/color]
[color=Tomato]Tomato[/color]
[color=Turquoise]Turquoise[/color]
[color=Violet]Violet[/color]
[color=Wheat]Wheat[/color]
[color=White]White[/color]
[color=Whitesmoke]Whitesmoke[/color]
[color=Yellow]Yellow[/color]
[color=Yellowgreen]Yellowgreen[/color]
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