Take a seat at the Bonfire and get started on freeing yourself from Techno Feudalism. AKA how to set up your account in a private community that isn't enshittified with corporate grift.
Let's Go
This article is heavily paraphrased / aka stolen from Bonfire's documentation. I think they are cool with it.
And it saves you digging through the docs which most people don't explore anyway. And it's also fairly intuitive so let's K.I.S.S.
Let's go.
This article will show how to you create your account, set up your profiles, and get comfortable with the basics of following other users.
This assumes you have chosen the community instance you want to join or have been invited to join one. See It's Time to Savor the Flavours of Bonfire for more information.
Login via Bonfire (image above) or an instance generated invitation (image below).
Signing Up
Visit the Bonfire instance you want to join (e.g. https://yourinstance.tld). Or use the link in your invitation.
Click Sign Up and fill in your desired username, email, and password.
Check your email for a confirmation link.
Confirm yo self by clicking the link in the email.
Creating and Managing Profiles
After signing up, you can create multiple profiles under your account. This is unique to Bonfire. For example:
A personal profile for friends and family
A work profile for professional contacts
A project or community profile (which you can share with collaborators
Note that Manade will only allow community-based profiles. Regular Bonfire allows federation with the world.
To create or manage profiles:
Go to your account settings and select Profiles.
Click Create Profile to add a new one.
Set a username, display name, and bio
Choose privacy settings for each profile:
People need to make a request before they can follow me: When enabled, others must send a follow request that you approve before they can follow this profile.
Make my profile publicly discoverable: When enabled, your profile can be found in Bonfire directories, the fediverse, and search engines.
Make my content searchable: When enabled, your posts and content can be indexed and found via search in Bonfire, the fediverse, and search engines.
Switch between profiles as needed when posting or interacting.
Note: By default, your different profiles are not publicly linked. Each one appears as a separate identity. Again, this is unique to Bonfire.
And once again, Manade communities are not federated by default. Your admin will have to enable federation if the community agrees to it.
Completing Your Profile
Add a display name and avatar (to each profile) to help others recognize you.
Write a short bio (for each profile) to introduce yourself.
Choose the right settings for each profile.
Finding People & Following Them
Bonfire makes it easy to connect with others across your instance and the wider Fediverse.
How to Find People
Search: Use the search bar to find people by username, display name, or full Fediverse address (e.g. @alex@bonfire.community.social).
Shared Circles: Discover people through shared circles and groups.
User Directory: Most Bonfire instances have a user directory you can browse. Look for the "Users" link in the sidebar or navigation menu.
Instance Directory: Some open instances list other known federated communities. Find the "Instances" link in the sidebar for discovery.
For more on Boundaries, Circles, Groups, Feeds, etc. see Bonfire, a Social Platform Apart.
Following Profiles
Click the Follow button on any profile to receive their public posts and updates in your feed.
If the profile requires approval, your follow request will be sent for review.
You can follow profiles from your own instance. You can also follow groups and circles.
If you find a profile on another Fediverse instance, you can follow them by copying their full address and searching for it on your own instance. Again this will work if your admin enables it.
Managing Your Connections
View and manage your followed profiles in your account’s "Following" section.
Organize connections using circles and use custom feeds to filter their posts and activities.
Tips
You can follow multiple profiles from the same person (if they use Bonfire’s multi-profile feature).
Use circles to group people by interest, relationship, or context.
Explore directories and circles to find new people and communities.
You can also follow any default feeds of your instance.
That's it
Hopefully, this short (for us) article gives you what you need to get started in your Bonfire / Manade community. Throw off the chains of techno feudalism with this democratic techno anarchism-friendly tech.
For more information on using Bonfire, visit the docs.
Thanks for reading and build something for a / your community! Hopefully an Bonfire / Manade instance.