# Get started with Keyboard Vagabond

New to the fediverse? This guide walks you through signing up on Keyboard Vagabond and customizing your feed. Accounts require manual approval to prevent spam—allow a little time after you sign up. For background on how the community works, see our about page.

## Basic steps for getting started

1. Complete the sign up form on Piefed, Pixelfed, Mastodon, Bookwyrm, or Write Freely and give a good answer to the question so that we know you're a human.
2. Wait for approval, but browse and explore communities and hashtags
3. Follow the guide below and subscribe to communities, feeds, topics, and hashtags. On Piefed, check the box to limit or hide political posts if you want. Look under settings to customize your view, or block what you don't want to see.
4. On Piefed, check out the scaled and active sortings. They help bring smaller communities into view that may not have a lot of votes or comments.

## Navigating Communities and Following Hashtags

### Piefed

Browse the home page to see all known posts, or click the Local button to see posts made on this server.

Expand the explore menu to see collections of communities.

### Mastodon

After creating your account, head over to fedidevs.com/starter-packs and search for accounts that fit your interests.

You can also visit the Explore page to see trending hashtags to follow. Try searching for hashtags like #travel, #travelphotography, or #EscapeFlights.

## Expanding what you see

Keyboard Vagabond is a smaller server, and the fediverse works by sharing what each instance follows. Larger instances may have more content visible by default, but that does not mean they are better. You can explore other servers, create accounts elsewhere, or subscribe to users and communities so their posts show up here.

### Other fediverse servers

- Piefed Instance Chooser — find other Piefed servers. Piefed.social is the flagship instance.
- Join Lemmy — the original Reddit alternative; Lemmy.zip as a popular choice.
- Join Mastodon — Twitter alternative; Mastodon.social is the flagship instance.
- Join Pixelfed — photo sharing / Instagram alternative; Pixelfed.social is the flagship instance.

## Codes of Conduct

While corporate media is primarily interested in the Terms of Service, the fediverse cares about the Code of Conduct, the agreement for how we treat each other and what behavior is and is not tolerated. Each instance should have one and Keyboard Vagabond does. These agreements help us create welcoming spaces that are free of harassment and bigotry.