@mirabilos @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart @Sevapopov I guess this is why choice of instance matters. Problem is: intersectional interests. I'm on a Canadian instance. It's great for news - terrible for my profession, which is more global than local. But hunting for the right server for people with my professional interest feels daunting.

@farbel @ketmorco @deborahh @Sevapopov @meganmariehart somewhat. As I said, I run my solo instance and am doing just fine, connecting a lot with people from polymaths.social but also other instances, and my interests would be split across at least three major ones…

@mirabilos CAT!!

@mirabilos @meganmariehart @ketmorco @Sevapopov I don't rely on them, but I think they make my experience richer. To each their own.

@Sevapopov @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart only if the bot (or someone on its instance) follows you, otherwise it cannot even know of the existence of the post. (See other reply, I need to zzz again, too much allergy for longer discussion)

@mirabilos @ketmorco @farbel @meganmariehart Thank you for your explanations! It was interesting to know how things work for English Mastodon. In case of russian instance where I am, there are 2 bots who repost what is posted in russian or with cyrilic letters usage. So what I found for myself is following people that this bot boosts and and following people who are boosted by my followings. That is how I find English users, I follow what people boost. Maybe there are also other ways to explore new accounts, I saw there were tabs to look server's posts in mobile apps. Not sure how about FastSM.

@iron_bug To be fair, the #opera tag is more useful here than on other socials. It is a bit quiet, though …

@meganmariehart cat‍

@mirabilos ️ Malik, I presume?

BOOST OR QUOTE THIS!

Trying to find out how many people see a post without hashtags. Thank you!

(edit: Why, you ask? Long thread coming up … 1/7)

@wndxlori That makes sense in most of the world. However, this might limit the reach, particularly for opera in Europe, where there are so many opera houses! Opera fans travel a lot!

@meganmariehart @futurebird from the paws you can see that this is indeed Malik‍ ☻

He is also a bit gentler. Čara‍ recently laid across TWO laptops without a care for what she disturbs, she just does her thing. He actually wants to just be close-by. (In my experience, larger cats do tend to be more gentle, like, asking before they jump up on the lap, not just climbing across a person with claws and just assuming the person will hold still.)

@iron_bug We never stop learning! Just today I had a coaching with a bass, he is helping me to shape my low notes. I want more colors to chose from, there’s some low stuff coming my way.

As for #/opera, that could be worse, I tried a google search for Aida … the first 2 pages are all about a cruise ship! I’m in Germany, you might get different results, idk. Where are you based, if you don’t mind telling? Maybe we have common friends, the opera world is small!

@meganmariehart hmm, your own instance’s webinterface just shows 1K boosts at this point (and other instances don’t have the full number, mine shows 14 boosts for example).

But it can be asked for the full number from the command line:

curl -s -H 'Accept: application/json' https://mastodon.social/@meganmariehart/116044953904582813 | jq

(If you don’t have jq installed, just leave the | jq part out, it’s merely to pretty-print the result.)

[…]
  "shares": {
    "id": "https://mastodon.social/users/meganmariehart/statuses/116044953904582813/shares",
    "type": "Collection",
    "totalItems": 1010
  }
[…]

So, 1010 boosts currently. (Without jq it’s a bit trickier to find in the wall-of-text that is the result, but Ctrl-F “shares” might help. curl is even preinstalled on Mac OSX and Windows these days.)

@iron_bug We never stop learning! Just today I had a coaching with a bass, he is helping me to shape my low notes. I want more colors to chose from, there’s some low stuff coming my way.

As for #/opera, that could be worse, I tried a google search for Aida … the first 2 pages are all about a cruise ship! I’m in Germany, you might get different results, idk. Where are you based, if you don’t mind telling? Maybe we have common friends, the opera world is small!

@meganmariehart they do? Interesting!

I must admit I have never been to an opera. Until $smallnum years ago, the entrance would have been prohibitive. I wonder with how much “not dressing up” I can get by in the audience… I already find it major uncomfortable to wear a shirt (black, atop black normal trousers) for our choir concerts… I do actually have an opera house in the city! Might need to look into it.

I’ve listened to quite some in radio streams (I usually have some kind of classical internet radio on in the background), though I have to admit I was never all too fond of… the opera squeking, or so. (I recently found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZT61AsjqwA which places Bel Canto against contemporary Opera style-and-technique, and that is much more to my taste.) But I think I’ll want to try it at least once, to be able to listen (and feel!) it in real life (a recording is merely a bad substitute, this is something I know very well even as a mere amateur choir singer), plus for the theatralic parts. I probably really have to research that (and figure out clothes, I absolutely refuse to wear a tie, for example).

So I thank you for your continued presence here, always reminding me of something I could do some day.

(tbh I have a hard time going to concerts as visitor because I always want to sing/hum/… with… and ideally learn from the pros, though the King’s Singers said they’ll have a Summer School in the UK next year, so I plan for that)

@mirabilos So cute! Our Suma kitty is very gentle and never even steps on people if she can help it. Swears like a sailor though. I’ll have to record it sometime.

@mirabilos
Please go to the opera! As for attire, wear whatever you like! Seriously, jeans and a t-shirt are perfectly fine. If you’re unsure, wear something that makes you feel festive but comfortable. (Depending on the work, you may be sitting for over 3 hours.) There seem to be far fewer ties these days, basically since trump made them look ridiculous. Depending on where you are seated, some houses can be chilly in winter, so maybe wear a jumper, cardigan or suit jacket you can take off.

@mirabilos
Please go to the opera! As for attire, wear whatever you like! Seriously, jeans and a t-shirt are perfectly fine. If you’re unsure, wear something that makes you feel festive but comfortable. (Depending on the work, you may be sitting for over 3 hours.) There seem to be far fewer ties these days, basically since trump made them look ridiculous. Depending on where you are seated, some houses can be chilly in winter, so maybe wear a jumper, cardigan or suit jacket you can take off.