mess hall is a microblogging service. Users post short (256 character) notices which are broadcast to their friends and fans using the Web, RSS, or instant messages.
If you'd like to try it out, first register a new account. Then, on the public timeline, enter your message into the textbox at the top of the page, and click "Send". It will go out on the public timeline and to anyone who is subscribed to your notices (probably nobody, at first).
To subscribe to other people's notifications, go to their profile page and click the "subscribe" button. They'll get a notice that you're now subscribed to their notifications, and, who knows?, they might subscribe back.
More help
Here are some documents that you might find helpful in understanding mess hall and how to use it.
- About - an overview of the service
- FAQ - frequently-asked questions about mess hall
- Contact - who to contact with questions about the service
- IM - using the instant-message (IM) features of mess hall
- SMS - tying your cellphone to mess hall
- tags - different ways to use tagging
- Groups - joining together in groups
- OpenMicroBlogging - subscribing to remote users
- Privacy - mess hall's privacy policy
- Source - How to get the StatusNet source code
- Badge - How to put a StatusNet badge on your blog or homepage
- Bookmarklet - Bookmarklet for posting Web pages
- OpenID - what OpenID is and how to use it with this service