per @per@computerfairi.es

Interestingly, you can post Followers-only posts on a public account (which means they're viewable only by followers, but anyone can follow you to see them)

You can also post Public/Unlisted posts on a locked account. which means you can separate between public-facing posts and private posts on the same account

Locked account with "Followers-only" post setting is the closest to a locked Twitter account

Unlocked account with "Unlisted" post setting seems to be the closest to a normal public Twitter account (with the exception that you won't show up in searches here if you're set to unlisted)

locked accounts seem a little quirky over here. your posts can still be public if you're not paying attention - you need to make sure you have "followers only" selected if you want them to be followers only

i think "unlisted" is probably the post setting most of us want to use for most of our posts, it prevents posts from showing up on either public timeline

(or "followers only" if you're a locked account and want your post accessible only to followers.)

https://gist.github.com/joyeusenoelle/74f6e6c0f349651349a0df9ae4582969#what-is-mastodon this is a handy intro to masto, sort of in the form of an FAQ