Moving From Twitter to Mastodon

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 08, 2022

• Mastodon: What is it, how to use it and more details about Twitter’s alternative

  The app has user managed servers. They are themed on country, city or interest – gaming, social and more. Each server on Mastodon has a description about the particular community. Mastodon will also show you the number of people who have joined a particular server. Users can migrate to other servers by making changes in the setting section.

• What is Mastodon, the social network users are leaving Twitter for? Everything you need to know

  You can even start your own server if you want to set the rules yourself. Otherwise, there’s a list of servers which focus on specific locations or topics of interest. The servers on that list have all signed up to the “Mastodon covenant” which promises “active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia”.

  Whichever Mastodon server(s) you sign up for, however, you can follow users on a different one with no problem.

  Oh, and as this is a volunteer-run system, there are no paid-for ads in your feed.

• Mastodon struggles to keep up with flood of Twitter defectors

  “I don’t think Mastodon or the fediverse has ever received this much attention before,” Rochko wrote on his account two days ago. “It’s a great opportunity for people to finally see that social media can be done differently, that it can be a protocol not under control of any single company.”

  Searches for Mastodon spiked on Google following the Twitter acquisition, especially in Europe where the social network is based. All of the new interest has caused strain on the platform, with Rochko saying he was overstretched. “While it’s nice to see your work finally taken seriously in the mainstream, the 12-14 hour workdays I’ve had to pull to handle everything is anything but,” Rochko posted on October 31.

• How to get started with Mastodon, the open source social networking site

  Mastodon gives you more control over what you want to see. It doesn’t leave the decisions to a company, algorithm, or billionaire.

• What is Mastodon, and why is it surging amid all the chaos at Twitter?

  But while Twitter and Facebook are controlled by one authority — a company — Mastodon is installed on thousands of computer servers, largely run by volunteer administrators who join their systems together in a federation.

  People swap posts and links with others on their own server — or Mastodon "instance" — and also, almost as easily, with users on other servers across the growing network.