As Twitter users fret over the direction<\/a> that new owner Elon Musk is taking the company, masses of users have hopped over to Mastodon<\/a>, an open-source Twitter alternative. Since October 27, when the SpaceX and Tesla CEO formalized<\/a> his Twitter takeover, Mastodon has gained nearly 500,000 new users<\/a>, effectively doubling its user base. But what is Mastodon anyway, and should we all be getting our accounts set up?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Twitter purist who likes to use basic functionality like private DMing, quote-tweeting and user-friendly onboarding, Mastodon might not be for you. But if you\u2019re looking to try something new on the social internet, then why not give Mastodon a whirl? Elon Musk isn\u2019t there<\/a>!<\/p>\n Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a non-profit, meaning that, ideally, its goal is to benefit the public, rather than shareholders.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike the past 5 years that I\u2019ve been running Mastodon operations as a sole proprietor, where Mastodon\u2019s income was my personal income (minus all the expenses), I am now an employee with a fixed wage,\u201d Rochko wrote in a blog post<\/a> last year. \u201cMy personal income will thus be lower but I was willing to go this route because I want Mastodon to have more resources for things like hiring extra developers, UX designers, developing official apps and so on, and I want there to be a clear boundary between fundraising for that cause and my personal income.\u201d<\/p>\n Mastodon might look like a Twitter clone at first glance, but the underlying system behind the microblogging platform is far more complex. The service is decentralized (no, not in a blockchain<\/a> way), describing itself as a \u201cfederated network which operates in a similar way to email.\u201d<\/p>\n When you first create your account, you choose a server \u2014 similar to how you choose to open an email account on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or wherever \u2014 which generates your profile\u2019s address. So, for example, if you sign up for Mastodon via the climate justice server, then your address will be @[your username]@climatejustice.social. But no matter what server you sign up with, you will be able to communicate with users from any other server, just like how Gmail users email Hotmail users and vice versa. However, some servers might have blocked other servers (perhaps if it\u2019s an unsavory group), which would mean you can\u2019t communicate with anyone from the blocked server.<\/p>\n Mastodon users generally refer to individual communities as \u201cinstances<\/a>\u201d or servers. <\/strong>These Mastodon servers can be run by individuals, groups or organizations that each have their own set of rules regarding how users can sign up, as well as their own moderation policies. Some servers let anyone join, while others are invite-only or require approval by an admin. For example, a server for professional scientists asks applicants to include a link to their research to demonstrate that they are, indeed, professionals.<\/p>\n Choosing which server to register your account with might seem stressful, but it\u2019s possible to move your account later, so don\u2019t worry. Plus, you can follow people regardless of what server they\u2019re on.<\/p>\n You may also hear Mastodon described as part of the \u201cFediverse<\/a>,\u201d or an interconnected web of various social media services. You know how having a Twitter account doesn\u2019t mean you can use that account on Instagram? Through the Fediverse, your single Mastodon account also grants you access to other decentralized social networks, if that interests you.<\/p>\n You may also see Mastodon\u2019s equivalent of tweets being referred to as \u201ctoots,\u201d but this is fading out of favor (since it\u2019s kind of silly!). Many people are just calling them \u201cposts\u201d these days but \u201ctoot\u201d is often found referenced in older third-party clients.<\/p>\n Mastodon supports a number of Twitter conventions like replies, retweets, favorites, bookmarks, and hashtags. But its retweets are called \u201cboosts\u201d and it doesn\u2019t support the concept of quote tweets. This was an intentional choice<\/a> on the part of the founder who said it encourages speaking \u201cat your audience\u201d instead of \u201cwith the person you\u2019re talking to.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, Mastodon lists work slightly differently from Twitter as you can only add people to a list if you\u2019re already following them. And Direct messages on Mastodon are just @username posts, not private messages coming to a DM inbox.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Fediverse <\/a>(opens in a new window)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anyone can download, modify and install Mastodon on their own server \u2014 plus, the developers of the platform don\u2019t own the copyright.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean that you can grab Mastodon\u2019s code without acknowledging the source, though. Former president Donald Trump\u2019s social media platform, Truth Social<\/a> initially launched with Mastodon code<\/a> and passed it off as if it were original software. Mastodon did not take kindly<\/a> to that.<\/p>\n When you arrive on the Mastodon<\/a> website, you can click a button called \u201ccreate account,\u201d which directs you to a page listing servers to choose from<\/a>. You can filter these by various factors, like region, language, topic, sign-up speed and more. There, find a server that piques your interest and join \u2014 if it\u2019s a server that requires you to be approved, you might need to wait a bit. From there, you can start finding people to follow, regardless of whether they\u2019re registered via your same server.<\/p>\n Mastodon\u2019s website has helpful resources<\/a> \u2014 but it\u2019s still a bit overwhelming and challenging to find a home base that aligns with your interests. Ask friends who are already on Mastodon if they have suggestions! Or just join somewhere random, because you can always change your server affiliation later<\/a> once you get into the swing of things.<\/p>\n Yes, you can follow people outside of your local server and reply to their posts. However, when you want to follow someone on a different server, you have to enter their username in the search box on your server to find them first, then follow them. You can\u2019t just go to their profile and click the follow button as you would on Twitter.<\/p>\n Your Home timeline shows you posts from people that you follow, similar to Twitter. The Local timeline shows posts from all users in your server, while the Federated timeline shows you all public posts from users that people in your server follow. (Hint: You can turn on \u201cSlow Mode\u201d in Preferences \u2013> Appearance to hide timeline updates behind a click if things are coming at you too fast!)<\/p>\n Individual server admins set their own moderation policies, so you should read the policy on the server you choose to ensure it matches up with your values.<\/p>\n Mastodon\u2019s userbase is a fraction of a percentage of the size of Twitter\u2019s userbase. It\u2019s also far less intuitive to navigate, since it hasn\u2019t been designed for a massive global audience like Twitter. That could change in time as more developers join the project in the wake of the Twitter takeover.<\/p>\n Also, since Mastodon isn\u2019t as well-resourced as Twitter, sometimes\u2026 it doesn\u2019t work as well. In recent days, the service has been sluggish at times if not totally stalled as servers adjusted to the massive influx of new users. This can impact other areas of use, too, like when you quickly try to follow a number of your friends on the service and find you have to wait between batches as you\u2019ve been rate-limited.<\/p>\n Well, for one thing, Mastodon is not owned by Elon Musk. But in all seriousness, it\u2019s going to be difficult in the near-term for Mastodon to replicate the same \u201cwatercooler of the world\u201d vibe that Twitter is defined by. Some users might prefer Mastodon to Twitter, though, since it\u2019s more customizable by nature. Unlike Twitter, individual communities have different content guidelines, which provide a variety of different user experiences. And while the user base on Mastodon is smaller, this can lead to more personal and direct conversations, at times, compared with tweeting into the void, so to speak.<\/p>\n Mastodon is what you make of it. Due to its decentralized nature, if you are looking for a more controlled online experience, you can join a server with stricter guardrails against harassment. Some Mastodon features are also built with mitigating harassment in mind. For example, you can only search by hashtag, not by words that appear in a toot. So if you want your post to be discoverable, you can tag it \u2014 if you\u2019d rather limit the audience, no one can find your tweet about the Red Sox by simply searching \u201cred sox\u201d if you haven\u2019t tagged it.<\/p>\n However, a text-based search can surface the posts you\u2019ve written, favorited, boosted or have been mentioned in, which can be useful.<\/p>\n The service has another handy feature that allows users to easily add a content warning to a post directly in the compose box. Some Mastodon users have been having fun with this lately by \u201cwarning\u201d others their post would be about Twitter drama.<\/p>\n As noted above, Mastodon supports many Twitter conventions, but its support for media is more limited. Where Twitter supports a variety of media and other data appended to tweets, including its audio-only social \u201cSpaces,\u201d plus photos, video, GIFs, polls, precise location and experimental \u201cStatus\u201d tags, Mastodon simply supports images, videos, audio and polls.<\/p>\n You can add up to four images to a post<\/a>, up to 8 megabytes in size. Video and audio can be any length, but with a file size limit of 40 megabytes.<\/p>\n Similar to how Twitter now allows users to limit their tweets\u2019 visibility through its Circle feature, Mastodon offers the ability to set your post\u2019s privacy at the time of writing. Posts can be set to be public to be visible by all; unlisted to make them public but opted out of discovery features; only visible to your followers; or only visible to those users you\u2019ve mentioned.<\/p>\n Yep! But this functionality isn\u2019t built into Mastodon officially, as it now is on Twitter. Instead, you have to build threads the old-fashioned way \u2014 by replying to your own posts.<\/p>\n No. There\u2019s no universal verification system like on Twitter. Some servers may vet their user sign-ups and you can self-verify, in a way, by adding links to your Mastodon profile that have a specific attribute (rel=\u201dme\u201d) in order to prove you are who you say you are.<\/p>\n Some servers are having fun with the idea of verification in a less-than-official fashion. For example, the mstdn.social server lets you add blue-and-white checkmarks<\/a> and other emoji to your display name if you\u2019d like which make you look verified, even though these don\u2019t mean anything. (Sort of like Twitter\u2019s new verification system<\/a>! But for free!)<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> mastodon.social\/@stux (opens in a new window)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Mastodon is experiencing a massive influx of new users from Twitter, but it\u2019s not clear the platform will continue growing at such a rapid rate in the weeks ahead. With now just one million users, Mastodon is far smaller than Twitter, which today counts over 237 million<\/a> monetizable daily active users. Still, not all social networks are created equal, and you might find that you prefer tooting about TTRPGs<\/a> in a dedicated server, as opposed to tweeting into a realm of madness. Or, you might find that this decentralized system is confusing, and you\u2019ll just ride out the Muskening on Twitter. Choose your own adventure!<\/p>\n Yes, this is possible by way of third-party tools. These require you to authorize your account with Twitter and Mastodon and set up parameters. We\u2019ve had success with Moa Party<\/a>, which allows you to get specific as to which tweets or retweets are cross-posted. But other tools are available including Mastodon Twitter Crossposter<\/a> which is also available here on GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, this is also possible with third-party tools. We\u2019ve seen many Mastodon users trying out tools like Fedifinder<\/a>, Twitodon<\/a> and Debirdify<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n Nope \u2014 not unless Bluesky chooses to adopt the ActivityPub protocol Mastodon uses. Currently, Bluesky is not planning to integrate with ActivityPub, having decided to build its own<\/a> networking protocol, Bluesky<\/a>, which will also be the name of the social networking app. There is some skepticism<\/a> among the developer and open-source community about whether or not Bluesky\u2019s decision to go its own way is really about its own protocol\u2019s advantages or if it\u2019s more about producing a spec it could eventually control.<\/p>\nWhat is Mastodon?<\/h2>\n
The Mastodon lingo<\/h2>\n
What does it mean that Mastodon is open-source?<\/h2>\n
How do you create a Mastodon account?<\/h2>\n
How do you decide what Mastodon server to join?<\/h2>\n
Can you talk to people on other Mastodon servers besides your own?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What\u2019s the difference between the Home, Local and Federated timelines?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What is Mastodon\u2019s moderation policy?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What are the drawbacks of Mastodon when compared to Twitter?<\/h2>\n
What are the benefits of Mastodon compared with Twitter?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Is Mastodon safer than Twitter?<\/h2>\n
Can I post images and video?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can I post privately to friends?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can I post threads?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can I get verified on Mastodon?<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nIs Mastodon here to stay?<\/h2>\n
I\u2019m not sure I want to leave Twitter. Can I cross-post from Twitter to Mastodon?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Can I find my Twitter friends on Mastodon?<\/h2>\n
Will Mastodon work with Bluesky, the decentralized social network that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is building?<\/strong><\/h2>\n