Users are… “doing” off Twitter and going to Mastodon – What’s that again?

After its acquisition Twitter by Elon Musk, some users are looking for alternative platforms. One of the biggest “winners” was the Mastodon. But what is this?

The social network says it now has over 655,000 users, with over 230,000 joining in the last week!

At first glance, Mastodon looks like Twitter. More specifically, account users write posts (called ‘toots’), which they can reply to, like and repost, and can follow each other.

But in reality it works quite differently… The platform is six years old, but its current activity is unprecedented and it is struggling under the weight of its new members.

Here’s a quick guide to find your way

• What are all these servers?

The first thing you need to do when you sign up is to choose a server. They are themed – many by country, city or interest – such as UK, social, technology, games and so on. It doesn’t really matter which one you’re on because you’ll be able to follow users on everyone else anyway, but it gives you a starting community that’s more likely to post things that interest you. Some of the popular ones – such as Social and British – are currently running very slowly due to demand. Ryan Wild, who runs the MastodonApp.UK server through his company Superior Networks, told the BBC he had over 6,000 new users within 24 hours and had to stop signing up.

• How do you find people?

The server you choose becomes part of your username, for example a random zsk twitter handle with a UK server makes the username @[email protected]. And that will be his address there. If you’re on the same server, you can search using just a person’s name, but if they’re on a different server, you’ll need their full address. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon doesn’t recommend followers, which you might be interested in. You can also search for hashtags.

• Why are the servers there?

Mastodon is not a platform. It is not a “thing” and does not belong to a person or a company. All these different servers are connected to each other and form a collective network, but they are owned by different people and organizations. However, the downside is that you are at the whim of the person or organization managing your server, as if they decide to leave it, you lose your account. Mastodon asks server owners to give their users three months notice if they decide to shut him down. By the way, the original founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, is working on a new network called BlueSky, and he has said that he wants it to be decentralized as well.

• How does Mastodon tune in?

Currently all servers have their own throttling rules and some have none. Some servers choose not to connect to others that are full of bots or appear to have a large amount of hateful content – this means they won’t be visible to those on servers where they are blocked. If it’s hate speech or illegal content, then the server owners can delete it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll delete it everywhere. And it will be a huge issue if the platform continues to grow. There are already reports of people being targeted by hateful content.

• Are there ads?

No. There are no ads, although there’s also nothing stopping you from writing a post promoting your company or product. Mastodon also doesn’t offer a Twitter-like experience in terms of how posts are displayed. Generally, you see what your followers are saying and how they are saying it.

• Is it free to use?

It depends on the server you are on. Some ask for donations, as they are unpaid, but largely free.

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