When you arrive on the Mastodon website, you can click a button called “create account,” which directs you to a page listing servers to choose from. Former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, initially launched with Mastodon code and passed it off as if it were original software. That doesn’t mean that you can grab Mastodon’s code without acknowledging the source, though. What does it mean that Mastodon is open source?Īnyone can download, modify and install Mastodon on their own server - plus, the developers of the platform don’t own the copyright. And Direct messages on Mastodon are just posts, not private messages coming to a DM inbox. In addition, Mastodon lists work slightly differently from Twitter as you can only add people to a list if you’re already following them. This was an intentional choice on the part of the founder who said it encourages speaking “at your audience” instead of “with the person you’re talking to.” But its retweets are called “boosts” and it doesn’t support the concept of quote tweets. Mastodon supports a number of Twitter conventions like replies, retweets, favorites, bookmarks and hashtags. Many people are just calling them “posts” these days, but “toot” is often found referenced in older third-party clients. You may also see Mastodon’s equivalent of tweets being referred to as “toots,” but this is fading out of favor (since it’s kind of silly!). You know how having a Twitter account doesn’t 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. You may also hear Mastodon described as part of the “ Fediverse,” or an interconnected web of various social media services. Plus, you can follow people regardless of which server they’re on. ![]() For example, a server for professional scientists asks applicants to include a link to their research to demonstrate that they are, indeed, professionals.Ĭhoosing which server to register your account with might seem stressful, but it’s possible to move your account later, so don’t worry. Some servers let anyone join, while others are invite-only or require approval by an admin. 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. Mastodon users generally refer to individual communities as “ instances” or servers. However, some servers might have blocked other servers (perhaps if it’s an unsavory group), which would mean you can’t communicate with anyone from the blocked server. So, for example, if you sign up for Mastodon via the climate justice server, then your address will be But no matter which 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. When you first create your account, you choose a server - similar to how you choose to open an email account on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or wherever - which generates your profile’s address. The service is decentralized (no, not in a blockchain way), describing itself as a “federated network which operates in a similar way to email.” Mastodon might look like a Twitter clone at first glance, but the underlying system behind the microblogging platform is far more complex. “My 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.” “Unlike the past 5 years that I’ve been running Mastodon operations as a sole proprietor, where Mastodon’s income was my personal income (minus all the expenses), I am now an employee with a fixed wage,” Rochko wrote in a blog post last year. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a nonprofit, meaning that, ideally, its goal is to benefit the public, rather than shareholders. Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. But if you’re looking to try something new on the social internet, then why not give Mastodon a whirl? Elon Musk isn’t there! What is Mastodon? ![]() If you’re 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 what is Mastodon, and should we all be getting our accounts set up? ![]() Since October 27, when the SpaceX and Tesla CEO formalized his Twitter takeover, Mastodon has gained nearly 500,000 new users, effectively doubling its user base. As Twitter users fret over the direction that new owner Elon Musk is taking the company, masses of users have hopped over to Mastodon, an open source Twitter alternative.
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