On the heels of Elon Musk's announcement that he wishes to purchase Twitter, and the company's lukewarm response, many people have grown frustrated with the platform's choices. This frustration resulted in many leaving for other sites, much like how the Tumblr Exodus of '18 brought a new mass of users to the Twitter-verse.
The recent swath of users from Twitter has resulted in a boon to other social media sites, from those returning to Tumblr, leaving for Reddit, or searching for a new place to post. One of the most talked-about social media platforms is Mastodon, a 6-year-old platform that has grown thanks to its emphasis on privacy and user-led moderation.
What Is Mastodon?
Mastodon is an open-source social media platform that was started in 2016. This platform was created by German developer Eugen Rochko as a side project during his undergraduate career (much like how Facebook started) and was intended to be an alternative to his own favorite social media platform - Twitter.
Over the course of the past half-decade or so, Mastodon has grown very quickly thanks to its decentralized and security-conscious direction. It has experienced its fair share of bumps and issues, but the core direction of being a better twitter is always at its heart. Today, it has grown large enough to be a suitable alternative to Twitter.
Who Owns It?
The larger Mastodon platform is free and open-source, meaning that the software itself is available for anyone to tinker with as they please - but the core Mastodon platform is itself well-maintained by volunteers. The core fact is that the website is not owned by any one person, but each user can create their own instance which they would own.
The decentralized nature of the platform is something that Rochko had in mind while developing it. His core frustrations with Twitter were the toxicity and often unforgiving reactions. His goal of producing more well-moderated groups and communities produced a platform that is something between Twitter and Discord.
What Is Mastodon Good For?
Much like Discord, Mastodon provides users with a platform for creating communicative and well-developed communities via 'Instances' which are themselves part of a larger Federation/Universe called the "fediverse." While the site's features are notable and plentiful, the naming conventions could use another pass.
Unlike Discord, Mastodon does not require users to join or verify for each group they join, allowing a bit more freedom of movement throughout the many servers within. This makes Mastodon very good for fandoms, topics, and groups that have frequent interaction with others, or users who want that freedom of movement.
How Does Mastodon Work?
When a user toots - Mastodon's version of tweets - they can set up the viewership of this toot. Visibility can be set to avoid being discoverable, follower-only, or @ only for pseudo-DMs. But users can also set up their own timeline to only see local toots in their instances or toots from anywhere in the federations.
Mastodon is used very much like Twitter, but with far more customization of how the timeline appears to the individual. The customization and privacy options are the major draws of Mastodon, particularly for those who are wary of Elon Musk's potential acquisition of Twitter, which some say might lead to less freedom on the platform.
How To Set Up An Instance
One of the first things a creator should do is pick a topic to build the instance around. These topics can be as general as Rochko's own Mastodon. Social or as specific as Dolphin.Town, in which all posts must be made up of only the letter 'e' (like dolphin noises). An easy rule of thumb is if there's a subreddit or hashtag for it, it could make a good instance.
Setting up an instance on one's own requires a little bit of development know-how - the platform tool Docker (or another software tool, Docker is just the simplest) is used to set up a secure connection and SSL Certificate. The slight difficulty of this process is part of why Mastodon attracts a less casual crowd - at least on the group administrator end.
How To Find and Join Instances
When joining Mastodon, the basic process is much like joining Reddit. After signing up with an email users can pick instances where they will see and post content. For creating an account, users have to attach their account to one such instance - but it is possible to move to a different 'home base' later.
Finding and joining instances is far easier than creating them - the easiest way to find if Mastodon hosts a community of interest is to go to their own communities page. The default instance is Mastodon. Social, a sort of catch-all place for the majority of the userbase. This can be a very good place to start using the site on a trial basis.
Is There An Official App?
There is an official Mastodon app as of July 2021, but much like the earlier days of Reddit, the official app is not often the preferred way to browse. As the website development has largely been focused on establishing a worthwhile desktop experience, the official app has some ways to go, however useful it is now.
This should be no surprise to longtime social media addicts, as official apps have often been much less impressive or viable than 3rd-party creations. Part of this is because development teams largely tend to stick to the platform they are most familiar with, and developing for other platforms can impose a number of challenges - like a footballer playing tennis.
Why Use a 3rd Party App?
The official app has experienced a number of quality-of-life updates and continues to see good development from its team, but the app might not be as user-friendly as many users would like. The official Mastodon website has a page committed to all of the apps available, organized by the operating system each app is made for.
3rd party apps are best for a more user-friendly experience, as most of the official application's use comes from the customization that might not benefit a more casual user. For those who are interested in simply checking out the vibe and general experience of Mastodon, a 3rd party app is going to provide the simplest access.
Is Mastodon Safe To Use?
In many ways, Mastodon is safer than most other social media websites. In terms of social engineering - scams, and bots - it is no less safe than any other site. In fact, it might be safer at this point considering it isn't the biggest platform at the moment. The real benefit of Mastodon is in terms of information security and data privacy.
Unlike Twitter, which provides its experience for-profit by selling user data and running advertisements, Mastodon functions at the will of its users. However, this also means that each instance has its own user policy and rules, which means it is possible to stumble upon much less kind or outright toxic userbases which might be troublesome.
Is Mastodon Better Than Twitter?
This is a difficult question but is obviously at the forefront of the conversation. Mastodon is still relatively small and boasts far fewer users than what Twitter has worldwide. This alone makes the experiences very different, and whether that is a positive or not depends on what a user is looking for.
In general, Twitter is still going to be the winner in terms of user outreach and functioning as a 'what's trending?' platform. However, for users that are interested in a more curated platform that provides customization and information security, then Mastodon will provide precisely what is desired.