Array
Twitter is now an Elon Musk platform and the billionaire is bringing in several changes to the social media platform — from monetising the blue tick to laying off thousands of employees. These changes combined with the ‘Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator’s’ (in case, you didn’t know that’s Musk’s bio on Twitter) insistence on outraging the public has some users migrating, seeking new homes for their everyday musings.
Enter, Mastodon. No, we aren’t talking about the extinct mammal but a social media platform that’s been around for six years that has now become a popular choice among the people. The platform gained 70,000 new users on the day of Musk’s takeover of Twitter — and now has over 655,000 users, with over 230,000 having joined in the last week.
The platform — which proudly proclaims it is “not for sale” — is similar to Twitter but is free to use and free of ads.
As people migrate to this not-so-new platform, here’s a better understanding of this decentralised microblogging site and why people are making it their new online home.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is an open-source microblogging alternative to Twitter. Rather than a centralised platform, Mastodon consists of independent, user-managed servers. Users are based on one server but can interact freely with others.
Decentralised in nature, Mastodon was launched by Eugen Rochko, a once-avid and later disillusioned user of Twitter. Rochko was supported by Patreon in the launch of Mastodon in 2016.
Mastodon resembles Twitter in many ways, though the terms or lingo may be slightly different. It has a timeline or “feed” made up of what are essentially tweets, called “toots,” having a character count of 500. You can favourite these toots or “boost” them to your own followers, which is just like retweeting.
When you toot at other users, these posts appear on the timelines of users who follow you both. You can also bookmark toots and create lists of users showing only their toots — features that, as a Twitter user, you should already be accustomed to.
