Twitter users jump to Mastodon  

What is it and how does it work?

Several Twitter users started looking for alternative platforms after the company was acquired by Elon Musk, and one of the ones that benefited the most from the Twitter exodus is Mastodon . The new social network now has 1 million users, with 490,000 added just last week.

On the surface, Mastodon is quite similar to Twitter. It is blue in color, users follow other users, upload posts called “toots” and can reply to them, like and re-post.

Under the hood, however, the engine works differently. When registering a user must choose a server. The servers have many themes, they can be country, city or interest. It doesn’t really matter what you choose because you can communicate with users from other servers. It simply gives you a starting point in a community that has the same interests as you. The server you choose will also refer to your name, for example @ [email protected].

The interesting thing about Mastodon is that it does not belong to any company. Each server belongs to a different person and organization and all the different servers together form a collective network. In other words, it is a truly decentralized social media. Of course, this also has its disadvantages, since if a server owner decides to leave it, you lose your account. Mastodon, of course, asks the server owners to give users three months’ notice before shutting it down.

Each server has its own rules, while some have no restrictions. Some choose not to connect with others who have a large number of bots or a lot of hateful content. There are no ads but at the same time there is no restriction on writing something to promote your business. Mastodon is free to use, although some servers ask for donations.