Mortgages.scot

Now I am not in any way saying Twitter is going to collapse or won't be a better place with Elon Musk in charge. But every so often a change presents the opportunity to try out new platforms that you may not have considered before. That is where Mastodon comes in.

What is Mastodon?

It's a platform that functions like Twitter, with the same sort of short tweets but called toots. But more than that Mastodon is an open-source platform, what does that mean? Simply put the code is available for all to inspect. Being open it lets everyone know how it is all put together. Now for you and I who are likely not going to know what that code actually does or contains. There are many that do and will speak up quickly if, for example, it is a platform that puts privacy at risk. It doesn't.

For the user, it is simply a platform like Twitter and is used the same way. You toot, follow people, they follow you and so on.

What makes Mastodon different?

In simple terms, Mastodon isn't really owned by any one person. It can't be sold. The platform relies on people like me who create servers with the software installed on them. There are thousands of servers around the world. You can join any one of them. The creator could sell the name and other elements but as each server is owned independently, nobody can sell them or the users that are created on them.

Whatever server you create an account on is the server all your toots are saved on. But you can interact with every other server across the world.

You may have heard the term federated, it is used often with Mastodon. For example, if you want to follow someone who signed up on a different server than you did, not a problem, you can still find and follow each other as all of the servers are connected. This is what is meant to be federated. Your single-user account allows you access across the entire network of servers that make up the Mastodon network.

You can view what is happening on your server but can also see a 'federated' view which brings together everything happening with users you follow on other servers.

Any negatives?

Yes, there is. There are issues with a federated network. Some are more serious than others. Some of my top picks.

• Although it is quite established it has only 1m members. Twitter has 237m.
• It's not as slick as say Twitter.
• If the server you sign up to goes down or is simply abandoned, you lose everything you toot!
• Each server has its own rules, choose wisely or you may end up on one that promotes than deters hate speech.

Summary

Having said all of that, the intent for the platform is solid. Will it ever be as popular as Twitter? No. What it can do if you select the right server connects you with a lot more users local to you whilst still providing worldwide access where you only need to see what is relevant to your interests.

Time will tell whether it becomes a much larger platform. For now, at least I find it a very friendly platform, well moderated in the main and a lot of great people use it.

Finding Me

If you are looking for a server to join, I am using the following

https:://mastodon.scot

Sign up and get in touch if you need any assistance. If you already have an account on another server, you can follow me and I will follow back. My username is:

@[email protected]