With the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk still pending, a name has begun to emerge as an alternative to the social network. This article will explain what Social Mastodon is and why everyone is talking about it on Twitter . This open source social network was founded in 2016 and many are beginning to see in it a very interesting alternative to abandon Twitter, whose image has only worsened due to the toxicity that is felt in the main trending topics .
Mastodon is a decentralized social network on different servers , which means that there may be different rules of behavior depending on whether we are on one server or another. This also allows for interaction between the different servers, so we won’t find too many differences in its use compared to Twitter.
The uncertainty generated by the possible purchase of Elon Musk from Twitter makes many users increasingly see the option of leaving for other social networks with better eyes. For this reason, many are landing on Mastodon, one of its most similar alternatives at the moment.
HOW TO REGISTER ON MASTODON
Given the existence of several servers, the registration process is different from Twitter , so we are going to indicate how to register with Mastodon. When opening the application, we will have to click on the ‘Start’ button to start the registration, and we will begin to see the extensive list of servers that this social network consists of.
The servers vary so that each user accesses the one that best suits their tastes , and you can choose geographical servers or by interests. Once the sector has been chosen, we activate the server that interests us with a tick (we will see at the bottom both the number of users in it and the language in which the publications are made and click on ‘Next’. Then we will receive a notice for us to check the rules of the server on duty (we click on ‘Next’ again) and from there we will be able to carry out the rest of the registration as we are used to, entering our username and the data requested.
HOW MASTODON WORKS
Once inside, it’s time to find out how Mastodon works , but at first glance you can see that the interface is quite similar to Twitter’s, so you won’t have too much trouble learning how to get around the application.
In the initial tab, located with the icon of a house, we will be able to see the publications of the users that we follow (the equivalent of the TL of Twitter or the Facebook wall). To explore and see what other profiles we can follow in Mastodon , we have the option of browsing the second tab, the exploration tab, and if we click on the icon on the right, where our user photo will be, we will have access to our profile of Mastodon to edit what we consider or publish something.
MASTODON VS TWITTER, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Before making our transfer to another social network, it is convenient to make the comparison Mastodon vs Twitter, advantages and disadvantages of one and the other. Among the advantages of Twitter is its seniority, since there is still a greater number of users on it than on Mastodon , especially among Spanish-speaking users. Those migrating to Mastodon will find that there is considerably less activity, although this can be an advantage for those looking for a quieter environment.
Among the points in favor of Mastodon is the fact that it is an open source social network , which allows us to better understand its internal workings. This prevents platform employees from exercising censorship on certain topics or using techniques such as shadowbanning , something that Twitter does not use in theory, although many users do report it when they see its limited exposure. As always, it’s a matter of spending a few hours exploring and getting used to the Mastodon app to see if it really suits us as a real alternative to Twitter or not.