however Mastodon This is by no means the only natural destination for immigrants TwitterThe spectacular growth it has had in recent weeks seems to clearly show its preference for this network, in which even ex-Twitter employees have found refuge and created their own example.

It is also true that the speech is not without penalties, because Mastodon is not Twitter, and both designs Software Because each network culture responds to conflicting philosophies.

1. What is a mastodon?

Mastodon is an implementation ActivityPub protocol To manage the service microblog (the category to which they belong, for example Twitter and Tumblr), whose open source allows it to be installed on any web server (which represents for example). Mastodon is also a network of federated entities and ultimately a registered trademark of Mastodon gGmbH, a non-profit organization managed by Mastodon. Eugene Rochkocreator Software and the original server administrator.

2. How is it different from Twitter?

While Twitter is simple, Mastodon is frictionless by design. Twitter is managed centrally, together Software The owner is a publicly traded company that sells advertising (and identity verification) and uses algorithms to improve the user experience.

Mastodon, on the other hand, works in a decentralized manner Software It’s free, has no ads, and no algorithms change it deadlines user.

3. Should we leave Twitter?

It is not recommended to close accounts, it is desirable to keep our identity and brands busy in this network. In addition, profiles are an ideal place to share links to our new destinations.

It is recommended to download account files for local backup and configure double verification to improve account protection.

4. Why is Mastodon playing now?

Without leaving your Twitter account, it seems reasonable Plan B in case that network collapses or goes bankrupt. There are many users who have taken advantage of the option to return to their accounts tumblr And so is the growing activity Instagram.

However, from the time Elon Musk made the initial offer until he took over the company, conversation about Mastodon became more and more visible on Twitter (at the same time that Twitter conversation at Mastodon took off).

It’s inevitable to take to Twitter to explain Mastodon, but not just for this crisis, but for historical reasons. Mastodon was born in 2016 after a Twitter user left the network frustrated by its ineffectiveness. Here’s how Yevgeny Rochko created the Mastodon, inspired by Twitter but ready to replace all of its structural failings.

For this reason I have argued that Mastodon is the answer to the question: What would Twitter be like if it were developed by the free software community?

5. What criteria should be used to select an instance?

Choosing a Mastodon instance (server) is, in part, similar to choosing an email provider: our identity is tied to the brand of the chosen platform (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail or Outlook) and, regardless of what our option is, we will be able to communicate with everyone else’s customers.

In Mastodon, there are generic instances (which are the most saturated) and there are themed instances based on countries, regions, cities, languages, professions, disciplines, and hobbies.

Other issues to consider when choosing a pattern are:

• Instance size (number of host accounts) as it can affect server performance and affect the experience deadlines Local, which corresponds to the updates of users of this server.
• Acceptable use policy and terms of service established by the administrator of the selected instance (accepted languages, prohibited topics, blocked servers, unavailable content, etc.).
• risk defederation that an instance may be affected by its community or by its members.

The good news is that Mastodon accounts are perfectly portable between instances, so there’s always the option of moving to another server (keeping the account community even if the content stays the same).

6. How to find our contacts?

Paradoxically, the most direct method to find out if our contacts are on Mastodon is to check their Twitter profile, as this is where Mastodon’s relevant identity markers are indicated.

One of the factors that convinced me of Mastodon’s potential network The academic and popularization of science is a wide variety of scientific specialties with hundreds, if not thousands, of representatives grouped into well-defined topics: anthropology, archeology, astrophysics, bioinformatics, biophysics, economics, chemistry, communication, criminology, law, digital humanities. , history, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, etc. In Mastodon, treasure awaits each investigator.

7. How is our identity verified on Mastodon?

In Mastodon, there is no centralized verification of user profiles (the blue Twitter logo), only the links that the user includes in his profile (up to four) and only to the extent that the account owner can include a line of HTML code (available in your profile) on the page in the HTML file that the link points to. In this case, the corresponding link will appear in green, indicating that it has been verified.

There is a very interesting service called Twittodon that allows cross-verification between Twitter and Mastodon accounts and generates a link that verifies this correspondence when added to a profile and appears green. Twittodon also provides access to a database of verified matches that can be used to identify Mastodon accounts of Twitter users.

8. How is our identity communicated publicly on Mastodon?

When we share our presence on Twitter with a friend, we can say “Find me on Twitter” because knowing our name can make a very easy search in Twitter’s internal search engine. Instead, “I’m on Mastodon” is the equivalent of saying “I have email”: there’s no way to determine your location unless you specify which server you’re on.

There is no centralized search in Mastodon (instance database search only) and no word search. You can search only by tags (#MastodonHelp), user profiles by username (@jlori@mastodon.cloud), user profiles by URL (https://mastodon.cloud/@jlori), and messages by URL (https:// mastodon. cloud/@jlori/109331733327310686).

Outside of Mastodon, on any website, blog, or social media account, the proper way to communicate identity is through the account URL. If, on the contrary, you communicate username (@jlori@mastodon.cloud), the browser interprets this string as if it were an email address.

9. What are the characteristics of writing in Mastodon?

Twitter’s original limit of 140 characters per tweet was later expanded to 280, which is still the limit. In Mastodon, the standard limit has been extended to 500 characters, although this is a limit that each instance administrator can change up or down.

The second defining characteristic of Mastodon writing is the need for heavy tagging (similar to Instagram’s content discovery logic) to allow posts to cross content boundaries. deadlines local (which can also be achieved by having followers from remote instances) and will reach Mastodon users who don’t follow us but follow a given tag.

10. What reliable information can I get about Mastodon?

An official source to look into in depth is the Mastodon Documentation and a highly recommended guide is Fedi.Tips.

Developer account Software Mastodon original Eugen Rochko can be found at mastodon.social/@Gargron.

Finally, as I’ve already acknowledged, users willing to overcome the hurdle of joining Mastodon and learning its techniques and culture (discarding some of the heritage) will find themselves in an environment that is old-fashioned. Rockers On the Internet, brings back memories of Usenet threads, the early days of the web, and of course the blogging revolution.

*The author is a professor of multimedia communication and digital strategy at the University of Navarre

Originally published on The Conversation

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