Is Mastodon Bringing Twitter Down? Is the Fediverse the Future of Social Media?
Searches for ‘Mastodon’ social have risen 4,404% in the UK in November and December as Elon Musk’s Twitter overhaul divides users, prompting users to switch to alternative platforms.
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| Esquire.com |
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a micro-blogging platform, similar to Twitter in some respects – and vastly different in others. It was founded in 2016 by now-29-year-old German programmer, Eugen Rochko.
On Twitter, users post short comments or messages. Mastodon has a 500-character limit as opposed to the 280 characters possible on Twitter. These messages can be accompanied by links, pictures and videos. Users can follow people that they are interested in, and in some cases, send private messages (although this is reported to be unencrypted and accessible to the admins of the server the recipient is on; do not trust a DM to always be private).
The big difference is that Twitter is owned and controlled by an erratic billionaire. Mastodon has no owner. It’s a distributed group of independent servers sharing open-source code. That shared code links them together in a federated model that many refer to as the “Fediverse.” The central body, if there is one, is a not-for-profit called Mastodon, but as Rochko has pointed out, even if someone were to buy or take control of that not-for-profit, it would not be able to control the federation of communities nor the software which is irrevocably open sourced.
- The majority of Twitter’s audience (38.5%) belongs to the 25 to 34 age group.
- Twitter’s brand value growth rate in 2022 was 85%. Facebook growth was an average of 1.6% per quarter.
- Twitter has a 56.4% male audience and 43.6% female audience.
So, what are the problems with Mastodon?
Apart from the initial teething troubles and moving away from the ‘blue bird’, there are other problems with using Mastodon.
The single most glaring issue with Mastodon is that you are left at the whim of the person or organisation running your server. A Mastodon server admin has ultimate control over everything you do — if they decide to abandon it, you lose your account.
A server admin could also snoop on private toots if they wanted to – or delete an account for any reason.
On the issue, Rochko has said that new users should look at who runs the server before they join it. He was quoted as telling The Guardian, “Is it an organisation that has a track record, is trustworthy, is likely to be around for a long time, but also has a moderation policy?”
He explains further, “The ‘good ones’ have rules against hate speech, and provide basic necessities like backups, so if one of the admins gets hit by a bus, the server does not disappear.”
He added that Mastodon includes a list of vetted servers on its homepage that meet these criteria.
Maybe give Mastodon a try and share with us your experience on our Twitter Account.
Recommended reading:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2022/11/14/twitter-would-need-64-million-subscribers-to-replace-existing-revenue-and-cover-existing-losses/https://portalcripto.com.br/o-que-e-mastodon-social-app-alternativa-ao-twitter/
https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a22777589/what-is-mastodon-twitter-platform/
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Reviewed by Mili Ponce
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Tuesday, January 03, 2023
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