Quite a few more people have joined the EU onto Mastodon since late October...
Or, like me, many have dusted off accounts created back in the 2017/2018... Sylvano https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-19/what-is-mastodon-twitter-rival-platform-elon-musk-takeover/101674440 <<Thousands are flocking to Mastodon in what users are calling a #TwitterMigration. What is it and how does the 'rival platform' work?>> By Angelica Silva On Fri, 2022-04-29 at 12:47 +0000, Stephen Loosley wrote: > Mastodon > > Mastodon is more than just a nicer Twitter. It's an experiment in > large-scale, open-source, distributed social networking. It's no > online utopia, but it is an exciting development for the open web. > > By Max Eddy https://au.pcmag.com/social-media/47483/mastodon > > BOTTOM LINE: > Mastodon is more than just a nicer Twitter. It's an experiment in > large-scale, open-source, distributed social networking. It's no > online utopia, but it is an exciting development for the open web. > > PROS: > No fees, no ads, no data mining. > Unique, federated design. > Tweetdeck-like web experience. > Personal, global, and local feeds. > Powerful privacy tools. > Open-source. > > CONS: > Zero documentation or guidance for new users. > Few mature clients. > Distributed design makes sign-up, user verification difficult. > > > > Facebook and Twitter have defined a generation of the web, but free > and open-source services like Ello and diaspora* have sought to > provide an alternative. Mastodon is the latest contender. > > Named in honor of the progressive metal band, it's an open-source, > radically anticapitalist, and surprisingly mature Twitter-style > platform that emphasizes openness and uses a distributed, federated > platform. > > Unfortunately, some of its best features (ever heard of "federation" > outside the realm of Star Trek before today?) are confusing to > newcomers, and it certainly won't eclipse other platforms anytime > soon. It is a radical vision that suggests a different kind of > internet—one that, perhaps, will gain converts. > > Like Twitter, but… > > Remember the term "microblogging?" Probably not. It was meant to be > the general category to describe Twitter, referring to Twitter's > pithy, character-limit-enforced brevity. Considering that no other > microblogging service has risen to prominence, the term has as much > semantic weight as several feathers. But, in as much as anything can > be a microblogging service, Mastodon is one. > > MastodonInstead of Twitter's 140 characters, however, Mastodon offers > you 500. After spending nearly a decade learning to cram complex > thoughts into tweets, 500 characters is almost overwhelming. Most of > the time, I don't come close to the character limit. But it is easier > to express a complete, nuanced thought, without resorting to > tweetstorms. > > Speaking of tweets, a note on terminology: On Mastodon, individual > posts are called "toots" (not "tweets") and reposting someone else's > toot is "boosting" (not "retweeting"). In a jab at Twitter's decision > to replace the favoriting star with a heart, Mastodon uses a star, so > you can show your appreciation for a toot. I've been using Mastodon > for four months, and I still think "toots" sounds hilarious. > > In most other respects, Mastodon is very much like Twitter. You > follow other users to have their toots flow into your feed. You can > respond to a toot and message other users publicly with an @ reply. > Placing a hashtag (#) in front of a word creates an ad-hoc category > that you can click on to find all other instances of that hashtag. > These are features that Twitter users take for granted, but that > actually didn't launch with the service. Being designed from the > ground up in a post-Twitter world means that Mastodon's creator can > deliver a product that benefits from Twitter's years of evolution. > > Some features from Twitter haven't made it to Mastodon. Polls, quote- > tweets, and analytics are just a dream. While you can view a toot and > its responses at a static URL, just like on Twitter, it's harder to > take action outside the web-based Mastodon client. Boosting and > faving, for example, are difficult from a toot's static webpage. > Searching, too, is difficult. I spent an hour searching through a > timeline for a specific toot. Mastodon is surprisingly smooth and > robust for a homebrew project, but the cracks show in cases like > this. > > Behind the Toots > > What really sets Mastodon apart isn't the toots or the boosts, it's > the code. Mastodon is an open-source project, the code being freely > available on GitHub. This means that Mastodon benefits from > transparency, with volunteers working to add new features and > watching out for potential problems. It's built on the open GNU > Social protocol, making it potentially interoperable with other GNU > Social-based services. Your tweets and Facebook posts are bound to > those respective platforms, but GNU Social has the potential to be > infinitely more flexible. However, that potential hasn't been fully > realized on Mastodon. > > Being open-source means Mastodon has a fundamentally different > ideology than most social media services. Mastodon is intended to be > free and ad-free forever. Its creator has written that this lets the > people working on Mastodon focus on making it better for users, > without having to bow to Mammon. There's no data mining, no ads, and > no rejiggering your timeline to show you promoted material. > > Twitter and Facebook, by contrast, have made major changes to their > service that were great business decisions but weren't designed to > help the user. For example, both services use algorithmically ordered > feeds by default (you can deactivate this feature on both) instead of > chronologically ordered feeds. Twitter and Facebook say this helps > surface the most interesting content, but it also allows for ads and > promoted posts to be pushed to you. As a free, not-for-profit > platform that can be tweaked by anyone with the knowledge to do so, > these kinds of changes are unlikely if not actually impossible in > Mastodon. > > Mastodon also isn't a monolithic, single service like Twitter or > Facebook. Instead, it's distributed. Volunteers install copies of the > Mastodon software on servers they operate. These are called Mastodon > instances, and they all work together as a federation. It's similar > to the much-hyped, little-used diaspora* platform. You can join any > instance and still be able to communicate with any other Mastodon > user, regardless of the instance they're on. I should note that the > Mastodon community has generated some pretty wonderfully named > instances. > > Mastodon > > Think of it like email. There are lots of places that let you create > an email account, but you can send email to, and receive email from, > anyone. An Outlook.com email account can talk to a Gmail account, and > so on. It's a simple concept, but one that doesn't really jibe with > the popular understanding of social networks. > > The Mastodon.social instance, for example, is the flagship instance > of the service. It's currently closed to new sign-ups, meaning that > users have to find another instance to join. This is a high bar for > entry, made worse by the sheer dearth of explanatory documentation. > > One of the interesting benefits of a distributed network is that no > single operator bears the brunt of hosting all Mastodon users. > Instead, the computing requirements are handled by each individual > instance. That's allowed Mastodon to remain mostly operable, even > after experiencing a massive spike in popularity. > > The confusion about where Mastodon "is" is only compounded by > usernames. If you and another person are on the same instance, you > can @ reply them as you would on Twitter. If that person is on a > different instance, you have to include the username and instance. So > @maxeddy becomes @[email protected]. With the email analogy in > mind, this doesn't seem so strange but, again, it's sure to be > confusing to anyone more familiar with Twitter. Mastodon does > autocomplete usernames, but it helps to know a user's instance. > > This raises the issue of verification. Is @[email protected] > the real Max Eddy? What about @[email protected]? The blue > verified checkmark on Twitter might be an artificial tool of class > construction (and probably data mining), but it also helps ensure > you're talking to the right person. And, more importantly, that the > wrong person can't easily pretend to be you. Without a rock-solid > method of verification, Mastodon isn't likely to attract the > celebrity interest that drove the early adoption of Twitter. But that > seems to suit Mastodon just fine. > > Behold, the Mammoth > > Most of my time testing I was Mastodon I did so via its web > interface, which I used on a MacBook Air running Google's Chrome > browser. Because it's web based, you can access it on virtually any > device. As long as there's a web browser, you're good to go. > > There are a handful of mobile clients available for Mastodon, Tusky > for Android and Amaraoq for iPhone being the most notable. None of > these third-party clients have brought anything new to the table, > however. There are also no desktop clients as of this writing. While > that's frustrating in the short term, one of my big complaints about > Twitter was how it virtually destroyed its third-party developer > community. That seems unlikely to be the case with Mastodon. > > When you log into the Mastodon instance you call home, you see four > vertical columns. The layout is very similar to Tweetdeck, a piece of > software whose interface I frankly loathe. Still, it gets the job > done, and Mastodon's take is easy on the eyes using flatter colors > than Tweetdeck. That's more than I could say about Ello. While the > Mastodon interface resembles Tweetdeck, it only lets you manage one > account. If you want to toot from another instance, you need to log > in there, too. > > Note that some instances might be tweaked to look different or use > different icons. One admin I follow on Mastodon replaced the Toot > button with a Florps button. And so it was law—at least on that > instance. > > The far-left column has a text box where you can compose your 500- > character toots. There are buttons for adding emoji, hiding text > behind a content warning (more on this later), and adding pictures. > This last feature was the only one that gave me trouble, as Mastodon > appears to use some image compression on large images that noticably > distorts colors. I only had this problem for one of the images I > uploaded, however. > > A Globe button lets you choose the level of visibility of your toot, > ranging from Public on all instances to Private, which hides your > message except for the specific users you designate. You can also > lock a post to only be visible to your followers, or set it to not > appear on any public timeline. This is more of a Facebook-style tool, > and offers far more flexibility than Twitter, which is all-or-nothing > when it comes to tweet visibility. > > > Mastodon > > Moving toward the right, the next column is the Home section, which > shows toots from users you've followed. The next column shows > Notifications. Settings tabs at the top of these columns let you > change how they function. One noticeable option is the ability to > shut off boosts and replies from appearing in your Home feed. Twitter > lets you suppress user's retweets, but you have to adjust those > settings on the user page for that Twitter user. Mastodon takes that > power and gives it back to the people. > > The far-right panel is a multiuse space, with shortcuts to toots > you've favorited, a list of users you've blocked, and your account > settings. It also lets you view your Local timeline and the Federated > timeline. The Local timeline shows toots on your particular instance, > sort of like the neighborhood news. The Federated timeline is the > Mastodon fire hose. It's everything. > > This distinction between the Home timeline of people you follow, the > Local timeline, and the Federated timeline make Mastodon instances > all the more important. You and your friends or local community could > create your own instance and it would be your Local timeline. You'd > still be connected to the rest of Mastodon through the Federated > timeline, and could follow any Mastodon user in any instance and have > their toots appear in your home feed. It's a completely unique > experience, and one I am still trying to wrap my head around after > using Mastodon for some time. > > So far, Mastodon doesn't talk with Twitter. You won't have an easy > time finding tweeting friends who have jumped to Mastodon, although > there are third-party tools that can help. That said, I've taken some > real pleasure in browsing through the local and federated feeds, > talking (politely!) with randos, and feeling out the Mastodon > experience. It's new territory, and there's a real sense of > excitement exploring it. > > Also missing are some of the fringe services found on the established > social networks. There's nothing like Periscope or the excellent > Facebook Messenger. Mastodon comes close to providing an experience > similar to Twitter's Direct Message groups, but it's not as robust. > That's not necessarily a problem for Mastodon users. You could, for > example, delete your Facebook account and continue to use Messenger > quite happily. Then again, the kind of person attracted to Mastodon > in the first place seems more likely to be a Signal user. > > Hell Is Other People > > Mastodon launched quietly about a year ago, but exploded in recent > weeks after being hailed as a new haven from the abuse and Nazi egg > accounts that have come to define modern Twitter. But I'm quick to > caution anyone who sees Mastodon as "like Twitter, but for not-awful > people." There's nothing about Mastodon, aside from its comparably > low user base, that makes it resistant to the siren song of internet > bullshit. Even as I saw new users embrace the platform this past week > and make their inaugural toots, I also saw some of the same > combative, angry, vitriol that's on Twitter or Facebook these days. > > The problem, in a word, is people. But there are a few things about > Mastodon that might counteract some of the acid in modern electronic > discourse. Mastodon's developer Eugen Rochko wrote on Medium: > > "Very early on in the development of Mastodon I've decided that > centralization and unexpected algorithmic changes were not the only > one of Twitter's problems. Harassment and tools to deal with it have > always been lacking on Twitter's end." > > When you block someone on Mastodon, you don't see their posts under > any circumstances. Not when they message you, not when someone you > follow (and haven't blocked) mentions them, not when their messages > are boosted into your timeline. You can also mute users or words, if > you simply want to see less of them. > > Mastodon > > Mastodon also comes with a Content Warning tool. Click it, and your > toot will be hidden behind an opaque block that other users must > click before your message appears. You can customize the text that > appears over the block, so you can post a trigger warning, set up a > punchline, or warn people against spoilers. It's a flexible tool, and > one that seems to have been embraced by Mastodon's early settlers. > > Because there's no monolithic structure to Mastodon, the > administrators of instances can take action against other instances. > An admin could block an entire instance, for example, if it became > the source of too much strife for users. Still, all of this requires > active participation from communities of users and admins, which is > quite different from the rather passive experience of using Facebook > or Twitter. No one said Utopias came easily. > > Building a Better Web > > The limitations of Mastodon are undeniable. It's unlikely to get > celebrity interest, and, given that one of the most popular Mastodon > instances is called Marxism.party, it's unlikely to gain traction > among brands and advertisers. Its federated nature means that it's > hard for people used to the "big room" feel of Facebook and Twitter > to understand, or even sign up. It's in desperate need of onboarding > materials. > > But some of those limitations come from its greatest strengths. Being > federated means that the service has scaled surprisingly well, and it > affords users the opportunity to create real digital communities, as > well as create and enforce different rules on different instances. > Open-source projects don't make money, but they do attract motivated > volunteers. Mastodon has already revved in the course of my review, > and it offers surprisingly mature features for a homebrew service. > > There's also an important sense of buy-in with Mastodon. People are > coming to the service not to recreate what they have on Twitter or > Facebook, but to try and build something different. Maybe it's the > powerful blocking and banning tools, maybe it's the sense of > community fostered by individual instances and an emphasis on users > owning their own identity and their data. Or maybe it's testing the > limits of dank memes presented in 500 characters. Mastodon isn't > going to replace Twitter any time soon, but it presents a vision of > what a free, not-for-profit, people-powered social network can look > like. It may not be as busy as Twitter, but I'm rather smitten with > it. > > -- > > Note, Yesterday: > https://au.pcmag.com/social-media/93757/eu-joins-mastodon-social-network-sets-up-its-own-server > > > The European Union is the latest group to join the social network > Mastodon, which has seen a surge of new users after Elon Musk's bid > for Twitter was accepted. > > On Thursday, the European Commission said it had set up its own > server, dubbed EU Voice, to join Mastodon's decentralized social > network, also known as a "Fediverse." > > Follow us at: social.network.europa.eu/@EU_Commission<mailto: > social.network.europa.eu/@EU_Commission> > > The effort is currently only a pilot, but it represents the EU’s goal > of supporting private and open-source software capable of rivaling > mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and > YouTube. On the same day, the European Commission also launched an > account for PeerTube, another decentralized platform that revolves > around video sharing. > > “With the pilot launch of EU Voice and EU Video, we aim to offer > alternative social media platforms that prioritize individuals and > their rights to privacy and data protection," said European Data > Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski. > > “In concrete terms this means, for example, that EU Voice and EU > Video do not rely on transfers of personal data to countries outside > the European Union and the European Economic Area; there are no > advertisements on the platforms; and there is no profiling of > individuals that may use the platforms,” he added. “These measures, > amongst others, give individuals the choice on and control over how > their personal data is used.” > > The news could help boost visibility for Mastodon, which hopes to > become a viable Twitter alternative. On Thursday, Mastodon founder > Eugen Rochko reported that the decentralized social network had > “gained 112,413 monthly active users in the last few days” after Musk > announced his takeover of Twitter. > > Mastodon has 384,000 monthly active users, Rochko added, which pales > in comparison to Twitter's 229 million daily active users, about 40 > million of whom are based in the US. > > For now, the EU says its Mastodon server as a way for EU institutions > and agencies to share news. It'll also solicit feedback on Mastodon > and PeerTube, and says it "hopes that this first step will mark a > continuity in the use of privacy-compliant social media platforms." > _______________________________________________ > Link mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link > _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
