Following Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter, many users are now looking for alternative social media networks. Mastodon is one of the platforms that is growing popularity.
According to the alternative social network, it presently has over 655,000 users, 230,000 of whom have just just signed up.
What exactly is Mastodon, and can it really take the place of Twitter?
A social networking site like Twitter is called Mastodon. Posts named “toots” can be created by users and uploaded.
Similar to how Twitter users can retweet posts, users can like, react to, and repost the toots.
The two social networking networks do function somewhat differently, though. Mastodon is open source software, meaning anybody can use, examine, modify, and share the program and its source code.
Users of Mastodon are participants in certain decentralized Mastodon servers, each of which offers a microblogging function akin to that of Twitter.
No advertisements are present, and joining Mastodon is free. It is sponsored through crowdsourcing and was developed six years ago by a charity under the guidance of its creator Eugen Rochko.
Rochko became concerned when he noticed changes to Twitter. I was starting to lose faith in Twitter, the company, and the platform, according to Rochko.
It helped him realize that his internet platforms for self-expression were too important to be in the hands of a single entity with total control over them.
Instead of a central platform maintained by a single firm, like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, the program enables users to join numerous servers run by diverse groups or individuals. While toots behave similarly to tweets on Mastodon, the unique operation of the software behind the scenes is confusing new users.
Short status updates are posted by users for the server’s users to respond to and engage with. Mastodon, which is not a single platform, is made up of numerous servers that are controlled by various people or organizations. These servers connect to create a decentralized, group network that cannot be controlled by a single entity.
