The Mastodon Project -- Giving Social Networking Back To You

Editors Note

I originally wrote this overview of Mastodon with in Sun Realms Avenue (My Elten Community) on the 27th of November 2019.
Since you currently can't view custum-made groups via the web yet (unless you can now in the future, thus disregard what I just said), I post the below here, for yall to read. Enjoy!

Hate or don't want to use Twitter and/or Facebook? Want a social network where you can pick an interest you enjoy? Want a social network ya can use that is Open Source?
Mastodon might just be the place you're looking for!

FYI

If you yourself would like to follow and/or toot at me on mastodon, jump on over to the next post. Otherwise, keep reading!

From its official web site found at

https://joinmastodon.org

"Mastodon isn’t just a website, it is a federation—think Star Trek. Thousands of independent communities running Mastodon form a coherent network, where while every planet is different, being part of one is being part of the whole. Mastodon comes with effective anti-abuse tools to help protect yourself. Thanks to the network's spread out and independent nature there are more moderators who you can approach for personal help, and servers with strict codes of conduct. You have 500 characters. You can adjust the thumbnails of your pictures with focal points. You can use custom emojis, hide things behind spoiler warnings and choose who sees a given post. Messed it up? You can delete & redraft for quick corrections. Without an incentive to sell you things, Mastodon allows you to consume content you enjoy uninterrupted. Your feed is chronological, ad-free and non-algorithmic—you decide who you want to see! All you need to do to sign up is choose a server. Just like when signing up for an e-mail address, one server is going to be hosting your account and be part of your identity.Remember, you can follow and talk to anyone from any server, regardless of your choice!"

Before I give yall my thoughts and which instance (or home) I hang out on among the Mastodon world known as the #Fediverse, I would like to point you on over to

https://instances.social/

Unlike with the "Join Mastodon" site which has a decent sellection of catagories to choose your instance from, the web site linked above you could say is the "search engine" for Mastodon instances! You can really "dig down" and customize what subject you want.

The main Mastodon instance is

https://mastodon.social

, one of the most poppular instances at that. Because of its poppularity however, registration can be closed at times, in addition to being not as relaxed on certain topics.

Most (if not all) instances do have "rules" to follow, which are displayed on the front page of the respective instance you wish to join. Not following said rules may get your account "frozen" and you may need to contact an admin of said instance via an email address to have your account "unfrozen." Freezing an account simply means you are unable to view and/or post to your timeline, in addition to not being able to follow people.

The instance I myself call home to, is

https://mastodon.host


, where they "deviate" from the norm a bit. For example, instead of only having "500" chars to play with in an edit area, you get "2048" chars per post (or toot as the fediverse calls them.)
In addition to Mastodon.host being an instance, it is also an
XMPP/Jabber server, thus ya can chat with me via "Federated Instant Messaging" if you'd like.

Some other instances you may wish to check out include:

https://mastodon.cloud/
https://mastodon.technology
https://toot.cafe
https://tenforward.social/about
(For Star Trek Fans)

For a wonderful explanation of Mastodon in detail for the blind user, have a look at the following pages:

https://marcozehe.de/2019/11/26/a-few-tips-on-mastodon/
https://www.starshipchangeling.net/mastodon/

For official Mastodon news and support, check these links out:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/

FYI

You "can" cross-post from Mastodon to Twitter or do the same in reverse if you so desire by using the Mastodon Twitter Crossposter:

https://crossposter.masto.donte.com.br/

. Although since not everyone likes this automated idea, adjust your settings first before use.

To folow/Instant Message me on Mastodon, use

queenslight@mastodon.host

or visit my Mastodon page/profile over at

https://mastodon.host/@queenslight

Want a "shorter" link? Use

https://trenton.link/mastodon

instead.

Uhh. What do you think, is it a good idea to advertise another social network here, on an already growing social network?

If it's a social network that works relatively well with screen readers, why not. On the other hand, those that are in the Elten community will stick with Elten; but that does not mean that they should not be given a chance to check it out.

And why need Elten if you've got whatsApp, facebook, twitter etc.? I think that it doesn't matter if there are many different social networks. All that matters is that they serve their Purpose. Elten may die someday, who knows? So it's always good if you have an alternative. But yes, I'll stick to Elten until it's gone.

Both both @hozosch and @railwayguy sumed it up both nicely.

If anything else, use Mastodon or your favorite social network of choice to talk about what you have on/coming up on your Eleten blog, for example.

Yep, I use Twitter, Facebook, Elten and I've used others in the past. Some have died.

Twitter killed a lot of its third-party apps with their changes but I'm hanging in there. Facebook killed all third-party apps with its changes. I use it on the PC and not the iPhone. Hanging in there.

I see no harm in talking about other social platforms.

I also don't see any harm in it, was just a bit weird. :D

Ah, so you've moved to a different server, so have I, keeping my old account as a backup, but I've never had any trouble on that server since I moved, so I'm thinking of deleting my backup account. Anyway, my account is in German. If you want to follow me nevertheless, send me a PM and I'll give you my account.

Eva

you can combine 2 social networks in 1 app, if this queenslights network has http api

Looks like mastodon.host's SSL cert expired and hasn't been renewed.