Twitter users are flocking to Mastodon. What is it?

As Twitter users are concerned about the way that new owner Elon Musk is heading the business, a large number of them have switched to Mastodon. Mastodon – an open source Twitter alternative – has attracted roughly half a million new members since October 27, when Musk declared his Twitter takeover.

Some features like private DMing, quote-tweeting are not present in Mastodon. However, if you are not a Twitter purist and want to try something new, you might give Mastodon a try.

What actually is Mastodon?

German software engineer Eugen Rochko developed Mastodon in 2016. In contrast to for-profit social media giants like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, Mastodon is an open-source project. This means the company, in theory, cares more about the public rather than shareholders' interests.

At first sight, Mastodon may seem like a Twitter clone. But the microblogging platform's underlying structure is a little more intricate than a single button sign-up. The service describes itself as a "federated network that runs in a manner comparable to email". More simply, Mastodon is decentralised.

Creating a server

First thing first, you have to choose a server when you create your profile. On their website, you can choose from a list of servers. But whatever server you choose you will be able to communicate with people from other servers, just like Gmail and Outlook users use email services with each other.

Mastodon users generally refer to individual communities as "instances" or servers. These Mastodon servers can be run by individuals, groups or organisations that each have their own set of rules regarding how users can sign up, as well as their own moderation policies.

Essential features 

A variety of Twitter features, including replies, retweets, favourites, bookmarks, and hashtags, are supported by Mastodon.

But it doesn't accept the idea of quotation tweets; instead, its retweets are referred to as "boosts."

Furthermore, lists on Mastodon operate a little differently than lists on Twitter, in that you can only add users to a list if you are already following them.

Additionally, Mastodon's direct messages are just @username postings rather than private messages that arrive in a DM mailbox.

Federated, home and local timelines

Similar to Twitter, your home timeline displays updates from the individuals you follow.

The Federated timeline displays all public posts from users that people on your server follow, whereas the Local timeline displays postings from every user in your server.

Moderation approach

You should read the moderation policy on the server you select to make sure it aligns with your values because each server administrator sets their own policies.