What is Mastodon and how does it work?

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We want to try to make a small summary guide on what Mastodon is and how it works. It won't be easy but we will try to do it using simple words and trying to resolve the major doubts and problems that people who would like to go but don't understand much have. It will be a different item than usual, it will have the settings of one FAQ to pass on to friends. If anything comes to mind contact us.

What is Mastodon?

It is a social network identical to Twitter. Identical at least aesthetically, so if you come from Twitter you will understand its main functions more or less immediately. One of the few differences, at least in daily use for those who are used to using it Twitter, is the number of characters you can write: there are in fact 500. Tweets, on the other hand, are called toot. And the retweets are shares. Its mascot is a mammoth instead of the bird.

So why should I prefer it to Twitter if it's the same?

Because unlike Twitter which has a CEO ¹ and has a central server that manages all users, anyone can create a server with Mastodon on top to any address. So to register on Mastodon you are not obliged to go to a particular address but you can choose any Instance.

Help, it's starting to get complicated. What is aInstance Now?

As mentioned anyone can create a server and run it on it Mastodon. This thing is called Instance.

What is Mastodon and how does it work?

But how do I choose oneInstance? It all seems so difficult to me.

You can basically go wherever you want because all the instances are interconnected with each other. Each of these instances, however, has its own rules. Generally, without making it too complex, the various instances (especially the larger ones) have quite similar rules to each other. Always read them first, but we often talk about common sense rules, respect towards users and of democracy.

So aInstance is the other one worth it?

Not really, it was to keep it simple, come on. Everything is fine Instance it has its own rules and then there are also servers Mastodon dedicated to certain passions or jobs. For example, if you are an artist you will probably find yourself very comfortable inside mastodon.art. But they also exist generalist instances and Italian ones such as mastodon.one. There is also a server managed by us and Poliverso dedicated to information, academia, research, teaching and learning and it is called poliversity.it.

And is the timeline like on Twitter?

You will have three timelines at your disposal:

• HOME: where you find posts from people you follow.
• LOCAL: where there are posts from people within yours Instance. For this reason it may be important to choose aInstance suitable for you if you have particular passions.
• FEDERATION: here you can see all the posts from all over Mastodon.

And I can talk to a person registered on another Instance?

Certain! All instances are connected to each other and you can talk to anyone, just like if you were on Twitter. What can happen is that two instances do not see eye to eye and block each other. It could happen that you want to isolate a certain one Instance precisely because it does not respect democratic principles.

Mastodon is precisely for decentralize power.

And if I find out later that theInstance where I signed up Is it not suitable for me for any reason?

No problem! You can take the cabin and the puppets and move elsewhere, taking all the people you follow with you without any problem.
You can too take you with you all the people who follow you in a very simple way.

And how many instances are there?

Potentially infinite! ❤ Here you will find a list of Italian instances most famous, here is one of the world ones also divided by category.

Does profiling and advertising exist here too?

Well no! On Mastodon there are no algorithms that decide for you what you should see. There are no advertisements and there is no profiling. You are truly free. And not free in the sense of “I can say whatever I want without censorship!” because as we said Everything is fine Instance it has rules of very clear coexistence. But you will be free from advertising and Big Tech profiling.

Ok cool, and can it also be used on a smartphone?

Certain!

There is the official application available both on Android (Play Store | F-Droid) than on iOS. However, you are not bound to the official application! On Android you can try Tusky ² be on Play Store what up F-Droid or the excellent Fedilab ³ available on Play Store or up F-Droid.

On iOS, in addition to the official application, you can also try another application Open source ⁴ call Metatext ⁵.

On desktop instead, in addition to going directly to your website Instance Mastodon, you can try this multiplatform application: Whalebird. It also exists Hyperspace but it is not updated regularly ⁶.

Conclusions

We hope we have made you understand a little what Mastodon is and how it works. If we have intrigued you enough, we invite you to follow us on this new social network to this address.

We have deliberately left out the entire, immense and very interesting part of the Fediverse of which it is part Mastodon. Within the fediverse you will find other wonderful platforms such as PeerTube (alternative to Youtube) or Pixelfed (alternative to Instagram), for example. We recommend you give it a read here on Wikipedia to learn more or read this guide created by Mastodon.it.

1. Jack Dorsey[↩]
2. source code by Tusky[↩]
3. source code by Fedilab[↩]
4. source code of Metatext[↩]
5. Mastodon tip[↩]
6. Devol tip on Mastodon[↩]

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