If you felt iffy about Twitter before, we understand if youre itching to leave now more than ever.
Thats the guy who owns the place now.
Great atmosphere, huh?
Maybe its time for a change.
How do I sign up for Mastodon?
Whereas Twitter is a single huge corporate entity, Mastodon is more like a bunch of local mom-and-pop shops.
That means you should probably choose an instancea server youll call home.
If you dont know which to choose, sign up atmastodon.cloud.
What do I do on Mastodon?
Just like Twitter, you could follow people, mention them, and direct message.
So if I click there, I see everything thats going on on wandering.shop.
Its like listening in on everybody in your neighborhood.
The federated timelineis everything on the local timeline,pluseverybody who is followed by someone on your instance.
A few terms to help ease your transition from Twitter:
Its not a tweet, its a toot.
Its not a retweet, its a boost.
There is no such thing as a quote-tweet, you just either boost or you dont.
Twitter itself is referred to as the birdsite.
Do not bring birdsite drama onto Mastodon.
What to know when youre ready to toot
First, this is not Twitter.
People also often use it for things others might not be interested in.
For more on privacy, blocking, and harassment prevention, check outthis post from Mastodons main developer.
How can I get mastodon on my phone?
Theres not a single mastodon app, but several.
But there are plenty of othersjust search.
Tusky is another popular app, or you’re free to ask your tootfriends what theyre using.
How to find your community on Mastodon
you’re free to use a tool likeDebirdify.
(I also did a Twitter search for mastodon and filtered the results to people I follow.)
Dont forget you might preview instances local timelines on their websites and check them out.
When youre ready to change instances, itssort ofpossible to migrate your account, but its not seamless.
Heres what you do:
Go to your parameters on the old instance and then Data Export.
Sign up for an account on the new instance.
On the new instance, go to your configs and then Import.
you’ve got the option to upload those lists.
Go back to your old account and edit your profile.
At the bottom is a link to migrate your account.
This just lets people know your account isnt working there anymore.
Migrating does not retainyourfollowers.
Anybody who follows you will be left following your old dead account.
(A lot of people on Mastodon follow everyone back, anyway.)
Why go to all this trouble?
(That said, Im sure there are instances dedicated to activism and politics.
If thats your thing, go forth and sign up.)
It just feels like a nice, friendly place to be.
This post was originally published in 2018.
