Tag: Mastodon

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Mobile Syrup

Twitter alternatives take flight amid turmoil

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company has had a rough go, to say the least. Significant portions of the staff were fired or left the company, advertisers bailed, and Twitter rolled out and then suspended a revamped subscription service after it was abused to impersonate high-profile accounts and brands (as predicted).

With the significant loss of staff, some think it’s only a matter of time until Twitter breaks. While I’m not convinced the platform will totally die, I’ve been looking into (and signing up for) some of the various alternate platforms I’ve seen mentioned. None of this is a recommendation for what people should switch to — instead, it’s a resource of possible alternatives for people who may want to try something new.

I’ll run through them below:

Mastodon

I’ve actually written about this one before (you can read about it here). In short, Mastodon is probably the most Twitter-like of alternate platforms. What sets it apart is that its open source and decentralized. That means there is no single governing entity controlling everything. Instead, Mastodon is made up of various servers, which can be thought of as digital communities (they’re often based on locality or shared interests). Each server effectively governs itself with its own moderation and rules. However, the decentralized nature and servers can prove confusing for newcomers.

Check out our Mastodon explainer here. You can also learn more about Mastodon here.

Hive Social

I hadn’t heard of Hive until earlier today, but it seems to be picking up steam quickly (on November 20th, Hive shared on Twitter that it had almost hit 800k “Besties,” marking a growth of 200,000 new users over a few days).

While I haven’t spent much time with Hive yet, it feels like a more fun, social Twitter. Highlight features include profile music, text and image posts, polls, and Q&As. Heck, you can even theme it with colours of your choice. Hive will definitely be one to keep an eye on and you can sign up for free via the iPhone or Android app.

Learn more about Hive here.

Post.news

Post.news, on the other hand, appears to a different approach from Hive. Rather than a fun, colourful, social Twitter-like experience, Post seems to lean harder into the news and discussion aspects of Twitter. The bad news about Post is that it’s not broadly available yet. At the moment, there’s a lengthy waitlist (according to an email I received from Post earlier this morning, there are about 125,000 people on the list). Post encourages people to climb up the waitlist by inviting others to join with a referral code, and I’ve seen some reports that it’s fast-tracking people who have large Twitter followings.

Post comes from former Waze CEO Noam Bardin, who makes it clear that he doesn’t want Post to replace Twitter as the defacto online battleground:

“Post will be a civil place to debate ideas; learn from experts, journalists, individual creators, and each other; converse freely; and have some fun. Many of today’s ad-based platforms rely on capturing attention at any cost — sowing chaos in our society, amplifying the extremes, and muting the moderates.”

While I’m definitely intrigued by Post, the lengthy waitlist has me thinking the service might be eclipsed by another alternative before it has a chance to take off.

You can learn more about Post here.

Cohost

Last up is Cohost, which is made by the ‘anti software software club’ (ASSC). It describes itself as a not-for-profit software company that “hates the software industry.” At the moment, Cohost looks a lot like an old internet forum, which might be a hit for some. Moreover, Cohost is big on not using ads or algorithms, although it can make it a little tough for people to find things.

Like some of the other alternatives, Cohost has a waiting period before people can start posting. According to Cohost, the waiting period lasts “a day or two” and users can still follow, like, and share other posts — they just can’t post.

You can check out Cohost here.

Other options

Of course, there are other existing social networks that people might consider switching to if Twitter doesn’t work out. Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and Tumblr, for example, all offer some similar features to Twitter and already have well-established audiences. Ultimately, it comes down to what you want out of your social media, and finding a platform that meets those needs.

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Mobile Syrup

People are fleeing Musk’s Twitter for Mastodon, but what is it?

With Elon Musk’s ascent to ‘Chief Twit’ on Friday, some joined an exodus from the platform in search of less racist greener platforms. Over the last couple of days, you may have heard talk of ‘Mastodon,’ which seems to be the landing place for many former tweeters. But what is Mastodon, and how does it work?

What is Mastodon?

In short, Mastodon is free and open-source software for self-hosted social networking services. On the surface, Mastodon seems a lot like Twitter, offering similar microblogging features with a 500-character limit on posts (called toots instead of tweets) that appear in a real-time feed. Mastodon says on its website that the timeline shows posts chronologically with “no algorithms or ads to waste your time,” which feels like a shot at Twitter’s much-maligned algorithmic feed.

However, Mastodon isn’t just an open-source Twitter-like social network. When you dig in a little more, there are quite a few differences. Most notable (and likely most confusing for newcomers) are servers. Mastodon isn’t a centralized social network like Twitter, where everyone goes to the same place. Instead, it’s a ‘federated network’ consisting of various servers (also called instances) that represent different communities.

Mastodon likens servers to email address domains like Gmail, Outlook, etc. Users pick a server to host their account, but can still interact with people on other servers as long as they know their address. There are a bunch of different servers available to pick from — some are centred around shared interests, like gaming, or places.

The server approach also means that moderation on Mastodon differs significantly from Twitter and other social networks. Each server handles its own moderation, enabling a more local, community-driven approach to content moderation. Mastodon suggests people join servers with rules they agree with, or host their own server.

One other interesting note about Mastodon is that it’s interoperable with other social platforms based on ActivityPub, an open and decentralized social networking protocol. Mastodon says one account grants access to the “fediverse,” a group of independently hosted social networking apps that can communicate with each other (imagine if one account let you seamlessly post to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more).

How to get started with Mastodon

If you’re interested in making the jump from Twitter to Mastodon, here’s how to go about it. To start, you’ll need to pick a server — you can find a list of options here. Since servers have different focuses and rules, Mastodon recommends picking a server that aligns with what you’ll be posting about the most. For example, someone passionate about climate justice may want to join the ‘climatejustice.social‘ server. If you want to post about various topics, a general server (like the Mastodon-operated ‘mastodon.social‘ server) may be a better fit.

You can check a server’s rules by clicking the server, then clicking the ‘Learn more’ button on the left side and reading through the ‘About’ and ‘Server rules’ sections.

Ultimately, which server you pick isn’t a huge deal since you’ll still be able to chat with people on other servers. If you find another server you like, you can always create a second account for that server, or migrate your profile to that server without losing followers.

Once you’ve selected a server, you can create your account (you’ll need to make a display name and username, password, and add an email address). You’ll get an email with a confirmation link to activate your account. Once that’s done, you’re good to start following other Mastodon users and posting toots.

If you want to learn more about getting started with Mastodon, check out Mastodon’s full guide here. If you want to get Mastodon apps for your phone or other devices, check out the apps page here.

Categories
Musique

Feist takes on Mastodon

Canadian singer-songwriter Feist plans to work with American heavy metal band Mastodon to create a record especially for Record Store Day, which is a celebration of independent music stores around the world, reports NME.

For the occasion, the 1234 singer will cover a song by the Atlanta, Georgia-based band, while the heavy metal band, just nominated for a Grammy, plans to take a Feist song and turn it into heavy metal, and both will be released on a split 7” single on April 21.

“The idea is for Mastodon to cover a Feist song and throw some hair and dirt on it. [Feist will] take a Mastodon song and pretty it up a little bit," explained Troy Sanders of Mastodon.

The acts met recently in October on the BBC show Later…with Jools Holland, and Feist said: "Brent [Hinds of Mastodon] and I were nodding at each other, and he’s like, ‘nice riff,’ and I’m like ‘nice tone’."

Feist recently announced that she will perform two concerts in England in March 2012 at London’s Royal Albert Hall and Manchester’s O2 Apollo.