1. Mastodon is not a copy of Twitter
A tweet is one toot and a retweet is a boost. Messages boost putting your own witty quote above it is out of the question. But that’s not the main difference between Mastodon and Twitter.
New-fangled Twitter boss Elon Musk dreams of one large town square that he manages. Mastodon’s ideal is diametrically opposed to this: a succession of different squares.
Whoever takes the first step on Mastodon may be confused. This has to do with the structure of the network: there is not one company behind Mastodon. Instead, it consists of many islets (so-called instances) which all have their own administrator and own rules (and sometimes also a specific target group), but which are connected to each other.
Anyone who registers does so at such an instance. There are lists and overviews of these isolated islands. Tuckers, security experts, art lovers: everyone has their own server. Most users go to Mastodon.social, the largest server. The disadvantage may be that there is no specific shared interest, the advantage is that you immediately connect with many people.
Moreover, whichever instance you choose, you can also communicate with people from other instances. Mastodon has three levels. The first, Home, consists of direct contacts. This can be compared to a living room. At Local you will find all others of the same instance. Finally, Wereld also contains the contacts of your contacts.
2. Mastodon makes you start all over
Anyone who is used to Twitter and follows a lot of people there or has a lot of followers, will undoubtedly have to swallow. On Mastodon, you pretty much start over. Taking your tweets or users from one network to another is not possible. Rebuild your network is the motto.
‘It is a transition’, says Waag, a debate center on technology, which short explanation has on its site. “Build a presence on Mastodon first and take the time to entice your network to join you.” Many people will continue to use the networks side by side for the time being. For them, there is a special online tool through which messages appear automatically on both networks. For newcomers there are several manuals available.
3. Mastodon has growing pains
Maarten den Braber, administrator of the Dutch Mastodon server Mastodon.nl (5,800 users), noticed this weekend that it suddenly went fast. With delays as a result. Mastodon.social also faltered on many occasions, resulting in error messages. It was also not possible to upload pictures and videos.
Den Braber started Mastodon.nl in 2017 and manages the network as a hobby. ‘With less than six thousand users, that’s perfectly doable, it costs me a few tens a month in server costs.’ If Mastodon continues to grow, things could change, says Den Braber. ‘Then it might be better for a public organization to support it.’
At the much larger Mastodon.social, the management is now with a foundation, but this administrator also had a hard time this weekend, let him know on the network: ‘The past few days have taken a heavy toll on me.’ He calls it ‘nice to see that your work is finally taken seriously by the masses’, but now works long hours that mainly stress him out.
4. Mastodon has no ads
For Den Braber and other administrators, their contribution to Mastodon is a labor of love old paper. There is no commercial company behind the platform. Mastodon consciously does not depend on advertisements, which means that there is no incentive to facilitate fuss or even disinformation, so that there is more audience and advertisements sell better.
Mastodon’s timeline is as old-fashioned as it is refreshing: a chronological overview, without the prominence of likes. The often criticized algorithms of companies such as Twitter and Facebook are missing: participants have to do everything themselves. Another consequence is that the behavior of the same participants is not monitored via software codes. All this means that donations are important to keep the platform up and running.
5. Mastodon Moderation Is A Challenge
Mastodon also does not escape rules and moderation. Each instance has its own rules. Den Braber does the moderation himself, together with another administrator. At the moment that is still doable, but that will also be different with growth: ‘Moderation is really the big question mark.’
Perhaps the future does not lie with very large islands such as Mastodon.social, but many more islands will have to be created, Den Braber philosophizes. ‘That’s also the beauty. If you don’t agree with the rules of an instance, you can just start your own. Just like you might not want to depend on Google for your email address, but have your own server.’ Incidentally, instances can block other instances entirely. Den Braber mainly does this with servers that only produce spam.
The administrator of Mastodon.nl is happy with the influx, but realizes that only part of it gets stuck every time. ‘In the end it is a long-term project. Critical mass is far from there. And that’s okay: it’s better to grow slowly.’