Social network Mastodon. The alternative to Twitter
Social networks are, increasingly, a hotbed of conflicting opinions. There are many companies that want to stop these events by hardening the rules of behavior. In recent weeks the social network Twitter has blocked several accounts automatically by tightening their usage rules. The use of certain expressions, which cause a total account ban, has been prohibited. The big problem with this update of the rules of use is that the system does not understand the context or the tone in which said expressions are said. So many users who are considering these changes are leaving Twitter to a similar platform, the Mastodon social network.
What is mastodon?
The Mastodon social network was launched in October 2016 as an alternative to Twitter. They are considered a free and decentralized microblogging platform. Its operation is based on a series of decentralized open source servers, that is, it is not controlled by a company.
It is the users themselves who can create servers, known as instances or communities on this platform, easily. In such instances, private information can be published for the people of that community, or for the entire Mastodon network. The project has been developed by GNU Social, and is part of the goal of creating decentralized social networks, using open source.
What are the differences between Twitter and the Mastodon social network?
As I mentioned earlier, Mastodon considers Twitter uncensored, but that is not entirely true. To begin with, there are a series of rules to avoid xenophobic, sexist messages related to child pornography … While on the other hand, the communities of the platform themselves create their rules of coexistence. When you access that community you must accept those rules.
On the other hand, the information that the social network has about you is null. To create a profile on this platform, you will only have to give your email and a password, no private information.
How do I register at Mastodon?
The first step you need to take is to know all the communities, thematic, that there is. On the website joinmastodon.org you can find all the communities that exist, both by themes and by language. Then you must go to mastodon.cloud, there you can register. In the image that I show next I indicate how it would be the destination page, you will have to fill in the left part of it, simply a mail address and a simple password.
How does Mastodon work?
In this image that I show next I show 4 important buttons of the social network. Just enter it will appear in the initial steps, and are the basic brush strokes of Mastodon. It is explained that the buttons are Home, Notifications, local time line and federated history.
Once you have confirmed your account you can access it. The Mastodon social network interface is more like TweetDeck, a tool for managing Twitter profiles, than Twitter itself. Before starting it is important to consider some factors of the platform. The tweets here are called Toots, and they have a capacity of up to 500 characters! You can tell the story that you want.
There are 3 types of timelines:
- General: in it you can see all the publications of the social network, whether they are in your community or not.
- Local: in it you can see all the interventions that affect the instances in which you are registered.
- Federated history: you will be able to see information of users that you follow but that are in other instances foreign to yours.
At the time of publication we have several curious things. On the one hand if you put the expression @ in front of a user you will be naming him, just like on Twitter. But the most interesting thing about this application is the segmentation that you can do. That is, if you want your publication to be seen by everyone, only your followers, only the people of your community or only specific people. In the following image you can see perfectly what I just commented.
Another very interesting thing is what I show in the next image, the CW option. In this way users can only read a warning, a call to action, if they click on the read more button they will be able to see all the content you have published. A good way to generate expectation.
In summary, what is the Mastodon social network?
Basically, the Mastodon social network is a twitter with more freedom and security. You will not give your own data to third parties, such as companies that can sell your information. And you can express yourself freely without being sanctioned. As long as you do not do any clear madness. As a digital marketing consultant it is necessary to be aware of all the news, and this is very interesting. I trust I have helped you discover this new social network that is giving you talk recently.
See you in the next article!
