As the world knows, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, acquired Twitter which later witnessed several changes in and around the organization. The app changed from features to content moderation council.
With this sudden alteration, most active users of Twitter are happy and sad at the same time. Even some of the popular celebrities are leaving the site and searching for a new alternative platform.Â
Last week one platform caught the eye of many users which made Google’s search for that platform increase, especially in Europe. And that platform is Mastodon.
About Mastodon:Â
Mastodon is an open-source decentralized microblogging platform that was founded by German software developer Eugene Rochko after becoming ‘disillusioned’ with Twitter.
The app is just like Twitter with slight differences such as in Mastodon users toot their views whereas in Twitter users tweet their posts.Â
Secondly, users can create or host their own community or they can join an existing community in Mastodon.Â
The app has servers that are managed by the user itself. It even shows the number of how many people who have joined a particular server. It has various themes like country, city, and various interests like gaming, social, art, and many more. Users can also change their server or community based on their interests by making changes in the setting section.
How to create an account on Mastodon:Â
Social media is available on both platforms android and iOS, you will easily find it in their respective store i.e. Google Play store and Apple app store.
Once you have downloaded and installed it, click on ‘Get Started’ and follow the on-screen instructions like selecting a server and accepting the rules of the platform like any other social media.
Then you will be asked to create an ID and password. To create an ID the app will need your email ID and to further verify your account.Â
How to start posting?
Like any other social media platform, the process to post photos, and videos is the same. But this app has some key differences.
It has a character limit of 500 characters per post whereas on Twitter the character limit is 280 per post. Users can interact with each other by liking, replying, or resharing these toots. They have a feature identical to Twitter like searching through hashtags and following each other. Unlike Twitter, Mastodon has a free verification feature on their platform though the process is a little different.
Mastodon presents link verification that cross-references any links in a user’s profile to verify they are the true owner. For instance, users could link to a personal blog or homepage.
You have to join any one server as per your interest but no need to fear!! Even if you join a server you still can follow and interact with each other who are from different servers, as the servers are all connected. Though each server has its own rules and content moderation, the users can join with the ones they agree to. Some servers ask for contributions as creating and keeping them is volunteer-based, but most are unrestricted.
