Mastodon time – Infobae

anyway mastodon It is not necessarily the only natural destination for immigrants from TwitterIts impressive growth in recent weeks seems to reveal a clear preference for this network, as even former Twitter employees have found refuge and built a model of their own.

It’s also true that Exodus isn’t without its penalties, because Mastodon isn’t Twitter, and they’re both a design software The culture of each network responds to conflicting philosophies.

1. What is a mastodon?

Mastodon is an implementation ActivityPub protocol to manage a service microblogging (the class they belong to, for example Twitter and Tumblr), whose open code allows them to be installed on any web server (which constitutes Model). Mastodon is also a network of federated instances and finally a registered trademark of Mastodon gGmbH, a non-profit organization operated by Eugene RuchkoCreator software And the original server administrator.

2. How is it different from Twitter?

While Twitter is easy, Mastodon is friction-free by design. Twitter centrally managed, with software The owner, is a public company that sells advertising (and identity verification) and in which algorithms have taken ownership of the user experience.

On the other hand, Mastodon works in a decentralized manner, with software Free, contains no ads and no alteration algorithms timetable to the user.

3. Should we quit Twitter?

Closing accounts is not recommended, it is preferable to keep our identities and brands busy in that network. Plus, profiles are the perfect place to share links to our new destinations.

What is recommended is to download account files for a local backup and configure double verification to improve account protection.

4. Why is Mastodon playing now?

Without leaving your Twitter account, it seems reasonable to have Plan B in case the network collapses or goes bankrupt. There are many users who took the opportunity to get back into their account Tumblr There is also increased activity Instagram.

However, from the time Elon Musk made the initial pitch until he took over the company, the conversation about Mastodon became more prominent on Twitter (at the same time that the conversation about Mastodon’s Twitter intensified).

It is inevitable to go to Twitter as a reference to explain Mastodon, but not only because of this crisis but also for historical reasons. Mastodon was born in 2016 after a Twitter user left the network frustrated at its inefficiency. This is how Eugene Roshko designed a Mastodon inspired by Twitter but willing to reverse all of its structural failures.

That’s why I asserted that Mastodon is the answer to the question: What would Twitter be like if it was developed by the free software community?

5. What criteria should instance selection be made?

Choosing an instance (server) of Mastodon is, in part, like choosing an email provider: our identity is tied to the brand of the chosen platform (Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail or Outlook) and no matter what we have the choice is that we will be able to communicate with other users.

In Mastodon there are generic cases (which are the most saturated) and there are objective examples based on countries, regions, cities, languages, professions, specializations, and hobbies.

Other issues to consider when defining an instance are:

• Instance size (number of accounts hosted) because it can affect server performance and because it limits the experience timetable local, which corresponds to updates for users of that server.
• Acceptable usage policies and terms of service set by the administrator of the chosen instance (accepted languages, unacceptable features, blocked servers, unavailable content, etc.).
• danger from deviation that the instance may suffer depending on its object or on account of its members.

The good news is that Mastodon accounts are completely transferable between instances, so there’s always the possibility of moving to another server (preserving the account community, even if the content remains on the old server).

6. How do you find our contacts?

Paradoxically, the most direct way to find out if our contacts are on Mastodon is to check their Twitter profile, where the corresponding Mastodon identity tags are indicated.

One of the factors that convinced me of the potential of Mastodon networks The academic and popularization of science is the vast diversity of scientific disciplines that has hundreds, if not thousands, of representatives grouped into quite recognizable communities: anthropology, archaeology, astrophysics, bioinformatics, biophysics, economics, chemistry, communications, science Crime, Law, Digital Humanities, History, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sociology, etc. In Mastodon, there is treasure waiting for every investigator.

7. How is our identity verified on Mastodon?

In Mastodon, there is no central verification of user profiles (the blue logo of Twitter), there is only verification of links that the user inserts in his profile (up to four) and only to the extent that the account owner can include a line of HTML code (available in the private profile bk) in the HTML file of the page the link points to. In this case, the corresponding link will appear green, indicating that it has been verified.

There is a very interesting service called Twittodon that allows cross-verification between a Twitter account and a Mastodon account and creates a link that, when added to the profile, confirms that correspondence and is shown in green. Twittodon also provides access to a database of verified matches that can be used to identify Mastodon accounts for Twitter users.

8. How is our identity publicly communicated on Mastodon?

When we pass our Twitter presence to a friend, we can say “find me on Twitter,” knowing our name can lead to a very simple search in Twitter’s internal search engine. Alternatively, saying “I’m on Mastodon” is equivalent to saying “I have email”: there’s no way to determine your location if you don’t specify the server you’re on.

In Mastodon there is no centralized search (just search the instance database) and there is no word search either. You can only search for tags (#MastodonHelp), user profiles by username (@jlori @mastodon.cloud), user profiles by URL (https://mastodon.cloud/@jlori) and posts by URL (https: //mastodon.cloud/@jlori/109331733327310686).

Outside of Mastodon, on any website, blog, or social media account, the correct way to communicate the identity is through the account URL. On the contrary, if you communicate through Username (@jlori @mastodon.cloud), the browser will interpret this string as if it were an email address.

9. What are the characteristics of writing in mastodons?

Twitter’s original limit was 140 characters per tweet, later extended to 280 characters, which is the limit to date. In Mastodon, the standard limit has been extended to 500 characters, although it is a limitation that each instance administrator can tweak it up or down.

The second distinguishing feature of Mastodon writing is the need for extensive use of tags (similar to the content discovery logic that works on Instagram) so that posts cross content boundaries. timetable Local (something also achieved by having followers from remote instances) and reaching Mastodon users who don’t follow us but track the tag in question.

10. What reliable information can I refer to about Mastodon?

The official source, which should be explored in depth, is the Mastodon documentation and the highly recommended guide is Fedi.Tips.

Developer account software The original Eugene Roshko from Mastodon can be seen at mastodon.social/@Gargron.

Finally, as I’ve already admitted, those users who are ready to overcome the obstacle course presented by joining the Mastodon and learning its techniques and culture (throwing away part of the legacies) will find themselves in an environment, for adults. rocker The Internet, brings back memories of Usenet communities and the early days of the web and of course the blogging revolution.

* The author is Professor of Multimedia Communication and Digital Strategy at the University of Navarra

Originally Posted in Conversation

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