What is Mastodon? This decentralized social network?

Mastodon is a social network created in 2016, it has always been a confidential network. When Twitter was taken over by Elon Musk, this network tried to seduce disappointed Twitter users. Apparently, a small wave of migration is observable at the moment. Moreover, several Twitter fans do not fail to express their opinions on why not migrate to Mastodon? Find out here reviews on twitter

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What is Mastodon?

Instances, Toots and Fediverse are Mastodon's watchwords. After being acquired by Elon Musk, many Twitter users want to migrate to Mastodon. It can then become the home ground for those disappointed with Twitter, the social network outside the clutches of the multi-billionaire. Plus, it's free. Mastodon was created in 2016 by a certain Eugen Rochko. He is also a disappointed Twitter programmer.

For a general overview, Mastodon looks like a well-known social network, there are features like: micro-blogging platform, short messages, multimedia content, etc. Like Tweets, names and options are referred to as "squeaks" or "toots." They are usually limited to around 500 characters.

What are the benefits of Mastodon?

Although most users think that Mastodon was just created to compete with Twitter, there are still advantages to using it:

A decentralized social network

Indeed, we were used to a widespread use of social networks. It has affected the way we communicate, many feel that these changes are not always positive. Moreover, many users are dissatisfied with the way in which social media handles various problems: misinformation, censorship, lack of privacy, political neutrality, etc. These are practices that need a new trend in particular: a decentralized network or federated network.

By definition, decentralized social networks are networks that operate under the influence of independent servers, while generalized networks operate on the centralized server of a single company. Mastodon is based on free software. However, it has the same functionality as Twitter.

To compete with other platforms

The Fédiverse is a network made up of several platforms including: Mastodon, Peertube, Pixelfed, etc. For information, Peertube for example will be the ideal network for Internet users who no longer want to use Youtube. Instagram can be replaced by Pixelfed. The advantage of the Fédiverse network is the absence of advertisements and data recovery.

For the moment, the transition between traditional networks and new applications is still minimal. However, after the acquisition of Twitter, a significant migration has been observed, since since October 30, Mastodon has registered more than 70,000 new users. This makes a figure of 2.8 million users, and more than 2500 active people. Although this figure is impressive, it is still very far from Twitter which records nearly 436 million users worldwide.

What does Mastodon offer?

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You may be determined to adopt the new social network, before launching, pay attention to what Mastodon could offer:

A network, a philosophy

In fact, Mastodon takes over the essential features of Twitter. That is, Tweets become Toots, Retweets become Retoots, etc. Additionally, the feature to track users to fill out its chronologically-ordered diary is still active. The founder of Mastodon is a visionary. Indeed, the social platform is not only a result of copying and pasting Twitter, the project was born following the declarations of the founder of Facebook and his new perspectives for his social network. Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg wants to opt for a global community that works for everyone.

Rochko's philosophy is simple, to decentralize social networks. Indeed, Facebook and Twitter operate on a single server. Therefore, if the server goes down, no one will be able to use the service. However, the new platform can act as it sees fit: data, words, etc. Eugen Rochko adopts a new perspective, the future of the Internet does not rely on centralization which blocks the construction of a project and a community. The future is in the federation.

Its Instance system

Mastodon has created a new system: the Instance system. However, the latter is its greatest weakness. This is a feature that is difficult to understand. In fact, Mastodonte is not just a simple website accessible on its official address. It is also software that allows you to create a Mastodon site with a host on your own server. This system is also called the Federation.

Users can create their own server named Instance. They can have their own social network with the desired form and the desired followers. So, if you want to start a small microblogging community, Mastodon server is for you. With the features of the new platform, it is quite feasible to compete with existing traditional social networks, including: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. At the same time, the instances are linked together, so it is always possible to break the link at any time. The purpose of the novelty is very simple, to allow users of a community to communicate with each other or with the global community and vice versa.

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