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Twitter and Mastodon

 


The destruction of Twitter by the new management continues. Personally, I have for the most part moved my own micro-blogging to Mastodon. 

If anyone else worries that twitter is turning into 4chan and they don't want anything to do with it, but they do enjoy the experience they have had there and want to replicate something like that elsewhere, Mastodon is one route. 

It is a very decentralized social network, such that there is no asset or company that a billionaire could buy that would put him in charge of it. It involves a large number of independently run nodes, known as instances or, sometimes, servers. Yes, the term "server" in this context can be confusing, given its hardware significance, with which this usage has nothing to do. 

The counterpart to a tweet is a toot, more commonly though just called a post. I like "toot." It is a natural development of the term Mastodon itself -- suggesting a noise out of an elephantine trunk. Surely more impressive than a tweet from a bluebird.

The wikipedia article, Mastodon (software), has further explanation. Don't bother reading about the metal band. 

Comments

  1. Paul D. Van PeltDecember 2, 2022 at 8:02 AM

    Thanks for this. I have little interest in the self-absorption of social media. Alternatives are appreciated.

    ReplyDelete

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