What is Mastodon

Mastodon, in its simplest form, is a social media platform. Much like the others we are all used to – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram….

What's different is that it is not owned by one person or corporation. It's a community of thousands of servers (called Instances in Mastodon speak). These Instances are run by people just like you; they have an interest in helping run a community. All Instances run the same software (Mastodon) and all talk to each other. The software used is also community developed, which means it is well maintained by thousands of technical people.

Most of all, Mastodon is free. There are: No paid adverts; No data is sold; No Trackers. Your timeline is shown in order, with no promoted posts.

It takes hard-earned money to run the Instances on the internet. Most Instances have a facility to donate a small amount of money to help keep the cogs running. You do not have to pay, and will never have to in order to use the service, but it's a nice gesture if you enjoy using Mastodon.

Terminology Note Mastodon is a one type of server, which is part of a much larger fediverse. It's important to understand that when you are using Mastodon you are in fact communicating across the entire Fediverse. In simple parlance, Mastodon is one type of Car driving along many Motorways (Fediverse)

Much like any other service, you need a username. There's an added step which can confuse people: you need to select a server (Instance) for your account. It doesn't really matter which server you create an account on, as they all talk to each other, but people often select an Instance with a theme. Perhaps, one in the country they live; or a theme.

Think of it like email. You sign up on gmail.com, but you can still communicate with the whole world. Mastodon is the same.

Picking a themed server will probably have other 'local' users on the that Instance who are interested in the same theme as you, so it's a great place to start.

Have a look here for a good list of Instances: https://joinmastodon.org/servers

Remember to check out the Instance rules – some allow/deny specific post types. Make sure it fits within your own use of social media.

You can choose part of your username, and the Instance you are on adds the secondary part. For example, here on the mastodon.social server you cold select 'david004' – Your username across the whole of the Mastodon universe is @david007@mastodon.social. Note the @ at the start!

Anyone can now follow your using that unique username.

You can only login to Mastodon using the Instance you created the username on.

Mastodon on the web is very good, and always up-to-date with features. It also works well on mobile devices such as tablets and mobile phones.

Goto your server name in a web browser. Example: mastodon.social

There are official 'Apps' in the Apple and Google stores for mobile devices. There are also many other third-party apps.

Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, which has its own vocabulary, just like other social media sites. Getting familiar with some of the terminology will help your journey.