Since Elon Musk took over Twitter last month, he has fired thousands of its employees – including some of its top executives – announced several changes to the site, and angered countless users. The Tesla boss, who took the reins of the social media platform in October in a deal worth $44bn, has already made his mark on the platform, and shows no sign of slowing down.
Musk has already introduced a new verification system – called Twitter Blue – where users can get the coveted blue tick by paying a monthly subscription fee. He also reportedly plans to reinstate many banned accounts in the name of free speech – including Kanye West, who returned to the platform shortly after Musk’s takeover.
As the world’s richest man implements his vision on the site, many users have become unhappy and pledged to close their accounts over fears it will become a breeding ground for extremism and hate speech, amongst other things. Already, thousands of users have quit the platform and opted for a lesser-known social media platform called Mastodon.
On November 7, Mastodon founder Eugen Rochko said the site had attracted almost half a million new users since Musk’s Twitter takeover was confirmed on October 27, and has now hit more than 1m active users. But what exactly is Mastodon?
Founded in 2016, Mastodon is a public forum like Twitter, but rather than everyone connecting all in one place, Mastodon is made up of thousands of smaller communities dedicated to specific subjects or parts of the world. When signing up to Mastodon, you do not sign up for the site as a whole, rather an individual community – known as servers.
For example, a fan of metal music could sign up to the metalhead.club server, while those wanting to chat about all things maths could join the mathstodon.xyz server. There are also more generic servers, such as the mastodon.social server, or mastodonapp.uk for users in the UK wishing to chat with other Brits.
Mastodon shares many similarities with Twitter, like hashtags, DMs and its version of a tweet: a toot. Toots can be liked, or boosted, which is similar to a retweet on Twitter. Public posts on the site are prioritised by the time they were shared and users can tag one another or add photos and videos similar to how they would on Twitter.
One difference is that mentioning someone on Mastodon with a DM automatically adds them to the conversation. If this all sounds up your street, you may be wondering how you can sign up.
How to sign up to Mastodon
Setting up a Mastodon account is quick and simple, and can be done in just a few steps. First, after going to the Mastodon website, you should click the ‘Create account’ button on its homepage.
This will take you to a list of servers for you to join based on your interests or which part of the world you live, for example. You can filter the server list by region and by topic.
Once you have found the server for you, simply click ‘Create account’, which will prompt you to enter you email address and create a Mastodon username and password. Not all servers are open to everyone, as you must request an invite from its administrator for some.
While entering your details for these invite-only servers, you will be prompted to state the reason you wish to join. Once you are in, it is easy to find other people who have migrated from Twitter, as many users will include the link in their Twitter bio or link it on their profile.
You can also user the hashtag #TwitterMigration to find other like-minded users.
READ NEXT:
- 'Happy-go-lucky' woman died after self-harming at home whilst supervised by mental health staff, inquest hears
- Outside of London, the price of a Manchester city centre flat is rising the fastest
- "Covid claps don't pay the bills": What striking nurses could mean for Greater Manchester
- Olivia Attwood replacement update as Ant and Dec address her shock ITV I'm a Celebrity exit
- Mum still sick more than TWO MONTHS after nightmare 5-star holiday
