With the shitstorm currently going on with Twitter, Mastodon is getting a lot of attention and gaining some traction. I already gave it a try back in 2019, but it didn't stick at the time. I remember the UI and the federated instances gimmick being very confusing for newcomers. However, only fools never change their minds, some I'm willing to take another shot at it.

I'll report my feedbacks in later posts, but for now, I'm having a pretty good time. The way they introduce the federated instances make more sense to me now. A common misconception that new users get when they first hear about it that they think that instances are silos.

If I create an account on one server, I won't see or be able to follow stuff that's happening on other servers.

Newbie me, in 2019

Obviously, this is not the case (Mastodon would be a pretty terrible social network otherwise).

The analogy that made it click for me was to compare Mastodon instances with email providers. When you sign up for an account on Gmail, your address ends with @gmail.com and your emails and stuff are stored there, but you can still send e-mails to people @yahoo.com, @live.com or @richarddegenne.fr (😉).

I've started following a couple accounts, both from people I already followed on Twitter and people I found on Mastodon by browsing the hashtags. Both the web UI and the Android app feel very light and not bloated like Twitter does.

If you too want to give Mastodon a shot, feel free to create an account with this referral link and follow me @richarddegenne@mastodon.online. Let's get the conversations started there! 😄