Community Mastodon | Help and general thread

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
How does the "Home" timeline work? I have a vivaldi account since I use their browser so thought I may as well log into it, the Home timeline there is really populated with new posts from random people from different instances, but I don't have anyone followed (other than myself), they're also different posts than Federated, is it a server thing with their own algorithm or something?
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman
OP
Panda Pedinte

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
4,911
13,631
113
How does the "Home" timeline work? I have a vivaldi account since I use their browser so thought I may as well log into it, the Home timeline there is really populated with new posts from random people from different instances, but I don't have anyone followed (other than myself), they're also different posts than Federated, is it a server thing with their own algorithm or something?
Are you following a hashtag?
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,009
90,159
113
How does the "Home" timeline work? I have a vivaldi account since I use their browser so thought I may as well log into it, the Home timeline there is really populated with new posts from random people from different instances, but I don't have anyone followed (other than myself), they're also different posts than Federated, is it a server thing with their own algorithm or something?
if it's not the local or federated timeline then yeah, it might be something they made
 
  • Like
Reactions: Panda Pedinte

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
nvm I'm dumb :p I think I had a few tags followed, it might just be that they populated my timeline faster than my main account because things aren't buried by boosts from people I followed.
 
OP
Panda Pedinte

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
4,911
13,631
113
  • Gib
Reactions: lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,009
90,159
113

Twitter rivalā€‰Mastodon has rejected more than five investment offers from Silicon Valley venture capital firms in recent months, as its founder pledged to protect the fast-growing social media platformā€™s non-profit status.

Mastodon, an open-source microblogging site founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko, has seen a surge in users since Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October amid concerns over the billionaireā€™s running of the social media platform.

Rochko told the Financial Times he had received offers from more than five US-based investors to invest ā€œhundreds of thousands of dollarsā€ in backing the product, following its fast growth.

But he said the platformā€™s non-profit status was ā€œuntouchable,ā€ adding that Mastodonā€™s independence and the choice of moderation styles across its servers were part of its attraction.

ā€œMastodon will not turn into everything you hate about Twitter,ā€ said Rochko. ā€œThe fact that it can be sold to a controversial billionaire, the fact that it can be shut down, go bankrupt and so on. Itā€™s the difference in paradigms [between the platforms].ā€

This month, Twitter temporarily suspended the accounts of Mastodon and several journalists, after they shared content about the flight path of Muskā€™s private jet. Twitter also suggested it would ban links to rival social media platforms including Mastodon but later reversed course on the policy.

In a blog post in response, Rochko said this was a ā€œstark reminder that centralized platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair limits on what you can and canā€™t say,ā€ adding that monthly active users of Mastodon increased from 300,000 to 2.5 million between October and November.

Daily downloads of Mastodon rose from 6,000 on October 27, the day Musk acquired Twitter, to a peak of 243,000 on November 18, according to data from Sensor Tower. Usage of other smaller rival sites, such as Tumblr, has also rocketed.

Mastodon has similar features to Twitter but is made up of many decentralized, independently moderated servers. Users join one server but can connect with people on other servers throughout the so-called ā€œfederatedā€ system.

Rochko is Mastodonā€™s sole shareholder and, according to its 2021 annual report, he paid himself ā‚¬2,400 per month last year, a figure he said has since risen by ā‚¬500.

Mastodon will continue to rely on donations to fund the platform. The site has more than 8,500 donors on the membership platform Patreon, through which it is raising over Ā£25,000 a month. This compares with total earnings of just over ā‚¬55,000 in the six months from June to December 2021.

According to data from Sensor Tower, the initial wave of new joiners slowed to 6,000 new daily downloads on December 9 but rebounded to 64,000 on December 18, when Musk restricted links to other social media sites on Twitter.

New users have encountered problems, with some servers struggling to cope with the increased level of activity and confusion over moderation policies on different servers.

Josh Cowls, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, said Mastodon could evolve into a ā€œsatelliteā€ platform to Twitter, ā€œseeing greater use at times when Twitter is down, as well as in response to further Musk-related outrages.ā€

Rochko said his long-term ambition for Mastodon was to replace Twitter and other commercial social networks. ā€œItā€™s a long road ahead but at the same time, itā€™s bigger than it ever has been.ā€

:steam_pigblanket:
 

C-Dub

Makoto Niijima Fan Club President
Dec 23, 2018
3,992
11,886
113
The way the article is written and some of the quotes used really highlights how freaking terrible the tech media are at covering Mastodon.

There is almost a tone or sense of utter bafflement that they refused the investment.

Also, gotta laugh at the chuds who thought investing in a not-for-profit platform was a good idea.
 

Li Kao

Itā€™s a strange world. Letā€™s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,868
15,896
113
Sent my wishes. Mastodon.social then did its best to look like a dead horse.
I conclude that I broke the Internet. Sorry :confounded-face:
 

ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
3,446
9,812
113
So made an acc to see how things are, first impression is that Mastodon is barren as a wasteland.
Gematsu account posts no news, there are absolutely NO cosplayers.
Found the fedora and openSUSE official twitter account and they both had 1 post and itā€™s old compared to twitter stuff.

iā€™ll check it every now and then but itā€™s far from being as useful as twitter
 
  • Sad
Reactions: Panda Pedinte

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
So made an acc to see how things are, first impression is that Mastodon is barren as a wasteland.
Gematsu account posts no news, there are absolutely NO cosplayers.
Found the fedora and openSUSE official twitter account and they both had 1 post and itā€™s old compared to twitter stuff.

iā€™ll check it every now and then but itā€™s far from being as useful as twitter
Yeah content creators are probably gonna continue staying on twitter because that's where they make their money, right now it's more like forums in terms of social interactions.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Panda Pedinte

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,009
90,159
113
Gematsu account posts no news
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,239
7,216
113
Finland
A lot of people are going to keep using twitter until it actually implodes, that's just the way it is. Most people couldn't give less of a shit about Musk's one man show, and as long as the thing keeps working people are going to keep posting their content there because that's where their audience still is. Other than that, I guess I could see a possibility where the alt-right problem starts affecting unrelated people, that might prompt some creators to move.
 

Le Pertti

0.01% Game dev
Oct 10, 2018
8,586
22,031
113
45
Paris, France
lepertti.com
I guess it shows that values are the first to go when their influencer money are on the line.

Sure itā€™s easy for me to judge that since I wasnā€™t that active on twitter and find mastodon much better. But for example Iā€™m not moving to peer tube over YouTube just because some day I do want that ad money.
 
  • Sad
Reactions: lashman

ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
3,446
9,812
113
It's not just "influencers", there is literally nothing on mastodon atm, there are no companies, no cosplayers, no artists, I'm not on twitter for following people with opinions, i'm on twitter as an aggregator of sort for stuff I follow (as a matter of fact I immedialy mute anyone who constantly tweets about anything that aren't those topics I listed)
Those few accounts that are there are "token" accounts.

The whole twitter drama is also only in the anglosphere and only if you dig for it, in my TL for example (which is 90% JP artists and cosplayers) there's never been absolutely anything about it except for one (1) person which used the whole thing as an excuse to post her linktree.
 

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
by content creator i meant like everyone that create things, like artists, they stay there on twitter because they already built an entire following.

You also just need to look and follow the right people and right tags. There's a whole instance for artists for example:


If you want JP artist Mastodon they're mostly on Pawoo (Pixiv instance which got defederated by a lot of servers for good reasons).

But the userbase is still obviously low despite a ton of people making an account, because people from a ton of social circles have no reasons to move and leave their friends/acquaintances.
 
Last edited:

ZKenir

Setting the Seas Ablaze
May 10, 2019
3,446
9,812
113
thanks for the replies but I donā€™t really wanna follow random artists i want the same I follow on twitter, until those people and companies i follow are on the platform mastodon is a nice platform (because of no weird suggestion system) but barren :shrugblob:

like random artist#17474 isnā€™t Raita or ReDrop
 
Last edited:

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
At least you gave it a chance :)

but yeah it's not so much a twitter "replacement" for now, but more of an alternative social media platform, and especially it has its own userbase, like I kept trying to get some artists I know (without forcing them) to spread out and not put all the eggs in one basket, but they just doesn't have the time nor want to take the effort to start somewhere new, there's just no incentives to, especially the way Mastodon is structured, it just does many things differently and less "commercialized" in a way.
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
3,239
7,216
113
Finland
What I find most surprising is that so few of the 'I guess I'm on mastodon now' people didn't set up any kind of crossposting. Though I don't actually know how easy that is, I assume there would be services and/or clients that just do that for you.
 
  • This!
Reactions: lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,009
90,159
113
What I find most surprising is that so few of the 'I guess I'm on mastodon now' people didn't set up any kind of crossposting. Though I don't actually know how easy that is, I assume there would be services and/or clients that just do that for you.
it's EXTREMELY easy

 
  • Comfy
Reactions: Parsnip
OP
Panda Pedinte

Panda Pedinte

Best Sig Maker on the board!
Sep 20, 2018
4,911
13,631
113
I may have been missing something, is there any way to follow a whole other instance?
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman

Anteater

Hentai Specialist
Sep 20, 2018
1,429
2,380
113
Can someone explain to me like I'm 5 on how following hashtags work? I read that it helps populate your timeline if you follow people from another instance that follow the same hashtags, or something like that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman