Mastodon vs Twitter com­par­is­on

Twitter is not the only mi­crob­log­ging and social media platform on the internet. Users who no longer feel com­fort­able with the large platform can use Mastodon as an al­tern­at­ive. The tool, which is based on a de­cent­ral­ised network, has some special features. For example, it cannot be con­trolled by one person or one company.

Mastodon is a short messaging or mi­crob­log­ging service, just like Twitter. Re­gistered users publish concise posts that can be read by everyone else. If you follow a person on the network, the messages are displayed in your in­di­vidu­al timeline, just like on other social media platforms.

However, Mastodon has the special feature that it is organised in a de­cent­ral­ised manner. Unlike most other well-known platforms (whether Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest), Mastodon does not have just one provider, but many servers operated by different or­gan­isa­tions or in­di­vidu­als.

The different Mastodon servers have different ori­ent­a­tions and sometimes also different rules. Users choose the server that suits them best. However, it doesn’t limit you to com­mu­nic­at­ing with people on that server. All servers are in­ter­con­nec­ted in Fediverse (the name of the network). By spe­cify­ing a nickname and server, you can also connect to accounts on other instances and com­mu­nic­ate across the entire Fediverse.

On the website join­mas­to­don.org you can find an overview of tested server instances. These are cat­egor­ised by region and theme. However, you can also create your own Mastodon server. Then you set your own rules and determine, like what content is allowed and what is deleted. As the operator of a Mastodon server, you also have the option to block other instances if you don't agree with their content.

In terms of func­tion­al­ity, Mastodon is similar to what you know from Twitter. You publish short posts, write directly to other users or just read other people's posts.

• Short posts: Toots can have a maximum length of 500 char­ac­ters.
• Media: Toots can be enriched with images, videos or audio files.
• Mentions: In Toots, you can link other users by nickname.
• Share: You can share posts from others that you like on your own profile; this is called a ‘boost’ on Mastodon.
• Timeline: Posts from accounts you follow are presented chro­no­lo­gic­ally one below the other and not sorted by an algorithm.
• Hashtags: Using hashtags, you cat­egor­ise your Toot, giving other users a way to find the post.
• Privacy: Mastodon gives you the option to decide for each post who gets to see it: everyone, only your followers, or only certain people.
• App: You either use Mastodon via the website or reach for one of the many handy apps that are now available.

Mastodon has also received a lot of attention regarding data pro­tec­tion. Classic social media platforms, first Facebook but also Twitter, are re­peatedly cri­ti­cised for their use of personal data.

Mastodon is a de­cent­ral­ised service based on open source. This makes it virtually im­possible for the platform (or network) to be con­trolled by single interest groups. Many people work together to make the platform available. This is good for diversity, and anyone who feels harassed by in­di­vidu­al accounts or entire servers can simply block them.

However, since there is not just one company behind the service and servers, users have to put more effort into finding the right Mastodon server. Also, keep in mind that the operators of the servers can stop this service at any time. This could mean that all your con­tri­bu­tions would be lost. So, you should choose a server where this is unlikely to happen.

Mastodon is not con­sidered very easy to get started with, because you first have to get to grips with the concept of Fediverse and learn about the in­di­vidu­al instances. However, once you have re­gistered, the handling is very intuitive.

So far, Mastodon is still re­l­at­ively unknown, but the re­gis­tra­tion rate has increased sig­ni­fic­antly. (As of November 2022). Above all, well-known per­son­al­it­ies or brands that have a great appeal are missing on Mastodon so far. However, this may change in the future.

Mastodon and Twitter both offer a mi­crob­log­ging service. While the functions of both solutions are almost the same, they differ in their concept and in some details.

(Date: November 2022)