After Musk's Twitter Takeover, an Open-Source Alternative is 'Exploding'
upstart writes:
The decentralized social network is having a moment - again:
We may not yet know exactly what Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter means for the platform, but one Twitter alternative is already booming as a result of the news. Mastodon, the open-source social media service which bills itself as the "largest decentralized social network on the internet," has been "exploding" since Musk's acquisition, according to its founder.
"Funnily enough one of the reasons I started looking into the decentralized social media space in 2016, which ultimately led me to go on to create Mastodon, were rumours that Twitter, the platform I'd been a daily user of for years at that point, might get sold to another controversial billionaire," he wrote. "Among, of course, other reasons such as all the terrible product decisions Twitter had been making at that time. And now, it has finally come to pass, and for the same reasons masses of people are coming to Mastodon."
[...] While Mastodon has been in the spotlight as a potentially viable Twitter alternative in the past, it has yet to reach the mainstream. But its current popularity comes at a moment when Twitter is also exploring how it could become an open-sourced protocol - much like Mastodon.
Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not a single, centralized service. Though the interface looks similar to Twitter - it has a 500-character limit but otherwise will be mostly recognizable to Twitter users - it runs on an open-source protocol. Groups of users are free to create and maintain their own "instances" with their own rules around membership, moderation and other key policies. Users are also able to take their followers with them between instances.
[...] But all that also comes with extra complexity for new users who may not easily understand Mastodon's unique structure or how it works. But those who stick around long enough may see some significant new features. Rochko said that end-to-end encrypted messaging is in the works, as well as "an exciting groups functionality."
Anyone in the community have experience using or recommending it?
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