5 ms·

Does Mastodon (https://joinmastodon.org https://joinmastodon.org) fit what you just described?

• dogruck 9y ago
  I suppose my question is illformed. And perhaps it's not possible to make my question properly-formed. I mean very similar to Twitter, in that it's a centralized service. But, they'd do a better job of protecting users when threads go hostile. Perhaps I'm too focused on today's boycott.
  • mxuribe 9y ago
    Right away, i will state that i am biased in favor of decentralized/distributed/federated styles of platforms, such as mastodon gnu social, etc. Having said that, i still think your needs might be best met by one or some of these non-centralized platforms (and not twitter)...Here's one way you can test this quite easily and painlessly (using mastodon as an easy-to-onboard example): 1. Visit https://instances.social https://instances.social and walk through the choices. This will help you choose a mastodon "instance" which would be most relevant to you. 2. Then join and use/play around with that recommended mastodon server. The beauty of mastodon - and other similar platforms - is that you are not stuck to that server only. Mastodon does not have a single, central server like twitter; each of its numerous servers can however connect with each other. (Apologies, i don't know your level of tech literacy, so am purposefully keeping this high-level for ease of explanation.) You can join any peer server/instance and still connect with friends/acquaintances from other mastodon servers. Some of these other mastodon servers focus around a specific community, some do not. You could join one of these servers - maybe the one that helps protect its users to be yes open in their opinion but shielded from hostiles, trolls, a$$holes, etc. I can't say for sure because i don't know, but there certainly could be such a mastodon server out there. (We must remember that there often are people thinking and feeling the same as us at times.) Think of it like email: anyone can send a message to anyone else (provided they know their recipient's address) but each person can have an email address from different domains! Alice's address might be alice@whatever.com, and she can can send a message to bob@bobshop.net...and neither of them "reside" on the same email server...And email - as far as delivery is concerned - has worked pretty ok for several decades. This tech philosophy can work for social networks as well. I may be missing the mark on what you really want, since i'm only going off of minimal notes...but i really believe in non-centralized platforms. I myself am a fan of Gnu Social, but Mastodon is simply such a powerful platform because the on-boarding is so very simple. (And, by the way mastodon servers CAN connect with Gnu Social servers, so good benefits all around!) There's a reason that mastodon is so extremely popular. Even if you don't believe in or agree with what I (or others) have stated about non-central platforms, I encourage you to try it out and see for yourself, if it meets your needs. Good luck!!!