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In theory federated social media seems like a great idea. You can hand-wave a lot of impossible moderation problems away just by not being so damn big. It seems

In theory federated social media seems like a great idea. You can hand-wave a lot of impossible moderation problems away just by not being so damn big. It seems like I could join for music and geeky history without being inundated with The Current Thing ragebait culture. I'd try that out! In practice it's still a desert. The problem isn't how to sign up, it's that with the exception of a few active communities, there's not much going on once you do.

tomrod 4y ago
I finally joined yesterday to a niche (academic) community that is moving from Twitter. 18k migrants in the 30 hours since it opened up with virtually linear growth. I can search other similar niche communities and they are seeing similar growth. It's not seeming like much of a desert, and is just starting to benefit from network effects as some of the more known members of the community announce their moves.
- OscarCunningham 4y ago
  Right. I'm on the mathematics server https://mathstodon.xyz/ https://mathstodon.xyz/ and it's already feeling like a big community.
  - arjvik 4y ago
    How do you get invited?
    - OscarCunningham 4y ago
      Existing users can generate an invite link: https://mathstodon.xyz/invite/5nKykTB6 https://mathstodon.xyz/invite/5nKykTB6 If it doesn't work then check back in a day or two, many servers are struggling at the moment but the mathstodon admins are scaling up now. Or you can join any other instance since any account can follow any other account regardless of instance. The main advantage of mathstodon is LaTeX support.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- earthscienceman 4y ago
  What's the community of academics? I haven't joined Twitter specifically because I think it's a horrible medium for communicating science or meeting with academics. Can you point me there?
  - detaro 4y ago
    Just from a quick look, no claim to completeness, intentionally including also small ones: https://fediscience.org/ https://fediscience.org/ https://vis.social/ https://vis.social/ https://mstdn.science/ https://mstdn.science/ https://astrodon.social/ https://astrodon.social/ https://mapstodon.space/ https://mapstodon.space/ currently not taking signups: https://scholar.social/ https://scholar.social/ https://scicomm.xyz/ https://scicomm.xyz/
    - notpushkin 4y ago
      https://qoto.org/ https://qoto.org/ is another really nice instance oriented on STEM. It adds some features like LaTeX and Markdown support (not sure how well do those federate though).
    - baq 4y ago
      How do I follow a server with an account on a different server? I don’t want to register on multiple servers since it’s a hassle…
      - detaro 4y ago
        not sure what you mean by "follow a server"? You can interact with/follow people on other servers from yours.
        baq 4y ago
        That’s the thing, I don’t really want to find people to follow, I guess? Not out of band at least. First I need to find a few of their posts. How do I do that?
- dhruvdh 4y ago
  Could you share the name of the server?
pera 4y ago
> In practice it's still a desert. That's not true anymore: I am currently following over 100 academics and scientists who decided to migrate over the past week, they are very active and as a result my timeline is much more interesting and engaging than Twitter. I have never seen such a big exodus in my 25+ years online, this is historic.
- tomrod 4y ago
  Digg to Reddit comes to mind, but the quality of new material in Mastodon eclipses Twitter.
lrvick 4y ago
I have never cared to look at local server feeds. I follow dozens of people that interest me, and that is it.
systemicdanna 4y ago
> You can hand-wave a lot of impossible moderation problems away just by not being so damn big Instance admins can certainly be more decisive and just ban anyone they want without causing a media storm. Not sure if that's what people meant when they asked for a Twitter alternative.

tomrod 4y ago

I finally joined yesterday to a niche (academic) community that is moving from Twitter. 18k migrants in the 30 hours since it opened up with virtually linear growth. I can search other similar niche communities and they are seeing similar growth. It's not seeming like much of a desert, and is just starting to benefit from network effects as some of the more known members of the community announce their moves.

OscarCunningham 4y ago
Right. I'm on the mathematics server https://mathstodon.xyz/ https://mathstodon.xyz/ and it's already feeling like a big community.
- arjvik 4y ago
  How do you get invited?
  - OscarCunningham 4y ago
    Existing users can generate an invite link: https://mathstodon.xyz/invite/5nKykTB6 https://mathstodon.xyz/invite/5nKykTB6 If it doesn't work then check back in a day or two, many servers are struggling at the moment but the mathstodon admins are scaling up now. Or you can join any other instance since any account can follow any other account regardless of instance. The main advantage of mathstodon is LaTeX support.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
earthscienceman 4y ago
What's the community of academics? I haven't joined Twitter specifically because I think it's a horrible medium for communicating science or meeting with academics. Can you point me there?
- detaro 4y ago
  Just from a quick look, no claim to completeness, intentionally including also small ones: https://fediscience.org/ https://fediscience.org/ https://vis.social/ https://vis.social/ https://mstdn.science/ https://mstdn.science/ https://astrodon.social/ https://astrodon.social/ https://mapstodon.space/ https://mapstodon.space/ currently not taking signups: https://scholar.social/ https://scholar.social/ https://scicomm.xyz/ https://scicomm.xyz/
  - notpushkin 4y ago
    https://qoto.org/ https://qoto.org/ is another really nice instance oriented on STEM. It adds some features like LaTeX and Markdown support (not sure how well do those federate though).
  - baq 4y ago
    How do I follow a server with an account on a different server? I don’t want to register on multiple servers since it’s a hassle…
    - detaro 4y ago
      not sure what you mean by "follow a server"? You can interact with/follow people on other servers from yours.
      - baq 4y ago
        That’s the thing, I don’t really want to find people to follow, I guess? Not out of band at least. First I need to find a few of their posts. How do I do that?
dhruvdh 4y ago
Could you share the name of the server?

pera 4y ago

> In practice it's still a desert. That's not true anymore: I am currently following over 100 academics and scientists who decided to migrate over the past week, they are very active and as a result my timeline is much more interesting and engaging than Twitter. I have never seen such a big exodus in my 25+ years online, this is historic.

tomrod 4y ago
Digg to Reddit comes to mind, but the quality of new material in Mastodon eclipses Twitter.

lrvick 4y ago

I have never cared to look at local server feeds. I follow dozens of people that interest me, and that is it.

systemicdanna 4y ago

> You can hand-wave a lot of impossible moderation problems away just by not being so damn big Instance admins can certainly be more decisive and just ban anyone they want without causing a media storm. Not sure if that's what people meant when they asked for a Twitter alternative.