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For those wondering about how to sign up to mastodon and what server to pick: It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally

For those wondering about how to sign up to mastodon and what server to pick: It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally they are interoperable. You can read users from anywhere, and follow from anywhere. Better yet, it's fairly easy to move your account from one server to another if you don't like it. Your best bet is some of the bigger second-tier servers (ones that have thousands but not hundreds of thousands of users) because they aren't as heavily loaded. https://instances.social/ https://instances.social/ https://github.com/McKael/mastodon-documentation/blob/master/Using-Mastodon/List-of-Mastodon-instances.md https://github.com/McKael/mastodon-documentation/blob/master...

haunter 4y ago
> It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally they are interoperable. Disagree. Mastodon servers can be all over the place from politics to hobbies to tech. It’s not like an email handle at all your choice _matters_ because others moderate the server and who you can connect with. Self hosting is the only way to go with Mastodon (costs the same as Twitter Blue btw if you don’t want to do your own)
- barathr 4y ago
  Yes that's true in terms of the local feeds, but in terms of getting one's feet wet it's fine. For HN users, this is one among many reasonable tech-oriented choices: https://techhub.social https://techhub.social Here are a couple that are infosec oriented: https://infosec.exchange https://infosec.exchange https://ioc.exchange/ https://ioc.exchange/
rglullis 4y ago
> Your best bet is some of the bigger second-tier servers. Until they get overloaded, and face the same issues as the "first tier" ones... I know that what I am about to say is out of personal interest, but I really wish people took the analogy to email servers more seriously and started looking at commercial providers. I'm offering Mastodon services for about $0.50/user/month [0], and I have the infra to host 20-30k users efficiently. For this type of case, there is nothing more sustainable, fair and efficient than letting the market figure things out. But if we keep thinking that accounts should be offered for free, there will be always market distortions. [0] https://communick.com/packages https://communick.com/packages
- ahepp 4y ago
  Is there a way for me to export if I decide to self host later? I don't have the time to set up a Mastodon server right now, but part of the appeal of Mastodon is having more control over my data.
  - barathr 4y ago
    Yes, you can export, and most servers will put up a helpful forward pointer once you move your account so people see where your new profile is. I haven't tried it but others who have seem to keep all their followers / following seamlessly.
  - rglullis 4y ago
    Yes, you can export your data to any new server and you can even redirect your followers to your new identity. You´d only have trouble if the instance admin blocks your account before you get to do any of that, but for anything like that to happen you'd have to have done something truly egregious and/or your admin is one shitty, petty person.
  - orwin 4y ago
    Yes, there is a button to export all your data as csv. Honestly, i think something better can be done around the Activitypub protocol than mastodon. And i'm not a social media guy, so i will wait until someting better is built.
- dopidopHN 4y ago
  I created my twitter account when sending tweet via text was still a thing. Never really used it, so I'm not the right demographic. But I do think your approach is the right one. I hope you succeed a breaking even and generate a margin for your time.
  - rglullis 4y ago
    Thank you for your kind words. If Twitter/Mastodon is not what you need, perhaps I could interest you in my hosted XMPP and Matrix offerings?
krick 4y ago
But is there something, like, serving as a bridge to Twitter and stuff? I'm really uneducated in this stuff, I don't have an account neither on Twitter, nor on Mastodon, and I don't really understand, what people do on Twitter. For me, the only reason I ever wanted to join Twitter (but not strongly enough for me to type in my phone number) is being subscribed to all these celebrities like Musk, Kanye West or whoever is the most popular ATM, just to cut out one link in the chain and seeing that stuff before it appears in the news anyway.
granzymes 4y ago
Just be careful to choose a reputable server, because the moderators will be able to read your DMs.
- barathr 4y ago
  I think DMs should be treated as semi-public on any platform without end-to-end encryption and a method for verifying keys of who you're DMing. So not really that different than Twitter, Facebook, and many others.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

haunter 4y ago

> It's like picking an email server. They all have their differences, but generally they are interoperable. Disagree. Mastodon servers can be all over the place from politics to hobbies to tech. It’s not like an email handle at all your choice _matters_ because others moderate the server and who you can connect with. Self hosting is the only way to go with Mastodon (costs the same as Twitter Blue btw if you don’t want to do your own)

barathr 4y ago
Yes that's true in terms of the local feeds, but in terms of getting one's feet wet it's fine. For HN users, this is one among many reasonable tech-oriented choices: https://techhub.social https://techhub.social Here are a couple that are infosec oriented: https://infosec.exchange https://infosec.exchange https://ioc.exchange/ https://ioc.exchange/

rglullis 4y ago

> Your best bet is some of the bigger second-tier servers. Until they get overloaded, and face the same issues as the "first tier" ones... I know that what I am about to say is out of personal interest, but I really wish people took the analogy to email servers more seriously and started looking at commercial providers. I'm offering Mastodon services for about $0.50/user/month [0], and I have the infra to host 20-30k users efficiently. For this type of case, there is nothing more sustainable, fair and efficient than letting the market figure things out. But if we keep thinking that accounts should be offered for free, there will be always market distortions. [0] https://communick.com/packages https://communick.com/packages

ahepp 4y ago
Is there a way for me to export if I decide to self host later? I don't have the time to set up a Mastodon server right now, but part of the appeal of Mastodon is having more control over my data.
- barathr 4y ago
  Yes, you can export, and most servers will put up a helpful forward pointer once you move your account so people see where your new profile is. I haven't tried it but others who have seem to keep all their followers / following seamlessly.
- rglullis 4y ago
  Yes, you can export your data to any new server and you can even redirect your followers to your new identity. You´d only have trouble if the instance admin blocks your account before you get to do any of that, but for anything like that to happen you'd have to have done something truly egregious and/or your admin is one shitty, petty person.
- orwin 4y ago
  Yes, there is a button to export all your data as csv. Honestly, i think something better can be done around the Activitypub protocol than mastodon. And i'm not a social media guy, so i will wait until someting better is built.
dopidopHN 4y ago
I created my twitter account when sending tweet via text was still a thing. Never really used it, so I'm not the right demographic. But I do think your approach is the right one. I hope you succeed a breaking even and generate a margin for your time.
- rglullis 4y ago
  Thank you for your kind words. If Twitter/Mastodon is not what you need, perhaps I could interest you in my hosted XMPP and Matrix offerings?

krick 4y ago

But is there something, like, serving as a bridge to Twitter and stuff? I'm really uneducated in this stuff, I don't have an account neither on Twitter, nor on Mastodon, and I don't really understand, what people do on Twitter. For me, the only reason I ever wanted to join Twitter (but not strongly enough for me to type in my phone number) is being subscribed to all these celebrities like Musk, Kanye West or whoever is the most popular ATM, just to cut out one link in the chain and seeing that stuff before it appears in the news anyway.

granzymes 4y ago

Just be careful to choose a reputable server, because the moderators will be able to read your DMs.

barathr 4y ago
I think DMs should be treated as semi-public on any platform without end-to-end encryption and a method for verifying keys of who you're DMing. So not really that different than Twitter, Facebook, and many others.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]