Towards the end of last year I created a Mastodon account. I was previously using Twitter to keep up to date with folks who interest me, but I had no following and I rarely shared anything on the platform. After Mr. Elon Musk seized control of the bird, many users jumped shipped after the way he handled various transitional events.
Personally, I think Elon is probably going to turn out to be one of the most significant people of the early 21st century, and I truly believe he is a visionary. He’s also a total dick and I feel truly sorry for those who were at the receiving end of his childish man-tantrums when he took over Twitter. This includes both former employees, and developers of third-party Twitter clients relying on the API that was switched off overnight with absolutely no warning or proper communication. In short; whilst I’m not a fan of how Musk treats his fellow humans (although he probably doesn’t consider himself human) - I certainly don’t despise the man, and in fact I draw parallels to other leaders that I find inspiring and they share many of his flaws. Unlike myself, the tech community on Twitter were clearly abhorred by his behaviour, and most of the most prominent members moved to Mastodon.
So if I love to defend Elon, why did I move to Mastodon?
It’s worth nothing that tech isn’t the only community I followed on Twitter. I used the service to touch base with conversations around tech, music, cars, and Doctor Who. My biggest loves. As it stands, the only one of these communities that are active in force on Mastodon are the tech folks*. Am I missing out by leaving Twitter? Not really - I can still check the app if I so wish or get my news from elsewhere. It doesn’t have to be so binary. Whilst I consider my limited microblogging presence to be Mastodon, I can still dip into Twitter when I so wish.
There are downsides of course, Mastodon is a bit weird, there’s no escaping that. The federated aspect is a bit of a mindfuck and as ‘techy’ as I am, the ease-of-use isn’t quite at the levels Twitter offered. There’s also the question of which instance one should join. I ended up on mstdn.social because I thought I was signing up to mastodon.social… I was not. Now, in theory it doesn’t matter which instance you are apart of, other than your username. However, by the time I realised my mistake, mastodon.social were no longer accepting new accounts (I’m still not clear why but one can only assume a huge influx of Twitter refugees were something to do with it). In the months since, I have managed to reserve a handle on mastodon.social, but I am hesitant to migrate as I will lose my post history - which I’m already precious about, for no other reason than one day I will look back at these posts and have absolutely no nostalgia for them at all, but at one point I thought I would. That point is now. Still with me?
If mstdn.social ever crumbles or mastodon.social gains some kind of competitive advantage in the fedi-verse (which I suspect it could) I will be ready with my handle and will migrate over and start again. I’m prepared, but these are simply things you don’t have to worry about when existing on a centralised social network.
The tech community is my biggest passion, and I will go where they go - but at the end of the day why have I moved to Mastodon? Because it’s new, and new is always better. It might not stand the test of time, but trying the new hotness is always the way to go, because if you don’t embrace the new, you’ll be stuck in the past forever. I’m using Ivory by Tapbots as my iOS Mastodon client, not particularly because I had any affinity for Tweetbot (I used the first-party Twitter app), but because it’s genuinely a really nice app - and when learning a new platform, it’s a great opportunity to mould one’s lizard brain and take advantage of any new client that might come one’s way.
Mastodon might turn out to be shit, but at least I managed to get a decent username.
Go follow me.
:))
*Or at least that I have found so far. If you know of any of these communities thriving on Mastodon - please let me know!