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Twitter alternatives

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
Puppycow
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Jan 9, 2003
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I know that there's a thread about CounterSocial, but I don't want to limit the discussion to just one.

Apparently there's also something called Mastodon that is a sort of alternative to Twitter:

Boosted by Twitter drama, Mastodon reaches 1 million active monthly users

Germany-based Mastodon has experienced rapid growth since Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, with nearly half a million users joining the network since October 27. While a fraction of the size of Twitter’s 238 million daily active users, Mastodon’s user base remains on a steep upward trajectory, growing from 60-80 new user registrations per hour prior to October 27 to thousands of registrations per hour today.

Twitter’s controversial new ownership — and recent product changes — have supercharged Mastodon’s expansion. Some users say that they were inspired to switch to Mastodon over to concerns about how Twitter’s functionality may change under Musk’s control, while others joined as a form of protest against Twitter’s new paid verification scheme and Musk’s heavy-handed approach to moderating certain forms of satire.
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Could Mastodon Really Become a Social Media Mammoth?
Launched in 2017 following rumors that right-wing tech titan Peter Thiel wanted to purchase Twitter, Mastodon was crafted as a not-for-profit alternative with all the best parts of the bird app (fun and informative microblogging, smooth user feeds, room for personal customization) and none of the worst (a bizarre content algorithm, user data collection, weak moderation, loads of far-right trolls). Instead of a C-suite and centralized farm of servers, control of the open-source Mastodon is granted to myriad volunteers who run specialized servers that can host participants and interact with other servers. The platform also explicitly bans hate speech and neo-Nazis. Otherwise, server moderators have pretty broad leeway over how they’d like their communities to function. But Mastodon has never boasted more than a few hundred thousand dedicated users.
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Until now that is. Now its user base seems to be growing pretty fast.
I guess it's sort of a non-profit volunteer thing. A bit like Wikipedia.

Others:
Considering joining the Twitter migration? Check out these platform alternatives.

Jack Dorsey (Founder of Twitter) is apparently in the process of founding one too, called BlueSky. It's not out yet though.
 
Mastodon seems pretty good actually. I've heard it described as "what Twitter was like before it got popular".

I'm @arthwollipot@aus.social if you'd like to hang out.
 
I just signed up on Mastodon.

Bit of a learning curve, hard to find the people I follow on twitter. The newspapers and media that I follow either don't have much presence or I just can't find them.

Not too complicated, it'll just take a bit of time to get the hang of it.
 
crescent said:
I just signed up on Mastodon.

Bit of a learning curve, hard to find the people I follow on twitter. The newspapers and media that I follow either don't have much presence or I just can't find them.

Not too complicated, it'll just take a bit of time to get the hang of it.
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Have you tried Twitodon? It can help track people down.
 
I have signed up for Matodon and also Tribel. However, I was wondering how safe they are from malware?

I ask this, because not long ago I was daft enough to download a QR app, which turned out to be Chinese spyware which had access to all your details such as bank account passwords, so I uninstalled it. The stupid thing was, one's phone has a camera function that recognises QR codes so you don't need a QR app! _Doh!

I note with Mastodon you have to choose which network you connect to. I was surprised it was already showing a photo I received in WhatsApp before I had even opened the WhatsApp message myself, in the profile setting section. It didn't ask permission so I was a bit taken aback that it accessed all my google photos.

Should we be wary...?
 
catsmate said:
Have you tried Twitodon? It can help track people down.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try that.

The thing that got me into twitter in the first place was that if properly curated, Twitter can work as a pretty good news aggregator. Especially for fast moving local events that don't get a vast amount of rapidly updating news coverage. Like wildfires, for example.

You get wildfires near where you live, then Twitter is great for getting an idea of what's going on. Local sheriff's and fire departments posting, resident's posting, some pretty smart and dedicated mapping/GIS/Remote sensing geeks contributing. Much much better than just trying to use the TV news to or news websites to figure out of my parent's house is going to burn down, or if any of my coworkers have become homeless. Local things like that don't seem to attract a lot of trolls and bots and such so it works really well.

Mastodon isn't there yet for that sort of thing, but maybe it'll get there as more users migrate to it. Or maybe it is there but I'm just not bright enough to figure that part out.

Also I noticed that Mastodon is blocked by my office's VPN - can't check it during my breaks.
 
My "social media" needs are met more that adequately by this forum and Cosmoqest. And since they have vastly fewer users, that means vastly fewer idiots.
I did look at the Twitter for my electric utility a couple of times this past weekend to see if they were as incompetent on Twitter as they are at providing electricity. They are.
 
I wasn't using Twitter much. I used it a fair bit in the past. But I'm getting a bit into Mastodon.
 
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It's important to note that since Mastodon is open-source, there are a bunch of third-party apps that might work better for someone than the official default app. I'm on iPhone so I'm checking out this article, but there are alternatives for Android too.

ETA: that article I linked to is longer than my attention span so I lost interest.
 
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Wudang said:
View from some mastodon users about the exodus from twitter and cultural differences between the two. Please consider reading.

https://www.hughrundle.net/home-invasion/
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I did. And thank you for posting it. It looks like Mastodon and the Fediverse is far more my kind of place than what Twitter became. I enjoyed Twitter once, a long time ago, but it has since become a platform for self-promotion rather than a purely social space. I should have adopted Mastodon years ago.
 
I haven't tried any of the third-party apps yet. If I find that I want to do something that the default app can't handle, I'll look into it.
 
I am on Mastodon, but mostly to read. I have not got the hang of it yet, and unlike Twitter it is hard to follow people, and the famous people accounts also get very small numbers following. It does not display a string of posts.
 
Tero said:
I am on Mastodon, but mostly to read. I have not got the hang of it yet, and unlike Twitter it is hard to follow people, and the famous people accounts also get very small numbers following. It does not display a string of posts.
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It might be worth taking a look at some of the third-party apps, as the default app seems to be a bit limited.
 
From what I hear about it, the operability of Mastodon reminds me of Ello, and we know how that worked out.
 
I used to enjoy looking at what's trending on Twitter. But since the purchase it seems overwhelmingly negative. I don't even care about Elon Musk, but I spend much less time checking it out now than I used to.
 
gerdbonk said:
There's a LOT more "For You" and "You Might Like" posts in my feed that are overwhelmingly not for me nor what I might like.
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That's what turned me off big social media. Four thousand random friend requests, news I wouldn't ever seek and whatnot garbage..

The platform itself tried way too hard to be my best friend and my contacts had drifted off to other places.
 
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I'm seeing a lot of people now saying they are moving to Bluesky, so maybe that is now winning over Mastodon?
 
Bluesky has taken off in a big way over the last couple of weeks.

Far better than Mastadon and Threads.

I am spending as much time there as on Twitter now as people I follow and interact with are moving over.
 
I've seen some concerns about the funding of Bluesky, and of course that applies to any similar alternative - who is paying for it, and why? How long will that continue and will the nature of the service change as they need to start getting a return on their investment?
 
I decided to try Bluesky and quickly found some people I followed on Twitter - Chris Brookmyre, Carol Cadwalladr and one of the first posts I saw of hers was about how Bluesky's lead investor is a crypto comany founded by Bannom's ex-business partner. Sigh.
 
I'm trying Bluesky on an iPad, and the app is fixed in portrait mode, like an iPhone, which is rather pathetic.
 
Use your browser.

I only use the app on he phone, same with twitter.
 
1 million added in the last 27 hours apparently. Since the election it's jumped from around 6 million to 17 million and seems to have reached some kind of critical mass this week.
 
Wudang said:
I decided to try Bluesky and quickly found some people I followed on Twitter - Chris Brookmyre, Carol Cadwalladr and one of the first posts I saw of hers was about how Bluesky's lead investor is a crypto comany founded by Bannom's ex-business partner. Sigh.
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I can't find that last bit. Who is Bannom? (Steve Bannon?) And who is the ex-business partner?

The interesting thing is that Bluesky was founded, in part, by Twitter and is now forming up to be serious competition with them. Twitter cut all ties when Musk took over.

Personally I'm finding Bluesky useful. I am keeping my twitter account for now, it may be useful for getting on-going information regarding wildfires, which is an issue in my life. Most of the government agencies that manage fire are not yet on Bluesky and may not be for some time as they evaluate the service for security and such. Also many people who live in rural areas lean red and may be happy to stay on twitter and seek no alternatives; those people may live near such wildfire and can be a valuable source of information on fast-developing events.

ETA: Brock Pierce, got it. As best as I can tell he helped found Blockchain Capital (invested $15 mil into Bluesky), but he doesn't seem to be involved with the company any more. https://bsky.app/profile/proptermalone.bsky.social/post/3lavlwi2g7s2c
 
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Wudang said:
Carols post

bsky.app

Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla.bsky.social)

So y’all know that the lead investor in this place is a crypto company founded by Steve Bannon’s ex-business partner, right?
bsky.app bsky.app
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She's right in that Blockchain Capital invested in Bluesky.

But seems to be wrong about the implications of that.

Brock Pierce doesn't seem to have been involved with Blockchain Capital for seven years and running. He no longer has anything to do with the company nor its investment choices. He founded it back in the day, but he's been out for some time now.

Dave Karpf (@davekarpf.bsky.social)

Look I enjoy a good Brock Pierce story as much as anyone. But the list of companies that he helped launch and have nothing to do with him anymore is a mile long. He isn’t a secret mastermind. He’s crypto’s most colorful failson. [contains quote post or other embedded content]
bsky.app bsky.app

bsky.app

Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler.com)

I can see no evidence that Brock Pierce has has anything to do with Blockchain Capital LLC for many years. He is no longer listed on the company website or any of their materials. He is also not mentioned on their SEC form ADV which lists the owners and members of the fund. [contains quote post...
bsky.app bsky.app

bsky.app

Ed Bott (@edbott.com)

Finally, this post is inflammatory and, as far as I can tell, flat out wrong. My research shows Brock Pierce hasn't been involved with Blockchain Capital since at least 2017. And he's not a "Steve Bannon pal." He did a deal with Bannon at Goldman Sachs 18 years ago and got screwed.
bsky.app bsky.app
 
zooterkin said:
I've seen some concerns about the funding of Bluesky, and of course that applies to any similar alternative - who is paying for it, and why? How long will that continue and will the nature of the service change as they need to start getting a return on their investment?
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I would imagine in the beginning, the paramount objective is to increase the number of users, not to immediately try to turn a profit. If someday it becomes a viable alternative to Twitter, then they will be able to think about how to make money off it. (The "why" I assume is the same as for any other social media platform.)

I went ahead and signed up. @anaxagoras17.bsky.social
 
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