What is Mastodon? Mastodon was founded in 2016 by German software developer Eugen Rochko. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or any other popular social media site, Mastodon is a non-profit, meaning that, ideally, its goal is to benefit the public, rather than shareholders.
Twitter was founded in 2006 and rapidly grew in popularity. In 2012, however, Twitter began to make changes that many users didn’t like, including replacing the reverse chronological timeline with an algorithm that promotes tweets it thinks users will want to see. This change was met with a lot of backlash, and people began to look for alternatives to Twitter.
Mastodon is one of the most popular Twitter alternatives, and it’s easy to see why. It has a lot of the same features as Twitter, but it also has some key differences that make it a more appealing option for those who are unhappy with Twitter.
For one, Mastodon is an open-source platform, which means that anyone can contribute to its development. This is in contrast to Twitter, which is a closed platform.
Another key difference is that Mastodon is decentralized, while Twitter is centralized. This means that there is no single company or entity in control of Mastodon. Instead, it is run by a network of independent servers, each of which is run by a different person or organization.
This decentralization has a number of advantages. For one, it makes Mastodon less susceptible to censorship. If one server decides to censor certain content, users can simply switch to a different server.
It also makes Mastodon more resilient to outages. If one server goes down, the others can keep the platform running.
Finally, decentralization means that Mastodon is owned and controlled by its users, rather than by a single company. This makes it a more democratic platform, and it gives users a greater say in its direction.
All of these factors make Mastodon a more appealing option for those who are unhappy with Twitter. And as more and more Twitter users become dissatisfied with the direction the platform is going, it’s likely that even more will switch to Mastodon.
