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Toot Ya Later, Elon: Introduction to Mastodon

Introduction to Mastodon for BLAIS staff, August 2023, by Jenna Freedman

Introduction

collage of a clip art mastodon looking at Elon Musk in a tux, who appears nervousMastodon

is a social media alternative to X (Twitter), which, ICYMI is more of a garbage fire every day

This introduction will go over things like

  • instances
  • view
  • toots
  • alt text
  • private messages
  • hashtags
  • feeds

but not

  • the fediverse is like email
  • details about the fediverse in general

maybe

  • moderation and free speech absolutism
  • intro to Bluesky, if there's time

Rationale

screenshot of a chart that compares Twitter, Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/07/twitter-is-burning-bluesky-is-smug-where-is-the-best-place-to-do-your-pathetic-doomscrolling