Hi, if you're thinking of evacuating to Mastodon before the boy genius destroys this place entirely, I thought I'd write you a survival guide, just to manage your expectations.

<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: Hi, if you're thinking of evacuating to Mastodon before the boy genius destroys this place entirely, I thought I'd write you a survival guide, just to manage your expectations.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: First and foremost: it looks a lot like Twitter at first glance but it isn't, for better and usually for worse. Don't be fooled by the familiar look into thinking you're going to have a similar experience.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: They'll tell you to choose a server based on your interests or community affiliations. Masto servers as communities are largely a conceit, don't listen to this. Pick a server based on how much you trust the admins to #1 keep it running, and #2 moderate it well.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: The latter point is particularly important, because there's no centralised authority to appeal to for moderation. It's a federated network with nobody in charge, and it includes such interesting neighbours as Gab and Truth Social. Moderation is going to be on you and your admin.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: Anyone telling you what Masto culture is like and how you should behave to fit in is lying. Doesn't matter if they wrote a tutorial or if they're in your mentions lecturing you. The fediverse doesn't have a single uniform culture, there's a node for everyone. (See above re: Gab.)

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: Because of all this, it's more important than ever to avoid the temptation to argue your position with people who get in your mentions to be Wrong on the Internet. Block early, block generously, block entire servers when they look a bit dubious. Do it for your mental health.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: But is it wise to block and move on? Usually not. Unfortunately, it's probably your only recourse. Welcome to the fediverse. It's not perfect. It's not even Twitter, in a lot of ways.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: Ok, I've painted a somewhat grim picture so far and you might be thinking this doesn't sound so great. It's not, honestly, but I'll give you some reasons why you might want to do it anyway.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: A lot of people get lucky and find the right community there and fit in immediately. Personally, I've had no such luck in 6 years in the fediverse. I've been watching in dismay from the sidelines for all that time and it's just gotten worse, from my perspective.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: But here's the thing: this time Twitter is possibly facing an existential threat. It's not a question of "is masto better than Twitter for me," it's "can I back up most of my social graph over there before the Twitter data centres shut down and never fully come back up?"

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: And, while the fediverse has its problems, social and technical, I think it's probably the best option we have for addressing that problem. Falling back to masto and regrouping while looking for the next big thing seems entirely credible. I don't know that any other option does.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: And here's another thing that's happening over there right now: a shocking amount of people, vastly outnumbering the old time mastodonians, have just evacuated there from Twitter, and if there was anything like "masto culture" before, it's being examined and reconsidered.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: See above: Masto culture is a lie. If you go there and find the culture rubs you the wrong way, if you've tried it in the past and had bad experiences, be patient: I suspect it'll be a completely different place by next week.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: Or, rather, we talk of Mastodon but that's another lie: Mastodon is just one implementation of a fediverse node, it's not the whole network. There's not even much cultural uniformity between nodes actually running Mastodon, there's just a consistency of implementation.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: For instance, people coming from Twitter immediately miss quote tweets. That's a design decision in Mastodon, which is not necessarily shared by other ActivityPub implementations such as Misskey. Other impls like Lemmy and Pixelfed aren't even microblogging platforms.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: The point I'm meandering towards is that there's room in the fediverse (and oh god how that name makes me cringe, but ok) for everyone and everything. There's room for the old mastodonians to carry on their various little cultures, and there's room for those who miss Twitter.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: But even if you're still skeptical that it's ever going to replace Twitter (and I'm generally with you, even though I'm feeling foolishly hopeful atm), I'm p sure it's the best option around right now just for preserving at least a partial social graph for whatever comes next.

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<aside> <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" alt="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1475881433029820419/RJZJ8b0Q_400x400.jpg" width="40px" /> Bodil, all her apes gone @bodil: So that's why I, as a long time Mastodon detractor, think you should probably join Mastodon right now. Just to be on the safe side.

I'm @[email protected] lol.camp/bodil over there, by the way.

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