{"id":29675,"date":"2017-04-10T18:01:21","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T10:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=29675"},"modified":"2019-04-11T21:35:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T13:35:52","slug":"mastodon-social-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/mastodon-social-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastodon: Like Twitter, But Much Cooler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been a longtime Twitter user, chances are good that you\u2019re familiar with some of <strong>Twitter\u2019s more\u2026unnecessary changes<\/strong>. While many of us have decided to stick with Twitter for the time being, a 24-year old German named Eugene Rochko decided to take matters into his own hands to develop a <strong>\"better\"<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/things-twitter-can-learn-from-sina-weibo\/\">version of Twitter<\/a>. This <strong>decision has resulted in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.social\/about\">Mastodon<\/a>, an open-source social network<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Named after a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mastodonrocks.com\/\">metal band<\/a> that Rochko enjoys, Mastodon as a whole looks <strong>functionally identical to Twitter at first glance<\/strong>. However, there are a few key differences that separates Mastodon and Twitter. For starters, posts in Mastodon have a <strong>500-character limit, far surpassing Twitter\u2019s 140-character limit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"recommended_top\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Read Also:<\/strong>\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/free-online-tools-to-spice-up-twitter-background\/\">10+ Tools to Create Twitter Headers and Backgrounds<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/mastodon-social-network\/01-character-limit.jpg\" width=\"1318\" height=\"941\" alt=\"character limit\"><\/figure>\n<p>Secondly, <strong>Mastodon isn\u2019t designed to be a unified service<\/strong>. Unlike Twitter, the way Mastodon is built means that anyone who is interested can choose to<strong> host their own Mastodon servers<\/strong> which are referred to as <strong>Instances<\/strong>. A list of Mastodon Instances can be found <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/instances.social\/\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/mastodon-social-network\/02-instances-list.jpg\" width=\"900\" height=\"515\" alt=\"instances list\"><\/figure>\n<p>Apart from these two differences, <strong>Mastodon as a whole operates like a vanilla version of Twitter<\/strong>, with the post feed being sorted chronologically and a replies system that utilises the <strong>\"@username\"<\/strong> system.<\/p>\n<p>Another interesting thing to note about Mastodon is that it has a set of rules and guidelines that<strong> explicitly informs users what they can and can\u2019t do<\/strong> on the platform, something that Twitter is constantly criticized for.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/mastodon-social-network\/03-guidance.jpg\" width=\"531\" height=\"613\" alt=\"guidance\"><\/figure>\n<p>The open-source nature of <strong>Mastodon is also a great boon to developers who are interested in the service<\/strong>. Thanks to the service\u2019s use of an open API, developers are able to build apps for Mastodon. Furthermore, those who aren\u2019t big fans of ads on Twitter would be glad to know that <strong>Mastodon does not contain any advertising<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of writing, <strong>Mastodon\u2019s main Instance currently has 41,703 users<\/strong>. Unfortunately, those looking to join Mastodon main Instance won\u2019t be able to do so as r<strong>egistrations are closed in order to ensure the quality of service<\/strong> for existing users. That being said, those who wish to try out Mastodon can opt to join one of the many other Instances of this new social network service.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/mastodon-social-network\/04-closed-registration.jpg\" width=\"633\" height=\"315\" alt=\"closed registration\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"recommended_top\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Read Also:<\/strong>\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/twitter-tips-tricks\/\">9 Twitter Tips You Should Already Know<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve been a longtime Twitter user, chances are good that you\u2019re familiar with some of Twitter\u2019s more\u2026unnecessary changes. While many of us have decided to stick with Twitter for the time being, a 24-year old German named Eugene Rochko decided to take matters into his own hands to develop a &#8220;better&#8221; version of Twitter.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3409],"tags":[166],"topic":[4523],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mastodon: Like Twitter, But Much Cooler - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you&#039;ve been a longtime Twitter user, chances are good that you&#039;re familiar with some of Twitter&#039;s more...unnecessary changes. While many of us have\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/mastodon-social-network\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastodon: Like Twitter, But Much Cooler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you&#039;ve been a longtime Twitter user, chances are good that you&#039;re familiar with some of Twitter&#039;s more...unnecessary changes. While many of us have\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/mastodon-social-network\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hongkiatcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-04-10T10:01:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-11T13:35:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/mastodon-social-network\/01-character-limit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hongkiat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sia\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/25661c0ca5beef807a38c0d038894641\"},\"headline\":\"Mastodon: Like Twitter, But Much Cooler\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T10:01:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-11T13:35:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":375,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/assets.hongkiat.com\\\/uploads\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/01-character-limit.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Twitter\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Social Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mastodon: Like Twitter, But Much Cooler - Hongkiat\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hongkiat.com\\\/blog\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/assets.hongkiat.com\\\/uploads\\\/mastodon-social-network\\\/01-character-limit.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-04-10T10:01:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-11T13:35:52+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you've been a longtime Twitter user, chances are good that you're familiar with some of Twitter's more...unnecessary changes. 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