Mastodon App: The Social Media Alternative to Twitter? | WSJ Tech News Briefing
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- čas přidán 9. 11. 2022
- More than half a million users have signed up for the microblogging site Mastodon since Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk. But what is it like to use the site? And could it be a real alternative to Twitter?
WSJ Senior Personal Tech Columnist Joanna Stern joins host Zoe Thomas to discuss how to sign up for and use Mastodon.
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Everything about Mastodon is exactly as complicated as email. You have to pick a "server" for your email. You have to trust the people who run your server to keep it up and have backups.
I think this is the right analogy. The Mastodon instance you join doesn't (for the most part) affect the content you can see, just as the email provider you use doesn't affect who you can send emails to. The instances all communicate with each other, so you can see activity across the network (although instances can block each other). When choosing an instance, you should look for: trustworthiness, good moderation, reliable service, and longevity. Choosing an instance based on a topic doesn't make much sense in my view.
Sounds like bull....
wow that's so simple!
@@gmr2gnr what do you not understand?
@@Hypernerdwithcam Yeah I roughly understand now. Had to read up on it 🤷🏻♀️ no instances interest me at the moment though
Mastodon is nowhere near as complicated as everyone makes it out to be, and all the "it's so difficult to figure out" talk from tech journalists is really just helping Elon Musk and Zuckerberg. Here's the easiest analogy. Imagine if your friends are on Instagram, your family is on Facebook, and your favorite public figures are on Twitter and you have an account on CZcams, and you all can communicate, like, follow, and everything without having to also have a profile on every single one of these platforms.
It’s the picking of a server that causes so much angst. It makes the sign up process a lot harder, because users are presented with quite a large decision right off the bat.
Yes that analogy let me understand more thank you crazy Dave. May your plants protect you from the zombies
Well said. People need to be more smart and use their brains. If signing up for something is a challenge then the people in society shouldn’t be able to have a voice, I mean how dumb can you be.
@@jrallday it's not cause they don't have the brains to do it, it's that there are a million other things they rather do than go through hoops just to sign up for some app.
Everyone thinks the fediverse is complicated, it's really simple if you compare it to email.
don't forget to thing big
if there is an automatic translation it could translate everything wrong
if you don't know about this issue you thing it's a real statement and maybe like to judge it...and so on...
noone still says
hello
and
have a nice day
by now so...hugh...
Mastodon reminds me of the early days of Twitter. Big big fan.
I think it's the novelty of being an early adopter. Early days of FB is fun too.
Early days of Google+, in my case. Except that there is no central company that can shut it down.
I remember looking at twitter that first day with the world map and ppl tweeting. It was so hopeful.
Mastodon sounds pretty easy.
@RY.G 😂
🤔👊🔥✌💫
Thanks for this. Super helpful and great learning as always :)
I like the decentralized nature of it, no one owns it, no adds, community based
It's funny cause Mastodon was originally supposed to be an alternate to Tumblr.
That explains its triggered moderation
Good content! It was just a bit superficial as it could've gone more into the details with how the "Fediverse" works and how different servers are moderated differently.
Am going to try Mastadon. My experience on Twitter has become unbearably bad.
It is not clear whether a user who creates a server on Mastodon 'for a hobby' must enter an IP address to a physical server box. (ie: is 'server' just a term Mastodon picked up for its use or is it an actual server?) If no IP address is needed, is all data decentralized like blockchain or something?
CZcams is a S-tier Social Media Platform - MKBHD
Two of my favorite reporters from WSJ! ♥
Fascinating idea! Thank you Zoe for reporting on such a relevant topic given all that's happening with Twitter. I pay for a WSJ subscription but honestly your free youtube content gives me more value :)
L😊😢
Wish somebody make almost identical Twitter. Just like messengers are identical just with different colors. Data archive and share law is needed so to move between platforms by consumer choice be easier.
mastodon is really easy
@@ivan2894 No it's not.
@@DamienAshorTV yes it is
Finally freedom of speech on Twitter without left wing BS. 👊
@@robbiesharp311 Twitter is now a cesspool rife with bots, rightist disinformation and gastlit reactionaries spreading nonsensical conspiracy theories.
Can one say that it’s like email?
Greatly appreciated didn’t think I’d want to leave twitter until 3rd party apps were banned this week
It's just an extra click, it not "complicated". Pick 'any' provider, as you can jump to another provider at any time. There is a 'Migrate' button that just changes your "address". Your follows/ers and messages are all kept. It's built right in, and part of "freedom" from tyranny.
I just joined Mastodon and am hopeful. I hope that the influx of Twitter users won’t change the culture of Mastodon as it’s a much more respectful and peaceful place. You can see those who haven’t left their Twitter selves behind posting random things and not having a conversation. I’ve found Mastodon is a lot about having conversations like with a real group of friends.
so, tell me how it's different than Discord or Reddit?
is it Discord or Reddit with twitter like content format?
@@jensenraylight8011 its more like email servers but open like twitter, email is not all owned by google, discord is owned by discord and reddit by reddit. and with mastodon you can also interect with other non mastodon servers like peertube and pixelfed and others. its like having a account on twitter and seeing posts from accounts on instagram or youtube in the time line. so diferent server software works togeter with a open protecol
Each servers have rules if you don't follow them, you get banned. Servers who don't want far-right fear mongering stuff just ban connections to servers that host it.
@@jensenraylight8011 because reddit moderators are idiots these days and you get banned even for saying what you see in a posted video or if you don't like a specific movie. From my understanding there is no single moderator on mastodont and there is no idiot frustrated admin overloard that can ban you, but a community makes that decision. I was on reddit for many years and what is now is closer to twitter then ever, probably most of the crazy moderators elon fired gone to reddit now.
@@jensenraylight8011 is run by central server . Companies take your data , censorship etc ... Decentralized is not. Run by nodes and the community
Why is it made so that the server owner can see my private messages? Why is it not encrypted or something? **Hard** pass for me
Does it have blood and thunder tho?
The main server which houses 90% of users is significantly more censored than any other social media platform.
This was helpful
Lack of functional search makes it hard to use
I was waiting for this.
Hope these app doesn't get ruined
the messages on the servers do not seem to be encrypted… 😢
jeah
keep it simple
It's supposed to be public. There are basically no private messages there.
It really is not that difficult. The average person will pick it up within a few days. Yes, to get to grips with all aspects will take much longer but from signing up you can be following people within minutes and 'tooting' to your hearts content.
It sounds exactly like joining Facebook groups with different interests, specific rules, moderators and a creator.
Mastodon is great in concept, but I don’t think the clients are quite up to snuff yet. Your mileage may vary. Hopefully they improve. That being said, Mastodon is super easy. You just have to take 10 minutes to read about how it works. Is that so hard? People spend 100s of hours on social media, but can’t be bothered to take 10 minutes to learn how to use a new platform. Yikes.
Self hosting your social media should only take a phone that is connected to internet. Someone make this happen? :D
yes and no. 😅 If you watched silicon valley the show. that is what needed . the piper compression algorithm to be able to do this 😅. its actually being done by some company but it uses desktop PCs. 😅 its somewhat realistic and un realistic at the same time. 😂
grazie
Subscribed
Main stream media is scared.....
Zoe Thomas is back!
Note to anyone switching to mastodon -- it's not a hugbox, isn't monitored by a "trust and safety council," and won't ban people for hurting your feelings. Have fun!
That was interesting.
too complex for everyday users...
Ok so it’s Amino… it’s just amino without fandoms
Thank you. I just downloaded mastodon and I Love it!!!
Which part?
Guys the stock market knew beforehand the CPI numbers would be low (and surged of course), the MACD positioned itself in the Futures markets. On 10/13, 10/21, and 11/10 it shows the same MACD Futures pattern before markets surged those days. I discussed this last night
Mastodon is now kind of political hype against Elon but in reality doesn't have bigger future.
@@TsarFrancisDrake Mastodon allows people to join communities based on their own interests. So only people looking for political stuff will find it filling up their stream.
The fact that the server operator can see my messages "if he wanted to" gives me chills and that's a deal breaker for me
Twitter can see your messages any time too.
And the mastodon server operator would literally have to modify the code to see them. There is no built in mechanism for moderators to view messages on mastodon.
@@hypermug1 big difference, you know who has your information on places like twitter and facebook, and you know they will only use it to sell you advertisments, because thats all we are now, cash cows.. on masterdon, you have no idea who controls the server, or what thier intentions are, they could be selling your details to spammers and scammers for all you know, if they are just hobbyists, then they are not beholding to any coperate data laws and the like, no checks or balances
Don't use mastodon for messages, it's not meant for that. Messages aren't end to end encrypted either.
It's twitter without all the fluff. I love it because it's social media at its most pure and basic form. Unlike twitter where the average voice is drowned out by the extremes, there's no algorithm pushing your posts to others. If people like your post, they boost it, spreading it to others. It's such a basic concept but so effective
@@zeccy337what are you using mastodon for if you don’t mind
That's the same as Twitter, FYI. Elon can see your DMs, and (unlike Mastodon admins) he HAS forced himself into people's accounts before and taken them over without their consent-- including mine.
This just created a giant echo chamber
0:14 once i heard decentralised i immidiately know its gonna flop
This decentralization isn't in any way related to cryptocurrency or blockchain btw, that stuff have ruined the word.
has e-mail flopt, its like email not like crypto
I got signed up ok, but I can't get signed in on the IOS app, it constantly tells me my password or email address isn't valid! I've given up.
How is that different from Reddit?
Same as how is it different from Twitter:
This is not controlled by a company, instead is controlled by the users.
@@technolus5742 I think it's just 1 user. The person who paid the domain registrar and server monthly fee 🤷🏻♀️ similar to Reddit that single person is the Moderator and he set the rules
This is so complicated 🤣 🤣 🤣
No way!!! I'm going back to Twitter, yep!
Good , see you ...
If you want to be totally private you can set up your own server.
My own ? Or your own in mostodon?
Saying Mastodon is too hard haha
Elan M works for the kabal so this app sounds really good right now!👏👍
Decentralised social media is a the future, power to the users not the platforms
as far as the last point regarding DMs, couldn't they be encrypted?
They’re mostly done implementing that feature
@@dd884e5d8a Not yet but I think they said they are planning on it
You people really can’t let it go. Sad. I have never had a Twitter and I haven’t had social media since 2011. Haven’t missed any of it for a second. I use a little CZcams and that’s it. Living a good life and it makes me sad people are so addicted to meaningless nonsense.
You know what makes this absolutely hilarious... watching these young folks rediscover usenet/irc.... with all the negatives that entailed.
Thanks for this. Sound suspicious. I don’t use social media and I won’t use Mastodon either
Why does it sound suspicious?
@@technolus5742 wouldn't be better for a user to use a company's social media app with all your information like password, email, dm's that you can legally hold against (twitter) rather than some dude on some random country?
@@isaacsspace404 That dude can be you yourself, if you don't trust others.
Or you can pick a well known server in your country. Or you can rent easy hosting solution from a company that can also be held accountable.
All that, while having much more power than you would have against a tech giant (both in decision making and in economic power reflected in the ability to go to court and have a fair fight).
Dude you are on CZcams so you clearly use social media 🤣🤣.
@@fjellyo3261 its amazing how many people can't put 2 and 2 together and don't see youtube as social media
So....Its not too complicated to understand if you used mIRC in the 90's - Agree?
So complicated compared to just sending a tweet.
Seems to me that as smart phones and laptops get more powerful, the app could double as a server for everyone so that people would host their own information except for the messages they send to other people.
you sort of can do that now, but you need a linux phone and have a ip address that does not change, and your phone needs to be alwase on to surf the info to and from other servers. and more probelems. try running apache http server on a phone and host a static site, maby that will just work
@@Philonix there is software you can install on a PC and most likely where for a fix amount a month you get a public address regardless of what your changing IP address is on the Internet.
Back in the FidoNet BBS days in the 1980's and in the Usenet days, there were offline readers that would download update packets when the user would connect (via modem). The user would upload his send packet of messages (if applicable) and download the messages from the newsgroups he was subscribed to.
This was done, because there was so many hours in a day where you could remain connected to your Internet provider. The modems were also very slow 2400 bps and eventually a bit faster to 57K By compressing the packets with Zip or ARJ you could maximize your use of the available bandwith.
Such a mechanism of packets could be useful for example for someone who works on a ship and has limited Internet connectivity or a limit on upload/download.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation have their own instance running on a Pi, so as long as you only allow family / friends to use your instance, the system requirements aren't that onerous. Unlike the owner of the server I'm on, who's temporarily paused registrations a few times over the past week as it grew from around 36k users to 50k, then another 15k signed up today alone!
The days of Twitter demise can’t come soon enough
yeah, that platform is extremely complicated, terrible ux
I don’t understand one thing. The reason people are leaving Twitter is that they are scared that Elon is going to give some of the extreme right voice.
How is mastodon helping them?
True. That's a legitimate issue.
Mastodon allows for moderation and endorses servers that are good examples of moderation, it just happens to be optional.
@@technolus5742 So... People want censorship and security. Live in a bubble.
Thats not good.
Extreme right: "Girls don't have penises"
🤦🏼♂️ how very "extreme" of them
No idea 🤷🏻♀️ Both extreme right and left would register their own @domains on mastodon, keep to their own bubble and never interact.
@@Devin7Eleven People generally don't want lies and hatred to be spread. Hate speach and calls to violence are literally illegal. That doesn't make for a bubble, as topics and awareness of them is still openly discussed simply without endorsing them. In fact moderation seems to prevent bubbles, and lack of it has helped them grow.
❤
I don’t understand a thing, is that platform so complex or maybe I am such …
Interesting sounds like discord or even reddit
Nah, discord is one single company, and its "servers" are simply isolated messaging groups.
Mastodon is run by any number of randos, and the servers are actual servers (content receivers and emitters) and all communicate with eachother.
People have been comparing it with email, which makes for a good analogy.
In other words, its going to have a cancerous toxic community engaging in group think and anybody who doesn't follow the status quo gets down voted into oblivion.
your phone should be the server. 😅
No privacy? that is the main point.
It's an app to make public posts lmao
we will messup this messageingsystem soon, too
what's difference between reddit and mastodon ?
Reddit runs the servers.
Twitter runs the servers.
Users run the servers with Mastodon.
Reddit says what is allowed on the platform.
Twitter says what's is allowed on the platform.
You say what is allowed for you in Mastodon.
Reddit can ban you.
Twitter can ban you.
Mastodon can't ban you.
U seem clueless
@@Moodboard39 the excat word on my gravestone
So basically a more complicated Reddit
Sooooooo its reddit?
What if the servers are in a country that's hostile to America or even if the server is based out of a 'friendly' nation, what if the ownership changes and it's bought out by someone from a hostile country?
If you don't like the many servers in every continent, you can still host your own.
Cringe username
You can migrate to another server that is friendlier to you. There are thousands to choose from!
There are built-in tools to migrate your account to another server - server hopping isn't unheard of, usually because someone's found the community on another server more in tune with them.
Note, however, that most servers are run by hobbyists, so as long as they can afford the hosting and maintenance time (they often have Ko-Fi or Patreon accounts if you can afford either a one-off tip or a regular donation), they're unlikely to be bought. The writers of the software also recommend admins give three months notice if they plan to shut down their server, so allowing users plenty of time to find another server, download their data etc. The EU in particular have strong data protection and data privacy laws (if you're sufficiently bored, read a summary of the GDPR).
Also, in the case of a server going rogue, other servers can block it (so no-one on server 2 can interact with server 1 - in the lingo, server 1 is "defederated"): Truth Social and Gab are based on Mastadon, but have been defederated from most of the network.
That just sounds like reddit meets discord to me
I'm going to Taco Bell. Do you want anything..?
Just a crunchwrap supreme with fire sauce. Tnx
No, is not real Mexican but water white wash version lol 🤣
How vulnerable is mastodon to bots and spying?
It depends on the instance, some of them really make hard to make spamming some of them don't even care.
I mean isn't this just discord?
Just pay $8.00
It’s like Discord kinda why I was familiar with it
Nah, discord is one single company, and its "servers" are simply isolated messaging groups.
Mastodon is run by any number of randos, and the servers are actual servers (content receivers and emitters) and all communicate with eachother.
People have been comparing it with email, which makes for a good analogy.
I really like this idea, it allows free speech and reduces/eliminates ads. Exactly what Elon is trying to do with Twitter.
Wish people would leave high school clicks back in high school.
Is freedom of speech allowed?
Yes. You chose whatever rules suit you.
Yea tried that some time back . It si way tooo complicated . SO no not Intrested
Hold on so a single person runs each server and can read people’s private messages in plain text??
DMs aren't really their own feature, its more like a regular post that's only visible to the account you mention. If you wanted longer private messages you'd want to use a different service for that. I don't think DMs get used much on Mastodon.
Maybe they'll integrate Matrix for that at some point, which is a decentralised messaging network with end-to-end encryption.
Just don't send dms. Use it as it as public publishing platform.
Sounds like reddit to me.
@@ASK-ko9qx ? No. Reddit runs the servers. People just get a space they can moderate.
Here there randos run the servers, and you can run your own and no one can moderate you.
Literally nothing like reddit other than it being a social media app lol
@@technolus5742 sounds more garbage than GAB or Parler to me.
4:05
Is sounds very similar to the gaming social app called Discord. Willow explained it to me ... I was baffled but she mentioned servers and rooms and such too.
the difference is that servers aren't just big rooms owned centrally by discord - the server is an instance of mastodon that someone physically hosted by putting mastodon on their own physical server♡ think of it like email~
Mastadon is no alternative to twitter. It has far too steep of a learning curve and the decentralization ruins it for me. I want one platform with one set of rules and privacy for all. Someone please make a viable Twitter alternative.
I love the decentralization, especially the non-profit, open-source nature of it. It means I won't be hounded by algorithms intended to artificially bolster my engagement.
@@franklinbadge1215 I loathe it. No ads = low revenue = little improvements and no big companies like sports franchises etc. Steep learning curve and decentralization = will never appeal to the masses which it hasn't and won't.
@@DamienAshorTV Profit is not the only thing that drives improvements and innovation. Mastodon has seen several improvements since its release, and the learning curve is not that steep. Also, the decentralization means anyone can improve it.
I don't really care that it doesn't appeal to the masses, because I'm not a hivemind. I'm just one person, who happens to enjoy when social media actually shows me things I like, and not things that enrage me.
@@franklinbadge1215 Even people who are making tutorials say the learning curve for the average person is very steep. I'll pass. I also don't want to trust my info with some random person running a server.
@@DamienAshorTV Either way you're trusting someone with your data. Even the most reputable tech companies like google and apple aren't immune to data breaches. At least with mastodon, you can just create your own server.
Kind of sounds like Reddit or am I wrong?
Reddit runs the servers. People just get a space they can moderate.
Here, randos run the servers, and you can run your own and no one can moderate you.
Literally nothing like reddit other than it being a social media app lol
threads is more popular
#mastodon
so is kind of like reddit?
Nope. Same as it is not Twitter.
Reddit runs the servers.
Twitter runs the servers.
Users run the servers with Mastodon.
Reddit says what is allowed on the platform.
Twitter says what's is allowed on the platform.
You say what is allowed for you in Mastodon.
Reddit can ban you.
Twitter can ban you.
Mastodon can't ban you.
so......its reddit+discord?
Nah, discord is one single company, and its "servers" are simply isolated messaging groups.
Reddit is again a single company. You might as well say this is like Twitter, but then you're missing the point that it's a decentralized Twitter...
Mastodon is run by any number of randos, and the servers are actual servers (content receivers and emitters) and all communicate with eachother.
People have been comparing it with email, which makes for a good analogy.
I’m sure whoever made this isn’t invest in the company.
No, it's everyone ...do u have any idea how tech work ?. U shouldn't be here if u shit clueless about it
What happened to that social media thing with the voices popular two years ago for a week
Just Wait
It’ll Be Get
Bad Over Time
No, because it has no algorithm pushing crappy stuff.
And who owns the servers… the data?
Many people, it's distributed. You can host a server yourself.
Sounds like algebra
so its basically discord.
Nah, discord is one single company, and its "servers" are simply isolated messaging groups.
Mastodon is run by any number of randos, and the servers are actual servers (content receivers and emitters) and all communicate with eachother.
People have been comparing it with email, which makes for a good analogy.
When you make a Discord server, you are not actually the server administrator who has configured the domain yourself, etc.
There is no way people are
going to stick it out with mastodon. Theyll eventually go back to twitter.
If it exists
Not if Twitter files for bankruptcy and charges people to use it, which they may do.
I think BlueSky will end up being the decentralized social media that wins out when it takes off
Soooooooo Reddit?
Except reddit is a owned by a single entity.
It's the same as saying "sooo twitter". Decentralized Twitter....
Mastodon doesn't tolerate hate speech either and a lot of new users are getting banned.🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Hmmm, only saw glimpse ...if one can control a server and do whatever I could see why ...lol no different than Twitter , reddit , fb ...
sounds like Discord but with more step
Nah, discord is one single company, and its "servers" are simply isolated messaging groups.
Mastodon is run by any number of randos, and the servers are actual servers (content receivers and emitters) and all communicate with eachother.
People have been comparing it with email, which makes for a good analogy.