Since it became known that Elon Musk will buy Twitter, many Twitter users have been looking for an alternative.

The name that is mentioned by far the most frequently is "Mastodon".

Manon Priebe

editor.

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Mastodon also has usernames with the @ in front of them, hashtags and trends.

You can follow each other.

The logo is kept in blue.

So is Mastodon just a cheap copycat or a real alternative to Twitter?

Mastodon is a German microblogging service.

The network was founded in 2016 by German developer Eugen Rochko.

The key differences to Twitter become clear at second glance: Mastodon is decentralized and does not require advertising.

Mastodon already promises “Social networking, back in your hands” on its homepage.

Mastodon is decentralized and ad-free

There is no central platform at Mastodon, but various servers operated by individuals or communities.

These servers, also called instances, all run on the same software (the source code is open source) and together form a large network.

Not much is going on on the platform yet.

The desired username is often still available.

Registration is simple: the registration takes place via an e-mail address that you have to confirm.

The desktop version is preset in dark mode.

Apps are available for iOS and Android.

There you have to choose a “community”.

They are said to be based on "your interests, religion or a general purpose" and are named "troet.cafe", "Hessen.social" or "meow.social".

These communities set their own ground rules.

Your own mastodon address is made up of @yourusername@homecommunity.

Regardless of the community, all users can communicate with each other.

Here Mastodon is similar to e-mails: It doesn't matter whether you have an account with Gmail, Hotmail or web.de - you can exchange information with everyone who also has an e-mail address with whatever provider.

If you want to change your home server, you can either move your account or open a second account.

The app does not want access to its own contacts.

This was a big problem at Clubhouse: In order to be able to invite other users, access to the entire address book had to be granted.

For Mastodon, tweeting means horns

What the bird is to Twitter, the elephant is to mastodon (the American mastodon was a tusked proboscidose that is now extinct).

Here, tweeting means blasting – like an elephant.

Here it is not chirped, but horned.

The logo is a white speech bubble with a hint of a trunk.

New users without their own profile picture are not eggheads like on Twitter, but cute elephants.

However, there are no verified users.

For example, there are currently five “Jan Böhmermann”s.

The posts appear in chronological order, no algorithm influences the sorting.

Instead of 280, you can write 500 characters in a post with Mastodon.

Under "Federation" you can see all the messages that are sent worldwide in real time.

Posts can be dismissed with a "Content Warning" notice.

Unlike Twitter, the trigger warning has a fixed input field.

The line can also be used as a short summary of a longer post.

Privacy can be set individually for each Tröt: public, i.e. visible to everyone, only to those who follow, or as a private message to just one user.

Retweet simply means "share".

The posts can be favored with a star.

When Twitter replaced star favorites with a heart-shaped “Like” button, the Twitter community was furious.

There are "bookmarks" and thus no more excuses that a "like" is not an expression of approval but just a bookmark.

Which is the same as with Twitter: Posts cannot be edited.

There are hashtags (the only content that is searchable) and lists.

You can "bug" polls and pictures.

Currently there are already more than five million Mastodon accounts and more than 3700 instances.

Mastodon.social is the developer's server and the largest with more than 670,000 members.

For comparison: Twitter currently has 217 million accounts that are said to be active daily.

Founder Eugen Rochko gives the modest, self-reflective anti-musk in view of the enormous popularity: "This success is exciting and frightening at the same time.

Nobody prepares you for this.

I keep asking myself if I'm doing everything I can in the current situation."

It was January 2021 when a social network created an enormous buzz.

Back then, everyone who was interested in social media wanted to go to the Clubhouse.

Most people today don't even talk about the live talk app in nostalgic retrospects.

Will Mastodon remain a hype - or will the mammoth project blossom into a serious alternative to Twitter?

Many people have been wrong about predictions.

It should be decisive that enough people take part, especially influential opinion leaders and celebrities as well as institutions and brands.

And whether the project is supported with donations and servers.