I almost want to explore Mastodon more.
@mcg that's the impression that I get. And I really like the idea that anyone can setup an instance and they can all communicate with one-another.
@mdrockwell @mcg So ignoring the obvious negatives, what’s the advantage and/or difference of this over Twitter?
@pimoore I'm curious what you mean by the obvious negatives?
But Mastodon works a bit like email — you can use any Mastodon service or setup one yourself. Each instance can have its own rules, moderation policies, and blocklist. You can communicate with others even if they are on another instance and there are a number of great apps available to interact with the service.
@pimoore Not a silo. You can own your content. Generally better moderation. Instances are federated. Open and mostly standard API’s. This is a pretty good explainer runyourown.social
@mdrockwell Sorry, probably should have clarified… just Twitter’s usual propensity for negativity, the battle against their shitty algorithm, locking away API features from third party apps, that sort of thing.
What are the favourite/best apps for accessing the service, you’ve piqued my curiosity now?
@pimoore Mastodon's open source too, so anything the service can do is available to client apps. I don't know if I have a favorite app. Although I've had an account for a few years I've barely touched it at all (just cross-posting through Micro.blog). But at the moment I have Mast installed — mostly because it's supported by Opener and works on iPad: apps.apple.com/us/app/ma...
@mdrockwell you definitely should. I jumped in a short while ago and I now love it. I have my own instance at fediverse.partners
@duncanhart what hosting service are you using for your instance? Did you follow any tutorials to get it up and running?
@mdrockwell I use mastohost, it’s a managed service and is well administered. Very responsive to queries etc, admin available throughout European working hours. I would recommend. Although hosting your own on a VPS is not too hard either.
@mdrockwell no worries, mate. You could always ask for a referral discount, say I sent you 🤪