Using Mastodon Instead of Twitter

So, Twitter is currently a problem.

There seems to be no real management behind it. This can be the case when you use a system that is owned privately - and currently that ownership just changed to Elon Musk who doesn’t really seem to know how to run this kind of business.

This blog post outlines why I think Twitter is going down a very dark path - but it seems that some of the coverage of this is amusing to people. I get it; watching a billionaire waste a lot of money and look foolish can be entertaining for some, but not really for me. I’ve enjoyed twitter over the last few years - although it hasn’t given me much of what I want. I like reading about Tech, especially open source stuff, and catching up on the news - usually of a political slant. However, changes within twitter have made that a little less predictable now and contain less value.

This means looking for an alternative. I’ve had a Mastodon account since 2017, but didn’t use it. The content there wasn’t really compelling enough, mainly due to the lack of adoption. Put simply, the people using it at that time were very specialized. It didn’t become a habit. I checked my feed, but then didn’t go back often enough to follow the narrative.

But this week, I have been checking Mastodon more often - and I’ve started contributing some short content. You can find my posts (and follow me) if you want, here: https://mastodon.sdf.org/@kabads.

It’s going well, although a lot of servers, it seems, are being overwhelmed. This is ok - and exactly what the fediverse was built to cope with - need more resoure? Just ramp up. I’m still settling in and things feel way more friendly than on twitter. I may post back with more information once I get a better feeling of how this is going.