(A lot of people on Mastodon follow everyone back, anyway.). Password * ... Sign up. She has written about health and science for over a decade, including two books: Outbreak! You can use it to warn people about triggering or unsavory subjects in your toot, and then they have to click a button to expand the full toot. There are other web clients as well: Halcyon is a pitch-perfect mimic of the Twitter website. Twitter itself is referred to as “the birdsite.” Do not bring birdsite drama onto mastodon. If you like, you can poke around for a few days and then migrate to another instance once you’ve realized it would be more fun somewhere else. People get to know each other, and are more likely to post about their genuine real-life interests than to share news stories or endlessly discuss politics. Go back to your old account and edit your profile. Follow friends and discover new ones With an account on fosstodon.org you'll be able to follow people on any Mastodon server and beyond. That means you need to choose an “instance”—a server you’ll call home. and Genetics 101. Here is a tool to browse all the available instances and figure out which one is most your style. Don’t panic! But your instance also has two special timelines: A few terms to help ease your transition from Twitter: First, this is not Twitter. Existing users are permitted to invite new users. The social media network known as Mastodon is sort of an anti-Twitter: quiet, calm, and pretty much free of Nazis. For more on privacy, blocking, and harassment prevention, check out this post from Mastodon’s main developer. Whereas Twitter is a single huge corporate entity, Mastodon is more like a bunch of local mom-and-pop shops. Where do I sign up? ... We have closed registration to prevent sign-ups from malicious users. Username * @mastodon.in.th. Pinafore.social looks a little like Twitter, but importantly it allows you to log in with multiple accounts, it’s fast, and you can use it on mobile if you haven’t picked a favorite mobile app yet. Discover & explore Mastodon with no ads and no surveillance. Stay with me here! This Mastodon instance is for people interested in technology. Log in; It just feels like a nice, friendly place to be. Don’t forget you can preview instances’ local timelines on their websites, or through an app such as Tootdon that has that feature. Fortunately, they’ll all get a notification when you follow them again from the new account, and chances are they’ll follow back. Just like Twitter, you can follow people, mention them, and direct message. With an account, you will be able to follow people, post updates and exchange messages with users from any Mastodon server and more! Sign up for an account on the new instance. There is no such thing as a quote-tweet, you just either boost or you don’t. You can pay somebody, or get paid, in any of a hundred ways and it doesn’t matter what bank they use. Fosstodon is an English speaking Mastodon instance that is open to anyone who is interested in technology; particularly free & open source software. You can upload those lists. To find them, first go to the “Find Twitter Friends” feature on joinmastodon.org, and see where all the people you already know are hanging out. You may also want to edit your bio and change your name to something like “Beth has migrated” for anyone who might stumble across your account not realizing you’re gone. Why go to all this trouble? Beth is Lifehacker's Senior Health Editor. This is a Mastodon instance primarily intended for (but not limited to) users in Scotland or who identify as Scottish. Anybody who follows you will be left following your old dead account. People also often use it for things others might not be interested in. For example, mastodon.social has this in its code of conduct: The following types of content will be removed from the public timeline, and may result in account suspension and revocation of access to the service: The following types of content are explicitly disallowed and will result in revocation of access to the service: There is also a content warning feature, which you can turn on with the “CW” button when you compose a toot. Follow friends and discover new ones With an account on mastodon.scot you'll be able to follow people on any Mastodon server and beyond. The code of conduct may require certain things to always be hidden in a CW, such as nudity or gore. General purpose mastodon instance. There, you can download a list of everybody you follow, everybody you’ve blocked, and everybody you’ve muted. If you’re posting something that you feel might be boring or annoying to others, just stick it in a CW and it’s easy for people to scroll past. Your username will be unique on mastodon.in.th. I joined mastodon.social at first, then spent a few days browsing a bunch of different local timelines until I settled on one that felt more like home. Her Wilks score is 302. With an account on mastodon.org.uk you'll be able to follow people on any Mastodon server and beyond. With an account, you will be able to follow people, post updates and exchange messages with users from any Mastodon server and more! Sign up on Mastodon today! So even though I have a mastodon account at wandering.shop, and my fellow Lifehacker writer Nick Douglas has one at mastodon.social, I can still follow him and he can follow me. With an account, you will be able to follow people, post updates and exchange messages with users from any Mastodon server and more! Here’s how. If that’s your thing, go forth and sign up!) With an account, you will be able to follow people, post updates and exchange messages with users from any Mastodon server and more! Whereas Twitter is a single huge corporate entity, Mastodon is more like a bunch of local mom-and-pop shops. Discussions aren't limited to technology, because tech folks shouldn't be limited to technology either! (I also did a twitter search for “mastodon” and filtered the results to people I follow.). E-mail address * You will be sent a confirmation e-mail. On the new instance, go to your settings and then Import. Password * ... Sign up. People have been flocking to it lately, only to get confused by the way it’s set up—which is a shame, because it’s not that hard to get started. Publish anything you want on Mastodon: links, pictures, text, audio & video. If you want to talk about birdsite drama, definitely put it in a CW. Well, the vibe on Mastodon—for now, anyway—is similar to old-school Twitter or even (hello olds) Livejournal or IRC. There’s not a single mastodon app, but several. It’s like how you can choose to keep your money at your local bank or credit union, but your money is still good everywhere. E-mail address * You will be sent a confirmation e-mail. Probably. Discrimination against gender and sexual minorities, or advocation thereof, Content illegal in Germany and/or France, such as holocaust denial or Nazi symbolism, Conduct promoting the ideology of National Socialism. If you don’t know which to choose, sign up at mastodon.cloud. So I can see what’s going on at wandering.shop, but then swipe to check out the firehose at mastodon.social or the lulz at bofa.lol. Sign up on Mastodon today! When you’re ready to jump ship, it’s sort of possible to migrate your account, but it’s not seamless. Tusky is another popular app, or just ask your tootfriends what they’re using. I like Tootdon for iPhone, especially the feature that lets you search for instances, and put another instance’s local timeline right onto your home screen. Log in; Username * @mastodon.online. This just lets people know your account isn’t working there anymore. At the bottom is a link to migrate your account. Each instance has a web-based viewer that will show tweetdeck-like columns of your home timeline (the people you follow), your notifications, and a third column that you can use for whatever you want. Go to your settings and then Data Export. You can adjust the privacy of each toot, by the way: public, which means it will appear on the local and federated timelines; followers-only, which means only your followers will see it; or unlisted, which is like followers-only, but it will also appear on your profile page. Here’s what you do: Migrating does not retain your followers. There’s also a rundown of Android apps here, and iPad apps here. (That said, I’m sure there are instances dedicated to activism and politics. It’s not a retweet, it’s a boost. Your username will be unique on mastodon.online. But it’s used in other ways, too: it’s perfect for hiding spoilers, or for the punchline of a joke. Each instance has its own administrator and its own code of conduct, so make sure you read up before you toot. (Until recently, mastodon.social was the flagship instance, but it’s kind of full now.) You can handle this! Unlisted makes sense if you’re not trying to keep the toot secret, but just don’t want it clogging up timelines or search results.