Mastodon

After a couple of weeks on Mastodon I’m cheering for its survival. That’s not correct, Mastodon is federated, so any single node (instance) is only part of the network. So maybe it’s better to say I’m cheering for whatever new thing gets us on the federated bandwagon. Right now Mastodon is the strongest contender.

I have accounts on three instances, and I’m using each of them differently.

The first is @jackbaty@mastodon.social. Since this is the flagship instance, and the first one I’d heard of, it’s where I first joined. They’ve since disallowed new signups and that’s probably a good thing. Best not to think of any particular instance as the One True Instance. I am not using this much yet. It was just about the only option so I made sure I registered my favorite username, is all.

The second is @jackbaty@mastodon.technology. This was one of the early “other” instances and, well, “technology”. I like the Home feed on this one as it’s fairly tech-focused. This is where I’m doing the things I would otherwise do on Twitter. (Note that most people on Mastodon refer to Twitter as “birdsite” which I refuse to do as it strikes me as insider nonsense.) If the instance stays up, I’ll likely focus there.

I began doubting the sysadmin chops of the person running mastodon.technology (which turned out to be entirely unfounded), I looked for an alternative. I noticed Leo Laporte posting on mastodon.network so that seemed as good as any. Plus, the instance was running on a couple of load-balanced servers which is a good sign. I’m now there as @jackbaty@mastodon.network. I’m using this one to post photos and other photography-related topics.

There’s no rhyme or reason to any of this yet, but I’m having fun figuring it out.

Also, timelines are chronological, as any user-respecting timeline should be.

Hope to see you there.

UPDATE 04/21/2017 “the person running mastodon.technology” is Ash Furrow (Ash Furrow) and while new to Mastodon hosting, he appears to be active, smart, and a fast learner. He’s also actively contributing to the community and the code. I’ve made Mastodon.technology my home and signed up as a Patron to help keep things running. Patreon/ashfurrow.