New type of social network – federated

Mastodon is a new type of social network where many independent servers are interconnected with each other. With another word they are federated. When you join a a server like mastodon.green you can follow and communicate with people on other servers too. There are hundreds of different servers, technically called instances, for you to choose from.

On Mastodon you can post anything you want; links, pictures, text, video. It has a chronological timeline, custom emojis and you can make animated profile pics.

The best part: mastodon is not one big corporation. It is a network of many independent organizations, small companies and individuals hosting their own server. The perfect place to start exploring is mastodon.green, but there are other entry points too.

Choosing a server

While we recommend joining climate positive Albin Social on our server mastodon.green, there are many other communities for you to choose from.

Server/instance finders:

• joinmastodon.org
• instances.social

Who is who? – About usernames

Your full username has two parts and two @ signs, for example: @You@mastodon.green. It’s like e-mail, but for social apps.

The first part show your username. The second part show where you created your account.

1. Your chosen name @You
2. The server name where you created your account. @mastodon.green

My full username is @JohanEmpa@mastodon.green, I’m hosting mastodon.green and I’m the person behind Albin Social. You can ask me anything.

The Mastodon project

Notable people: @Gargron – lead developer and host of mastodon.social.

Project website: joinmastodon.org

Source code: github.com/tootsuite/mastodon