Sooner Rather Than Later

Okay, it's only been a week.

I feel as though I'm a teenager again (sort of) and have moved to a new high school. Some of my friends have also been transferred to this new school but most of the kids are new to me and none of the teachers are familiar.

It's exciting, in some ways; in other ways, it's terrifying.

I've made the decision to leave Twitter. Last week, I mentioned how I was planning to make the switch from this popular social media platform, with which I've been a member for more than 12 years, to another platform—either Counter Social or Mastodon. I had created accounts for both but knew that eventually, I'd choose one over the other.

On Friday, I made my choice: I'm moving to Mastodon. I can be found at @BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca. On Saturday, I let the folks who followed me on Counter Social know that I was moving and encouraged them to make the move to Mastodon as well.

It's worth a shot.

Actually, some of my Twitter friends followed me on Counter Social and Mastodon, and I'm hopeful that even more will do the same.

I know, Mastodon seems intimidating at first, especially when you try to create an account and the first thing you have to do is pick a server onto which to hook your wagon. Which server do you pick, and why?

In a nutshell, a server is no different than the service that you choose to receive your e-mail. You might be using G-mail or Yahoo! or one that is provided by your Internet service provider. It doesn't matter which service you use because you can still send and receive e-mail messages from friends and family, even if they are using one Internet service provider and you're using another.

You still get your e-mail.

The same thing works for Mastodon. Because it's a federated platform, meaning that it isn't centrally controlled and is an open-source platform, many people can create a domain and it is shared throughout federation space.

(If you didn't know I was a Trekkie before, you know now.)

Each server is basically dedicated to one or more areas of interest. There's one for developers; another, for gamers; one, for photographers, writers, and news media; and others, many others, for general social interaction. Pick a server that interests you and create an account on it.

In your local stream for that server, you'll see other people sharing their thoughts and ideas, centred on that instance (what the server is called). But you can also follow people who have accounts in other instances.

For example, I am located on the mstdn.ca instance. It's a general social chat group, of which there are many others, like mastodon.social or mstdn.social, but set up with Canadians in mind. So, to find your friends, all you need to do is know their user name (@BrownKnowser) and their instance (@mstdn.ca), put them together (@BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca), and you can follow that person. You'll also see who they like and you can get your following list to grow.

I've watched a couple of videos on YouTube to help me get familiar with the ins and outs of Mastodon, but the one I like the most is one that's three years old, presented by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa. Ryan explains this federated platform, and gives the basics of creating an account and working your way around the interface, which is a lot like TweetDeck or Hootsuite, if you've used those Twitter interfaces.

Here's Ryan's video:

I've also watched a couple of videos by someone who calls himself the Explorographer, and he gives some good tips on getting the most out of the Mastodon Web interface app. His videos are only a couple of weeks old as of the writing of this post, so some of his information is more current than Ryan's.

If you're thinking of leaving Twitter, I recommend Mastodon. There are no ads and I've found most of the conversations to be positive. There aren't a lot of political rants (none that I've seen).

If you do join the Mastodon federated universe, I hope you'll seek me out. I have a few Twitter friends and some new ones, but I'd love to see more of the friends I've made over the past dozen years.

Last week, I said I'd be off Twitter by the end of the year, at the latest. Now, I'm choosing to not post as much on that platform and am focusing more on Mastodon.

Come join me!