[Article originally published in Italian. English translation made by JoSeBach.]

As Elon Musk bought Twitter, many people got perplexed, even more seeing his way to administrate the platform. Musk was already known for his whims and for his "hot" and controversial takes. After buying Twitter, he mandated massive lay-offs among its programmers; he ordered the creation of the Twitter Blue subscription, which replaced the check-mark used to verify the identity of the user; and he deplatformed opposers and other websites' promoters. This was enough for many users to look for an alternative platform: some chose Tumblr, while others opted for Mastodon.

Mastodon is a federated social network with microblogging features. Each server, called instance, is like an island in its own right, with its personal ToS and "culture"; however, any user is allowed to follow other users from other instances. This federated system is called the Fediverse and it includes other services, which resemble Youtube, Instagram and GoodReads.

Its secret is that none of these services is controlled by any big corporation nor any lunatic billionaire, and any user can choose their own little space on the Internet while still being connected with everyone else. Well, almost everyone: the managers' instances are allowed to hide unwanted boosts and content from toxic instances.

Mastodon (and the Fediverse itself) is people-friendly: the posts appear in chronological order and it's up to the user to choose what they want to see. It's not like many social networks, where the algorithm might or might not happen to advertise one specific content by mere luck, because it's not an ad-powered platform. There are just users who post. The followers count doesn't give any priority in the search bar, hence it loses its meaning; all favourites and reposts are for sharing and archiving others' posts.

We've already created a page some time ago; in order to find us from whichever instance you're in, you can just click on the external link or type @[email protected] in the search bar. See you all there!

-SpazzinoVattpadiano