Ok this forum is going so well I thought it might be interesting to create a new twit.social feed running on Mastodon (using the very easy and affordable hosting at masto.host).
Mastodon looks just like Twitter using Tweetdeck, but it’s very different. It’s a federated system - which means there are many Mastodon instances. You can follow anyone on any Mastodon instance by using their fully qualified name (mine is @leo@twit.social). I used to be @leolaporte@mastodon.social but I’ve migrated over (another nice Mastodon feature).
This particular Mastodon instance will be for TWiT fans, like you. If you already have a Mastodon account you can just follow people on the server. If you don’t, head over to twit.social and create one. This is most definitely not a replacement for TWiT.community. Think of TWiT.community as our TWiT Facebook. TWiT.social will be our Twitter. A place for links, quick updates, and other more ephemeral content.
Huzzah! You’ve motivated my purchase of the Toot! iOS(/iPadOS) client, one of whose associates featured a while back in an interview on one of your shows. I simply had no occasion to bother, prior.
(This being The Apple App Store, there are of course many knock-off, similarly-named and -branded free options I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. sigh)
Is “the plan” (assuming there is one) to eventually move off of FB and Twitter entirely? Or is this just another way of making sure TWiT can reach all its fans, wherever they happen to congregate?
I just want to make places for TWiT folks to congregate that fit their needs. On the other hand, I think that these kinds of more limited social networks are, indeed, a great replacement for the global giants.
This is awesome. My problem now, is I have three servers to check out on The Mastodon, Gab, No Agenda Social, and now TWIT. But in case anyone wants to follow other servers on the iOS app in Tootle, at the top center of the screen you can tap there and add other Mastodon’s. I’m sure there’s other ways too. Feel free to share. Thanks again Leo.
Yeah the Fediverse can be a little hard to grok if you’re used to Twitter.
In short, you can join any Mastodon server you want - consider it your home server - and follow anyone on any other server. So, in effect, you are creating your own aggregate feed from all servers.
There are some limitations, however. Most servers won’t let you boost content from Gab, for example. Gab runs on Mastodon, true, but because it’s a home to white supremacists, most servers won’t federate with it. There’s a Mastodon for sex workers. You might not want to see posts from there. That’s why you should pick a home server that fits your values and interests.
I recommend you use https://instances.social/ to figure out which server would be your best home. It’s not hard to migrate to a different server if your interests change.
Sometimes people even setup a server just for their own personal use. You’ll see on the directory many servers with only one member. If twit.social doesn’t take off I would continue to make it my home server. It only costs about $9/month to run.
cool thanks, I’m far from a ‘white supremacists’ lol I like all people, Red Blood lives matter is my saying, BUT I hear ya, just like any social network, there’s some kind of hate, which is sad. The cool this with twit and tech in general We all get along, ok ok maybe there’s the Mac vs PC or iOS vs Android arguments, but you know what I mean
To be clear, you can follow anyone on any server, even Gab, but their posts won’t make it into the public timeline. Content from Gab is blocked on twit.social and many other Mastodon instances. I’m not currently blocking any other instances, but can if they don’t fit our family friendly rules.
I’m going to try to make twit.social a good home for anyone who likes TWiT!
Since people are discussing the best apps to use, I highly recommend just installing the webapp itself as a progressive web app via your browser’s “add to homescreen” feature when you’re on twit.social. This works great on mobile (I do it on mobile safari, mobile firefox, and mobile chrome) or now even desktop (desktop chrome). I tried some of the other apps but ended up settling on the PWA as it works great on all my devices.
And just gotta say that as a longtime twit listener and someone who runs a mastodon instance of my own I couldn’t have been happier to see that twit is starting one up! Happy to have you in the federation!
Mastodon’s lack of control over the scope of exposure for a message makes it kind of impossible to gauge the audience for any particular sentiment. If I understand correctly, all users on the instance can join other instances which will then see my posts there. The only option beyond that is a direct message, which bypasses even the local instance which means it may as well be Signal or some other completely private venue. I’d like something that controls for scope more proactively for the individual poster.
Sure, in a sense TWiT.Community is even more public, but for a broader scope of content it seems Mastodon could accommodate, I would require more articulated controls over scope of exposure commensurate to that range before I’d feel comfortable participating in any way unique to or beyond here, personally.
