The Mastodon home page is displayed on a hand-held mobile phone screen. It has been reported that after Elon Musk took over Twitter, more than 200,000 new users have populated the social media app.
David Bonaldo | Light Rocket | Getty Images
My first thought of Mastodon’s app was that it looks like a cute designed game.
The second was that it seemed quite overwhelming.
The third was, “Why isn’t my email verification link arriving?”
The last point was quickly explained when I got the link 10 hours later and was able to log in. Mastodon had technical problems, its developers “wooted” (Mastodon language for tweets) early Tuesday.
Hundreds of thousands of users have joined the platform since Elon Musk took over Twitter. His reign so far has been marked by mass layoffs and a series of changes to content moderation and the verification process. Reports have also surfaced that Musk is considering putting Twitter entirely behind a paywall.
Mastodon itself is an open-source decentralized network that, according to its website, operates without algorithms or advertising and does not sell user data. On its website, it describes itself as “radically different social media, back in people’s hands.”
However, user reports indicate that the network is not without its problems.
Twoots, Server and the Fediverse
Twoots aren’t the only complicated part of Mastodon.
To create a Mastodon account, you must first select a server – the source of my initial feeling of overwhelm. Some of the questions I had were: what are servers? What do they mean for users? How to choose?
A little research helped. Servers, also known as “instances,” are basically mini-networks or communities. Your name becomes part of your username (in my case @[email protected]), they all have different rules and some require you to apply to them. They focus on topics such as art, living in or coming from a specific country, music genres and more.
Anyone can set up a server and then control it – you can moderate or even delete content on it. However, you can communicate through them. Mastodon refers to this setup as “connected”. They also belong to the “fediverse”, or “fedi” for short, which simply means the sum of all servers.
Content throughout Fediverse can be found on the Federated Timeline, while Twoots is accessible from your home server on the Local Timeline. Only content from people you follow will appear on the home page.
Anne Bailey, research strategy director at cybersecurity analytics firm KuppingerCole, said this makes it harder for the network to attract and retain users.
“Mastodon still looks too technical for the standard user, which will pose challenges for adoption,” she told CNBC’s Make It.
user experience
The user experience isn’t entirely smooth either. Twoots complaining about images, videos, and messages not loading or lagging have increased — a problem Mastodon developers attribute to the surge in activity on the platform.
The app’s login button still sends me back to the login server page. When I was able to log in, Mastodon opened in my phone’s browser and not the app. On my desktop, the website often refuses to accept my username and password – even if they are correct.
Mastodon did not respond to a CNBC request for comment on this article.
Greater sense of community and more control
Longtime users praise the app for making it easy to build a community, having open and friendly discussions without clumps, and the autonomy it gives to server hosts and members.
User autonomy is particularly closely linked to Mastodon’s decentralized nature, according to Nishanth Sastry, director of research in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Surrey.
“Decentralization means that users are not beholden to the whims of a platform and its owners (like Twitter/Musk or Facebook/Zuckerberg). You can decide what you feel comfortable with – e.g. B. If an entity wants to ban Trump, it can,” he said.
That brings with it another benefit — user data isn’t accessible or controlled by a large organization, Sastry added.
Diana Zull, an assistant professor at Purdue University whose research focuses on media and technology, made the same point.
“Mastodon is an excellent example of how you can have a thriving social media network while avoiding some of the negative aspects of corporate social media, such as: Such as monitoring user activity, selling user data and centralized control,” she said.
Some risks
But Mastodon isn’t without its risks — choosing a server can cause longer-term problems, said Gareth Tyson, a computer science researcher at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.
“The person running your chosen server might run out of money and need to shut down, or they might have very different views on moderation practices than you want,” he said.
There are also broader risks associated with Mastodon’s open-source nature – anyone can access and replicate the software it runs on, regardless of their intentions. The white supremacist group Gab, for example, uses parts of Mastodon’s software.
Could it really replace Twitter?
Experts are still divided on whether Mastodon will replace Twitter. Tyson argues its growth makes it promising.
“It already has a very active user base. Thousands of servers already exist and they are growing day by day. At least I can see Mastodon becoming a clear contender over the next 12 months,” he said.
Zulli added that Mastodon will likely capitalize on its similarities to Twitter. “Because Mastodon replicates many of Twitter’s features, it can (and still is) be a welcome haven for those unhappy with Twitter,” she said.
Others, including Bailey, argue that Mastodon needs to go through changes before it becomes widely available.
“It takes tremendous momentum to be a real alternative to Twitter,” she said. “Some might find that Mastodon still looks a bit technical. Adoption would require an easy-to-use app for the general public.”
As for me, I haven’t quite decided how often I’m going to use Mastodon. How Twitter evolves could play a role, but also what my friends and colleagues end up doing with their social media use. I will continue to get to know the app for the time being – but I will not delete my Twitter account.