Alternatives to... twitter

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here we recommend and discuss alternatives to twitter.

  1. Straight Dope Message Board. Home of some of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks. Heavily moderated by internet standards. Hosts an advertser-unfriendly Pit forum. Recommended.

  2. Spoutible. I signed up and spent about 5 minutes there. I don’t recall any discussion of news, politics, philosophy, academics, or art. https://spoutible.com/

  3. Post. News oriented. https://post.news/

  4. Threads.net. Now available on your browser. From Meta, the same company that gave us Facebook. Better policies than twitter - for now.

  5. Bluesky, by the originators of twitter. Because they did such a responsible job the first time. https://bsky.app/

I’ve opened up accounts at all of the above, but it takes time to settle in properly. I’d recommend that everyone leaving twitter slowly or quickly at least dabble in something in the Federated Universe, specifically Mastodon. But which instance? Last year, I joined a community that is closing October 1st. So in another post I’ll compare various Mastodon servers/instances. Realize though that you can add followers from any Mastodon server: this isn’t an especially critical decision: PC World compared it to choosing an email address. Supposedly, it’s easy to migrate from one server to another. I’ll find out.

Why Mastodon? Because enshitification is a thing. Author and web theorist Cory Doctorow isn’t on either Bluesky or Threads.

Look, I’m done. I poured years and endless hours into establishing myself on walled garden services administered with varying degrees of competence and benevolence, only to have those services use my own sunk costs to trap me within their silos even as they siphoned value from my side of the ledger to their own. …Facebook has broken so many promises.

But a company doesn’t have to be run by venal scumbags to put its own interests ahead of its users.

Many is the tech CEO who reasoned that selling out their users was the moral thing to do, because the alternative was firing dozens or hundreds of people who trusted them, quit their jobs, and jeopardized their mortgages and kids’ college funds to come work for the company.

Seen in that light, selling out your users is actually an act of noble self-sacrifice, in which your loyalty to your friends trumps even your pride in delivering a high-quality product.

Four of the five services listed above are guaranteed to enshitify within the next decade if they don’t collapse first. To avoid that they need both a) a sustainable business model and b) precommitment, because social media content with 9 degrees of separation from actual journalism just isn’t that profitable. Even if upper management are saints, business pressures will push them take a dump on captive audiences.

So give some thought to adding Mastodon or something like it to your list.

Article on the Fediverse: How Mastodon and the Fediverse put social networks in people's hands | PCWorld

Honestly, what we really need is a killer app that would link together a bunch of micro and macro blogging services combined with a decent revenue-sharing feature. I’m hoping that Fediverse rules might make that possible.

Other recommended services:

  1. Medium.com, though I haven’t explored it as much as I’d like to.

  2. Substack. It has a twitter-like section they call Notes, but its real strength is as a blogging platform, one that makes it easy for bloggers to collect payment for their writing. Matt Yglassias, Noah Smith, and SDMB-alum Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomer) are recommended writers. Home | Substack

Other relevant threads:

  1. Monster thread about Elon Musk and twitter in the pit.
    Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition

  2. Last post in this thread was in Nov 2022: I’m supplanting it. Mastodon instead of Twitter?

  3. Anyone want to start an SDMB presence on a Twitter alternative?
    Maybe. Somebody would have to set up the server though. I’ll be listing rules of various Mastodon servers later: discussion regarding the optimal ignorance-fighting rule set is welcome.

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Look at RSS:

3

As long as the social media-sphere is advertiser-supported it will suck. As soon as people are willing to pay a profitable amount of money to subscribe to a truly ad-free experience, then we will be the customer, not the product. And not one nanosecond before.

Will the public at large pay for social media content? No. Game over.

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As far as I’m concerned, the most important factor is: Where are the people and organizations I want to follow? There’s no point in me joining, say, Bluesky if the people I want to hear from aren’t there.

And unfortunately, the vast majority of the people I follow are still only on Twitter/X.

5

I only use twitter to follow local fire news.

But now, most of it is on Facebook anyway.

6

I follow The Straight Dope and only The Straight Dope or I take a nap.

7

Worth considering. RSS is read with a News Aggregator (google once had a popular one, but it was discontinued in July 2013). Wiki’s list of news aggregators. Judging from online reviews Feedly appears to be the most popular, with Inoreader coming a close second. Newsblur is open source.

They all have free versions. If you want to pay, Feedly costs $72-$144 per year, Inoreader is now $90, and Open Source Newsblur charges $36 or $99 for the archive version. By way of comparison Twitter-X Premium costs $84/year, for those wanting to humiliate themselves with a paid blue-check.

Mozilla Firefox has a reader add-on and Thunderbird has a reader as well. I haven’t tried either. Feedly is on my iPad, but I haven’t clicked the icon for years.

Has anyone here ever used RSS in a big way? Does anyone use it now? What apps have you used?

LSLGuy: I opine that the online ad market is broken, but it could be decent. What we need is a revenue sharing system with publications, and curbs on the obsession with clicking. You can’t click a billboard or TV ad, yet the industry spends billions on them. Ads should have latency, so you can go back to the webpage and see the same ad, or a scroll of recent ads. The whole model needs an overhaul.

suranyi: I have the same problem: none of these places have close to the same userbase as Twitter-X. But the bird site could implode at any time: that alone justifies giving this some thought. I predict a mass migration to threads.net, but I’d honestly prefer another platform to win.

8

I use the Feedbro Firefox extension and follow about a dozen sources.

9

MS Outlook has an RSS feed capability. I use that for the dozen or so I follow.

IMO RSS is an utterly obsolete technology that the content providers don’t really like. Because it was built without an ad platform. It’s great for pushing non-commercial content. But any advertiser-supported webpage has a choice: have you visit their site with your browser & see their ads, or have your RSS app hit their RSS feed and see no ads. Guess which one they prefer?

10

Here I’ll explore some of the Mastodon instances aka servers. The instance will be part of your username. For example my current handle is @MeasureMeasure@econtwitter.net: econtwitter.net is the server (which will be closing next month), MeasureMeasure is the username. Following someone within your server is a one step process; following someone at another server is a 2 or 4 step process.

A directory of servers is available here: Servers - Mastodon . Each server has rules. In this thread, I’ll compare the rules across major servers, for discussion on which general server is best, but also which set of rules would make the most sense for a hypothetical general interst platform dedicated to fighting ignorance. It’s a thought experiment: I don’t anticipate anyone setting up a Dope server any time soon.

The rule list will goes on for a while… I listed the 8 English speaking servers with the largest number of users.

mastodon.social - the original and biggest server. Operated by a non-profit. 1.6 million users (is that all?) 99.8% uptime. Rules are reassuringly few:

  1. Sexually explicit or violent media must be marked as sensitive when posting
  2. No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, or casteism
  3. No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies
  4. No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users
  5. Do not share intentionally false or misleading information

mastodon.world - “Generic Mastodon server for anyone to use.” 177,000 users - #2 among English speaking servers. 91.7% uptime, 16 rules, enforced by mastodon.world moderators

  1. No illegal content, e.g. child pornography, solicitation of illegal services, etc…
  2. No posts or links to content supporting, featuring, or promoting hate groups, terrorism, mass violence or calls to violence.
  3. No posts or comments supporting or promoting QAnon related content or similarly disproven conspiracy theories. Moderators have sole discretion to decide if a post violates this rule. Birds are real. The Earth is round. Get over it.
  4. No posts or links featuring sexualized depictions of minors, whether photographic, written, drawn, anthropomorphic or animated.
  5. No pornography featuring depictions of rape or non-consensual violence.
  6. A Content Warning must always be used when posting all other pornographic, erotic or NSFW content, whether photographic, written, drawn or animated.
  7. No racism.
  8. No visual content depicting executions, murder, suicide, dismemberment, visible innards, excessive gore, or charred bodies. All other violent imagery requires a Content Warning.
  9. No visual content depicting animal abuse. All other posts related to animal abuse require a Content Warning.
  10. No posting of malicious links.
  11. No Spam (see General Guidance below).
  12. No threats, bullying or attacks on an individual or group.
  13. No encouragement or promotion of self-harm.
  14. No accounts that impersonate anyone else unless clearly marked as such for the purpose of parody.
  15. No Hate Speech. Hate speech is defined as derogatory posts or links targeting any individual or group based on race, mental or physical disability, religion, gender identity, sex, nationality, age, class or sexual orientation.
  16. No “shitposting” - while humorous posts are allowed, and actually encouraged, there is no place for “shitposting” here.

Comment: How well that works out depends on the moderators, IMHO. “No attacks on an individual or group,” seems broad and vague to me, as does the ban on shitposting.

mas.to “Hello! mas.to is a fast, up-to-date and fun Mastodon server.” 166,000 users. 91% uptime They have 9 rules:

  1. No discrimination, including (but not limited to) racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia.
  2. No explicit (NSFW) content without content warnings and/or sensitive media markers. Explicit content must not be used in user avatars or header images.
  3. No harassment of other users on this or other servers.
  4. No content illegal in the following countries: United Kingdom, Germany
  5. No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
  6. No disinformation regarding public health issues or political/military campaigns.
  7. No spam. This includes commercial advertising, promotion of services, and SEO.
  8. No impersonation of other individuals, public figures or organisations, unless clearly marked as a parody.
  9. All automated (bot) accounts must enable the bot flag in their account preferences, respect #nobot markers, and post as unlisted unless making less than one post per hour.

Comment: I like that. Seems pretty clear to me. UK/German rules also bans extremist stuff in a straightforward manner.

techhub.social “A hub primarily for passionate technologists, but everyone is welcome”. 78,000 members.

universeodon.com “Be one with the #fediverse. Join millions of humans building, creating, and collaborating on Mastodon Social Network.” 77,000 members 4 rules:

  1. You will not engage in any form of harassing, discriminatory, threatening, or offensive speech or behavior including but not limited to race, gender identity and expression, national origin, disability, marital status, age, sexual orientation, or other protected categories.
  2. We strictly prohibit transphobic behavior, hateful speech, and any form of violence targeted towards transgender individuals. Our commitment is to create a platform where everyone feels welcome and respected.
  3. Clearly content warn (CW) content and discussions considered of mature or possible traumatic nature (gore, war, thirst traps, trauma). Keep it safe, we don’t want to host your nudes - We’re not an 18+ instance.
  4. No promotion of gambling, Crypto, NFTs, anti-vaccination, self-harm, terrorism, illegal activities, Abuse/exploitation, or Violence.

mastodonapp.uk “UK Hosted and Managed Mastodon Instance. General communal space for discussion, everyone welcome!” 74,000 users. 8 rules

1 Sexually explicit or violent media must be marked as sensitive when posting
2 Be respectful. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and other forms of hate and discrimination are not welcome. Your behaviour elsewhere may also be considered if brought to our attention.
3 No incitement of violence or promotion of discriminatory or violent ideologies
4 No spam, harrassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users, this includes mass and spam reportin
5 No content illegal in The United Kingdom
6 No intentionally false or misleading information. By extension, do not pose as persons of interest.
7 Controversial, reactionary, NSFW, and satirical or similar content may be removed if not obviously Content Warned where appropriate.
8 The sites staff team will ultimately have the final say on any and all moderation actions.

Comment: Number 7 restricts satire and controversy. Huh.

c.im “C.IM is a general, mainly English-speaking Mastodon instance.” 64,000 users. 12 rules

1 Respect the laws of Germany and the Isle of Man, including those related to hate speech and defamation.
2 Threatening, abusive, intolerant or illegal behavior may lead to moderation and/or further measures. We have a zero tolerance approach to racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Moderation decisions are final.
3 The Content Warning flag should be used for NSFW content, and NSFW media should be marked as sensitive.
4 Account registrations are monitored and accounts considered spam (including commercial advertising, political campaigning/propaganda, duplicate accounts or impersonating legal entities) will be moderated or removed.
5 Do not harass or bully other users.
6 Do not share illegal or copyrighted content.
7 Do not spam or engage in any form of malicious activity.
8 Keep discussions civil and respectful, and refrain from using derogatory language or engaging in personal attacks.
9 Do not reveal personal information about other people without their consent.
10 Use appropriate tags and content warnings when posting potentially sensitive or triggering content.
11 If you see a violation of these rules, report it to the moderation team.
12 To use our service, you are at least 18 years old.

fosstodon.org “Fosstodon is a Mastodon instance that is open to anyone who is interested in technology; particularly free & open source software. The code of conduct at Fosstodon can be simply summarised as “don’t be a jerk”. However, if you need more detail as to what we consider unacceptable behaviour, please take a look at our code of conduct.” 61,000 users

Code of Conduct: CoC | Fosstodon Hub

Rules

1 Do not use slurs or racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist or otherwise discriminatory or hateful jokes or language or promote white supremacy, anti-Semitism, transphobia or other hateful ideologies.
2 Do not harass anyone, participate in group harassment of anyone, or otherwise engage in personal attacks. Posting or threatening to post other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”) constitutes harassment.
3 Do not be intentionally antagonistic. A post or reply designed to provoke a confrontation is not acceptable.
4 Do not post adult content, including pictures containing nudity, or unwelcome sexual attention (including sexualized comments or jokes).
5 Do not post spam. Toots that are nothing other than a link and/or contain an inordinate number of hashtags constitute spam, as does any overly commercial self-promotion. (It is fine, however, to toot about your own projects and share what you are excited to be working on — just keep the toot itself interesting).
6 Do not use automated tools to toot without participating in the community. It is fine to post with an automated tool (e.g., a Twitter cross-poster) so long as you are an active member of the Fosstodon community and respond to replies you receive here. However, unmonitored accounts that post automatically are not acceptable.
7 Do not “shitpost” - while humorous posts are allowed, and actually encouraged, there is no place for “shitposting” on Fosstodon.

Other rules

1 Do not post about inflammatory, controversial subjects without a Content Warning. Ideally, you would not post about inflammatory subjects at all on the public timeline. However, it may be acceptable to do so in some cases, but it is never acceptable to post inflammatory toots without hiding the content behind an appropriate Content Warning.
2 Do not engage in name calling, ad hominem attacks, or any other uncivil behaviour; criticize ideas, never people.
3 Do not tone police. Other toots may violate the standards of civility we set on Fosstodon, but you should not criticize users for their tone. If the user is a member of the Fosstodon community, you should report them; if not, you should feel free to block them. In neither case should you criticize their tone.

Comment: I don’t like the tone of those rules. :slight_smile:

Overall comment: There’s a strong case for choosing mastodon.social, which has over 8 times the users as the 2nd most popular. Number 2 on my list is mas.to, but frankly I’d want to lurk there for a while to see what they’re about.

I can see why journalists aren’t necessarily keen on joining an operation reliant on moderators who operate under a less than clear chain of command.

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I’ve adopted the strategy of Indivisible, sort of. I still use twitter but I’m Stepping back from twitter(X). So I:

Sign up with a bunch of alternatives

and

Try to post there before I post at twitter. I don’t always carry this strategy out, especially with replies.

Mastodon

I migrated to the Mastodon.social server. It’s the largest.

But you can join more that 1 server if you want. My contacts are at the above, but I’ve also made a fresh start at counter.social (which I haven’t figured out) and the anime/manga specialty server urusai.social which is a good fit for me when I want to ease away from politics.

I’m also at Measure for Measure (@measureformeasure123) on Threads and @measureformeasure.bsky.social on Bluesky (which I call Blueski, though I suspect it’s pronounced Blue-Sky). Let’s not discuss spoutable. Oh yeah Measure for Measure (@measureformeasure123) • Instagram photos and videos .