Mastodon: what is it? The social network simply explained

The social network Mastodon has been around for a long time, but it is still relatively unknown in Germany. We show you what distinguishes Mastodon from Facebook, Twitter and Co.

Social network mastodon: what is it actually?

Mastodon is a microblogging service similar to Twitter. However, there are some fundamental differences from Twitter.

• The basic purpose of Mastodon is to spread short messages to friends and strangers, the so-called followers. In addition to text, users can also share pictures, videos and links.
• So far, messages on Twitter have been limited to 140 characters, which in some cases is quite tight. Mastodon has 500 characters available to users. Twitter has now doubled the number of characters to 280.
• Instead of a tweet, the news is called "Toots", in German "Tröts". A retweet is called "Boost" and instead of a heart or like, you assign an asterisk.

Open Source: This is how Mastodon works

The social network was founded in 2016 by the 25-year-old Eugen Rochko from Jena. There is no company behind Mastodon and no profit idea, it is an open source project.

• Mastodon is funded by volunteer work and donations. In order for thousands of users to be able to communicate with each other, servers are required, but they cost a lot of money.
• For this reason, some volunteers operate private servers, so-called nodes. These decentralized nodes are connected in the background to form a large social network.
• When you register with Mastodon, you have to choose one of over 100 nodes. It doesn't matter which node you choose, you can later communicate with all users on Mastodon.
• To get in direct contact with other people, you need not only their username, but also their node. For example, if you want to communicate with Max, who has registered at the "cybre.space" node, send your message to @
• You can register on the social network via the Mastodon website. There is no official app for Mastodon yet. However, in the following list you will find numerous unofficial apps for iOS and Android.

After a short hype, Mastodon became relatively quiet again. The social network Vero had a similar experience two years later.