I tend to like my drama on TV, not on my social media platforms. So, after Elon Musk’s $44B takeover of Twitter and the corporate chaos that followed, I started looking for alternate services.
I ended up on the noc.social distributed Mastodon server as @AlanGrassia@noc.social.
Mastodon is a distributed open-source social network that is not driven by algorithms or junked up by ads. This means that you have a nice chronological feed of posts, called toots, by the people you want to see.
The noc.social server that I joined is a Mastodon community for sysadmins, engineers, and tech people in general. Noc’s Code of Conduct is pretty simple. It all boils down to don’t be a jerk and everything will be fine.
The cool thing about Mastodon is that it doesn’t matter which server you are on, you can still see and talk with people on other servers. This is due to the ActivityPub and other open web protocols.
So far it has been a wonderful experience. Mastodon is full of other retro computing and technology enthusiasts just like me. The Mastodon web UI and iOS/iPadOS apps are nice too.
If you are looking for a replacement for the dumpster fire that Twitter is becoming, Mastodon might be the place for you.