mstdn.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
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A kind observation that exclusively calling this place "Mastodon" has a bit similar energy as saying "I just sent a GMail."

"Fediverse" (or "fedi") is a more inclusive, general term.

Mastodon is just one of many software projects that talk to each other to create this multi-instance social network:
axbom.com/fediverse/

(kudos to @axbom for this fantastic infographic!)

There are blogs, Reddit-like communities, video instances and many more, all part of fedi.

I edited this toot, as there were many people pointing out it sounded "annoyed" or "scolding." That was never the intention, and I am sorry it came off that way. :sadcat1:

That said, I do believe language matters a great deal: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."

I am not trying to convince you to always use one term over the other (I too sometimes use "Mastodon" in that context). Okay, maybe a tiny bit.

But mainly, I am trying to give broader context. :blobcatuwu:

I have also seen a lot of people saying "well the app is called Mastodon" — sure, but there are a lot of other apps you can use. Tusky, Metatext, Fedilab and literally dozens more:
androidauthority.com/best-mast
transponderings.blog/2022/05/2

If you happened to download "Fedilab" first, would you argue the whole network is called "Fedilab"?..

And being aware that there's a broad spectrum of options might help you find a mobile app that maybe even works better than the official one. :blobcat_owo:

Android Authority10 best mastodon apps that work with other federated social mediaMastodon is a unique social network without an official app. Get online with the best Mastodon apps that also work with other networks too!
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

In this very thread I have seen responses from people who are using Pleroma or Misskey or Calckey or Friendica as their instance software. This very thread shows exactly how this is a bigger network than just Mastodon.

You can use a Mastodon app and connect to a Mastodon instance and never even know that person you're talking with is using, say, Fedilab with a Pleroma instance.

Recognizing that is, I feel, useful, as it broadens our imagination about what's possible. :blob_derpy:

And that's not just about some technical capabilities of this or that software, but also about power dynamics (yes, they exist on fedi too, to some extent) and about building a network that can cater to anyone's needs and where everyone can feel safe.

As much as Mastodon-the-software-project is a fantastic piece of software and is by far the most popular instance software on fedi, identifying the whole network with a single project alone means that project gets to decide what is possible.

I do not need to explain that no single entity run by a small group of people can appreciate experiences and needs of every single person out there.

So we need more diversity in projects, to get more diversity in how the whole network evolves to accommodate all the diverse groups of people joining it nowadays as part of .

In other words, we could do with recognizing that on a technical level this place is a bit more… .

(see what I did there?)

:blobcatcoffee:

Oh, and in case you're wondering: yes, I absolutely did just quote Ludwig freaking Wittgenstein at you!

And from "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", no less. How's that for some language games?

🦆 🐇

, Non-Mastodon edition (you can follow and interact with these directly from masto). See parent thread for explanation of .

@technology
(Reddit-like) community about technology.

@blender account of the 3d modelling software. Plenty of beautiful vids.

@SolarpunkPrompts podcast about

@heluecht — one of the old-timiest old-timers on here. user from before :mastodon: existed.

@PeterBronez @cmw came up with that one, added attribution in a response toot. :blobowo:

@rysiek @technology @blender @SolarpunkPrompts @heluecht

Can I add one?

@acrossthefediverse - Weekly Fediverse News & Info Podcast on #Funkwhale - tunes.artemai.art/channels/acr

Just dropped episode 1 this week; 2 is already mostly written and a special guest booked to interview.

@rysiek What people call mastodon is, in fact, the fediverse. I think when Tumblr joins us, it's going to start making a LOT more sense to people...

@rysiek How can you tell? I'm struggling to understand what that would even look like. Can you respond to a Toot with a Peertube video, or a >500char Wordpress blog?

@timrburnham in short: yes, why not?

There are Mastodon instances that have 10k character limit. You can post videos on Mastodon. There are Mastodon forks that have *formatting*. Is it really that far-fetched?

@rysiek@mstdn.social @timrburnham@mastodon.social just to prove a point, this instance where I have an alt has 10k char limit and formatting.

You might not see the formatting on your instance, and I don't want to spam you with a 10k-long toot, but check the char count in the bottom-right here.

@rysiek sorry, I don't follow at all. Just looking for an example or a screenshot or something. So far, everything I've seen on Mastodon just looks like regular toots

@timrburnham that's how Mastodon's interface presents it. But other interfaces exist that might make something that "looks like a toot" here look like an Instagram post elsewhere.

Example:
pics.rys.io/p/rysiek/499403018

This is posted to my Pixelfed instance. If you open the link directly in a web-browser you will see an Insta-like interface. But if you searfch for that URL in the Mastodon searchbox, you will get a "toot" look like on the screenshot below.

@rysiek thanks, I think I'm starting to see. What you've done doesn't seem materially different from pasting an Instagram url into a Tweet, since the link just leads me off-site. But maybe if Mastodon had QT to embed external content, that'd be something!

@timrburnham well I cannot directly reply to a thread from within another thread.

But you can take that link, paste it in the search bar, and then boost or like or reply to that content directly from your Mastodon account even though it was posted using a completely different instance type.

And I will see it on my Pixelfed account, and be able to interact with it there.

@timrburnham @rysiek The post he had a screenshot in has italic text *in the otherwise regular toot*. My instance doesn't italicize! Does yours?