hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2940.txt

Episode: 2940
Title: HPR2940: Better Social Media 05 - Mastodon
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2940/hpr2940.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 13:37:40

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This is HPR episode 2940 entitled MetaSocial Media 05, MasterDone, it is hosted by Ahuka and is about 13 minutes long and carrying a clean flag.
The summary is, MasterDone is the federated alternative to Twitter.
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Hello, this is Ahuka, welcoming you to Hacker Public Radio and another exciting episode in my little mini series on better social media.
And this is going to be another fun one today.
We're going to take a look at something called MasterDone.
Now, last time we looked at diaspora, which was one of the first and is probably best known of the alternatives.
But, you know, diaspora was really focused on being an alternative to Facebook, which it has done fairly well.
But that leaves the other big platform of the social world's Twitter, which also needs a little competition.
Twitter has deservedly been attacked for being a sewer.
But there also seems to be an appetite for a platform that can deliver quick notes.
One of the earlier alternatives was something called Identica, which I used for a while.
That was created by Evan Predromo, but he deprecated that service in favor of pump.io.
And my impression is that never got a critical mass of followers.
Meanwhile, a new contender seems to have taken up the challenge, and that is MasterDone.
But note that MasterDone does use software developed by Identica and pump.io.
Now, MasterDone is another federated service, meaning that it lives on many servers.
And they pass messages to each other, so that you can be in conversation with someone, who is on a different server, and not even need to know it.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, this is very similar to the original internet social network known as UseNet News Groups.
MasterDone also has no ads, which most people will view as a positive.
It also has some interesting features around anti-abuse, which may not be to everyone's liking.
They clearly do not want MasterDone to become the abusive cesspit that Twitter so often is.
For an example, C. Gamergate.
But if you are a freed speech absolutist, this could be a deal breaker.
Personally, I find it refreshing.
Might be problematic for some people. Let's take a look.
MasterDone spells out policies on a page that is prominently linked off the home page, called Cage the MasterDone.
But because this is a federated system, there can be variation among the different servers.
Every server has a sign-up page, and that sign-up page will have a link to something called Server Rules, which is what you are agreeing to if you want to set up an account.
So on one extreme, the Linux rocks.online server links to a page with nothing on it.
So they seem to be pretty relaxed about anything you might post.
On the other hand, MasterDone.social, which is the largest and the default choice for new users, has a page with a long list of policies.
Here's a quote from Paragraph 2 to give you a sense of what they do.
They say, the following types of content will be removed from the public timeline, and may result in account suspension and revocation of access to the service.
Racism or Advocation of Racism? Sexism or Advocation of Sexism?
Discrimination against gender and sexual minorities, or Advocation thereof?
Zenithobic and or Violent Nationalism?
So those are all the things they don't like.
This would be attractive to some users and put off others, but you do have a choice by getting an account on a server that matches up with your needs.
Now, if you start at the Join MasterDone page, there is a link to browse the communities, which takes you to a list of servers that tend to match the MasterDone.social server instance.
They state, we only list servers that are committed to active moderation against racism, sexism, and transphobia.
As I said, this kind of moderation does not bother me particularly. I never really got in the Twitter because to me it was a sewer and unpleasant, so I have no problem with this.
But I understand others might have a different set of preferences.
For an alternative, you could try instances.noct.zone, link in the show notes, which has a number of interesting instances you can look at.
As an example, anarchism.space is one that appears to have no server rules at all, which kind of seems appropriate for the name.
An interesting option is a search list at instances.social, and again, link in the show notes.
This lets you search among the various servers using parameters such as the language, how many users it has, and what kinds of things are allowed or prohibited.
Now, recognize that new instances are popping up all the time, so I am not aware right now of a 100% complete list of server instances.
But also remember that as a federated system, you can follow people on any server at all without problems.
One thing you might want to keep in mind is that a server is only as good as its admin, and a small instance with one admin might have trouble keeping things running smoothly.
My friend Michael W. Lucas, who by the way is also a darn good writer, is on a BSD instance of Mastodon, and I saw him recently, and he was planning to go to a BSD conference, and expected his server admin to be there.
And as he put it, his admin won't buy a single beer, all the conference as long as Lucas is around.
Well, that's one way of taking care of your server admin.
These admins are volunteers, and you should find ways to support them, if there is a PayPal link to tip the admin, use it.
As I always say, you know, I say support free software, well, you know, support free social media too.
Getting started, okay, so you found a server, and you have an account.
You should know that because it is federated, you need more than a username.
Now, as long as you're talking to someone on the same server as you, a username is enough, so mine is at a hookah on my server.
But when you want to talk to people on other servers, you need to include the server name as well.
So my full name is at a hookah at octodon.social.
The interface you get by default resembles Tweet Deck, at least on my computer monitor, but there are alternatives.
There is an archived list, no longer maintained, at a GitHub site, list in the link in the show notes, called using mastodon apps, which includes various mobile apps, both open source and proprietary.
I'm not sure why you go to the trouble of getting on a federated social media platform and use proprietary software, but the option is there.
It presents the default instance, though, presents mastodon in four columns.
Column one, settings and search.
Column two, home, which is my feed.
Column three, notifications.
Column four, timelines.
Now, the first thing you'll need to do is find some people to connect with and follow.
I got invited onto this particular server by a friend of mine who followed me as soon as I signed up.
Then I followed a few more people who had sent me their info.
But there are two feeds you can follow right away.
There is the local timeline and the federated timeline.
There on the right column and you can select either one.
The local timeline is everyone on your local server.
And if this server is not too large, it might be a fairly moderate feed.
The federated timeline is not the grand unified fire hose of all of mastodon.
It is instead a feed of people on other servers if they are followed by someone on your server.
You see, there is only a connection created between servers when one person follows another.
If you select this federated timeline, you will of course see more traffic.
Now, one thing I did after checking out the federated timeline was go into settings to set my application to only show toots, as they call them, that are in English.
Since that is my only language.
Well, hey, I am an American. We are almost all like that.
In the middle column, you see notifications.
Then in the left column, home is your personal feed, which shows toots by people you follow, or toots which are boosted, similar to retweeted by people you follow.
Now, on the upper left is a search box. You can enter a name or a user name and hit enter to search.
If you get a hit, click on the person icon next to the name to start following them.
If you find someone on one of your timelines you want to follow, just click on their name and then click follow.
Now, just a few more notes to wrap this up.
Macedon is not Twitter. I know, right? Kind of the whole point.
But there are a few things you want to keep in mind to be a respected member of the community.
So, on Macedon, tweets are called toots.
Retweets are called boosts.
Likes are favorites.
Toots are seen in chronological order with the latest toots appearing in the top of your feed.
Now, one thing that you might see every once in a while is something that looks like an older one that's stuck in there.
And say, well, why is it there? Well, because it was boosted by someone that you follow.
And so, it's the time stamp of the boost that determines where it shows up.
But it will also tell you that it was originally posted the day before.
Instead of the default Twitter egg thing, you have a check for the default.
And you have a 500 character limit instead of whatever Twitter is these days.
I know it was 140, but I think they might have changed that.
And, you know, if you're going to refer to Twitter, it's just known as the bird site.
So, with that, we've got a nice introduction to Macedon.
And I'm probably going to do one more thing to talk about the Fediverse and where I have come down in the choices that I have made.
But for now, I'm going to sign off for hacker public radio and remind you as always to support free software. Bye-bye.
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