What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is an open source social network that federates with other services on the Fediverse. It does this via an implemntation of several web standards to facilitate ineroperability and cross-communication. In other words mastodon is apart of a decenteralized network that share statuses and other information with each other, and is not owned by any one person. Even within the sphere of Mastodon, no one person owns and operates all the other instances.
While other services on the Fediverse provides different social aspects, mastodon is dedicated to being a microblogging platform. Limited to 500 characters in a single post, users create short distinct status updates that are then shared with the community depending upon their posts visibility setting. Users can follow or be followed by other members on their instance or on other instances in the fediverse.
As mentioned in the video, you can find a curated list of instance at joinmastodon.org, that is if you choose not to join us on our instance.
Further Reading
TL;DR
- Mastodon is a microblogging
- It's decenteralized and communicates with other instances on the network
- Users can post short statuses, follow friends, and be followed by others
- Mastodon being only one type of social experience is able to communicate with other social experiences on the network