ungleich-staticcms/content/u/blog/2022-11-11-migrating-from-twitter-to-mastodon/contents.lr

title: Migrating from Twitter to Mastodon
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pub_date: 2022-11-11
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author: Nico Schottelius
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twitter_handle: NicoSchottelius
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_discoverable: yes
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abstract:
How to move from Twitter to Mastodon
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body:

## TL;DR

If you are in a hurry, here is the minimal amount of information you
need to move from Twitter to Mastodon:

* [Find a server you like](https://ipv6.social)
* Create an account
* Follow people you like

Ready and go!

## The longer story

Mastodon is not Twitter and will never be. However both Mastodon and
Twitter are social media networks. Mastodon however is
**decentralised**.

## Decentralised Social Media

What does that mean, decentralised? It means anyone can run a Mastodon
server and connect to everyone else. This is very much how the
Internet was designed: a place of many systems that talk to each
other.

Twitter on the other side is a centralised solution. All data and
communication is hosted by Twitter. If Twitter is going down, everyone
is affected.

Mastodon on the other hand is much more robust. You can and have to
choose a Mastodon instance that you like.

## Which Mastodon instance to use?

There are plenty of instances around and you can choose the one you
trust most or your friends are on. There are various lists of Mastodon
instances, such as the one at
[joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/servers) or at
[instances.social](instances.social/list)
(thanks to
[@AltoidLover@tech.lgbt](https://tech.lgbt/@AltoidLover/109325600888809019)
for the pointer).

Or, you can even
[run your own Mastodon
instance](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/).

## Your own Mastodon instance

Why would you want to run your own Mastodon instance in the first
place? Let's take a few steps back, to understand the fundamental
difference between Twitter and the Fediverse. The Fedi-what?

We so far said Mastodon everywhere, but in reality, Mastodon is just
one software that allows you to communicate decentralised. In general,
we refer to the decentralised communication as the "FEDIVERSE". That's
settled, now let's go back to why anyone would want to run their own
instance.

First of all, running your own mastodon instance allows you to use
your own, custom domain. So my handle is
[@nico@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@nico) and it indicates I am
somewhat interested in #IPv6 related topics, just from the domain of
the instance I am on.

If you already have a domain, many people also choose to use the
subdomain "social", like social.example.com.

There is a second, maybe equally significant point when it comes to
Mastodon. That is the question of who is going to take care of the
instance, who is going to update the software and who is actually
going to pay for running the instance?

## In the fediverse, you are not a product

Compared to Twitter, where advertisement turns the user into a
product, in the fediverse you are not a product. That also means that
the organisation running a Mastodon instance does actually need to pay
for the service. Whether that is running a VPS, running a Raspberry PI
or having it hosted by someone else, somebody has to provide the
resource for it.

This is fundamentally different compared to Twitter, but also
Facebook, where you are basically also just a product.

The big advantage of this is that there is no advertisement, no
central user analytics, but much more freedom. Like we say in
Switzerland, you [Khasch nit z'Füferli und z Weggli
ha](https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewGeneraldiscussion.php?idForum=4&idThread=1051992&lp=ende&lang=en)
or in proper English: you cannot have everything. And that's a good
thing.

## Importing Twitter Followers into the Fediverse

You might have noticed that more and more Twitter accounts add their
fediverse handle like
[@ungleich@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@ungleich)
to their Twitter
handle. There is a nifty tool available that scans your account for
the handles and imports them on the fediverse site for you. It is
called [Debirdify](https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/) and it's a good
start to get a list of people to follow. Debirdify can actually scan
your followers and the ones you follow, too.

## More guides

If you interested in reading Is there more
about moving from Twitter to Mastodon, there are other articles you
might be interested in, like:

* [A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the open source Twitter alternative
  (techcrunch)](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/08/what-is-mastodon/)
* [How-To Mastodon (Tobru, covers Swiss specific
  aspects)](https://tobru.ch/how-to-mastodon/) (thanks for
  [@tobru@mstdn.social](https://mstdn.social/@tobru) for the pointer)

## Mastodon Hosting by ungleich

Shameless plug at the end - we have just
launched [Mastodon hosting by ungleich](/u/products/mastodon-hosting/)
to provide you an easy way to start in the fediverse. Remember, you
don't have to go with us, but the beauty of the fediverse is you can
host your own, use somebody else's server or use a hosted Mastodon
instance.

## P.S.: A Post Twitter World

Twitter might not yet be done and even at ungleich we have a lot of
references to our Twitter account. We don't know whether everyone will
move to the fediverse, but we very much welcome a push towards
decentralisation of the Internet.

For many years, probably about a decade or two, we have become more
and more reliant on centralised services. These services might have
made our lives easier, but also much more dependent on a few
organisations.

It is a good thing to review what we are using from time to time and
today we are looking stronger at Twitter - tomorrow we might consider
a different search engine - who knows?

I am looking forward to hearing you in the fediverse and if you have any
comment, do not hesitate to reach out to [@nico@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@nico).