160 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
160 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
title: Migrating from Twitter to Mastodon
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---
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pub_date: 2022-11-11
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---
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author: Nico Schottelius
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---
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twitter_handle: NicoSchottelius
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---
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_hidden: no
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---
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_discoverable: yes
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---
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abstract:
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How to move from Twitter to Mastodon
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---
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body:
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## TL;DR
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If you are in a hurry, here is the minimal amount of information you
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need to move from Twitter to Mastodon:
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* [Find a server you like](https://ipv6.social)
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* Create an account
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* Follow people you like
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Ready and go!
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## The longer story
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Mastodon is not Twitter and will never be. However both Mastodon and
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Twitter are social media networks. Mastodon however is
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**decentralised**.
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## Decentralised Social Media
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What does that mean, decentralised? It means anyone can run a Mastodon
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server and connect to everyone else. This is very much how the
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Internet was designed: a place of many systems that talk to each
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other.
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Twitter on the other side is a centralised solution. All data and
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communication is hosted by Twitter. If Twitter is going down, everyone
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is affected.
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Mastodon on the other hand is much more robust. You can and have to
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choose a Mastodon instance that you like.
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## Which Mastodon instance to use?
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There are plenty of instances around and you can choose the one you
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trust most or your friends are on. There are various lists of Mastodon
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instances, such as the one at
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[joinmastodon.org](https://joinmastodon.org/servers) or at
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[instances.social](instances.social/list)
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(thanks to
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[@AltoidLover@tech.lgbt](https://tech.lgbt/@AltoidLover/109325600888809019)
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for the pointer).
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Or, you can even
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[run your own Mastodon
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instance](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/).
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## Your own Mastodon instance
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Why would you want to run your own Mastodon instance in the first
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place? Let's take a few steps back, to understand the fundamental
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difference between Twitter and the Fediverse. The Fedi-what?
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We so far said Mastodon everywhere, but in reality, Mastodon is just
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one software that allows you to communicate decentralised. In general,
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we refer to the decentralised communication as the "FEDIVERSE". That's
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settled, now let's go back to why anyone would want to run their own
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instance.
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First of all, running your own mastodon instance allows you to use
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your own, custom domain. So my handle is
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[@nico@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@nico) and it indicates I am
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somewhat interested in #IPv6 related topics, just from the domain of
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the instance I am on.
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If you already have a domain, many people also choose to use the
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subdomain "social", like social.example.com.
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There is a second, maybe equally significant point when it comes to
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Mastodon. That is the question of who is going to take care of the
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instance, who is going to update the software and who is actually
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going to pay for running the instance?
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## In the fediverse, you are not a product
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Compared to Twitter, where advertisement turns the user into a
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product, in the fediverse you are not a product. That also means that
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the organisation running a Mastodon instance does actually need to pay
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for the service. Whether that is running a VPS, running a Raspberry PI
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or having it hosted by someone else, somebody has to provide the
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resource for it.
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This is fundamentally different compared to Twitter, but also
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Facebook, where you are basically also just a product.
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The big advantage of this is that there is no advertisement, no
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central user analytics, but much more freedom. Like we say in
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Switzerland, you [Khasch nit z'Füferli und z Weggli
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ha](https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewGeneraldiscussion.php?idForum=4&idThread=1051992&lp=ende&lang=en)
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or in proper English: you cannot have everything. And that's a good
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thing.
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## Importing Twitter Followers into the Fediverse
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You might have noticed that more and more Twitter accounts add their
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fediverse handle like
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[@ungleich@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@ungleich)
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to their Twitter
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handle. There is a nifty tool available that scans your account for
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the handles and imports them on the fediverse site for you. It is
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called [Debirdify](https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/) and it's a good
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start to get a list of people to follow. Debirdify can actually scan
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your followers and the ones you follow, too.
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## More guides
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If you interested in reading Is there more
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about moving from Twitter to Mastodon, there are other articles you
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might be interested in, like:
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* [A beginner’s guide to Mastodon, the open source Twitter alternative
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(techcrunch)](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/08/what-is-mastodon/)
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* [How-To Mastodon (Tobru, covers Swiss specific
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aspects)](https://tobru.ch/how-to-mastodon/) (thanks for
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[@tobru@mstdn.social](https://mstdn.social/@tobru) for the pointer)
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## Mastodon Hosting by ungleich
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Shameless plug at the end - we have just
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launched [Mastodon hosting by ungleich](/u/products/mastodon-hosting/)
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to provide you an easy way to start in the fediverse. Remember, you
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don't have to go with us, but the beauty of the fediverse is you can
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host your own, use somebody else's server or use a hosted Mastodon
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instance.
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## P.S.: A Post Twitter World
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Twitter might not yet be done and even at ungleich we have a lot of
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references to our Twitter account. We don't know whether everyone will
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move to the fediverse, but we very much welcome a push towards
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decentralisation of the Internet.
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For many years, probably about a decade or two, we have become more
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and more reliant on centralised services. These services might have
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made our lives easier, but also much more dependent on a few
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organisations.
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It is a good thing to review what we are using from time to time and
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today we are looking stronger at Twitter - tomorrow we might consider
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a different search engine - who knows?
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I am looking forward to hearing you in the fediverse and if you have any
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comment, do not hesitate to reach out to [@nico@ipv6.social](https://ipv6.social/@nico).
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