If you want to leave Twitter, now is a good time. I’ve been experimenting with Mastodon today, I am also Micro.blog subscriber. Here’s what I learned. No matter what you choose, you will have more ownership and freedom for your content. Both platforms are built on open web standards and integrate.

Difference between Micro.blog and Mastodon

  • Micro.blog is a paid service, and Mastodon is free.
  • Mastodon has many instances, the biggest one is mastodon.social, which is closed for new registrations.
  • Don’t think that you need to join the biggest Mastodon instance, you can join any instance you like, and follow people from any instance, including, mastodon.social. This goes both ways. When you search for people to follow, you see results from all Mastodon servers.
  • Mastodon is more similar to Twitter, while Micro.blog is closer to traditional blogging with modern features and short posts.
  • You can migrate between Mastodon instances, including, Micro.blog, but only every 30 days.
  • If you already have Micro.blog, you don’t need to create a separate Mastodon account. Register your username with Micro.blog. I didn’t know about that and ended up creating a new account on hachyderm.io
  • After registering the username, people on Mastodon can follow your Micro.blog, with one limitation, they will start to see your posts only after following you. Mastodon shows the confusing message: “Older posts from other servers are not displayed.”
  • Mastodon instances don’t have this limitation. You can follow most of Micro.blog users through Mastodon, and you can read their entire timeline without leaving Mastodon.
  • Micro.blog does not show how many people follow you, I see this as a strong plus. But if this is important to you, don’t register your username on any Mastodon server, not Micro.blog.
  • The same is true for direct messages and retweets which Micro.blog does not support.
  • Mastodon has an awesome feature which allows you to self-verify. This shows a green checkmark on your profile page and a link to your website. You can even add multiple websites.
  • Micro.blog is good for posting photos and blogging about books.
  • You can post to Micro.blog with excellent MarsEdit, or use their native Mac app. Their iOS app is going to be written with React Native. However there’s at least 2 native third-party apps available. And Micro.blog has friendly API, they don’t care which app you use. Mastodon can be used with native Ivory from TapBots. which is in not released yet.

My choices

  • Continuing to post here for more considered and long content.
  • Cross-post from here to Micro.blog via RSS.
  • Using a dedicated Mastodon account.
  • Using Ivory Mac and iOS apps from Tap Bots for posting and reading.
  • Following Micro.blog users through Micro.blog.
  • Following Mastodon users on hachyderm.io.
  • Cross-posting from Micro.blog to Mastodon.

I think it’s an exciting time, and even drew a diagram, last time I felt like this was when I was choosing an email provider.

Corrections

However their iOS app is going to be written with Electron.

Their iOS app is going to be written with React Native. However there’s at least 2 native third-party apps available. And Micro.blog has friendly API, they don’t care which app you use.