Ordinary Chaos

Tag: mastodon

  • The best Twitter alternatives worth checking out

    The best Twitter alternatives worth checking out

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    We’ll be straight with you. There’s no 1:1 Twitter replacement, but there are plenty of social apps that might be worth substituting into your obsessive timeline-checking routines if you’re done with Twitter for whatever reason (we can think of plenty).

    Twitter’s current situation — advertisers leaving, Nazis logging back on — presents an opportunity to check in with ourselves about what we really want out of a social network.

    We don’t just have to use social apps because they’re there, and they’re really sticky. Users should get something out of the exchange, particularly on ad-supported services. Whether that means building a following for your fledgling business or connecting with people in communities you care about, social media should serve a function — not just drain away the hours in the day.

    Happily, there are options. Decentralized projects offer different experiences that are less beholden to corporate whims, while less traditional social platforms might serve up a totally different set of interactions and experiences. But that’s OK. Twitter wasn’t perfect, and while it was and arguably still is pretty essential for real-time events and news-gathering, its most engaged users didn’t always enjoy spending time there.

    Here are some options to consider.

    Threads

    Meta’s Threads has cemented itself as one of the most popular and viable Twitter alternatives out there. Although the app was a bit scarce when it first launched in July 2023, Threads has slowly but surely been adding requested features, such as trending lists and a desktop version. 

    One advantage that Threads has over Twitter is its integration with Instagram. You can log in with your Instagram credentials, and it’s easy to find people to follow because the app knows who you’re already connected with. Plus, you can cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads. 

    Another advantage that Threads has over Twitter is the platform’s integration with the fediverse, which is a collection of social networks running the ActivityPub protocol. 

    While Threads is a great Twitter alternative in almost all aspects, some may find that it lags behind on news, sports, and pop culture events. It’s worth noting that Meta has also distanced itself and its platforms from politics. 

    It’s worth noting that while Threads offers a basic Twitter-like experience, it doesn’t include features such as long video, direct messages, or live audio rooms.

    Mastodon

    Mastodon is one of the most-discussed homes for fleeing Twitter users — and with good reason.

    The service is designed in a way that decentralizes power and moderation decisions, obviating the concerns about one person setting platform-wide rules based on a whim.

    Mastodon works a lot like Twitter, allowing users to share real-time thoughts to an account and reshare posts by others. But that’s mostly where the similarities end. Unlike traditional social networks, Mastodon is an open source option, which means that rather than all users being in one big basket with one set of rules, you’ll need to select a server (smaller basket) to join.

    If you get sick of it or disagree with those moderation decisions, you can migrate elsewhere. You can still follow and interact with people on other servers so you don’t need to agonize too much over that choice, but that decentralized ethos colors the whole experience.

    Like a choice of server, you’ll also have a choice of which app to use on mobile. Mastodon’s open source nature means you’ve got more choice all around, but the downside is that the extra steps might be off-putting to people who want a more straightforward sign-up process.

    That said, if you’re tired of the cynicism and harassment on Twitter, the vibe on Mastodon is pretty chill right now. If any of this sounds interesting, it’s definitely worth checking out.

    Bluesky

    Bluesky is a fast-growing alternative to Twitter and was developed in parallel with Twitter and spearheaded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Like Mastodon, Bluesky is all about the decentralized social network — that is, giving people the tools they need to form their own communities. 

    Bluesky is ultimately a decentralized version of Twitter. The service lets you post text and images, reply and repost, and message users. However, unlike Twitter, Bluesky lets you set up your own server if you want and pick your own algorithm. Bluesky also lets you decide how much or little you want your content moderated, as it lets you subscribe to independent moderation services.

    New users get access to the app’s “Starter Pack” feature, which creates a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow in order to find interesting content as soon as you create an account. 

    Like Threads, the app was pretty bare bones when it first launched to the public in February, but Bluesky has since rolled out many requested features, such as native support for videos and DMs. 

    Discord

    Discord doesn’t really work like Twitter at all, but hear us out: It’s one of the best social apps around.

    The app was originally created to give gamers a better way to chat, but since then it has expanded well beyond that initial vision. Like Mastodon, Discord doesn’t offer a giant “public square,” instead offering topic and interest-based servers that anyone can join and hang out in. Discord offers regular text chat within its server-based channels, as well as seamless voice chat and some other experiences, like streaming a game to friends or queueing up YouTube videos together. Some of the most popular servers have hundreds of thousands of members, but you could also just curate one for friends or family.

    Through servers, Discord offers some of the same federation benefits as Mastodon without the open source stuff that spooks some people during onboarding. And Discord isn’t going anywhere anytime soon: It’s a mature company with a thriving user base and a sustainable business built around paid subscriptions. That kind of stability goes a long way for social apps, which historically are prone to fizzling out and vanishing overnight.

    The downside is that Discord is more about chatting than posting. The app’s Slack-like interface refreshes in real time and in a busy Discord, or even one with a few hundred active members, it’s easy to lose track of conversations fast. The company knows that and is actively building more tools that enable asynchronous interactions, so that’s something to watch out for.

    Tumblr

    Although you may not see it as an alternative to Twitter, there are some similarities between the two platforms that make it a notable contender.

    Even though Tumblr teeters more toward a microblogging site than a traditional social network, it features a feed that displays posts from people you follow in a similar way to Twitter. Tumblr lets you post content with images, GIFs, videos, and more. You can leave notes on a post, which are similar to comments. You can also like, share, and repost content on the platform. Tumblr also has a trending topics section like Twitter, and it has a chat feature that’s similar to direct messages on Twitter.

    Tumblr offers more flexibility than Twitter, while being easy to set up and use. You can use Tumblr for free or opt for an ad-free experience with additional features for $4.99 per month or $39.99 a year. Given Tumblr’s ability to stay alive despite its fair share of changing ownership, we don’t think it’s going anywhere, which makes it an ideal alternative to Twitter. It’s also a place with its own unique humor and a chaotic culture that’s a massive part of Tumblr’s unique appeal.

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  • Mozilla exits the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December

    Mozilla exits the fediverse and will shutter its Mastodon server in December

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    Mozilla is exiting the fediverse. Though the concept of the open social web, also known as the fediverse, has been picking up momentum ever since Meta last year introduced its first-ever federated app, Instagram Threads, Firefox maker Mozilla on Tuesday announced it would be ending its experiment in running a server on the fediverse. The server, Mozilla.social, today connects users with the Mastodon social network, an open source rival to Twitter/X. It will be shut down on December 17.

    In the meantime, users will be able to download their data or migrate their account to another Mastodon instance, if they choose.

    The latter takes advantage of the account portability offered by the open social web. Unlike on centralized platforms, users don’t have to abandon an account and lose both their content and followers if they don’t like how a server is being run or the rules it has in place. Instead, they can opt to relocate to another Mastodon server at any time or even run their own. The same applies to when a server’s owner chooses to shut down their instance, as Mozilla is now doing.

    Mozilla.social was a small instance, having only 270 active users at the time of Tuesday’s announcement. By comparison, the most popular Mastodon instance, Mastodon.social, has over 247,500 monthly active users.

    Image Credits: Mozilla

    Mozilla had telegraphed its plans to scale back on its fediverse investments earlier this year after the CEO stepped down. At the time, Mozilla board member Laura Chambers took over the job as the interim CEO of Mozilla Corporation through the end of 2024. Shortly after the change in leadership, Mozilla said it would refocus its product strategy around Firefox and AI and significantly scale back or even shutter other efforts. Among those products affected by the pullback were its VPN, Relay, and Online Footprint Scrubber, in addition to its Mastodon instance, the company said at the time. Meanwhile, its virtual world Hubs was shut down.

    The redirection of Mozilla’s efforts came after its flagship product, the Firefox web browser, spent years losing market share. That left room for other competitors, like the startup Arc, to take hold in the alternative browser market.

    Months prior to this change in strategy, Mozilla had been touting the fediverse’s potential, but under Chambers, the company said that a more “modest approach” to the fediverse would have allowed it to participate with “greater agility.” In an internal memo, Mozilla signaled that going forward, a “much smaller team” would participate in the Mastodon ecosystem. However, it didn’t say at the time that the Mozilla.social instance would shut down, adding that it would continue to bring small experiments to those who participated on its instance.

    Mozilla shared its plans to shut down the server in a post on Mastodon’s social network, calling it a “hard decision.”

    “Thank you for being part of the Mozilla.social community and providing feedback during our closed beta. You can continue to use Mozilla.social until December 17,” the post noted before providing links to help users export data and migrate accounts.

    In addition, the Mozilla-backed startup Mammoth, makers of a third-party Mastodon app, announced it was migrating its instance over to Mastodon hosting provider Mastohost. However, Mammoth co-founder Bart Decrem tells TechCrunch this move was totally unrelated to Mozilla’s broader decision to leave the fediverse.

    “Mozilla signaled that it was focusing its efforts on Firefox and AI some months ago, so this does not come as a surprise,” Decrem said. “I’m excited about the promise of ActivityPub and the fediverse, and Mastodon is an important part of that, but this is a good reminder that we have a lot of work ahead.”

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  • Bluesky continues to soar, adding 2M more new users in a matter of days

    Bluesky continues to soar, adding 2M more new users in a matter of days

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    Social networking startup Bluesky continues to benefit from X’s shutdown in Brazil having now added over 2 million new users over the past four days, up from just half a million as of Friday. This rapid growth led some users to encounter the occasional error that would state there were “Not Enough Resources” to handle requests, as Bluesky engineers scrambled to keep the servers stable under the influx of new sign-ups.

    As new users downloaded the app, Bluesky jumped to becoming the app to No. 1 in Brazil over the weekend, ahead of Meta’s X competitor, Instagram Threads. According to app intelligence firm Appfigures, Bluesky’s total downloads soared by 10,584% this weekend compared to last, and its downloads in Brazil were up by a whopping 1,018,952%. The growth seems to be having a halo effect, as downloads outside Brazil also rose by 584%, the firm noted. In part, this is due to Bluesky receiving downloads in 22 countries where it had barely seen any traction before.

    In terms of absolute downloads, countries that saw the most installs outside Brazil included the U.S., Portugal, the U.K., Canada and Spain. Those with the most download growth, however, were Portugal, Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Romania. Most of the latter group jumped from single-digit growth to growth in the thousands.

    Bluesky’s newcomers have actively engaged on the platform, too, driving up other key metrics.

    As one Bluesky engineer remarked, the number of likes on the social network grew to 104.6 million over the past four-day period, up from just 13 million when compared with a similar period just a week ago. Follows also grew from 1.4 million to 100.8 million while reposts grew from 1.3 million to 11 million.

    As of Monday, Bluesky said it had added 2.11 million users during the past four days, up from 26,000 users it had added in the week-ago period. In addition, the company noted it had seen “significantly more than a 100% [daily active users] increase.”

    Bluesky’s appeal to those forced to leave X may have to do with how closely the user experience resembles that of the now Elon Musk-owned app, formerly known as Twitter. Once incubated within Twitter, Bluesky spun out as a separate company and raised its own funding, but still retains much of Twitter’s look and feel.

    Like X, Bluesky offers features like likes, reposts, quote posts, lists, direct messages, search tools and user profiles, but it also improves on X’s capabilities in other ways. As a decentralized social network, users can set up their own instances (servers that run Bluesky and connect to others over the AT Protocol), customize their feeds, subscribe to third-party moderation services, and create and share “starter packs” that link to curated sets of recommended users to follow. In a coming update, Bluesky also plans to add support for video, the company says.

    Another factor to consider here is how Bluesky’s approach to content and moderation differs from Threads.

    Even when it was Twitter, X has long been known as a hotbed for breaking news and political debates, Threads has taken the opposite approach, saying it would not default to recommending political content on its platform. Instead, Threads wants to make itself palatable to brands and influencers, similar to Instagram, as it intends to eventually monetize via ads.

    Given that X’s ban in Brazil is tied to politics — the country wanted control over what could be said on the platform — it’s likely that some Brazilians opting for Bluesky wanted to join a network that was not centralized and as easily controlled. On platforms like X, moderation decisions are left up to the site’s owners, but on decentralized networks, the users are in charge.

    That flexibility combined with Bluesky’s ease of use could make the network a bigger draw than others.

    For instance, though Mastodon offers its own decentralized network, the recent user growth driven by Brazil was on a much smaller scale. On Saturday, Mastodon founder and CEO Eugen Rochko said the service had seen 4,200 signups from Brazil, up from 152 signups on August 28, for instance. That could speak to the fact that Brazilians want more than decentralization: They also want a place that more closely resembles Twitter/X.

    Meta has not yet commented on how large an increase it’s seen on Threads driven by Brazilians leaving X, but as a network that already has over 200 million monthly active users, even the addition of thousands or millions more would not be as noticeable a gain, compared with the much smaller Bluesky. Still, it’s also possible that Brazilians wanted to move to a place that was separate from friends, family and creators — one that defaulted to public postings and felt more like Twitter once did. Bluesky’s culture, which tends toward s***posting and memes, has the sort of chaotic energy of an early Twitter.

    X is said to have had north of 20 million users in Brazil, which means there’s plenty of growth to be captured all around.

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  • Sub.club aims to fund the fediverse via premium feeds

    Sub.club aims to fund the fediverse via premium feeds

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    A new service from the makers of the Mammoth app for Mastodon intends to bring the creator economy to the fediverse, also known as the open social web. Sub.club, launching on Thursday, will allow creators on Mastodon — a decentralized Twitter/X rival — to offer paid subscriptions and content by way of premium feeds. In addition to supporting creators, sub.club thinks premium feeds could also serve other use cases, like supporting helpful bots or generating funds to help maintain a community’s Mastodon server, for instance.

    The latter would be particularly useful as the fediverse today is made up of independent servers that interconnect with one another to form a decentralized open social web that includes Mastodon and other services. Those servers tend to be community-supported, which can be a challenge when it comes to raising funds.

    Developed over the past few months, sub.club shares engineering and design resources with Mammoth, the Mastodon app backed by Mozilla, Long Journey Ventures and Salesforce’s Marc Benioff. Though some fediverse supporters don’t like the idea of VCs and for-profit businesses entering their space, Mammoth’s co-founder Bart Decrem thinks bringing money into the fediverse could help it to thrive.

    While he admits there will be some pushback at the idea, Decrem says that Mastodon and ActivityPub, the protocol powering the fediverse, could use more resources.

    “I think it’s important, for the ecosystem to thrive, that there be a way to have premium content to build businesses here,” he said. “That’s a fundamental belief.”

    To use sub.club, Mastodon users can set up their own premium feed at whatever price they choose, which others can subscribe to via the web. Designed to run on the ActivityPub platform, sub.club creates a feed that can be consumed from within any Mastodon client on the web. It’s also offering an API to allow Mastodon app developers to natively integrate these feeds into their own mobile and desktop apps. Third-party developer Thomas Ricouard, who makes the Ice Cubes Mastodon app for iOS and Mac, will be the first to implement the subscription feeds.

    Image Credits: sub.club

    “I’m very happy that I can help with the creator economy over the Mastodon and the fediverse by expanding Ice Cubes features,” Ricouard told TechCrunch. “And we believe sub.club will help fund various creators and services over the fediverse, as it’s much needed.”

    Sub.club will also roll out to Mammoth’s app starting on Friday, allowing users to click a button to subscribe to creators’ paid feeds.

    When users click to follow a subscription-based feed, they’ll receive a direct message that links them to a payment page on the web. The payments are currently powered by Stripe, but over time, sub.club may add support for other payment providers.

    To generate revenue for itself, sub.club takes a 6% cut of the transactions — that’s less than the 8% or 12% Patreon takes on subscriptions via its Pro and Premium plans, respectively.

    Decrem says sub.club differs from Patreon in other ways, too, as it’s “more of a back-end service” than Patreon, as opposed to being a destination where content can be discovered.

    (Still, it’s worth noting that Apple is currently forcing Patreon to use its in-app purchase system or risk being removed from the App Store. Sub.club, for now at least, may fly under the radar.)

    Image Credits: sub.club

    The potential for sub.club could grow alongside the open social web. When Meta’s Threads fully integrates with ActivityPub, it would bring a new class of creators into the fediverse, and they may be looking for alternative means of monetization beyond advertising, which the fediverse generally avoids. (Threads, however, may not).

    That’s a potentially monetizable activity, Decrem thinks, which is why Mammoth and sub.club’s parent company, The Blvd. Inc., is seeking to raise a seed round.

    “If people start building little apps, you’ll start seeing entrepreneurial activity and money flowing through the system. And I think that’s exciting to a class of investors,” Decrem said.

    Under Elon Musk, X (formerly Twitter) has sought to raise creator profiles allowing them to generate revenue from their posts and videos. But it has struggled to keep advertisers amid the controversial and toxic content that’s often shared on the network. As a result, the company is incentivizing posts that generate a lot of replies, as these can qualify for revenue-sharing, which is leading to more clickbait across the platform and diluting the more valuable pockets of conversation.

    Mastodon, meanwhile, is largely untouched by any push to monetize its posts, supporting itself instead through Patreon, grants and more recently, merchandise.

    Whether the fediverse will actually welcome paid content remains to be seen.

    Sub.club — not to be confused with Sub Club from RevenueCat — is initially available as a developer preview and will later this fall roll out tools that will allow Mastodon server owners the ability to support their instance financially. For that product, sub.club will waive its fees and its Stripe fees for the first 90 days.

    Early adopters of the premium feeds include the premium bot “Pups Where They Don’t Belong” and an account from developer and sub.club adviser Anuj Ahooja.

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