#121818
i see a lot of people asking what mastodon is but no answers, so here is an explanation
mastodon is a hosting service that allows anyone to create servers on it known as instances (with mastodon.social being the most popular one). once an instance is created, people can join it (instances can also be private, so that the only way to join is via an invite). the person who creates the instance also moderates it, with the option to allow other people to moderate it alongside them. as such, rules vary instance to instance and are usually listed on the front page of it.
there are thousands of different instances. moderators of each instance can blacklist other instances from interacting with anyone in their instance.
instances can be based around a certain topic i.e. pokemon or art, be completely miscellaneous, be only for lgbt people, stuff along those lines (they can even have custom emojis!) basically its like creating individual small-scale social media websites. people from different instances can still follow and interact with each other as well, like how people who join different email websites can still email each other
hopefully this helps people out!!
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So far, Mastodon looks like the most promising escape route.