如果您还没有听说过Mastodon，请不要担心。暂时还不需要FOMO。该服务于 2016 年悄悄推出，直到2017年3 月左右才开始流行。2017(March)年 8 月上旬(August 2017)，Mastodon的用户刚刚超过 76 万。该服务在12 月(December)达到了 100 万用户，并且从那时起几乎有增无减。
至于Mastodon到底是什么，嗯——这需要不止一段来解释。Mastodon是一个与(Mastodon)Twitter有相似之处的社交媒体平台，但这仅仅是开始。
Mastodon 是免费(Mastodon Is Free)的、开源的(Open-Source)、去中心化的和联合的(Decentralized & Federated)
关于Mastodon(Mastodon) ，首先要了解的是它是FOSS——免费和开源软件。任何想要的人都可以下载源代码(source code)的副本，并以他们想要的任何方式对其进行修改。
有人甚至可以基于原始代码开发一个与Mastodon完全不同的平台，而不会产生任何法律后果。开源软件背后的理念是进步：建立在之前的一切之上。并绕过严厉的版权法。
Mastodon的另一个主要原则是去中心化。虽然世界“中心化”在不同情况下可能意味着不同的事物，但对于社交媒体，它通常指的是一个中心组织。
以Facebook为例。要使用Facebook，您必须访问Facebook.com或通过使用 Facebook (Facebook.com)API的第三方应用程序访问它。虽然您可能拥有自己的页面，但它并不是真正的“您的” ——Facebook(– and Facebook)可以关闭它或删除他们不喜欢的任何内容。
Mastodon是一个去中心化的网络，这意味着没有拥有所有权力的中央集团。回想一下博客的早期，当时“博客网络”很流行。您可能拥有自己的博客，但很容易跳转到其他人的博客。这是去中心化网络的一个例子。
虽然去中心化网络在理论上很好，但社交网络的重点是成为更大整体的一部分——这就是Mastodon结合联邦的地方。
主页说(The homepage says)：
“Mastodon isn’t just a website, it is a federation – think Star Trek. Thousands of independent communities running Mastodon form a coherent network, where while every planet is different, being part of one is being part of the whole.”
有成百上千的小社区生活在Mastodon 系统(Mastodon system)内。每个人都是独立和独特的，但他们都可以相互交谈。这些社区称为实例。在技术层面上，任何运行Mastodon的域都称为实例。
每个实例都由其自己的管理员和志愿者团队分开和管理。没有全球管理团队(administration team)。
Mastodon 以道德为基础
如果您相信免费和开放的互联网(Internet)，Mastodon是一项很棒的服务。由于源代码(source code)是开放的，如果Mastodon朝用户不喜欢的方向发展，有人可以轻松修改代码并创建自己的Mastodon版本，志同道合的人可以加入。
关于这一点，Mastodon使用标准协议。这意味着网络可以在没有Mastodon(Mastodon)服务器的情况下继续生存。您不受服务的约束(t bound)。甚至你的“嘟嘟”（相当于乳齿象(Mastodon equivalent)的推文，我们稍后将深入探讨）也可以通过其他技术访问。
最后，Mastodon没有货币化。创作者只能通过捐赠赚钱，而不是通过广告或风险投资(advertising or venture capital)。这意味着没有委员会推动服务产生最大的利润或收入(profit or revenue)。虽然Mastodon的创建者，一个名叫Eugen Rochko的人，可能倾向于安装某些功能来让用户群满意，但任何不满意的用户都可以获取源代码(source code)并转到其他地方。
如何使用乳齿象
现在我们来了解您实际在这里的原因 - 弄清楚如何使用这个令人困惑的服务。如果像我一样，你看了一眼，对看似复杂的系统摸不着头脑，别担心。Mastodon比你想象的更容易使用。
首先(First)，您发送给实例的消息称为嘟嘟。(toots.)这是推特上的一出戏。您还可以像在Twitter 上(Twitter)一样设置个人资料，包括显示名称(display name)、个人简介、标题和个人资料图片。Mastodon还为用户提供过滤特定单词和内容的选项。
它甚至看起来像Tweetdeck。只需(Just)查看此屏幕截图：
相当于转发的Mastodon(Mastodon equivalent)称为boost。喜欢被称为收藏夹(favorites)，您的消息有 500 个字符的限制，而不是 Twitter 的 240 个限制。
用户名格式是@username，但这就是事情开始变得不同的地方。看到时间线上的顶部嘟嘟声了吗？那是来自一个名为@[email protected]的用户。这是 Mastodon 的联合网络的一个示例。@RadicalEdward 是用户，但 @hackers.town 显示用户正在从另一个实例发帖。
屏幕截图是Mastodon.social，它是目前最大（如果不是最大的话）实例之一。拥有超过 200,000 名用户，这不是加入与人聊天的地方。你会被淹没在喧嚣中。
当您加入 Mastodon( join Mastodon)时，您可以浏览实例列表并按类别排序，并且有很多类别可供选择。我看到的一些例子包括一个针对说法语的人，一个针对书呆子文化，甚至一个针对女巫。
当您在Mastodon(Mastodon)上单击加入时，您会看到一个login/account creation screen，该屏幕会询问您的用户名、电子邮件地址(email address)、密码，并要求您同意条款和服务器规则。填写(Fill)这些，瞧：你在里面。
请记住，在您充实之前，您的个人资料将是赤裸裸的。您的用户名也可能出现在不同的实例上，因为服务器检查重复的唯一位置是您加入的实例。
如果您对无公司的社交网络的想法感兴趣，请尝试一下Mastodon。转向支持自由和开放Internet的软件的人越多，万维网的未来就会越好。
Mastodon – An Open-Source Twitter-Like Website You Should Try
If you haven’t heard of Mastоdon, don’t worry. There’ѕ no need for FOMO just yet. The service quietly launched in 2016 and did not begin to catch on until around March of 2017. At the beginning of August 2017, Mastodon had just over 760,000 users. The service hit a million users in December and has continued to grow almost unabated since then.
As for what Mastodon actually is, well – that takes more than a paragraph to explain. Mastodon is a social media platform that shares similarities with Twitter, but that’s just the start.
Mastodon Is Free, Open-Source, Decentralized & Federated
The first thing to know about Mastodon is that it is FOSS – free and open-source software. Anyone who wants to, can download a copy of the source code, and modify it in whatever way they want.
Someone can even develop an entirely different platform than Mastodon based on the original code with no legal repercussions. The idea behind open-source software is progress: to build on all that came before. And to get around draconian copyright laws.
Another primary tenet of Mastodon is decentralization. While the world “centralized” can mean different things in different contexts, with social media it typically refers to a central organization.
Take Facebook, for instance. To use Facebook, you have to go to Facebook.com or access it via a third-party application that uses Facebook’s API. While you might have your own page, it isn’t really “yours” – and Facebook can shut it down or remove anything they don’t like.
Mastodon is a decentralized network, which means there is no central group with all of the power. Think back to the early days of blogging, when “blog networks” were popular. You might have your own blog, but it was easy to jump to someone else’s blog. That is an example of a decentralized network.
While a decentralized network is great in theory, the point of a social network is to be part of a larger whole – and that’s where Mastodon incorporates federation.
The homepage says:
“Mastodon isn’t just a website, it is a federation – think Star Trek. Thousands of independent communities running Mastodon form a coherent network, where while every planet is different, being part of one is being part of the whole.”
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of small communities that live within the Mastodon system. Each one is independent and unique, but they can all talk to one another. These communities are called instances. On a technical level, any domain that runs Mastodon is called an instance.
Each instance is separated and moderated by its own team of admins and volunteers. There is no global administration team.
Mastodon Is Based In Ethics
If you believe in a free and open Internet, Mastodon is a great service to use. As the source code is open, if Mastodon ever goes in a direction that users don’t like, someone can easily modify the code and create their own version of Mastodon where like-minded people can join.
On that note, Mastodon uses standard protocols. This means the network can continue to survive without Mastodon servers. You aren’t bound to the service. Even your “toots” (the Mastodon equivalent of Tweets that we will dive into later) can be accessed by other technology.
Finally, Mastodon is not monetized. The creators only earn money through donations – not through advertising or venture capital. This means there is no committee driving the service to generate the most profit or revenue. While the creator of Mastodon, a man named Eugen Rochko, might be inclined to install certain features to keep the user base happy, any unhappy users can take the source code and go elsewhere.
How To Use Mastodon
Now we get to the reason you’re actually here – to figure out how to use this confounded service. If, like me, you took one look and scratched your head at the seemingly complex systems, don’t worry. Mastodon is a lot easier to use than you might think.
First of all, your messages to the instance are called toots. This is a play on Tweets. You also set up a profile just like you would on Twitter, including a display name, a bio, a header, and a profile picture. Mastodon also provides users with options for filtering specific words and content.
It even looks like Tweetdeck. Just check out this screenshot:
The Mastodon equivalent of a retweet is called a boost. Likes are called favorites and you have a 500-character limit to your messages instead of Twitter’s 240 limit.
The username format is @username, but that’s where things start to get different. See the top toot on the timeline? That’s from a user named @[email protected]. This is an example of Mastodon’s federated network. @RadicalEdward is the user, but the @hackers.town shows the user is posting from another instance.
The screenshot is of Mastodon.social, one of the largest – if not the largest – instances out there. With somewhere upward of 200,000 users, it’s not the place to join to chat with people. You’ll be drowned out of the noise.
When you join Mastodon, you can browse through lists of instances and sort by categories, and there are quite a few categories to choose from. A few of the instances I saw included one for French speakers, one for nerd culture, and even one for witches.
When you click join on a Mastodon, you’ll be greeted with a login/account creation screen that asks for your username, your email address, a password, and asks you to agree to the terms and server rules. Fill these in and voila: you’re inside.
Just keep in mind that your profile will be bare bones until you flesh it out. Your username may also appear on a different instance, as the only place the server checks for duplicates is the instance you join.
If the idea of a corporate-free social network interests you, give Mastodon a try. The more people that make the shift to software that supports a free and open Internet, the better the future of the world wide web will be.
