<h1>Relying on self-hosting and at the same time managing it</h1>
<p>We started the special issue 8 by building a small network, a place to communicate, to experiment, to try and to fail. We were introduced to different protocols, and we explored new ways of communicating online. What struck me the most was this small community that we made around these tools and experiments. While we all got through the experience in the different timings, we faced our problems simultaneously. I can now understand how the <em>bugs</em> that we came across made this feeling of being connected even stronger. The feeling of being constantly questioning ourselves and not taking anything for granted.</p>
<p>We all stepped down from our comfort zone. Nowadays we feel like we belong online, we bond through platforms, and we use them without even thinking what is behind them, physically, politically, etc.</p>
<p>I decided to focus my research exactly on the questions that I had along the project probably as a way to understand them, or at least to try, more than actually answering them. Who are the communities that rely on non “mainstream” social media? What was their main reason to move, to gather in different places, how are they ruling themselves, and what boundaries had to be set?</p>
<h2class="sub_h1">What kind of communities are present on Mastodon, and what brought them there?</h2>
<p>As a starting point, I focused on Mastodon. A self-hosted online social media, that allows anyone to host their own server and to be a small node in the network. Mastodon is separately operated and divided into different instances but also federated while it can communicate between all these nodes. It seemed the perfect training ground to collect data across the fediverse, while still being big enough to host different communities with diversified goals.</p>
<p>One can see Mastodon has a place for internet refugees, and I guess I could agree. I started this experience with the idea that it was the perfect safe space, where people were here for a greater good, being marginalized groups that found it as a safe place, or free open source enthusiasts that gathered in an instance to talk about their own concerns. But I guess that it was not only it.</p>
<p>In articles like “Tired of Twitter? Join Me on Mastodon”, published in the well known Wired Magazine on 19th of August 2018, we can see that Mastodon is compared to a child of Twitter, a platform where you micro-blog by tooting, republish posts them as “boosts” and you may also favorite status. I can understand that the author has the same opinion as I did when I first started this journey, he states “Here’s what I think you’ll find: Mastodon users are nice people.”[^1]. I guess that you might wonder if what I think about these users is still the same or not but the kind of people present there I do not feel entitled to judge for myself.</p>
<p>One year earlier and almost at the same time of the year on the 18th of August 2017, Ethan Zuckerman, an American media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist also wrote about Mastodon. His article is focused on why this platform is so big in Japan, and what made it bloom. He started by comparing Twitter with the decentralized platform in their core but not only. He talks about what might not be so widely spread when joining this social media, his main point might be illustrated in this paragraph: “In Japan, there’s a distinction between 児童ポルノ – child pornography – and ロリコン – “lolicon”, short for “Lolita complex”. Child pornography is illegal in Japan and seeking it out would be deeply socially unacceptable. Lolicon, which includes animated cartoons and 2D drawings of young men and women in a way that is undeniably sexualized, sometimes through explicit depictions of sexual acts, is legal, widespread and significantly accepted.”[^2]. The author does not take one side to the story, he displays in a very efficient way that Mastodon’s growth is inevitably seen closely with this controversial spread of content and that a lot of parties might be disappointed by this fact, while remembering that “it’s worth remembering that controversial content has long been a driver of innovations in communications technology”.</p>
<h2class="sub_h1">Drawing lines over what one can and cannot do</h2>
<p>Firstly I’ve started by gathering different codes of conduct in different instances and trying to understand patterns on what were the lines drawn by different nodes in the network. Giving an example, in the instance “gravitas.cafe”, that self labels it as a “Luxury Fully Automated Gay Space Communism”, and where there is the need of having an invite to sign up as a user to this server, in their about more page sets these terms for the users:</p>
<p>“We have a zero tolerance policy for anyone breaking any of these rules, and they will result in an immediate suspension from this instance. — Do not participate in, engage in, or boost any form of harassment of other users in the fediverse. — Hate speech and bigotry are not tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and ableism. — NSFW posts are allowed but must be behind a Content Warning and flagged as sensitive. — Do not follow any of our users with a follow bot. Users please report any follow bots that follow you.”</p>
<p>What I find really interesting about Mastodon is its ability to adapt to different communities. Take for an example Switter, which is sex work-friendly social space, where anyone can join this node. You can, later on, have a look here on their code of conduct (https://assemblyfour.com/switter/code_of_conduct). While gathering all these codes of conduct, I understood that I was mainly focusing on what the instance admins wanted them to be. But is this really how they are ruled? And are people complying with all these sets of rules, restrictions and care within each other? I thought I had to create a space for people to share their experience on Mastodon, a place for the users that are the main core of a social platform to talk for themselves.</p>
<h2class="sub_h1">Asking the users!</h2>
<p>I would like to state that all the instances that I chose as case studies were either because of their online reputation, just as Switter, or because they had the highest relation between active users and toots posted. I had also the concern of choosing instances that in <em>joinmastodon</em> page (https://joinmastodon.org/) belonged to different identities, some of them LGBT, sysadmin, furry, adult content creator, etc. <br>I made this post:</p>
<p>“Hey all! I am researching on the topic of federation and more focused on Mastodon. I would really appreciate if you could answer to this question:<br>— What made you move to Mastodon?<br>Thank you so much for all the help you can give me,<br>love, Pedro”</p>
<p>To give you a better understanding on how I got the replies that I have, I wanted to get the biggest amount of answers in the smallest timeframe as possible, for that I have created approximately 50 accounts in different instances. All of them had the same user name “pedrosaclout” and the display name was “PÉ”. I also added the same profile picture to all of them. It is interesting that I felt the need to be seen as a real user, I did not want people to think in me as a bot, or a spammer if you might. I also chose the name PÉ because I thought that it was in some sort of way friendlier. I felt I was entering someones private space, their small instances where people “know” each other and I did not want to be a burden for them, I guess this already talks a lot about how I see the platform.</p>
<p>My methodology made me also questions on the topic of federation. Why did I create 50 plus accounts in a federated social platform? The answer is pretty straight forward: it had to be done like this to be faster. I wanted to talk with communities with different goals, I wanted to achieve this in a small timeframe and I guess this was the only way possible. Now that I think about it I can also understand that people probably saw me has part of their node once they could see that I actually had an account there and not in any other place, I was there for them. The federation also did its job, I got answers in certain accounts from users in different instances and that was also great to accomplish!</p>
<p>I am very thankful to everyone who contributed with their comments to my research, I got a lot of great answers and that made me rethink about Mastodon furthermore. While creating accounts in all these instances, I obviously was more successful in some compared to others. It might have because people did not engage so quickly with my toot and it got lost within the timeline, or it might also be because some of them are just too crowded and the speed of toots refreshing is just too fast for you to read a big text! Different instances had clearly different reasons from why they were actually there and that was an interesting result.</p>
<p>For example, in “linuxrock.online”, an instance that describes itself as “A Community-driven instance for people who love Linux. This instance is dedicated to all things Linux and technologies related to it.”, I got this answer from `@OpenComputeDesign` — `@pedrosaclout` It was totally Linux rocks. I’m not way interested in social media, but, when I saw Linux rocks, I knew I had to join. It is nice to have a place to ask questions and talk about cool Linux stuff. I’ve never been on any other social media. I hope this answers your question."[<aclass="grey"href="#comment3"><buttononclick="text2()">3</button></a>].</p>
<p>While this, at the same time I could be on “queer.party”, a node that claims itself as being “A silly instance of Mastodon for queer folk and non-queer folk alike.” gathering answers like this one from `@anonny125` — “`@pedrosaclout` After shuffling between social media platforms for a while and getting fed up with each one for making Poor Moderation Decisions, I really appreciate Mastodon (and the fediverse as a whole) for its nature as a bunch of small, completely independent communities because moderation can be much closer to the ground, and I haven’t tried it yet but if I don’t like the look of things where I am it doesn’t seem hard to just kind of pick all my stuff up and set it down somewhere else.”[<aclass="grey"href="#comment4"><buttononclick="text2()">4</button></a>].<br><br>How can a platform be so rich in its range of users and communities, and how would it be if there was no autonomy given to each admin.<br><br>How would you rule such different environments within the same sphere if you didn’t give the right of creating a code of conduct to whoever had the idea to host a server as a place for people to meet people alike?</p>
<h2class="sub_h1">Comparing the experience<br>on Twitter</h2>
<p>Simultaneously, and just as an exercise I asked the same question on Twitter. I felt like I needed to understand if there would be any kind of interaction. I am a nobody in Twitter, just like I am in every account that I have made, 0 followers, 0 following, this is important because it made it possible to compare in a more straight forward way the difference between both. It ended in a completely different way (https://twitter.com/pedrosaclout/status/1107397057403412480), I had 592 Impressions, 3 engagements, and not one only answer.</p>
<pclass="footnotes">[1] NYSTEDT, Brendan. Tired of Twitter? Join Me on Mastodon, WIRED magazine, https://www.wired.com/story/join-mastodon-twitter-alternative/, 19 August 2018 ,seen on (22 March 2019, 16:54).</p>
<pclass="footnotes">[2] ZUCKERMAN, Ethan. Mastodon is big in Japan. The reason why is… uncomfortable, http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-japan-the-reason-why-is-uncomfortable/, 18 August 2017, seen on (22 March 2019, 17:22).</p>
<pclass='description'>Todon.nl characterizes itself as a "leftist Mastodon instance for progressives, socialists, anarchists, activists, environmentalists, vegans, anti-racists, anti-fascists, anti-capitalists, pirates, LGBTQIA+, human rights activists, etc."<br>Also in their "about more" page you can read that they do not accept (among other things): racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism and other forms of discrimination, harassment, trolling, hate speech, (sexual) abuse of minors and adults (also not virtual), glorification of violence, militarism, nationalism and right-wing populism, right-wing and religious extremism, Stalinists, Maoists, 'ancaps', (right-wing) conspiracy 'theories', hoaxes, and of course no spam and other forms of advertisement.<br><br>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I'd originally heard about it from someone in my co-op. I never understood Twitter, but I was interested in the concept so I joined the main instance. I didn't stick around for the same reason I never joined Twitter - I just don't get it.<br>But the "social network" I stayed in was Reddit. Reddit has all sorts of controversies over their moderation policy, and they close-sourced the software. I looked up Reddit alternatives, and they were pretty much all white supremacist Nazi bullshit. Then I saw someone recommend Mastodon, so I figured I'd try it out again, but take some time to find an instance where I'll feel at home. I've only been here for a few days, but it looks like I'm staying, this is a good community.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><ahref="https://todon.nl/@jeroenpraat">@jeroenpraat</a> because it is at least federated. I would prefer distributed, but if federation is the best we can get right now, I'll go with it.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> the fact that, as a general tendency, non-profit federated social media engages people to be kinder to each other.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> What made me move to Mastodon?<br>One word: TWITTER.<br>I was sent to the Twitter Time-Out Corner four times last year for talking mean to Blue Checkmarks, and got my Russian Influence Threat Email from Twitter a little over a year ago.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>1 want my info private<br>2 want ethic rules for people to agree to<br>3 public stream on fb wasn't working<br>4 open-source<br>5 privacy<br>6 control</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@Bells">@Bells</a><br>Exact same list for me, though add federation & decentralization being good for the internet on the second place<br><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a></p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>I had been avoiding all social platforms like the plague, waiting for an alternative that was run by people, not corporations.<br>I created a reddit account because I felt I needed to get in touch with more people on the left, despite the problems of that platform. Then later I heard about mastodon, and joined in here.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>Can I ask, what is your research about? Like, details (Im curious hehe)</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://todon.nl/@thoughtcrime">@thoughtcrime</a> I am focusing at the moment on what kind of communities do we have on mastodon, what brought them here and how do they rule themselves. I started speaking with some admins but understood that a social media is all about users and I did not want to lose that!</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://meow.social/</h3>
<pclass='description'>This instance is focused around the furry community, and is open to anyone interested in it. It was created by <ahref="https://meow.social/@Tiwy57">@Tiwy57</a> originally for a small group of furry friends, but thought it might as well be open to all fluffies and scalies !
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://meow.social/@pedro">@pedro</a> I, for one, didn't really move to Mastodon – it's the first (and so far only) social network I've joined. (Unless you count Stack Overflow.)<br>But I like the feeling of a smaller community; I generally completely ignore the federated timeline.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://meow.social/@pedro">@pedro</a> im still on twitter so idk if i technically "moved", but the main appeal of mastodon for me is privacy/lack of tracking for personalized ads. also, the smaller community is nice bc you can get to know people better</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://queer.party/</h3>
<pclass='description'>Queer.party is as you can read in their about page, a silly instance of Mastodon for queer folk and non-queer folk alike.<br>
They also leave the small note for their users:<br>
"For folks coming from Tumblr; NSFW content is allowed here, but you must tag your posts as NSFW, and provide a clear content warning for them! NSFW profile pictures or banners, or explicit usernames/display names are not allowed. Please keep it friendly!"
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://queer.party/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> After shuffling between social media platforms for a while and getting fed up with each one for making Poor Moderation Decisions, I really appreciate Mastodon (and the fediverse as a whole) for its nature as a bunch of small, completely independent communities because moderation can be much closer to the ground, and I haven't tried it yet but if I don't like the look of things where I am it doesn't seem hard to just kind of pick all my stuff up and set it down somewhere else.</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://scholar.social/</h3>
<pclass='description'><p>"Scholar Social is a microblogging platform for researchers, grad students, librarians, archivists, undergrads, academically inclined high schoolers, educators of all levels, journal editors, research assistants, professors, administrators—anyone involved in academia who is willing to engage with others respectfully.<br>We strive to be a safe space for queer people and other minorities in academia, recognizing that there can only be academic freedom where the existence and validity of interlocutors' identities is taken as axiomatic.
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Because I'm always going to geek out about how people communicate online, and I'm also a sucker for diy stuff - and this seemed worth exploring. I miss early versions of other social media where I wasn't trying to be all versions of my self at once.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>I got news that my GNU Social admin would be stepping down, so I made an account here on the <ahref="https://functional.cafe/tags/funcafe"class="mention hashtag"rel="nofollow noopener"target="_blank">#Funcafe</a> just in case he couldn't find a replacement.<br>Don't worry though, he eventually got someone to host & maintain the instance (loadaverage.org)<br>I stayed because I deleted my account on the other place and didn't care enough to make it again.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I heard about it, and was really interested in what this new social media is.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I believe the future is peer to peer that's why I joined the federation.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I myself wanted to get away from centralized "wall gardens" where user control is severely limited. Even though I haven't done it yet, the option of hosting my own server on Mastodon is attractive. Can you tell me a little more about your research project?</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Originally because some peers were talking about it & it sounded interesting. I spent a long time figuring out which instance to join. I ended up making my first account on another instance to connect with friends. I later learned about more focused instances like this one and made an account here for more academic-related things. People here are super welcoming and supportive of one another (even though you initially barely know them!); I'm most active on this instance nowadays.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>Well, I closed down all my social networks because I was really fed up of so much publicity, my data being exploited, lack off privacy and I had to really put a stop to using services that deliberately steal my "stuff" and says it's theirs! And I don't want to be told what I should like by anyone hidden behind stupid algorithms. And I didn't want to go on supporting big enterprises that exploit you and don't offer anything in return.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>Why Mastodon then? I love open source. It's federated. It has people behind the rules. There's no publicity. You choose what you want to see. There are no stupid algorithms. There are so many options for you to join. It's humane. There are real people checking things. You can have privacy because your data isn't being exploited. And I like to be connected with other people who have similar points of view on things and with others whose points of view are different too.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://scholar.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> i was being harassed by a coworker on Twitter... The post privacy options, and CW feature really neat too. I believe in free software too</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://eletusk.club/</h3>
<pclass='description'>This is an instance where all the "about" page is written in japanese, this text is an excerpt from their page and was translated to English:
There are usually a lot of chats at the "local timeline". If you come for the first time, you may be not fell too entertained, but most people here are acquainted in this instance, so it would be nice if you could join us.
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://eletusk.club/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>I can't write English well,sorry.<br>This is my answer.<br>"The Mustdon has many groups.We can choose their groups for us likes.<br>So I want to interact with more TVgame players than twitter."</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://abdl.link/</h3>
<pclass='description'>They present their page as a Mastodon instance for ABDLs run by ABDLs 🍼. <br>ABDL — ("adult baby diaper lover". A sexual fetish involving adults acting like babies and/or wearing diapers.)<br>They're anti-troll, anti-abuse and pro-quirk. Unlike Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr we won't randomly suspend you just for being ABDL.<br>Under 18s are not permitted to sign up to this instance.<br>Media or content involving people under 18 (even if legal) is prohibited.<br>Posting, boosting or linking to any content that is illegal in the UK, Netherlands or Germany is prohibited.
<pclass='description'>Their description is as straight forward as it could be: tl;dr= no fascists, no bullying, no doing fucked up shit. You know what that means. Otherwise a lot of us are socialists, leftists etc. Dont bully people either. Or start witch hunts. You can have bots as long as administration clears them first The site is available on TOR! https://www.starrev3tah2dnhj.onion Note: letsencrypt won't sign a .onion domain cert so you will have to make a security exception as it uses the same main domain.
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://mastodon.starrevolution.org/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I was very disillusioned by corporate alternatives like Twitter and was huge into free software at the time.<br>Over time I have come to appreciate other aspects of it, but especially the people that are here.</p>
<pclass='description'>This Mastodon instance is for people interested in technology. Discussions aren't limited to technology, because tech folks shouldn't be limited to technology either!<br>We adhere to an adapted version of the <ahref="https://toot.cafe/about/more">TootCat Code of Conduct</a> and follow the <ahref="https://toot.cafe/about/more#blocked-instances">Toot Café list of blocked instances</a>. <ahref="https://mastodon.technology/@ashfurrow">Ash</a> is the admin and is supported by <ahref="https://mastodon.technology/@fuzzface">Fuzzface</a>, <ahref="https://mastodon.technology/@bclindner">Brian!</a>, and <ahref="https://mastodon.technology/@danielhglus">Daniel Glus</a> as moderators.
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://mastodon.technology/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Twitter’s creepy and opaque policing of political speech and its adverts. Mastodon seemed like an alternative with inherently stronger speech protections.</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://quey.org/</h3>
<pclass='description'>Quey.org is a generalistic and moderated Mastodon instance for people of all colours and sizes. As a general instance, we are not centered on a specific theme, or a specific language. Everyone is welcome as long as you follow the few rules we have.<br>NSFW content is allowed if this is posted with a Content Warning.<br>This instance is lightly moderated in general, common sense applied.
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://quey.org/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> To abuse gargron every single day 🤣🤣🤣<br><ahref="https://quey.org/@snder">@snder</a> why you joined?😁</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://inditoot.com/@inditoot">@inditoot</a><br>Well, I was always on Facebook but I was never a big fan of the company and I tried many times to start my own social network but it never came of the ground.<br>The day after I finally deleted my FB account I was searching for some alternative and I found Mastodon! And from that day I started my first Mastodon server :)</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://quey.org/@snder">@snder</a> I also started as an admin never used mastodon earlier.I used masto host in start but it was expensive so i self hosted it with a help of person. it was hard though than i met snder "Savior of Server" 😁 and learn alot of things.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://inditoot.com/@inditoot">@inditoot</a> Nice! Funny how we immediately started as admins.. <br>Luckily I never used masto host, I like to know how things work and have it under my own control. Ofcourse there are downsides to that but in time everyone can learn and these days I can dream the setup of Mastodon, without compiling time it takes me about 5 min to setup an instace 😂</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://quey.org/@snder">@snder</a> 🤣🤣 Masto Host service is awesome but at same time quite expensive although peace of mind comes with a price tag. Today I am going to Setup PGbouncer hope i dont fuck up something</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://quey.org/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> interesting.<br>A few of my reason.<br>Its foss. Ad free, my own instance, anti capitalist</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://bsd.network/</h3>
<pclass='description'>bsd.network has the intention that this service is used for personal enjoyment and respectful, friendly interaction. you can also read: "To that end, we hope to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment."
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://bsd.network/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> hi<br>This is the first social network I use, because source code is open, anyone can host their instance and so I don't feel bad about my data usage without my consent. <br>This also let me get in touch with people I'd never reach like book authors, or people to get in touch with me in a less formal way than a mail, and without having to become 'friends'.<br>I'm a FOSS contributor and it's a nice way to share with the community. I also like the instance feed feature.</p>
<pclass='description'>They describe it has being their social media haven. It's where they talk in an inviting, respectful setting where we can set their own boundaries. They finish their description by stating that they'd love for new users to join them!
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> It has good user-initiated censorship (I can block people), there's no ads, because there's no ads there's no agenda in what info is presented to me, and finally because my instance admin is friendly to Tor users.</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@CharredStencil">@CharredStencil</a><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I am? I didn’t do anything special to support it. Sweet!</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@tek">@tek</a><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Yeah! Well, a lot of the big conglomerate websites block Tor, so doing nothing special is the equivalent of rolling out a red carpet</p>
<pclass='answer'><ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>I wanted<br>✅ to move away from centralized sites<br>✅ who could censor me for any reason<br>✅ and didn't allow adult content<br>✅ so I could set my own, more lenient strictures on content<br>✅ and offer the same leniency to others</p>
<ahref="https://freeradical.zone/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I wanted to be somewhere that I could choose the level of conversation around me. Mastodon has free-for-all instances and also ones that are very highly moderated. The end users get to choose what they want, rather than having to hope that a corporation comes around to their point of view.</p>
<pclass='description'>Linux Community Group is a community-driven instance for people who love Linux, dedicated to all Linux things and technologies related to it.<br>
They also declare some rules for the instance such as,<br>While we do enjoy the off-topic conversation, the main voice should be around Linux and technologies.
<br>When you post something offensive, it shows up in the Local feed. Since this instance is dedicated to Linux and a Collaboration of technologies we do not tolerate obscene behavior. While we oppose the idea of censorship, we also do not want a toxic area for our users.
<ahref="https://linuxrocks.online/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I really like the community aspect of Mastodon (especially focused instances like linuxrocks.online or bsd.network). Being completely free software helps too.</p>
<ahref="https://linuxrocks.online/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>Privacy. I do not consent to the sale of my data, but I want to interact with people.</p>
<ahref="https://linuxrocks.online/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> It was totally linux rocks. I'm not way interested in social media, but, when I saw linux rocks, I new I had to join. It is nice to have a place to ask questions and talk about cool linux stuff. I've never been on any other social media. I hope this answers you question.</p>
<ahref="https://linuxrocks.online/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a><br>I dropped Twitter about 4 years ago. Same with Facebook. <br>Dropped Twitter because of an apparent pyramid system where some celebrity drops a line that hooks everyone baited by it. Celebrity does not even interact. A continuous stream. <br>Facebook, lack of control over transmissions. Then there is the information overload.</p>
<ahref="https://linuxrocks.online/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I first found Mastodon when I was on Twitter and saw someone complaining about the platform. I checked it out and it was waaaay too hard for me to understand. I found it again a few days later from a link on Tildes (Reddit alternative), checked it out, and was hooked.<br>Since then I've deleted Snapchat and moved off Instagram. I prefer the true conversations on Mastodon to the shallowness of other networks.</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://mastodont.cat/</h3>
<pclass='description'>mastodont.cat is a Catalan instance in Mastodon, that states that is for the community of Catalan language and culture throughout the internet.<br>It is also interesting to see these bullet points that they have set:<br>Mastodon is made of humans and not of algorithms nor of the interests of corporations.<br>Mastodon is for humans, rather than advertisers and collectors of data.
<ahref="https://mastodont.cat/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Hello, I was tired of Twitter toxicity and ego’s fights but at the same time out of curiosity about “what is quitter”.<br>By the way, do you noticed that this server is related to Catalan people and culture?</p>
<ahref="https://mastodont.cat/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I was running a GNU Social server (quitter is the interface) for about one year and after that started running this Mastodon server, which is almost two years old.</p>
<ahref="https://mastodont.cat/@spla">@spla</a> It is also interesting to know all these insights for what brought people here, for how long they are running their servers, etc.. Hope I will get more users and admins like you! Thank you once again!</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://qoto.org/</h3>
<pclass='description'>The QOTO instance is a Mastodon instance for scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and all yearning to learn.<br>
They also claim being a free speech space whodoes not silence or block any instances.
"We are a free speech, no censorship zone. Feel free to talk about whatever you want, say whatever you want, as long as it is legal you wont ever get banned from the server. With that said we do have a few rules: No spam, and no using multiple accounts to circumvent personal bans."<br>
<br>They finish their description by leaving clear that they will never advertise on QOTO or sell users information to third-parties.
<ahref="https://qoto.org/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I'm a Google Plus refugee, and came here instead of completely giving up on social media, but only because a very good friend runs this instance. I wouldn't be willing to run my own instance, despite having the skills. Social media is becoming more of a problem than a help or an emotional outlet.</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://mastodon.host/</h3>
<pclass='description'>Mastodon.host is a general, fast, stable and open instance. This instance is lightly moderated in general, common sense applied. They set these as some of the rules:<br>Don't advertise or spam. Mastodon.host is a place for people to connect to other people. It is not for advertisers, spammers, etc. Do not post spammy content. Do not include spammy content in your profiles. Do not use our direct messaging system to send spammy content or links to other users. We delete spam accounts as soon as we see them.<br>Do not post or share any illegal stuff, advertisements, harassment, discrimination, xenophobia.<br>Do not post anything that is illegal in Europe or the USA. <ahref="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolicon">Lolicons</a>, for example, may be illegal. So please don't share that kind of thing here.<br>Your avatar must be appropriate for a general audience. Your avatar is an image that represents you and appears next to messages (toots) that you send. You are welcome to upload a custom avatar image. But please, make sure your avatar image is a one that people will feel comfortable having on their computer screens while children are looking over their shoulders. So no erotic or gory avatars, please. Also, do not boost content from accounts of those who have erotic or gory avatars, as that would cause those avatars to display on our local timeline.<br>Please tag your content appropriately<br>If you post content that is not safe for work, tag it with #NSFW, and with any other hashtags that are appropriate. This will help people to use our filter feature to filter out content they don't want to see.
<pclass='description'>this is an instance for discussions about game development and related fields, and/or by game developers and related professions.
<ahref="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> While this instance is much smaller than the circle that is GameDev Twitter, there is also a far higher signal to noise ratio (eg in replies to posts).<br>I use Twitter more for political engagement while this instance feels like a platform for microblogging about games (and if I wanted to talk [non-gamedev] politics I would do so on a different instance - an example of how Masto promotes a different usage pattern).</p>
<ahref="https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Better performance, better UI, more generous word count limit, I mean... everything is better to be honest.<br>(Of course I'm comparing it to twitter... :P)</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://hotwife.social/</h3>
<pclass='description'>"Hotwife.social is a Mastodon instance focused on NSFW discussion and file-sharing revolving around the cuckold/hotwife lifestyle. We are not a regionally restricted community, and welcome everyone from any location..."
<ahref="https://hotwife.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> Death of Tumblr, lol</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://hostux.social/</h3>
<pclass='description'>This instance is not focused on any theme or subject, feel free to talk about whatever you want. Although the main language is french, we accept every single language and country.<br>We're connected to the whole OStatus/ActivityPub fediverse and we do not block any foreign instance nor user.<br>We do have rules, but the goal is to have responsible users. So far we haven't had any issue with moderation.
<ahref="https://hostux.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> The love for decentralisation and the resilience and community-level of control it naturally allows. <br>I also love how it puts up front the trust-based relationship you need to have with your admins, which is not-so-explicit when dealing with big web companies.</p>
<ahref="https://hostux.social/@pedrosaclout"rel="nofollow noopener"target="_blank">@pedrosaclout</a> Are you studying just Mastodon, or the Fediverse in its entirety?
<h3class='instance'>https://mastodon.social/</h3>
<pclass='description'>"Invite-only server run by the main developers of the project It is not focused on any particular niche interest - everyone is welcome as long as you follow our code of conduct!"
<ahref="https://mastodon.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> To put it in a few words: while I find Twitter giving me better UX and wider influence I'm was more concerned with using centralized data-mining for-profity company with roots in USA. That's why I've switched to something non-profit which adheres to FLOSS principles.</p>
<ahref="https://mastodon.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> I chuckled when I read what you wrote, in an email/letter style (closing and signature). 🙂 <br>I haven't moved to Mastodon. It is just another platform I looked at from its infancy, and chose to create an account. I still very much prefer Twitter.</p>
<ahref="https://mastodon.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> if you speak spanish, there are a great spanish comunity. <br>They are some crazy, but they aren't dangerous</p>
<ahref="https://mastodon.social/@XanaAsturiana">@XanaAsturiana</a> I am actually portuguese, but thank you for your care! Would you recommend me any instance?</p>
<ahref="https://mastodon.social/@pedrosaclout">@pedrosaclout</a> i don't know others instances. Quey has great emoji. The admi. of Social is the CREATOR of Mastodon and there are a lot of people.<br>The instance is not very important because all are federated</p>
<h3class='instance'>https://post.lurk.org/</h3>
<pclass='description'>"Post.lurk.org, an instance for discussions around cultural freedom, experimental, new media art, net and computational culture, ..."
<pclass='code'id="code00">Taking advantage from Mastodon API, this code iterates through different instances within a dictionary, matches them with an access key and gathers the answers to a predetermined toot identified by its ID. Later on, writes on a text file the date on when the information was collected and transcribes the text to HTML, making it easier to use in the online publication.
<pclass='code'id="code01">This code iterates through different instances within a dictionary and matches them with an access key. Later on, still relying on the Mastodon API python library, it is able to find private descendants to the toot, which means, it is able to separate and identify the answers that were sent as a private message. After, it writes on a text file the date on when the data was collected and transcribes the text gathered to HTML, making it easier to use within the online publication.
<pclass='code'id="code03">The code works with two different processes that do not run in parallel. Firstly, relying on the Mastodon API python library, we gather the peers of the instance where our account is registered. After this, we store them in a dictionary. Finally, we iterate through them. In this script the idea is to scrape in an effective way the <em>/about</em> page of an instance where they have their description and in some cases, their code of conduct, for this, with Selenium while opening a Firefox window for each iteration we save the image and description of the instance where we are in and close it right after. All the images are stored in a folder and the information scraped is stored in a txt file.
<pclass='code'id="code04">Working with the same method as the script to scrape the <em>/about</em> page of an instance, in this script the idea is to scrape in an effective way the <em>/about/more</em> page of an instance. Most of the times, here is the place where admins write more extensive rules, codes of conduct and also descriptions of requirements necessary to belong to the instance.
<pclass='code'id="code02">This was the first script with which I started scraping instances. Before being introduced to the powerful mastodon python library I built a script with Selenium that would go to https://instances.social, and iterate through the "h2" of a determined table where a list of instances was displayed. Selenium would open a new Firefox tab for each iteration, save from the new tab the image and description of the instance and close it right after. All the images are stored in a folder and the information scraped is stored in a txt file. This wasn't the perfect method, because an instance has to register to be part of this list, making this process biased.
