Mastodon's pretty good for keeping in touch with friends / acquaintances who are also on Mastodon. No ads, no algorithmic nonsense.
It doesn't deliver all the things I'd been using Twitter for, such as news aggregation, government notifications, etc. I'm not trying to earn a living through online sales, so the limited reach isn't a big deal for me. The functionality is similar to but not the same as Twitter (500 character limit and no quote-tweeting being the two biggest technical differences). The decentralized nature is both a strength and a weakness. (A lot like old-school Usenet in that regard.) Every time Musk comes up with something especially stupid, performance on all the little volunteer-run Mastodon instances grinds to a near-halt as a new wave of folks flee the birdsite.
Still learning stuff about the system, but overall I'm pretty happy with it as a replacement for the keep-in-touch Twitter usecase. If you want to get a feel for the specific instance I'm on (which is weighted towards SFnal folks), you could take a peek at https://wandering.shop/public/local
no subject
It doesn't deliver all the things I'd been using Twitter for, such as news aggregation, government notifications, etc. I'm not trying to earn a living through online sales, so the limited reach isn't a big deal for me. The functionality is similar to but not the same as Twitter (500 character limit and no quote-tweeting being the two biggest technical differences). The decentralized nature is both a strength and a weakness. (A lot like old-school Usenet in that regard.) Every time Musk comes up with something especially stupid, performance on all the little volunteer-run Mastodon instances grinds to a near-halt as a new wave of folks flee the birdsite.
Still learning stuff about the system, but overall I'm pretty happy with it as a replacement for the keep-in-touch Twitter usecase. If you want to get a feel for the specific instance I'm on (which is weighted towards SFnal folks), you could take a peek at https://wandering.shop/public/local