I don’t need to tell you that Twitter is weird right now. Most of the posts on my timeline feel like the week before graduation, with people sharing their favorite memories on the site and talking about what they’ll do after. Twitter users are flocking to other sites, including the open source and decentralized Mastodon.
There’s no one Mastodon site—instead, anyone who wants to can set up a server. The nice thing, though, is users don’t need to be on your server in order for you to follow them. The result is messy, granted, but it allows for smaller communities to have their own rules while still being connected to the broader community.
We told you how to get started on Mastodon a few years ago, so I won’t rehash that. Once you set up an account, though, you might be wondering whether you can find any of your Twitter friends. Here are a few ways to do that.
Most Twitter users who set up a Mastodon account link to it on their Twitter page. You can use Twitter’s search feature to find them. Head to Twitter.com and type the word “Mastodon” into the search bar.
Now click the three dots to the right of the search bar and click “Search filters.” From here you can narrow the search to include only people you currently follow.
Now you can scroll through tweets from people you follow who have mentioned Mastodon, most of whom will also include a link to their page. Click the “Latest” tab and those results will even be in reverse chronological order. I found a handful of my Twitter friends this way.
There are a few other search terms you can use—some people are using the hashtag #TwitterMigration, for example. Others might spell Mastodon as “Mastadon,” so maybe search for that, too. Make sure to check back in a month or so—assuming this isn’t a momentary thing, more people might create accounts.
The above method will probably find most people, but if you’re not satisfied, there are a few services you can try out. The first one, Twitodon, allows you to sign in using Twitter and Mastodon. It will scan your Twitter followers for anyone who has also signed in using both services, then give you a list. I find it unlikely this service will surface anyone who didn’t paste a link to their Mastodon profile on Twitter, but there’s no reason not to try.
Some Twitter users add a link to their Mastodon page to their Twitter bio without ever tweeting about it. Fedifinder can help you find them. This app scans the profile of every Twitter user you follow and shows you any Mastodon accounts in there, regardless of what server they’re on. I found a couple of people this way—you might too.
The sad truth is that most of the people you follow on Twitter don’t have Mastodon accounts right now. That could change, but for now you’ll probably need to find some new people to follow. The good news is there are a few ways to do that.
The first thing I’d do is follow the account @fedifollows@mastodon.online, which recommends a new person to follow every day. After that, you should check out Fedi.directory, which reminds me of Yahoo’s directory back in the late ’90s. Basically, you can browse an index of interesting accounts to follow in a variety of fields. Another similar site is Trunk, which offers lists of interesting accounts. I found a bunch of interesting accounts to follow this way.
Mastodon, to me, is what Linux would be like if it was a social network. Some people will hear that and think it’s an insult—I mean it as a compliment. The internet has become increasingly corporatized. It’s refreshing to use a service that hasn’t been A/B tested to death—a service that feels more like a tool than a dopamine trap. I’m not going to delete my Twitter account any time soon—I want to keep posting links to my articles—but I do think I’ll shift more of my scrolling time away from Twitter and toward Mastodon. Consider joining me.
