{"id":21087,"date":"2020-01-30T14:57:37","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T14:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/glosario-digital\/mastodon"},"modified":"2026-10-03T09:09:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T09:09:43","slug":"mastodon","status":"publish","type":"encyclopedia","link":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/digital-glossary\/mastodon","title":{"rendered":"Mastodon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mastodon\"Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mastodon<\/strong> is an open-source social platform created by Eugen Rochko and launched in 2016. It lets you post messages, share multimedia content, and converse with other people. Its operation is reminiscent of X, formerly Twitter, but accounts are distributed across independent servers rather than relying on a single central service.<\/p>\n

It is part of the fediverse<\/a><\/strong>, a network of services that can communicate using protocols such as ActivityPub<\/a>. This allows you to follow and interact with accounts on other Mastodon servers and compatible platforms.<\/p>\n\n

History and evolution of Mastodon<\/h2>\n

Mastodon was born as an alternative to centralized social networks, with an approach based on free software and the possibility for different organizations or communities to manage their own servers.<\/p>\n

Its prominence increased at different moments of change on Twitter, especially after the acquisition of that platform by Elon Musk in 2022. However, Mastodon is not a copy managed by another company: its main difference lies in how the network is organized and who sets the rules for each community.<\/p>\n

How Mastodon works<\/h2>\n

To create an account you have to choose a server or instance<\/strong>. This hosts the profile and its posts, and establishes its registration conditions, privacy policy, and moderation rules. Some allow open registration; others require invitation or approval.<\/p>\n

An account’s address combines the username and the server’s domain. In @ana@ejemplo.social<\/code>, the username is ana<\/code> and the server is ejemplo.social<\/code>.<\/p>\n

Belonging to different servers doesn’t prevent following each other or conversing. Communication between them is called federation<\/strong>, although it may be limited by blocks or moderation decisions.<\/p>\n

For example, a journalist can have their account on an instance specialized in media and follow a photographer registered on another community. They don’t need to open an account on the photographer’s server to interact with them.<\/p>\n

You can check available servers on the official Mastodon website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Posts and interaction<\/h2>\n

Mastodon lets you share text messages with a default limit of 500 characters<\/strong>, although this may vary between servers. It also supports multimedia content and polls.<\/p>\n

When posting or viewing content, you can perform these actions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Post and reply:<\/strong> share information, links, or opinions and maintain conversations.<\/li>\n
  • Boost a post:<\/strong> redistribute it among followers using the feature known as boost<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  • Mark as favorite:<\/strong> show appreciation for a post and save it to the favorites list.<\/li>\n
  • Save to bookmarks:<\/strong> keep a post to check later without notifying its author.<\/li>\n
  • Use tags:<\/strong> make it easier for other people to find posts about a topic.<\/li>\n
  • Add content warnings:<\/strong> introduce a notice that lets you decide whether to expand the text.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    In addition to the home feed, there are options to discover public posts from your own server and from other servers known to it. They do not constitute a complete listing of everything posted on Mastodon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Privacy and moderation<\/h2>\n

    Each server stores the data of its accounts and establishes how it handles them. Before registering, it’s worth reviewing its privacy policy and who manages it.<\/p>\n

    Mastodon offers visibility controls for posts, as well as tools to mute, block, and report accounts. Its administrators can also limit the relationship with other servers.<\/p>\n

    Private mentions also don’t equate to an end-to-end encrypted messaging service: administrators of the servers involved could access their content.<\/p>\n

    Mastodon in digital communication<\/h2>\n

    Mastodon can be used to share news, disseminate knowledge, and maintain conversations with professional or thematic communities. For a brand or a media outlet, its usefulness depends on finding an affinity audience and participating while respecting the server’s rules.<\/p>\n

    A specialized publication can share articles and answer its readers’ questions. To assess whether the channel is useful, it can observe the conversations it generates and the visits it receives from Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Definition: Mastodon is an open-source social platform created by Eugen Rochko and launched in 2016. It lets you post messages, share multimedia content, and converse with other people. Its operation is reminiscent of X, formerly Twitter, but accounts are distributed across independent servers rather than relying on a single central service. It is part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"template":"","encyclopedia-tag":[365],"class_list":["post-21087","encyclopedia","type-encyclopedia","status-publish","hentry","encyclopedia-tag-fediverso-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia\/21087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/encyclopedia"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"encyclopedia-tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arimetrics.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/encyclopedia-tag?post=21087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}