@[email protected] 2. The primary gripe with Mastodon is that it is confusing.

But it really isn't.

It's a decentralized system, like email.

So you pick a server, just like you pick Gmail or Yahoo

But then you can communicate with anyone

You just need their address and you are good to go

3. And there are tools to identify which of your Twitter followers are on Mastodon.

And easy ways to import spreadsheets of many users you can follow at once

Here is a big one with hundreds of journalists: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13No4yxY-oFrN8PigC2jBWXreFCHWwVRTftwP6HcREtA/edit#gid=1320898902

So it's relatively easy to get started

4. Mastodon also has its own app (which is pretty good) and a bunch of other 3rd party apps

There are also tools that will cross-post your Mastodon posts (toots) to Twitter (or visa-versa)

This makes it easy to build an audience on one network while hedging your bets

5. The key part is Mastodon is part of an open protocol and not a corporation seeking to extract money from you by mining your network

Tumblr says it is going to adopt the same protocol so people on Tumblr can follow Mastodon accounts

It makes social networking more like email

6. Would email be "easier" if everyone used the same centralized provider? Probably.

But I think we've seen again & again that spending time building an audience on a network controlled by one corp is not ideal

Some of the other alternatives follow that centralized approach