If I was to nominate the two things I find most striking about Mastodon they'd be:
1. the ability to edit posts after posting; this (as my followers will know) is a facility that I use a lot (and thanks to my great crew of typo spotters);
2. the norm of civility that we all maintain; of course trolling & slamming is not completely absent, but at least in my timeline & discussions/conversations civility have been the over-riding characteristic of my exchanges.
@ChrisMayLA6 As a protocols geek, I spent some of my early time with Mastodon reading the protocols. I found the general resemblance to email disheartening. Not because email "doesn't work", but because its very openness lead to the toxic landfill called spam. Email, for many, is effectively dead.
So, while I am deeply enjoying Mastodon, my fear is we get the next round of the Eternal September and it's all over.
we all fear that but let's enjoy it while it lasts
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Jeffrey Haas
Darwin Woodka