Here's your irregular reminder that:

Twitter was a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of employees.

Mastodon is a niche hobbyist product run by volunteers

The fact that we're being seen as a viable alternative to them is an admission that a federated, decentralized future is not only possible, but desirable.

Mastodon is not one thing, or one place. It's a network of many things and many places. We don't have a spokesperson (I mean, there's me. I'm the official spokesperson for 💯 of the fediverse, but beyond me there is no spokesperson) we don't have consensus on moderation or blocking or tools or what is good and what is bad. Some of us are professional SREs and Sysadmins, some of us aren't. Some of our instances have been around for 5+ years, some won't be here in six months.

And that's good! All of it, every last bit of it is good.

We're wrestling power away from the billionaire class, in real time, and reclaiming it for the People.

Hey new friends from the birdsite - if things are a bit slow today, don't be alarmed, there has just been another rapid influx of users.

I've seen multiple site admins posting that they're scaling up in response.

1) Do not eat any food offered to you. Should a single grape or morsel pass your lips, you may find the path behind you has vanished and around your throat, a collar of servitude, to be worked off over thousands of years in the Dream Mines.

2) Do not give your true name. A name has power. Only use your true name in a DM to me, the only one who can cast the wards required to protect you in this realm. Be sure to attach a lock of your hair, electronically.

A few recommendations for life on Mastodon:

1) Follow anyone you think looks potentially interesting; you can always unfollow later, and they may lead you to new people via boosted posts.

2) Boost posts you think are worthy, so others can discover new content.

3) Don't obsess on replicating your Twitter follows on Mastodon; let it be its own experience, and grow it organically. Obvs follow anyone you miss from Twitter, but this isn't a 1:1 replacement; have fun, follow your instincts.