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.

So now that I'm not sweating over a spicy server, I suppose it's time for an #introduction!

Hi! I'm the instance operator of mstdn.ca. When I'm not panicking over the instance you can find me loving my career in healthcare IT. When I'm not doing that I'm singing with my chamber choir, cycling, skiing, serving on a number of boards and PACs, volunteering, and rarely, sleeping.

I'm an fervent advocate for publicly delivered healthcare, #CovidZero, and healthy communities.

A fabulously beautiful winter evening. Kyiv. Ukraine.

#photography #nature #architecture #life #blog #Kyiv #Ukraine

#RIPTwitter - Well it's not dead yet...

However I'm less interested in the life/death of Twitter and much more interested in the surge on Mastodon...

...and the potential of the whole fediverse going forward. Not only is there a different sense of community here, but also there's a lot of opportunity to innovate on our own terms -- and THAT feels like a lot of fun to me.

When I came over to #mastodon and introduced myself a few weeks ago, a couple of people I didn’t know made me feel very welcome.

To anyone who has just arrived— it’s gonna be ok. We have blankets, hot chocolate, furry animals, and a crackling fire. Make yourself at home.