Many people, including those who use Mastodon, have told me they don’t care about decentralization. But they should. Decentralization – or the “asshole limiter”, as I like to put it – is the killer feature of the #Fediverse. Here’s why:

Mitigation of Rogue Administrators: In centralized platforms like Twitter, if an admin (such as Elon Musk) chooses to act unfairly or disruptively - essentially being an “asshole” - their actions can affect the entire user base. In a decentralized platform like Mastodon, each instance or server is managed independently. If a user finds an admin to be behaving badly, they have the freedom to switch to a different server where the administrators align more with their values. This effectively limits the potential damage any single rogue admin can cause.

Protection from Single Points of Disruption: Centralized networks can be disrupted by a single point of failure (such as Elon Musk). This could be a technical issue, a security breach, or a bad-faith actor wreaking havoc. In a decentralized network, these issues are isolated. If one server experiences problems, others remain unaffected. This design effectively limits the potential influence of any single “asshole” on the overall service.

Curtailing Unwanted Censorship: On a centralized platform, an admin (such as Elon Musk) can censor content or ban users platform-wide. In decentralized networks, no single admin has the power to enforce such sweeping control. If a user feels their content is unfairly censored by an “asshole” admin, they can simply switch to a different server where the administration is more to their liking.

Reducing Impact of Unfair Standards: In decentralized platforms, each server can set its own community standards. So, an admin (such as Elon Musk) acting as an “asshole” by imposing unfair rules on one server doesn’t affect the other servers. Users can choose a server with rules they find fair and reasonable, reducing the overall impact of one admin’s unreasonable behavior.

If you find yourself constantly battling with digital dictators on your favorite social platforms, it might be time to join the Fediverse. After all, who wouldn’t want to plug into a platform where the “asshole limiter” is always turned up to eleven?

@KyrraViper @Supercola

Once you have the fedifinder_accounts.csv file on your computer, this is how you add your twitter-follow-list to your mastodon follow list:

First select Preferences (1st image, lower right).

Then select Import and Export, and then again Import (second image, lower left).

Now on the right of that last screen, select as "Import Type": Following list

Then click "browse" to select the fedifinder_accounts.csv file you created.

And then "Upload"

Now wait +/- 10 min