If I added a testimonial section to, what would you say? Please only reply if you're OK with me using your response with your username and avatar on*

* Not guaranteed I'll use every response

I'm not an expert on marketing by any means so take it with a grain of salt but my impression is that testimonials are more effective when you tell about your personal experience instead of just saying "x is y". So if you could say what Mastodon enabled you to do or what it means to you that would be a lot better than if you just said that Mastodon has something.

@Gargron More people describe their photos, and Mastodon has had the ability for people to describe *any* media since the beginning. Also, there are some very great Mastodon clients, like Pinafore, which is one of the most accessible web apps I've ever used.

@Gargron it's social media with moderation that actually works. A+

@Gargron "nobody really knows how federation works, its magical. Just don't question it, accept that it works"

"I'm a talking fennec, and Eugen definitely has a magic exotic animal handler's license."

@Gargron i would say that the 500 character limit enables far more detailed and thoughtful discussion than twitter, and that i haven't noticed much of a need for moderation because the server software physically deters harassment, and instances that welcome hateful users and rhetoric are not likely to be federated with other instances or gain traction, or last beyond the exhaustion of storage space.
it's the first popular social networking framework that is actually worthy of its name

@Gargron i also love the way it allows users to prioritize the content they wish to interact with by opening and closing multiple streams on their dashboard, for hashtags and lists of users, and if you want you can forego the local and federated timelines if you just want to focus on particular people and activities.
i hope one day we can have some timelines for particular instances federated with one another

@Gargron Well... at first It was confusing even for an sysadmin like me because back in 2017 it didn't explain anything about instances or how the mastodon ecosystem worked, it was a mess. Nowadays is way much organized but it still fails the "get started" part, i think it still confusing for newcomers because it doesnt help too much about chosing an instance, also doesnt point to other instances list.


This is a testimonial from me: "This federated collection of webbed sites turned me into a gay communist furry and my life is better for it. Everyone everywhere should sign up and let it do the same for them."

@Gargron "Mastodon has changed my opinion of social media, it's a refreshing take on microblogging with a focus on privacy and safety."

@gargron "I've been on Federated platforms since 2008. Mastodon is the best iteration of federated platforms with a user interface that is pleasant to use and a community of folks that I consider friends".

@Gargron Mastodon gave me motivation to make myself better!

@Gargron It's like home! Whether you like a cozy apartment, a luxurious room in a highrise, a caf in a bustling city, a basement filled with all sorts of computers, a log cabin in the wilderness, or a bungalow about the seashore.

A space where you're in control of who comes in, and when you leave it doesn't follow you around the neighbourhood, unlike a certain sneaky birb.

@Gargron great community, friendly atmosphere, and free software! what else would you possibly need?

@Gargron being on mastodon has revitalized my love for cheesecake, and that's awesome

I'm NEVER going back to Twitter. Long live Mastodon & the Fediverse! :fediverse:

Most web services: we are free*
* — that means you pay attention, give us personal data and we get $

Mastodon: free unless.. haha just kidding, free means free

@Gargron Mastodon is the result of a social media platform with developers and admins who actually listen to their users and implement useful changes that make for an unmatched experience.

@Gargron Mastodon is well moderated fully functional microblogging service with some great features!

@jarm Could you perhaps say something about what it did for you in terms of running your own community?

@Gargron I am running a queer frendly instance. Mastodon is providing easy moderation tool to prevent trans-phobes

@Gargron i've made so many friends here because i can actually talk to people instead of getting buried by algorithms that reward meaningless numbers over actual interaction

@Gargron I'm personally addicted to Mastodon, for me it's like if Facebook or Twitter had a friendly version— where I can discuss things with people around the world about every single thing they love. If there's a subreddit for everything, of course there's also a Mastodon instance for everything: I've got one profile for sharing art, another one for casual conversation and another one for politics.

@Gargron I can also look for my favourite client app between a list of clients that is growing each day further. Now, I'm in love with @Tusky, but I'm also willing to try some of the equally marvelous apps on the iOS' App Store.

There's a lot of ways things can be, and Mastodon surely is the best way social networking and microblogging can be: free, decentralized and civilized.

@Gargron I authorize you to cut some parts of my words (and change some, in case of grammar mistakes) in order to find the ones that fit better for a testimonial page.

@Gargron Honestly I do think that this platform is better and enables much finner tuned control over what you see and who you interact with. I've found more cool and nice people on here compared to the contemporary counterpart. I've also experienced far less abusive interactions and the moderation teams tend to actually care instead of being robots.

I'm just not sure I want my name on a testimonial page. :-/

@Gargron Mastodon has allowed us to build a vibrant community, and that community inspires itself to care for one another and to work toward the common goal of making the world a better place. Decentralized platforms give you the autonomy to forge a new future!

I didn't understand anything when I first came here, it's a strange place when you have just experienced Instagram, twitter and facebook. The strange thing is that it is much easier to connect with people here, not just connect in my region but I can to anyone on here around the world which was harder with the algorithms of Instagram. No one is dying for followers here or for popularity in any sense, people are just here for the interaction. One can pass on all the time on twitter and instagram just looking at other's posts but here interaction is the main way of experience. Mastodon is the untouched land of discovery with many surprises on the good side as well as the bad one.

@gargron I met my boyfriend here ❤️ (and a lot of nice friends).
On Twitter, I used to follow people I knew IRL.
Here, I followed people that seem cool, and I met a lot of them IRL after.

@Gargron @Gargron I enjoy Mastodon because it is fancy, sweet, comfy and lots of fabulous friends! :ablobcatheartsqueeze: 😌

@Gargron Very new here, just started my account. How do you go about finding people and communities on here?

@Gargron it has helped me to escape the commercial AI driven nightmare of other social media! And also gave me a fun project building my instance. Best of all, it has the endorsement of @annie

@Gargron Platforms such as Mastodon are good for exploring lesser known platforms and seeing if they are better or at least equal to what is very well known.

I think that the 500 characters on Mastodon already make it as good or better than the likes of Twitter because Twitter only allows 160 characters so one must choose carefully what they type or make a picture with text as a possible alternative.

@Gargron In deed the way to go! For example I signed up in 2018 but never got busy in here. Now had a reason take a look again after few years and I set up my profile a bit right away as might come regularly.

Mastodon has come ways and looks good to go next phase = bigger and better! 👍 🐬

Mastodon reminds me that the internet was intended to be interactive, dynamic, and weird.

@Gargron Mastodon made me enjoy being on social media again, I'm always excited to share my art and thoughts here.

@Gargron Mastodon is an open source network where I can see interesting content and meet interesting people without the spectre of paid third party advertising or Orwellian levels of user data harvesting and censorship. Because it's open source, you know exactly how it operates and what it's doing. I feel more like a user and less like a product here.

@Gargron mastodon made me optimistic about social media again and reminds me of when the internet was new and exciting which makes for an interesting and creative community feel too

Mastodon takes me back to the original promise of the Internet, that you can connect to real people across the world and have authentic conversations. There are no influencers that get trending by appealing to lowest common denominators, and there are no algorithms that manipulate my content for someone else’s profit.


We're used to "social" networks that aren't owned by the societies they host. Are they truly social then? Mastodon is! And so is the rest of the united Fediverse, where your friends can be into something other than microblogging!


Mastodon gives me the chance to choose what to read and what not, without let an algorithm decide for me.

(You should correct my English, I think 😏)

@Gargron Mastodon has changed my life as I was looking for an alternative (respecting the human rights & freedom of speech) to Twitter. On Mastodon you can also play with 500 characters on each Toot! :) If you're mad on all those trolls on Twitter and/or if you wanna be on the brighter side (we've got :coolcat: ) feel free to join us :) Come on - Scream it out loud ( ) and escape the surveillance on Twitter!

@Gargron I could talk and listen to actual people, not products trying to sell themselves praying to the algorithm to be the chosen one. There's a distinct change in the atmosphere.

@Gargron Mastodon allowed us to create a non-profit, abuse-free social network based on open Web standards and principles, all the while allowing our moderators and members to reinvigorate the early Web values of community, camaraderie and respect using modern, accessible technologies.

@Gargron Once you behold the cluckers, you will never look away

@Gargron For the first time, I've been able to have digital connections with people that feel more substantial and more genuine than most face-to-face encounters.


"Mastodon, as part of the Fediverse, is the only real Social Network. The ingredients: Decentralization, Communities, Principles of conduct, Moderation by humans, Data privacy and Respect."

@Gargron I got my hands on Mastodon's source code, which is open to everyone, and learned every bit of how it works.

Therefore, I am able to provide services using Mastodon with confidence and respond to bugs immediately and provide feedback on them. I maintain my own forked source code while suggesting features to be included in the future.

The Mastodon community is very strong, as developers are born from the users and participate in the development to ensure quality and build the future.

@Gargron I could have joined an existing community, but I decided to self-host Mastodon.

My posts to the world are replicated from my own servers and can be traced back to their originals. Since I own it, the platform will not be terminated or removed at the platform's discretion, and I can provide a long and stable service. I finally have this. Yay!

@Gargron Creators who publish their own content, developers who publish their own products, individuals and organizations who express their own research results and ideas, journalists, politicians, independent businesses, and public services such as national and local governments should own the originals by self-hosting. They should not let anyone else have the right to kill them. You can replicate it somewhere else if you need to, but you should keep the original.

Sign in to participate in the conversation
