Just a quick post to share my account handle: @colinpurrington@flipping.rocks. Plus a screenshot of my profile page in case anyone not on Mastodon is curious what the layout is like. If you need a break from Twitter, I highly recommend the platform.

I chose the flipping.rocks instance because it’s set up for people who like exploring the natural world through photography. But I also follow people from other servers who make interesting posts about biology, geology, archaeology, food, etc. Like Twitter, you can follow anyone who brings you joy, plus block or mute those who are annoying or boring. You can also turn off “boosting” (=retweeting) for otherwise interesting people who tend to overshare. There’s a little bit of learning curve but Mastodon is a very enjoyable social media platform, full of people who like to engage rather than just lurk. Plus no ads.

If you’re interested in joining, here’s a page that lists servers (instances) by location and topic. Your choice influences how your local “feed” is populated. So if you want to see lots of posts about your home city, see whether there’s a server for that (e.g., sfba.social). Similarly, if you’re obsessed with birds, choose a server that caters to bird people (e.g., birds.town). You can also see where your Twitter friends have landed by using Twitodon or other similar services.