This is the start of my #Twitter thread. To make way for my coming introduction post, I unpinned my poll below about how similar Twitter would be to the fediverse if it had no algorithm.

People answered, and they said that they wouldn't be similar because federated instances would allow for better curation and moderation, as well as being harder to shut down, while centralized platforms like Twitter would be less curated, and all moderation would have to go to a few special people who make decisions for the whole platform. I thought this answer would be a great way to start the thread.

You can view the poll below:
https://mstdn.starnix.network/@james/109292142223877789

#Twitter is down, so now would be a great time to mention the importance of having multiple accounts on the #fediverse.

#Mastodon and the fediverse as a whole will never truly go down. However, specific instances can still go down. What happens if someone is on that instance and you can’t contact them, of if you’re on that instance and you’re not able to contact anyone?

If you have multiple accounts (Alt accounts) on different instances, then if one instance goes down you can use the other to stay in touch. You should still identify what your main account is and what your alts are so that people can still find you when one of your instances go down.

The practice I recommend is to have at least two accounts, including at least one on a public shared instance that you don’t own. You can also self-host an instance, or join one based on a specific community or interest.

For example, #Starnix is my main Mastodon account (for now), but I also self-host my own Pleroma instance, and I’m also on many other Mastodon instances including #SDF, which you can join at https://mastodon.sdf.org. I have my alts linked in my bio. I have a lot more than most need, actually.

If an instance goes down for an extended period of time (or decides to shut down), make sure to let followers know what your main account is and set up a new account on another instance just in case. There’s a lot of fish in the sea!

I first had a Mastodon account on DistroToot, which shut down earlier in 2022. I had my own instance at the time, so I followed everyone on that account (which previously I hadn’t used) until refugees created Starnix, which I moved to as my primary account, which I still use to this day.

I hope this post helped, and I hope people start setting up alt accounts on multiple servers, maybe even set up their own instances.

@james
I kind of see where you are going here, but why would Mastodon be a way for me to 'contact people' or them to contact me?

Surely it is not intended to be, nor would it be any good as, as messaging service? I share my Session ID for that.

@tomstoneham Anyone can message each other over the fediverse via the ActivityPub protocol, just by exchanging replies like you and I are doing right now. You can also set the posts to "Mentioned people only", which are like direct messages.

And if you're hosting your own server and it goes down, people need to be able to find you another way.