I'm on Mastodon as well, and I tend to use that site a bit more though I'm trying to balance the two as there's great folks here too! I also like the blog format here. (I was experimenting with other Fediverse sites, but not sure I'll keep those. The ones I mention here are the ones I plan/hope to keep for a long while).

[Edit: this site has some great tips about Mastodon and how to use it: https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-advanced-tips/ ]

Mastodon

(one sector of the Fediverse)

I am a mod for this particular server, so I do spend majority of my time on social media in this server/instance. There's a diverse team of folks helping with moderation. We have a robust block list that's been shared with us from BIPOC-run servers, so our spot in the Mastodon web is fairly safe from bad actors. Disabled folks run this server and it's for disabled folks. We hoped to try to rebuild some of what was lost from disability Twitter.

This is my anarchist account. I am considering switching to either mastodon.lol or ni.hil.ist mostly due to language barrier issues, but we'll see at the end of the month! Todon.eu is a Leftist server with decent moderation; it's primarily European with a diversity of languages, so I struggle to build community with local accounts as there's language barriers. Thankfully, there's a translate feature enabled for Todon.eu, which does help.

Write Freely

(Part of Fediverse, accounts here can be followed on Mastodon too)

I signed up for this server as soon as it opened because I trust the admin, who is a disabled Black woman on blacktwitter.io that is a mutual. This is primarily a blog server, so as more users sign up, the Reader on blanketfort.blog will show posts from other users on the server. The admin set blanketfort.blog to be unlisted, so to see our posts we have to share the link to our direct blog. I'm fine with that privacy as the goal of the group is to provide space for disabled folks to journal about their lives together.

Caveats about Mastodon

I wrote this in a comment, but decided to expand a bit and edit it for clarity as it's crucial to understand when exploring Mastodon:

Mastodon depends entirely on the server for which you are in -- some have really great mods and great admins, but there's others that aren't good at moderation at all (they get defederated quick). Moderation isn't centralized - it's done by whoever owns the server (and if that person/group sets up a mod team). The federated Mastodon servers have fairly robust discussions across multiple servers about ways to work together across instances/servers to assist with moderation and disseminate tips and tricks; FediBlock is a crucial force in this initiative.

How Defederation works:

There's a swathe of servers that are blocked by majority of instances in the Federated Mastodon space. When harmful content is reported to a server mod, that mod will see if the content is on their server (if so, a good moderated server acts swiftly); if not on their server, then the mod can delete/limit/suspend that content from their own server so their members won't have to see it. Often, the modded-server will dig a bit to see if the server housing the reported user is allowing the harmful content to flourish. If the reported server fails to stop the harmful content, then the modded-server may decide to defederate (a.k.a. blocking the server entirely or severely limiting its ability to see their server); they then disseminate this information and explain why. Other admins/mods from other servers see this information and decide if they too will defederate. Often for harmful content (such as racism, transphobia, fascism, anti-semitism, homophobia, hate speech), most servers within the Mastodon Covenant will follow through in defederating as well.

This wasn't always as streamlined -- Black and Indigenous folks created the FediBlock tag to streamline this and fought hard for the tag to be used to combat racism/white supremacy and disseminate information quicker so that other servers can also act on the information. FediBlock is more focused on limiting/blocking servers than people because if a server is failing to stop bad actors on their server, then that's a sign the server fails at moderation and fails to abide by the Mastodon covenant. That bad server then gets blocked by the majority of the federated servers. So the bad server ends up on an island cut off from the federated web.

Note: not all servers in the Mastodon Covenant (a.k.a. Federation) will have the exact same block list. There's some bad servers that exist on pretty much every list (servers for fascist, white supremacist, transphobes for example). However, some servers may be blocked on one server's list but not another. This is partly because not all defederation suggestions are clear-cut -- sometimes there's a confusing tangle of stories, and it's a grey area as to which is the bad actor. Also, sometimes servers get into fights with one another on topics that may or may not be relevant to the other servers. Or some servers may disagree on what infractions (and how many) constitute a defederation. It's a complex web of human interaction to be honest. We're all human beings learning a new way of being in relation with each other, so it'll be hard at times.

Decentralization, Fediverse, ActivityPub Protocol

Decentralization means the software used is open source, no one owner/company exists as it's open source projects run by people working together across many different regions of the world. Decentralization also means that you can interact with people outside of your server (cohost for example is not decentralized as we cannot follow people outside cohost and comment on their stuff while using our cohost accounts. Cohost would be known as a centralized site).

Each server (called instance in the Mastodon client) is run by a group of people, who cover the costs of that server themselves -- they are volunteers and often run on donations and their own cash. Sometimes a company may create their own server, but if they start acting badly and betraying the Mastodon Covenant (like the Raspberry Pi incident), then they will get defederated.

Mastodon is part of a much, much larger web known as the Fediverse. All of the Fediverse uses the ActivityPub Protocol. Other clients within this Fediverse can talk to Mastodon to some degree as long as they use the ActivityPub protocol. This includes Frendica, Pleroma, Misskey, and other similar mini-blog Mastodon-like clients. Diaspora is also part of the Fediverse, but the Diaspora software doesn't talk as well with Mastodon. A lot of other Fediverse sites exist such as PeerTube (web of servers for hosting videos), Pixelfed (web of servers for images sharing), Write Freely (web of servers for blog communities), GNUSocial (mini-blog social media web), etc.

Wordpress and Tumblr both plan to add ActivityPub Protocol, so that they too can join the Fediverse. Will Mastodon users be able to follow people from those sites? That depends on how ActivityPub Protocol is enabled within Wordpress and Tumblr. I can't speak to this as I don't have knowledge about the specifics of the coding behind that.

In essence, any site that enables or uses ActivityPub Protocol has the option to be part of this Fediverse.

So that's my write up on what I've learned.

Takeaway Mastodon and the Fediverse feels complex because it's an web of nodes. Finding your place in that web can take a little research, especially if seeking a safer space as a marginalized person. This may seem confusing to some folks who are used to a more centralized approach where there is one site you go to for that particular social media and everything is contained in that site (some call this a silo, which is what Facebook and Twitter are). In contrast, Fediverse is a diversity of options, which has its own pros and cons.