If You Want to Leave Twitter Because of Elon Musk, These Are Your Options

1

X (Twitter)

The most obvious Twitter replacement is probably Mastodon, a decentralized series of social networking sites that are, in form and function, the most similar to Twitter. The one big difference is that instead of just one Twitter, it’s more like a network of Twitters that can interact with each other but don’t necessarily have to. It’s theoretically possible to be a part of one Mastodon instance that is focused on a highly specific topic—tabletop games, for instance—and alongside more generalized instances where you can share what you ate for lunch. The hope is that your tabletop friends won’t have to see pictures of salads, and your general friends won’t have to get in the weeds about tabletop games.

#Social Networks #Social Network #Microblogging 883 social mentions

2

Mastodon

The most obvious Twitter replacement is probably Mastodon, a decentralized series of social networking sites that are, in form and function, the most similar to Twitter. The one big difference is that instead of just one Twitter, it’s more like a network of Twitters that can interact with each other but don’t necessarily have to. It’s theoretically possible to be a part of one Mastodon instance that is focused on a highly specific topic—tabletop games, for instance—and alongside more generalized instances where you can share what you ate for lunch. The hope is that your tabletop friends won’t have to see pictures of salads, and your general friends won’t have to get in the weeds about tabletop games.

#Decentralized Social Network #Open Source #Social Network 586 social mentions

3

Discord

Discord servers are simply chat rooms based around a particular community or topic. Almost every single internet personality you are aware of has a Discord server they run, especially if it is centered around video games or a video game content creator. Originally, Discord was a chat service specifically for gamers, but over time non-gamers have flocked to the site as a way to keep up with friends. When you sign up you have the option to create your own server, but a lot of the time it’s just easier to join someone else’s, especially if they’ve dedicated the time and energy to having robust moderation.

#Communication #Group Chat & Notifications #Instant Messaging 117 social mentions

4

Tumblr

Tumblr still exists, just barely, and has gotten delightfully weird in its decline. If you’re primarily on Twitter to look at animated gifs of whatever your pop cultural hyperfixation is at the moment, rest assured that Tumblr remains the default place for posting fanart or high contrast screenshots of a recent blockbuster movie. Since there are simply fewer people on it, it’s now just a fertile ground for the kind of shitposting that once made the platform infamous to non-users.

#Social Networks #Blogging Platform #CMS 32 social mentions

5

Neocities

Do you miss the old internet, from before Twitter? Enter Neocities, modeled after Geocities, the place where many people still online made their first homes for themselves. Neocities allows every user to create and host their own website, coded in HTML. There’s a kind of passive social aspect to the web host as well. Each site on Neocities is added to a browseable gallery of sites, which also shows you what’s possible with the platform. Looking at the sites in the gallery makes me nostalgic for the days of painstakingly coding my Sailor Moon fansite on Angelfire.

#Website Builder #CMS #Blogging 161 social mentions

6

SpaceHey

Spacehey appeals to an internet nostalgia a little more recent than Geocities. Spacehey harkens back to the old days of MySpace, recreating the Web 1.0 aesthetic with an uncanny degree of accuracy. You’ll even have a slot for your “top friends,” if you remember how much it used to matter to be featured on a pal’s MySpace page. Right now the site is free of two of the most annoying aspects of Twitter—algorithmic post sorting and advertisements. This is social media at its most basic, which is part of its appeal.

#Social Networks #Social & Communications #Social Media 76 social mentions

Pillowfort is yet another bid for your nostalgia for an older internet. Livejournal was once the default gathering space for people in fandom, which changed after the site was sold and made a few changes to its terms of service. Pillowfort doesn’t try to recreate Livejournal exactly, but rather takes some of its best features and combines them with newer features from sites like Tumblr.

#Blogging #Blogging Platform #CMS