https://sn.1w6.org/file/clacke-20171116T040443-8l5pvcs.html

@stealthmunchkin @nolan @bortzmeyer @cjd @dtluna

> a social network called Mastodon

There is a social network often called the #Fediverse, and Mastodon is one of the pieces of software that is able to participate in it.

> Diaspora (a similar Twitter-alternative social network I tried about five years ago, but which only two other friends ever bothered with; it’s apparently still going, but no-one uses it).

Apart from ~400000 active users:

https://diasp.eu/stats.html

> YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW OR UNDERSTAND ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT MASTODON INSTANCES. YOU DO NOT EVEN NEED TO THINK ABOUT THEM.

Apart from the fact that several instances are blocking other instances left and right, isolating themselves from the greater network. But you get to that later.

> Your email provider probably blocks certain domains which are just used for sending spam

But no email provider blocks another domain for the reason that users on that domain talk to users on a third domain that the first provider doesn't like, or for that domain having "wrong ideals".

> Then when you looked at the local timeline, *even those people you didn’t follow* would still be people with whom you shared an interest, and so might be people you’d want to talk to.

A good argument against the title of your post.