Mastodon.social is a decentralized social network that operates on open-source software. The platform allows users to create their own social network and communicate with others within the network. Mastodon.social is built on the principles of user privacy, decentralization, and moderation. The platform has gained popularity as an alternative to traditional social media platforms, which have recently faced scrutiny over data privacy and security concerns. Mastodon.social has a unique federated design, which allows users to connect with different servers and users across the network. The platform continues to grow in popularity as users look for more secure and decentralized social media alternatives.

Most usernames will look something like this: @username@Mastodon server. Mastodon's character limit is larger than Twitter's. Toots have a limit of 500 characters per post.businessinsider.comUsernames on Mastodon are more like emails than typical social-media handles. Users choose the first part of their username and the second part is whichever Mastodon server they signed up with.

Users can share messages publicly, privately to individual users, or privately within an instance or a group of instances. Users can also boost posts and send Direct Messages (DM) to other users.thetealmango.comMastodon Social Network allows users to post “Toots,” which are like Tweets on Twitter, that are messages including up to 500 text-based characters.

On Mastodon, a DM is just a toot with visibility that is limited to the person you want to contact directly.digitaltrends.comWhile Mastodon does have a way for its users to communicate directly with specific users, the process for composing a DM won’t look like the process of doing so on Twitter or Facebook.