The social network of the future: No ads, no corporate surveillance, ethical design, and decentralization! Mastodon is a social network built on open source software and web standards of interoperability, with a rich app ecosystem, robust anti-abuse tools, and over a million users!
I dumped Facebook in ~2013, and I don't tweet (I do reply there for people I know). Whatever fleeting thoughts I feel like sharing with the universe, I send through Mastodon. I'd been waiting for a federated, non-commercial social network since maybe 2008, and I finally found one with some traction in April of last year. Mastodon was my personal Product of the Year. Get on it.
Pros:The software product that gave me the most joy in 2017
Cons:Not enough people I know in real life are on it yet
Mastodon is my favorite federated network. There is a lot to love there if you take your time to find cool instances and people to follow. There are whole instances devoted to art, creative work, and much more. There are many tools to help with self-moderation and community caring built into the system. I really, really recommend it.
Pros:Fun to use, great decentralized architecture, better than twitter
Cons:Don't see any when compared to Twitter
Mastodon development is very active, and Eugen (@Gargron@mastodon.social) is incredibly responsive to the community. Whether you're spinning up your own instance or joining a community you're interested in, it's a fun place to have real conversations.
Pros:Many communities with different flavors, but connected via ActivityPub federation
Cons:None?