TAke a look, ya'll

Hello friends - I've decided to set up a Mastodon instance, and I'd love to see some of your faces on it.
https://straylight.expectnomore.net

"What's Mastodon?!" you exclaim loudly, repeatedly, and in increasing volume until your neighbors call the police on you. The police show up, but they're unable to get you to cease your shrill exhortations for an explanation. They book you in jail, but you don't stop. You bob rhythmically in a corner, repeating it to yourself like a mantra. One of your cell mates, Steven Hallmark, begins foaming from the mouth. He was only in while awaiting bail to be posted - he was caught up in a fight, but it was truly not his fault, and tomorrow he was set to start his dream job. But he's dead now. Your other cell mate, "Big" Mike Turtwilliger, has yelled for the guard until his vocal cords gave out entirely. Now he can only produce the sound of air escaping his lungs. He begins banging his head against the bars, trying to make enough noise to attract their attention; he won't make it through the night.

Mastodon is a federated microblogging service. Which means it's like Twitter. Except you can host it on your own, and run your own local community. But in addition, you can talk to other servers within "the federation" - basically other servers that host compatible software, such as GNU Social, Friendica, Diaspora, or other Mastodon instances. (You noticed the banging sounds slow to a stop, then the sound of a body slumping to the floor; what's mastodon, what's mastodon, what's... )

The idea behind federated software is to move communities away from monolithic hosted platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, while providing similar feature sets. Privacy is a big focus, as is self-governance of individual instances. So you get the feel of a community-run server, while still having the freedom to interact with anyone in the federation.

(Your body exhausts itself, and sleep comes despite your protests. In your sleep, you dream of a vast wheat field. You're running through it with your childhood best friend. It's a beautiful, sunny day; blue skies for miles; no houses, no building, no civilization, just you and your friend with the warm breeze at your back. He turns to you, and hands you a bottle of Coca Cola.

Then you wake up in your bed, in a cold sweat.

The bottle of Coke is still in your hands.)

Thread topic: What is your favorite way to engage with Brands on-line?

Russell or Jo?

Or are we talking cattle?

Please. These poor Brands need interactions. Please hashtag them. Please tell them how much you Love too engage with their Products. Please.

Post at straylight.expectnomore.net with hashtag #hashtag for a chance to win some Brand Engagement!