Why come to Mastodon? Reasons to leave X, BlueSky, Facebook, etc. behind.

Mastodon is operated by a non-profit

Firstly and the main reason I decided to use Mastodon, was that Mastodon is now operated by a non-profit. Here’s a news story about this: from 2025. This non-profit structure changes the incentives of the platform and with it many of its users. It’s a stark contrast between all the others who are primarily profit driven. This leads into the next reason:

There are no ads on Mastodon

Browsing the timeline, reading posts, following new people, all without a single advertisement or sponsored post (artificially inflated) is great. It means we can focus on what people are sharing without being distracted or influenced by ads, political ads, etc.

Updated Profile & Usability

If you really appreciate a clean looking profile and user interface, that’s something Mastodon has improved with their primary client in March of 2026. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/03/a-redesign-for-profiles/ this new profile view brings a streamlined look and feel that you might already be used to from the other networks and improves on UI usability. Try not to give up on Mastodon just because you think they need a better brand name — they’ve improved the look and feel significantly, it’s tempting to call it M for Mastodon now.

Mastodon has servers that are inclusive

When you first join Mastodon, you are required to pick a server. Not to worry though, you can easily just pick the default server (mastodon.social). Since the network is not on only one server (It’s federated, or groups that are part of a whole), this not only keeps Mastodon running but allows users to find servers that you might personally be more comfortable with the rules of. Each server is required to follow the Mastodon covenant, which states in the first line:

Active moderation against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia. Users must have the confidence that they are joining a safe space, free from white supremacy, anti-semitism and transphobia of other platforms.

You’ll be happy to know that there are many awesome #lgtb and #pride users, and #PrideMonth is a big event on the network.

Mastodon’s incentives are different, Mastodon isn’t “Big Tech”

By posting, browsing, scrolling, interacting, etc on Mastodon, you are not contributing to adding more revenue to Big Tech’s pockets. So no, they won’t be getting another yacht. On the other networks, your interaction is considered an advertising metric, and they have teams of people trying to increase what is called “stickyness” (how much time you spend on there per session) so they can increase ad revenue. This is not the case on Mastodon.

No view counts

Your posts don’t have view count metrics. This is actually a benefit for a micro-blogging platform because we don’t get so focused on the views, and instead we see who favorites or re-posts our messages. This increases the likelihood of you learning about those who interact with your posts and vise versa.

Trending doesn’t focus on views but engagement

Mastodon’s trending area surfaces posts that have high engagement, that means re-posts and likes. This trending area actually surfaces some really interesting and worth-reading content that isn’t influenced by advertising. You can find some really “good-to-know” stuff over there. The trending area is not artificially inflated by advertised posts. The trending area shows trending posts, daily popular hashtags (currently a lot of folks are talking about #wwdc26), a people area which shows accounts that are currently popular on the network, and a news area which shows news articles that have the highest re-posted count.

Many hashtags are like chat-rooms.

You can add more variety to your timeline by following hashtags. There are some fun hashtags like #TIL (today I learned), #3goodthings (3 good things that happened today), and #AskFedi (Ask questions about the Fediverse). One tip for newcomers is to pick a more niche hashtag, such as #traditionalart — which is a specific type of art for example. A fun music related hashtag that I’m participating in is #MusicWomenWednesday.

Filtering, Blocking, Muting is built in

If there is anything you don’t want to see you can easily filter it with a variety of custom content filters as well as options to Block, Mute, etc. If you have found a server that is allowing questionable content, you can even block the entire server if you want to (while I haven’t seen the need to do this at all, the option is there). Muting can be done often to tailor your timeline.

Mastodon is working on accessibility

When you post an image on Mastodon, it will ask you if you’d like to add ALT tags for screen readers. This is an important addition and shows that Mastodon cares about accessibility.

Mastodon loves Art & Photography

In my first few weeks of using Mastodon, I was introduced to an amazing comic artist: https://mastodon.social/@davidrevoy@framapiaf.org
Later on I found a really awesome artist named Joy: https://mastodon.social/@joyousjoyness — the popular art tag on Mastodon is #mastoart so if you’re into art that’s the place to be. There are some really talented artists to be found on Mastodon. #BloomScrolling is one of the most popular hashtags in the community, where users post some great photography.

Ongoing development

Recently Mastodon has added Collections, and will be expanding this functionality soon. Users will soon be able to make groups of users for newcomers to follow. You can see the future roadmap here. The users are also developing for Mastodon and I am considering making a hashtag tool. I will probably post more about this on Medium later.

Be a part of a growing network

Critics of Mastodon will say there is no-one on the network, but the network is growing every day. Accounts like https://mastodon.social/@mastodon@libera.site show user growth over time. This means that you could add to a growing network.

Critics say it’s too complicated to get started, but that’s not true. All you have to do is pick a server or simply choose the default one. I really didn’t find it too hard to pick a server. If you follow some folks, follow some hashtags, and check out the trending areas you are guaranteed to find some new interesting content. You will find me posting my science facts under #sciencefacts.

The fact that Mastodon is non-profit run and doesn’t have any ads… are two good enough reasons for me to join them instead of the other ones. I’m really enjoying it’s inclusivity. I hope you will join me on Mastodon. If you do be sure to say hello.