Because I know a lot of people are still very new to Mastodon, here's the basic pitch:
Mastodon is a decentralized microblogging service. In format and content, it's very similar to Twitter. On the backend though, it's comprised of thousands of individual community servers that all communicate with one another to make up the larger Mastodon landscape.
To signup for Mastodon, you have to pick a "home server" on which to make your Mastodon account. Typically people select a server that is dedicated to their hobbies or interests. As far as we're aware,
ParkFans.Network is the first Mastodon server dedicated to the amusement industry.
Moderation-wise, the
ParkFans.Network rules will look very familiar to anyone who has read the ParkFans Forum rules. They're not identical, but, at least for the initial launch, we're keeping them relatively inline with what you've come to expect from ParkFans.net.
Thinking long-term there's a substantial chance that Twitter could stabilize, everyone ends up content with whatever
New Twitter looks like, and Mastodon fades back into obscurity. If that happens, we may want out of the Mastodon server hosting game. That said, Mastodon allows users to port their accounts from one server to another at will. If we ever do decide to pull the plug, we will attempt to give everyone ample opportunity to find a new server to move over to.
We love the open, decentralized philosophy behind Mastodon and, if a Twitter replacement is going to be necessary for a lot of folks, we'd really like to see Mastodon be the winner. That's why we're putting our money and effort where our mouths are.
