Medium, an online publishing platform, that was created by Twitter co-founded Evan Williams, announced that it will now be using the Mastodon platform, as reported by TechCrunch.
(Photo : JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
This photograph taken on November 7, 2022 shows the logos of social networks Twitter and Mastodon reflected in smartphone screens, in Paris.
The platform will launch its own community, me.dm, that will provide reliable infrastructure, moderation, and a short domain name that will make it easier to users to share their usernames.
Mastodon Gains Traction
Ever since Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, Mastodon has gained traction with users fleeing Twitter and Mastodon is one of the platforms that benefited from this.
The past few days have shown significant growth for the platform totaling 2.5 million monthly active users from only 300,000 in October 2022.
However, Mastodon isn't like Twitter because on the platform, members join communities with their own sets of rules, moderation guidelines, and home timelines.
It doesn't prevent users from following another user on a different community, but it is expected that many will join a community that reflects their specific interests.
Also Read: Self-Publishing Platform Medium Comes Up With Subscription Plans To Stay Afloat
Medium's Entry
Medium will open up Mastodon to their writers and readers as an additional perk of Medium membership. In turn, this will create a space of discussions around Medium's content. As a result, this will turn into an interesting local feed. In addition, this will make it easier for people to find topics that match their interests when joining Mastodon.
With this, Medium will have a "sign up with Medium" interface for joining the micro-blogging platform. This will address some complaints about the difficulties of getting started on the platform.
This could boost Medium's number of readers. They will start inviting select authors and publications to an early group of testers before they invite all writers and readers in the near future.
The Need for a Twitter Alternative
Medium isn't the only company who is realizing the need to find an alternative to Twitter. Substack recently launched a discussions feature within its own app. In December 2022, Flipboard launched a Notes feature for a similar purpose. Tumblr, in November 2022, announced that they would adopt ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking protocol that peers Mastodon.
It is no secret that Twitter has faced a lot of problems with its swifter rates of users and purging of fake accounts. A lot of the site's users have grown disgruntled with the company. This has led to a decline in the site's user growth. The company is aware of the issues it is facing and that is why it made many changes to its interface. It also banned a couple of high-profile accounts. With that, the company is still struggling to keep its users.
Related Article: Medium: Twitter Spin-Off And Blogging Platform To No Longer Focus On Long-Form Writing
