Elon Musk is insisting on squeezing every penny from Twitter, be it toying around with pay-walling the entire app, or gluing a price tag to the blue-tick honorific.

Amidst the resulting Twitter public meltdown, Mastodon has been stomping as the anti-Twitter for quite a while. The open-source platform is still trying to digest the waves of migrating tweeters seeking refuge for their everyday musings. Its server-stressing memberships are exponentially growing in number, hitting all-time highs.

Like Twitter, Mastodon has its own toots. Users can bookmark, favorite, boost, and add them to custom-made lists. On the flip side, Mastodon is comprised of a decentralized network of servers called instances that you can choose from on sign-up. They are moderated by individuals, unlike Twitter’s one happy communal town.

Will the thawing woolly mammoth stand a chance? Will it be reduced to a transient craze? So many questions. We hope that these surging sign-ups prove to be sustainable, and that instance runners will really pull it through for the greater good of community-driven spaces.

Learn more here.