Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, Mastodon has been seen as a viable alternative to Twitter.

Mastodon downloads on iOS and Google Play skyrocketed by 6,380% worldwide between the weeks of October 15–26 and October 27–November 7, per Sensor Tower. News that Musk had completed the acquisition broke on October 27.

Mastodon usage spikes after Musk’s Twitter takeover, Insider Intelligence

Strong Growth: This platform is undergoing a high rate of growth. Numbers and other information may change rapidly. These numbers were as accurate as we could get them at the time of publication. We will update them when we have new data.

Mastodon Data

• Date Founded: 2016
• Number of Mastodon users: 11.7 million
• Official site: joinmastodon.org
• Sites using Mastodon: 7,155 [source]

The first Mastodon site was mastodon.social, which saw 1.4M users and 130.9% increase over the last three months (as of November 2022). [source]

Mastodon’s monthly active users exceeded 11.7 million globally in 2025. [source]

Mastodon Demographics

Straw polls taken on the network indicate a growing skew towards users aged 25 and over. A 2021 poll indicated that users were primarily aged 20 to 40 whereas a more recent poll (2025) indicated a user base aged 25 to somewhere less than 65.

Mastodon users tend to be left-leaning, libertarian, and inclusive, although this can vary from one instance to another.

Federated network

There is no such thing as a social network called Mastodon! Instead there are thousands of independent social networks called Mastodon Instances.

Every Instance has its own server, community, rules, admins and moderation.

From every Mastodon Instance it is possible to interact with users who are on other Instances. It works exactly like e-mail does (you can send an e-mail from Gmail to Yahoo, right?). That’s because all the Instances can be mutually interconnected.

Mastodon is not a social network, mastodon.help/en

Mastodon community

The Mastodon community favours authentic interactions. It is generally warm, welcoming, and inclusive. Spam and repetition are generally frowned upon.

The community leans left or centre-left depending on the instance. They favour inclusivity, the accommodation of others, and the protection of the environment.

Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not driven by an algorithm, which means you hear from the people you choose to follow.

• Boost – “Hey, everyone, this thing is cool”
• Star (like) – “Cheers, your thing is cool”
• Bookmark – “I’m saving this cool thing for later”

Repeating similar content and similar “spammy” behaviour might work on Twitter but it is going to lose you followers pretty quickly on Mastodon.

Something you might not be used to but is highly favoured on Mastodon is well-written alt text for images. A significant portion of Mastodon users will actively avoid sharing (boosting) images without alt text.

Content wrapper/warning

Mastodon features a Content Warning system. It’s an optional mask that covers the content of a post with an editable warning message.

It’s used to cover content that is admitted by your Instance policy but may still hurt people, like spoilers, nudity, depiction of violence or threads about sensitive topics.

For example, if you want to start a thread about the ending of a fresh new movie, you can do it using a CW like “Spoiler about the ending of…”

Mastodon is not a social network, mastodon.help/en

Impressing agents with big numbers

The rule of thumb for Twitter used to be that you needed 50,000 followers to get the attention of agents and publishers. Numbers for numbers’ sake is not how Mastodon works. You are much better off having authentic interactions with people.

It might be better to build a mailing list instead.

This section has not been finished. I am probably still researching this topic. If you want to contribute to this page, please post your ideas in the forum on Author Buzz group for this sub-site.

Mastodon Instances for authors and writers

For science fiction and fantasy fans: wandering.shop

For book enthusiasts: booktoot.club

For all kinds of writers: writing.exchange

Can you add anything?

This guide to Mastodon for writers is incomplete. Please comment, reply, or mention any suggestions or additions.