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As a disambiguation really quick, we're going to be talking about Mastodon, the application, in this post. There is also the concept of Mastodon being used as a synonym with "Fediverse" that isn't correct, but understandable given the massive and sudden culutral shift happening.
So, maybe you're here because Twitter is dying... maybe you're here because you're interested in learning. Either way, we need to talk about Mastodon.
Mastodon is, at it's core, a federated alternative to microblog services like twitter.
Let's break that down.
In this case, the federated part refers to the ability of Mastodon instances, or systems running the Mastodon software for a relatively small number of users, to interact with one another. I recently phrased it this way for a colleague:
Mastodon is a social network that is almost the same as Twitter. It is a set of servers that all talk to one another to share toots (instead of tweets). This sharing is called Federation. The Federated way that Mastodon shares allows for every one to have their own "home server" that holds their account and toots. These toots are then shared with the other home servers such that everyone can see toots from everyone else, unless the home server (or instance) is blocking other instances for negative behavior.
Effectively, it is a decentralized twitter made up of a several sub-systems into one super-cultural social network vice the hybrid-monoculture that Twitter was.
That might be the best way I have ever explained it (Also, props to Randall Munroe's Thing Explainer tool...).
Now, beyond that, Mastodon is a pretty robust social media experience. Mastodon is a wonder even without the federation. This is a highly-moderatable alternative to Twitter with robust scalability in a microblogging platform. It would make sense to host a small one for a community *without* the ability to interconnect with all of the other Mastodon instances. Additionally, with the lack of capability to monitor the very KPIs that made Twitter such a cesspool of advertisements and attempts at clickbait, Mastodon really shines as a truly people-focused system.
The long and short of this rambly post is that Mastodon is more than just a social media instance. It shows that a community of communities can come together to create something better than the corporate failure that Twitter became. Twitter was OK for a long time there... all it took was one person who thought they knew better to come in and knock it all down. That can't happen with federated systems.