Over the last two days users from the social media service Mastodon have started a campaign which has raised over $250,000 for VP Harris. User Heidi Li Feldman started the modest campaign on ActBlue two days ago, with a humble goal of one thousand dollars. She did it for the dual purpose of helping VP Harris, and raising awareness of the social media site.
She has blown by her original goal — and continues to have to move the goalposts, but in a good way...
From Heidi’s initial request:
I'm doing something I never thought I'd get to do again. I'm specifically fundraising for a woman to head the Democratic ticket and to be the next President of the United States. I want to do this with all of you here on #Mastodon, so I've created a fundraising page specifically for us: #MastodonForHarris.
We have the chance to save U.S. democracy and rule of law, to elect the first woman President of the United States, and to send TFG packing. By contributing to Kamala Harris's campaign via this portal, we can also encourage her to create a distinct presence on Mastodon, not mediated by Threads or any other social media provider.
Any amount donated will strengthen the #Mastodon platform as a venue for progressive political activism, as well as benefiting Kamala Harris.
(Emphasis mine.)
The success of the campaign is made even more amazing by the fact that Mastodon does not use an algorithm to push posts in front of eyeballs. A post can only go “viral” if it is shared by people that the user knows, and then they share it to their network. Posts are not selected by an algorithm to push to viral status.
If you are a Mastodonian, or would like to support awareness for alternate social media, then please check it out. And here is the ActBlue page to chip in a buck or fifty.
What is Mastodon?
The short version: I call Mastodon “Like Twitter, but without ads and Nazis.” I also agree with Heidi as seeing Mastodon as an ideal venue for progressive activism. I’d love to see DailyKos support Mastodon and the Fediverse as a communication channel, instead of embracing other distasteful social media. Stop giving bad people eyeballs for advertising, you know?
Mastodon is an open-source Twitter-like replacement, running on the #Fediverse. The Fediverse is a collection of federated apps that work together. The Fediverse lets you get away from a closed for-profit world run by sociopaths and billionaires. So, you may be using a for profit app that bombards your eyeballs with ads to pay venture capitalists… or you could try an amazing Fediverse alternative:
- Twitter/X => Mastodon (Microblogs.)
- Instagram => Pixelfed (Pictures & photos.)
- Youtube => PeerTube (Video.)
- Reddit => Lemmy (Link aggregation.)
- GoodReads => BookWyrm (Social book ratings.)
- and lots more!
These new services, being built by nerds in their spare time. The run the gamut of usefulness from amazing to ‘kinda janky’. Even though they are volunteer efforts, most of them work amazingly well compared to their venture-capitalist counterparts. However, by using the Fediverse versions, you avoid ads, and they do not track you through algorithms. They are not (and can’t be) owned by billionaires.
The benefit is, I can use my Mastodon account to follow PeerTube videos, and they show flawlessly. I can also follow photographers on Pixelfed. Pixelfed uses images only, but my account there will display image posts of Fediverse users that I follow. They all work together, and anyone can contribute. It runs on a protocol, like the web and email, so it can never be taken over and walled off for profit.
They are free to use, but all of them are open source licenses. So anyone can build their own. Which has benefits and detriments.
Feel free to connect to me on Mastodon at @Shakludanto@Mastodon.Social. And if you’d like advice on a good Mastodon server to join, hit me up!
