Today's the last day of my Mastodon-exclusive testing week. I'm really, really glad I did this, and it felt much longer than seven days.

Reflections:

I didn't miss the birdsite at all, which surprised me. A few times, I opened the app/website out of habit, smiled about the login screen, and went reading my tootlines.

I spent more time on Mastodon than on an average birdsite day, because of all the exploring, experimenting, and discovering.

I feel significantly less informed about what's going on in the world. Birdsite was an excellent (bubble-filtered) news source for me.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the quietness. It was like a gift. I will miss it.

The current userbase feels very different. Everyone I interacted with was absolutely lovely, positive and open-minded, and was quick to offer help and support. I loved being in this diverse environment of atypical people.

On the technical side, everything worked much better than I expected. The web UI took some time getting used to, but eventually felt very usable. Tusky was adequate for browsing on a mobile device.

Things I enjoyed: The CW function, and how many people deploy them. The 500 character limit, creating space for deeper, more detailed thoughts and better conversations.

One of the things I liked best was that the boost/fav numbers are not displayed in the UI prominently. Mastodon feels like it's much more about the content and interactions, and not about earning Internet points.

I have to admit I took these numbers much more serious than I probably should have on the birdsite. The current Mastodon approach removes some of the envy and greed I felt.