With new ownership at Twitter, many people are seeking alternatives to find community. Overall, I don't think the internet was designed with the network effect of what web 2.0 brought. Despite being around for six years, Mastodon is gaining momentum. The experience, if you can figure out how to sign off and onboard, has similar functionality to what you'd expect at Twitter. The open source social network runs on independent nodes—decentralized, which I commend. De-graphing from tech giants seems to be a key value for people, including myself. I hope Mastodon finds much success, but my concern is it's going to be too complex for people who want to join a social network.
A year after Mastodon launched, Manton Reece created micro.blog, a social network which allows you to create a blog hosted by the service or connect to an existing blog, using Real Simple Syndication (RSS) web feeds. Aside from Manton being a kind and wonderful human being, I love micro.blog's approach to choice in services you use. You can also connect multiple RSS feeds to your micro.blog. Instead of decentralization, it aggregates feeds into a unified timeline of people you follow.
If you're looking for a way to connect your blog with your friends or a quick way to spin one up, I highly recommend checking out micro.blog. I'm @dh over there.
