Lincolnite

Lincolnite.net is Lincoln's new social media platform. Running on software based on the open-source Mastodon project, Lincolnite.net is run by Lincolnites for Lincolnites. Spearheaded by Karin Dalziel, the project aims to provide a fun, safe, locally-focused social media environment for all Lincolnites.

What is Mastodon?

Lincolnite.net runs on the Mastodon platform. Mastodon is similar to Twitter, but with key differences. Like Twitter, Mastodon emphasizes sharing short snippets of text, images, and videos on a frequently updated timeline. It allows users to follow each other, “like” posts, and share those posts with others.

Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not a single entity or website. Anybody can start up a Mastodon “instance”, or a server running Mastodon's software. Lincolnite.net is one such instance. Users can sign up on one or more instances, they can see content from their own or any other instance, and they can share their own content either locally (only on their instance) or with other instances. An instance can be for a general audience or it can restrict membership only to select individuals.

Mastodon is part of the “fediverse” ("federated universe"). Federation is a form of decentralization for content on the web. Instead of a single, central service that all people use (like Twitter or Facebook), there are multiple, interconnected services that any number of people can use. The fediverse extends far beyond Mastodon, but I'll save that explanation for another time.

Because Mastodon is free and open, no organization does or can control the system as a whole. That gives users more control over their experience. There are no ads in your timeline, for example, and your timeline is controlled by you, not some opaque algorithm.

Join us on Lincolnite.net

Please join us over on Lincolnite.net today! The community is gradually growing, but the more folks who sign up, the more vibrant the community will become. We look forward to individuals and organizations taking advantage of the opportunity to communicate and collaborate at Lincolnite.net in much the same way the community latched onto the #LNK hashtag over thirteen years ago.