You can now scroll through tweets from people you follow who have mentioned Mastodon, most of whom will also include a link to their page. Click on the “Latest” tab and these results will even be in reverse chronological order. I found a handful of my Twitter friends this way.
There are a few other search terms you can use – some people use the #TwitterMigration hashtag, for example. Others might spell Mastodon as “Mastadon”, so maybe look that up too. Be sure to come back in about a month. Assuming this isn’t a momentary thing, more people could create accounts.
Services that can find accounts
The method above will probably find most people, but if you are not satisfied, you can try a few services. The first, Twitodon, lets you connect using Twitter and Mastodon. It will analyze your Twitter followers for anyone who has also logged in using both services, then give you a list. I find it unlikely that this service will pop up someone who hasn’t pasted a link to their Mastodon profile on Twitter, but there’s no reason not to try.
Some Twitter users add a link to their Mastodon page to their Twitter bio without ever tweeting about it. fedifinder can help you find them. This application analyzes the profile of each Twitter user you follow and shows you all the Mastodon accounts there, regardless of the server they are on. I found a few people this way, you could too.
Find other interesting people to follow
The sad truth is that most of the people you follow on Twitter don’t currently have a Mastodon account. That might change, but for now you’ll probably need to find some new people to follow. The good news is that there are several ways to do this.
The first thing I would do is follow the account @[email protected], which recommends a new person to follow every day. After that you should check Fedi.directory, which reminds me of Yahoo’s directory back in the late 90s. Basically, you can browse an index of interesting accounts to follow in a variety of areas. Another similar site is Trunk, which offers lists of interesting accounts. I found a bunch of interesting accounts to follow this way.
Mastodon, for me, is what Linux would be if it were a social network. Some people will hear that and think it’s an insult — I mean it as a compliment. The Internet has become increasingly corporatized. It’s refreshing to use a service that hasn’t been A/B tested to death, a service that feels more like a tool than a dopamine trap. I’m not going to delete my Twitter account anytime soon – I want to continue posting links to my articles – but I think I’ll spend more of my time scrolling from Twitter to Mastodon. Consider joining me.
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