(From Sam Shah and Julie Reulbach)

What We’re Doing and Why:

Okay, friends. Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk and seems to constantly be on the brink of imploding and full of misinformation, and now ads about every three tweets. There is that whole pandemic thing where many of us were just trying to keep our heads above water — and so we connected less with the online math community. Twitter Math Camp became a thing of the past. And blogging was already on the decline. 

And you know what? We miss our math teacher community so goshdarn much. We miss talking with each other, throwing lesson ideas out there, sharing what we’re reading and cooking, talking about equity and belonging in our classrooms, commiserating over failures and celebrating successes. We miss you. 

I once read this quotation which stayed with me: “Don’t complain about that which you have the power to change.” So let’s change things! We found a twitter alternative called Mastodon (specifically an “instance” called mathstodon.xyz) which isn’t exactly the same, but is pretty awesome. You can type equations! Posts can be longer than on twitter. And unlike twitter which has a lot of junk on it, the place we’re proposing is a place for people who love math and is run by a mathematician! 

(This isn’t to suggest that you give up twitter like we did, if you’re still on there… this could be something you do in addition to twitter.)

What is mathstodon.xyz? How is mathstodon.xyz is different From Twitter? What’s the same?

Mastodon is like a “universe” of twitters. Anyone with a server can set up their own “instance” of twitter, with their own rules of conduct. When people were initially nervous about twitter breaking, a bunch of math peeps created mathstodon.xyz. So anyone who signs up for mathstodon.xyz is pretty much already a math nerd.

When you join (instructions below), you can talk with and be friends with anyone on any server of mastodon — not just the math one. But by joining mathstodon.xyz, in addition to seeing all the posts written by people who you’re friends with, you can also see all the posts written by anyone on mathstodon.xyz. So you can read lots of interesting things written by professional math geeks, and use that to find new people to follow. :) That is one shift — though. Twitter has an algorithm that helps you find people, while mastadon doesn’t.

Posts (aka. tweets) can be longer than 280 characters! You can edit your posts! If you know latex, you can write equations in your posts! You can both “star” (favorite) posts and bookmark posts! 

What’s the same? You can still send DMs. You can still create lists. You can still use hashtags. (We want to create a hashtag for math teacher tweets, like #classroommath, so we can easily find and post about math teaching.) You can “boost” (retweet). You still get it for free. And you can use it both as an app and on the web. 

Want to see what a page looks like? Here’s Sam’s (https://mathstodon.xyz/@samjshah) and here’s Julie’s (https://mathstodon.xyz/@jreulbach)

As an important aside, mathstodon has rules of conduct which are thoughtful and inclusive, while Twitter is pretty gross in all the ways.

How to Sign Up:

First, you need join the Mathstodon server of Mastodon. Mastodon is not a single website so, you need to pick a server to join. 

“Mathstodon.xyz is a Mastodon instance for people who love maths!” 

Be aware that sign up is not automatic. You will need to verify your email and then be approved to join this group. But, it doesn’t take long! So follow these steps and get going!

1. We found signup easier to do on our computer than with the app.
2. Go to the Mathstodon.xyz page. 

3. Click Create Account, and then agree to follow the rules.
4. Fill in all of the fun stuff, then Request an Account.

5. Once finished, you will receive a notification email from mathstodon.xyz asking you to verify your email address. 

6. After verifying, my account was active about 20 minutes later! You will get another email welcoming you to Mathstodon with a link to set up your profile. 

YAY! You’re in! Now what?

Set up your profile! You can do this by clicking on the link in your Welcome email, or by clicking on “Edit Profile” under your name.

1. Upload an avatar and a header (if desired). 
2. Uncheck Require follow requests. I left this unchecked, as I am trying to build my mathy network on here, and want all the mathy people to connect with me.
3. Check Suggest account to others. I selected this, for the same reason as number 1.
4. Uncheck Hide your social graph. I left this UNCHECKED, because if you check this box, your followers and who you follow will be hidden from other users. We didn’t want this hidden, as your mathy friends followers are often people you want to be able to follow. 

Tips For Getting Started:

1. Follow us! Sam is here at https://mathstodon.xyz/@samjshah and Julie is here at https://mathstodon.xyz/@jreulbach. We will follow you right back! Also, our follow lists are open (Sam’s list, Julie’s list), so you can check them out and quickly follow everyone there too!
2. Play around with it and see what you can figure out on your own. It’s not the same as twitter, so don’t expect it to work exactly like twitter. But it’s super similar, and has some added benefits!
3. Get an app! We’ve tested out both the main Mastodon app (iphone, android) and Metatext (iphone) and like both! Metatext is most similar to what the twitter app felt like.
4. Turn on all notifications. We found this part really fun, especially since Twitter has dried up! And we want to get the conversations going! 
5. Put the app icon on your phone’s first page so you will check it and use it frequently. 
6. Add yourself to the #MTBoS on Mastodon Google Sheet, so other people can follow you! And start following people from the spreadsheet! 
7. Write a post/tweet introducing yourself! Where are you in the world? What do you teach? What’s something that you love about teaching? What are your hobbies? Maybe add #mtbos and #classroommath to your posts so others will be able to find it!
8. Be patient. It’s going to take time for people to join and conversations to happen. It’s not like you’re joining an already thriving community — you’re helping build a community that will soon be thriving! So give it time to happen!

Privacy in Mastodon

You can also be private on Mastodon. This setting in found in > Preferences > Other.
Public – Everyone can see

Unlisted – Everyone can see, but not listed on public timelines.

Followers-only – Only shown to followers.