Technologies

Like Many Ex-Tweeters, ElonJet Is Now on Mastodon: How to Sign Up

The social network Mastodon has become a new home for Twitter refugees. Here’s how to get started.

As Elon Musk drama continues to roil Twitter, some people leaving the site are opting for Mastodon, a decentralized social network built on open-source software. One famous new Twitter emigrant is Jack Sweeney, the University of Central Florida student who maintains an «ElonJet» account that uses public data to track Musk’s private flights.

On Nov. 6, Musk said, «My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.» However, both the ElonJet account and Sweeney’s private account were suspended by Twitter on Wednesday. Sweeney made his first posts on Mastodon the same day.

One of the biggest obstacles for would-be Mastodon users is its confusing registration system. Once you get past the initial learning curve, however, the sign-up process isn’t more difficult than starting a new email account.

Here’s the step-by-step process for creating a Mastodon account and getting started on the growing social network. For more about social media, here’s how to download your Twitter archive.

How do I join Mastodon?

Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is not a single website: It’s a decentralized network made up of thousands of websites talking to each other. To start posting on Mastodon (which until quite recently was called «tooting«) and following other people, you’ll need to create an account on a specific Mastodon server or «instance.»

To start following people and posting messages on the Mastodon social service, you begin by joining one specific instance. Each server (if open for registration) has its own sign-up process, but the majority only require a username, email address and password.

Once you’ve joined a Mastodon instance, however, you’re not limited to just following people and posts on that server. You can follow, favorite, reblog or reply to any Mastodon account that’s connected to the larger Fediverse.

How do I decide which Mastodon server to join?

The Mastodon organization provides a partial list of servers — about 100 — on its joinmastodon.org site. You can filter the servers by geographic region, language, topic registration process and whether or not they’re hosted by individuals or organizations. All servers on the official Mastodon site have agreed to follow the best practices of the Mastodon Server Covenant.

If you’re just testing Mastodon out, you might consider one of the official server instances run by the Mastodon organization. While the first and biggest — mastodon.social — has temporarily paused registration, a newer mastodon.online server is still open and picking up the slack.

If you want a bigger list of Mastodon servers to review, your best bet right now is instances.social, which offers a sortable list of about 4,000 Mastodon servers, as well as a wizard-style app that helps you choose a server that fits your requirements.

The site provides useful data about each Mastodon instance, including number of users, number of «statuses» (posts), server uptime percentage and which versions of the Mastodon software it is running. It also lets you filter servers by language; minimum/maximum number of users; and prohibited/allowed content such as nudity, pornography, advertisements or entertainment spoilers. You can also click any instance name — fosstodon.org, for example, a server devoted to open-source software — to read a brief description of the community.

Once you’re actually on a Mastodon site, you can learn about the instance from its «about» page, browse community users on its «explore» page or view recent posts on its «public» page.

You should read the server rules for each Mastodon instance to make sure it’s a good fit, but don’t worry too much about which server you join. You can follow users on other servers and join and leave as many Mastodon servers as you’d like. If you do move around, Mastodon allows you to migrate all of your followers and lists with you.

How do I register on a Mastodon server?

Each Mastodon instance will have its own sign-up process, but the vast majority are the same. You provide a username, email address and password, check the box agreeing to the terms of service and server rules, and click «Sign Up.»

You’ll then see a notification asking you to check your email for a verification message. Click the «Verify email address» in that email message, and you’re done. You can now start posting on your Mastodon server and follow anyone in the Fediverse.

Because of the increased traffic to Mastodon servers since Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, some of those registration emails are taking a long time to show up or never arriving at all.

When I registered for the mas.to server last week, I got a confirmation email in about 15 minutes. I’m still waiting for a verification email from sfba.social for a registration attempt three days ago. Be patient, and try a new server if you can’t complete the registration for another.

After you verify your email address, your Mastodon account should be up and running. You can start posting or following people, though it will take a while to build up your feed. Web tools like Debirdify and FediFinder can jump-start the process by helping you find your Twitter contacts on Mastodon.

While most Mastodon servers offer the quick registration process described above, other, more private instances will ask that you apply for an invitation to the instance, which requires a manual review and longer registration time.

If you do decide to register on a Mastodon server and make it through the process, come visit me @peterbutler@mas.to to say hi.

For more, learn how social media could be hurting your mental health.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, May 14

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for May 14.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword is one of those nice solid blocks, so if you get all the Across answers, the Downs fill themselves in, and vice-versa. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Opposite ends of the earth
Answer: POLES

6A clue: Animal with «white» and «black» varieties (really, they’re both gray)
Answer: RHINO

7A clue: Plant deeply
Answer: EMBED

8A clue: What’s coming to you
Answer: KARMA

9A clue: «No» vote
Answer: NAY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Program for kids aged 3-5, informally
Answer: PREK

2D clue: «That’s crazy, dude!»
Answer: OHMAN

3D clue: Sign after Virgo
Answer: LIBRA

4D clue: Sworn ___
Answer: ENEMY

5D clue: Pop bottles, e.g.
Answer: SODA

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for May 14, #233

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 233, for May 14.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

When you start seeing obvious last names in Connections: Sports Edition, you might think it’s an easy grouping of four. But today, there are eight names, so you need to know how they relate in order to put them in the right groups. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app, but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Show me how.

Green group hint: Numbers for outfielders, etc.

Blue group hint: City of Brotherly Love.

Purple group hint: Not Johnny or Billy, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Teach.

Green group: Baseball fielding stats.

Blue group: Current Philadelphia sports stars.

Purple group: Jimmy ____

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is teach. The four answers are coach, drill, instruct and manage.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is baseball fielding stats. The four answers are assist, error, fielding percentage and putout.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is current Philadelphia sports stars. The four answers are Barkley, Harper, Hurts and Maxey.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is Jimmy ____. The four answers are Butler, Garoppolo, Graham and Rollins.

Technologies

VPNSecure Customers Discover Their Lifetime Subscriptions Were Canceled

The new owner of VPNSecure said it didn’t know about the lifetime deals when it bought the VPN provider two years ago.

Lifetime means lifetime. Except when it doesn’t. That has been the dilemma of some VPNSecure customers, whose lifetime subscriptions were canceled by the new owners of the VPN provider — without the customers being told in advance that the subscriptions would end.

A Reddit user posted a copy of a message they said they received from VPNSecure’s new owner. In that message, the company tells customers that it did not know about the lifetime deals when it purchased the company in May 2023.

A VPN, or virtual private network, encrypts your internet traffic and masks your IP address, which can make your physical location detectable. A VPN enables you to keep your online activity private and trick apps and websites into thinking you’re in a different state or even country. For an in-depth look at VPNs, check out CNET’s guide to everything you need to know about VPNs and how they work.

In its email to customers, VPNSecure outlined the situation regarding the lifetime deals. The email said that the owner bought «the technology, domain, and customer database-but not the liabilities. Unfortunately, the previous owner did not disclose that thousands of Lifetime Deals (LTDs) had been sold through platforms like StackSocial.»

According to the email, the company deactivated accounts that had been dormant for six months or more, then later canceled all the lifetime deals as of April 28.

In the email, VPNSecure said that its «resources were strained by these LTD accounts» that «provide no sustaining income to help us improve and maintain the service.»

A representative for VPNSecure did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Customers are not happy

Several miffed customers weighed in with angry comments on Trustpilot.

«I had bought a ‘lifetime’ subscription a few years ago,» one person wrote. «Horrible new owners come in and cancel everything claiming ignorance. Either they’re idiots or they’re scammers — not sure which is worse.»

In response to customer reactions, VPNSecure is offering discounted new subscriptions to users whose lifetime deals were canceled. They can pay $1.87 for a month (instead of $9.95), $19 for one year (instead of $79.92), or $55 for three years (instead of $107.64). The deals are available until May 31, according to the email that was posted on Reddit.