I’ve spun up a #GoToSocial instance to play around with it. For those that might not know, GoToSocial is an alternative micro-blogging platform that communicates on the same ActivityPub protocol as Mastodon. So in really simple terms it’s kind of a Pepsi/Coke kind of situation.

A key difference is that GTS is meant to run much leaner than Mastodon, requiring fewer resources on the server side.

There’s no web interface. So users generally access their feeds through client apps like Tusky, Ivory, Mona etc. (which many users already do anyway.)

One difference I’ve noticed on the user-side is that GTS doesn’t generate link-previews for website links on the server-side. Meaning my GTS feed is much more text-based and minimalist.

At first I felt like this was a bug but as I’ve been playing with it I’m starting to see it maybe as an advantage; it’s cleaner, faster, less cluttered, and probably easier on my devices’ battery life. There may be benefits for folks with sensory or visual challenges as well, although I can’t speak to how those users navigate the standard Mastodon experience.