Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
Martin's posts Post Back to profile
Martin Holland

Now that #NPR left #Twitter and many on #Mastodon are calling for it to come to the #Fediverse, maybe it's time for a recap, what we @heiseonline@heise.de did?

Our account on mastodon.social (@heiseonline) was registered (rather "claimed") years ago, but left dormant until #ElonMusk bought #Twitter. Then I started to post a couple of links to #news articles every day. Our web-devs (namely @entropie) verified the account days later by adding a link to it on heise.de, giving it the green link.

Thread 🧵

12 Apr 2023 at 19:43 | Open on social.heise.de
5 comments
Martin Holland

@heiseonline@heise.de
Right from the start, I added an URL-parameter, to (totally anonymously) track, how often the articles were visited via this posts. While the number of followers grew quickly it became visible, that via #Mastodon roughly as much visits were generated as via #Twitter.

That encouraged me to keep posting and internally we started discussing, what to do next.

#TwitterMigration

12 Apr 2023 at 19:45 | Open on social.heise.de
Martin Holland

@heiseonline Our web-developers began preparing our very own #instance at the end of the year, I think, which took its time. Especially the automation needed work, because simply crossposting from #Twitter wouldn't do. Special wishes from me included adding a picture and a couple of hashtags to each posts – on Twitter it was always only two, but #Mastodon needs way more. And we have them in the articles themselves.

12 Apr 2023 at 19:48 | Open on social.heise.de
Martin Holland

@heiseonline In January we finally moved the main account to our own #instance (
heise.de/news/Twitter-Alternat). Since then it is being filled mainly automatically with all the articles. The accounts for our other magazines work in the same way.

The instance itself is also for employees, there are currently about three dozen accounts, some #editors, #webdevs and #authors, for whom the instance acts as a verification. Other editors have kept their older profiles on different instances.

@heiseonline In January we finally moved the main account to our own #instance (
heise.de/news/Twitter-Alternat). Since then it is being filled mainly automatically with all the articles. The accounts for our other magazines work in the same way.

12 Apr 2023 at 19:51 | Open on social.heise.de
Martin Holland

@heiseonline In terms of #visits our accounts on #Mastodon still lags behind#Twitter and in the past few days the margin grew even bigger. My feeling is, that this coincides with a larger trend of Mastodon in German growing quieter. Let's see, if this is temporary and what the increasing activity in the US brings.

The #engagment under our posts on the other hand is enourmous, the number of #boosts, #likes and #comments dwarves what we get on #Twitter.

12 Apr 2023 at 19:53 | Open on social.heise.de
Go Up