TWITTER has been a bit of a mess since billionaire Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk took the helm, cutting the company's workforce in half, upending the platform's verification system, sparring with users over jokes and acknowledging that "dumb things" might happen as he reshapes one of the world's most high-profile information ecosystems.
Last Thursday, Musk warned the company's remaining employees that Twitter might not survive if it can't find a way to bring in at least half its revenue from subscriptions.
Having a front-row seat to the chaos may prove entertaining to some — lesser-known sites Mastodon and even Tumblr are emerging as new (or renewed) alternatives.
Sharing a name with an extinct mammal resembling an elephant, Mastodon has emerged as a frontrunner among those curious about life beyond the blue bird.
Mastodon is a decentralised social network. It's not owned by a single company or billionaire but made up of a network of servers. Each run independently but is able to connect, so people on different servers can communicate.
Mastodon's feed is chronological, unlike Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Twitter, which all use algorithms to get people to spend as much time on a site as possible.
Once you're in, the feed is reminiscent of Twitter. You can write (up to 500 characters), post photos or videos, and follow accounts as well as see a general public feed.
The site has more than a million users, nearly half of whom signed up after Musk took over Twitter on Oct 27, said founder Eugen Rochko.
Another option, Counter Social, also runs an ad-free, chronological social platform funded by users.
To prevent foreign influence operations, Counter Social blocks access to Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Syria.
It boasts of offering one-click translation into more than 80 languages with more than 63 million monthly users.
Remember Clubhouse, back when we were all under lockdown and couldn't talk in person? It's the buzzy audio-only app that got somewhat overshadowed by copycat Twitter Spaces, which also lets people talk to each other about topics of interest.
For longer reads, newsletters, and general information absorption, these sites are perhaps closest to the blog era of the early 2000s.
Tumblr, which was all but left for dead, appears to be enjoying somewhat of a resurgence. The words/photos/art/video site is known for its devoted fan base and has been home to angry posts from celebrities like Taylor Swift.
'Onboarding is simple, and for those who miss the early years of social media, there's a decidedly retro, comforting feel to the site.
Gabor Cselle, who worked at Twitter from 2014 to 2016, is determined to create a better Twitter.
For now, he's calling it T2 and says the Web domain name he purchased for it — t2.social — cost US$7.16.
T2 is accepting signups for its waitlist, but the site is clearly not yet functioning.
"I think Twitter always had a problem in figuring out what to do and how to decide on what to do.
"And that was always kind of in the back of my mind," Cselle said.
"On Monday, I decided to just go for it. I didn't see anyone else really doing it."
Twitter-style text and TikTok-style videos are one idea. Cselle says for this to work, the text really has to be "amped up" so it's not drowned out by the videos.
"My bet is that it's going to be easier and more efficient to build a better Twitter or public square now than fix the legacy problems at Twitter."
Cselle, of course, is not the only one jumping to the opportunity. Project Mushroom, for instance, plans a "safe place on the Internet — a community-led open-source home for creators seeking justice on an overheating planet" and says it has received 25,000 early signups to its yet-to-launch platform.
"My sense is that things are going to further fragment into more ideological platforms and some will die and then we'll see some new consolidation emerge over the next couple of years," said Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a professor at Syracuse University, the US, who studies social media.
One of Twitter's most valuable features has been the way it allows people to find information within seconds. Was that just an earthquake? Twitter will tell you. Or, at least it did. -AP