About Masthead | Masthead Rules | More on Mastodon
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All the news that's fit to toot.
Masthead is a social network for journalists, muckrakers and media makers (including bloggers, vloggers, and podcasters), scribes and stringers, hacks, newsies, and the news junkies who love them.
Journalists love Twitter for two reasons: there's an audience to read their posts, and that audience includes other journalists. The good news is that Twitter is a great place for both breaking news and media commentary, a bustling town square where stories and behind-the-scenes stories unfold every minute. The bad news is that Twitter is Twitter, a cesspool of trolls, haters, spammers, bots, misinformation and foreign-influence campaigns.
Masthead is "media Twitter" without the Twitter part. It's like #journchat every day.
Masthead is a virtual, open-plan newsroom that encourages shop talk, both thoughtful analyses and hot takes, both commentary and conversation. Trade story leads, contacts, witticisms, one-liners, and zingers. Vet sources, check facts, debunk and vent. Here, news peers will get that inside joke, celebrate practical cynicism, revel in the meta, and actually click that link to your latest piece. Here the ribbing is almost always good natured, and the humor appropriately wry and dark.
Masthead is powered by Mastodon, a free, open-source, decentralized social media platform. You can read, watch, or listen to further explanations at the bottom of this page. (Check them out, they're quite good!) The interface is modeled after Twitter (and Tweetdeck), except posts are called Toots, reposts are called Boosts, and likes are called Favorites. But there are no ads, no Nazis and the timeline is chronological.
In addition to the web interface, there are several mobile apps that you can use.
We have a boilerplate Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, but nobody really reads those, right? Let's get to the Masthead Rules, which are liberally borrowed from Toot.cafe and Mastodon.technology.
To report problems, click the "..." button and then click "Report," send a Direct Message to the @editor, or send an email to [email protected].
Code of Conduct
Masthead is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of Masthead members in any form. Masthead members violating these rules may be expelled from the service at the discretion of Masthead editor(s).
Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion, technology choices, sexual or abusive images in posts, deliberate intimidation, hostile commentary, and other unwanted contact.
Members asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
If a member engages in harassing behavior, the Masthead editor(s) may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the service without notice.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact an editor immediately.
Prohibited Behavior
Fediverse Policy
Masthead and its editor(s) reserve the right to refuse to federate or exchange content with any other Mastodon instance. We may elect to ban instances listed on the Toot.cat List of Banned Instances.
Still not sure what to make of the Mastodon platform? We get it. You're a journalist. You want all the background you can get. Here are articles, podcasts, and videos that can help explain what's going on here.