@KimCrayton1 I'd like to interject for a moment.

What you're referring to as Mastodon is in fact the Fediverse. You see, Mastodon is just one of many possible software projects that interact with the wider Fediverse through a protocol called #ActivityPub. There are many other projects you can use, Mastodon isn't the only one, nor was it the first. Pretending it is either of those things is doing a huge disservice to all the people who made the Fediverse what it is. Originally, the protocol in use was OStatus and GNU Social was one of the first convenient instances - Mastodon came much later and ended up doing a huge disservice to the Fediverse by intentionally removing support for OStatus abruptly even though the warriors of GNU noted ActivityPub would be implemented within 3-4 months. Thus, the warriors of GNU were not amused by the intentional segregation of the network and the GNU+Jihad on the Fediverse was born - the warriors are interjecting to this day, despite how many people call it "Mastodon" by mistake.