Recently, Sam Shah and I decided to join Mathstodon and try to rebuild our math teacher community. I have been so excited to talk to all of my math teacher friends again! It truly feels like Twitter 2010, 2.0. We also started a new hashtag, #ClassroomMath, so we could easily find other math teacher posts. There are already about 100 posts a week to this hashtag, so join in our fun! ColinTheMathmo made a very cool Solipsys that created a visual of the conversations recently happening.

I love to try all of the things, so I’ve been downloading different mastodon apps for my phone. I’ve tried Mastodon, Tooot, Meta, Ivory (paid) and Ice Cubes so far.

By far the Ice Cubes app was the clear winner! Some of my favorite features so far:

1. Posts are in different colors to indicate different things, like posts vs direct messages. They also have a symbol that shows you if a reply is a favorite, or a boost.
2. Likes and follows get grouped, like other apps, so it’s easier to see when people are talking to you vs favoriting.
3. You can bookmark instantly from the post.
4. You can see longer posts on the same page, instead of being directed to a different page, by clicking a down arrow.
5. You can see who is following you in a list, and follow them on that same page.

Using Ice Cubes really helped me understand Mastodon better, as it feels more intuitive, and almost like Twitter, which I already understand. So try it out, and join us over on Mathstodon!