17/ Mastodon exists because centralized platforms made conversation, identity, audience and return dependent on one owner’s infrastructure. People came here for something different: federation, community control, portability, reciprocity and human-scale exchange. That is why the X contrast matters. It gives us a live case of what happens when contribution remains inside the platform but reciprocal return fails. #Mastodon #Fediverse #DigitalRights #SocialMedia #OpenSource