Microsoft’s official @dotnet sent its first Mastodon post today.

Pay attention to the domain: dotnet.social.

Which means Microsoft is operating their own Mastodon community server.

@dotnet account was registered in November, but it became active today.

Clearly, Microsoft sees the Fediverse as core to marketing to developers. I wonder what other brands they’ll bring to the Fediverse as well.

https://dotnet.social/@dotnet/109990127969245035

@fediversenews

@atomicpoet That server is not affiliated with Microsoft, it says so clearly:

".NET Community on Mastodon; not affiliated with Microsoft."

@Ciantic Not so. Read what’s highlighted. @dotnet is the official handle of the .NET team at Micro.

@atomicpoet @dotnet That account is affiliated, but not the server.

You said:

"Which means Microsoft is operating their own Mastodon community server."

They are not running that server.

@Ciantic @dotnet Maybe not owned by Microsoft but clearly affiliated.

The relationship is obvious.

@Ciantic @dotnet Also, why would Microsoft allow ownership to a 3rd party? Makes no sense. I question the “no affiliation” when the official account is on that server.

@atomicpoet @Ciantic @dotnet They joined a community server. They posted about it an hour ago and said so themselves, thanking the community member by handle who set up the instance. @Ciantic is correct.

@LouisIngenthron @Ciantic @dotnet The owner of dotnet.social is @styx31.

Guess who he works for?