Connecting the world through thriving online communities

If I ran Mastodon

A community platform for a vibrant, diverse social web.

Private and Public Mastodon

Here’s how to get into a lot of trouble: Suppose you (like me) love the intellectual wealth found in free-form text on the Internet. And (like me) are a reasonably competent programmer. And (like me) have derived value and pleasure searching Twitter. And (like me) you look at this nifty new Fediverse thing and see that it has nice Web APIs so you could build an app to vacuum up all the stories and laments and cheers and dunks and love letters and index ’em and let everyone search ’em and find wonderful things! So you lurch into the Mastodon conversation, all excited, and blurt out “Hey folks, I’m gonna index all this stuff and let the world in!” That’s when you get your face torn off.

Mastodon - Decentralized social media

Learn more about Mastodon, the radically different, free and open-source decentralized social media platform.

Mastodon is for the people

How we're thinking about supporting the communities that rely on Mastodon every day.

Mastodon Exit Interview

I am currently winding down the Mastodon bots I used to post sunrise and sunset times. The precipitating event is that the admin of the instance hosting the associated accounts demanded they be made nigh-undiscoverable, but the underlying cause is that it’s become increasing clear that Mastodon isn’t, and won’t ever be, a good platform for “asynchronous ephemeral notifications of any kind”. I’d also argue (more controversially) that it’s simply not good infrastructure for social networking of any kind. There are lots of interesting people using Mastodon, and I’m sure it will live on as a good-enough space for certain niche groups. But there is no question that it will never offer the fun of early Twitter, let alone the vibrancy of Twitter during its growth phase. I’ve long since dropped Mastodon from my home screen, and have switched to Bluesky for text-centric social media.

Mastodon Status Check

My social-media life has been Fediverse-first for a year now. I stick my head into Bluesky and Threads regularly, but visit Twitter rarely if at all. This piece takes a close look at Mastodon-land as things stand in late summer 2023. What’s working, what’s not, what are the alternatives? [Originally published August 2023, updated November 27th for my one-year Twitter-exit anniversary.]

Mastodon and federation

The more I read about Mastodon promoters' opinions on how it should work, the more I think, "How could you possibly think that is how it is going to go?" One group of people want a Federated Feed Reader: They want to read the clever updates and memes from their friends and favorite celebrities. They want to post a GIF and have their friends validate them by hitting "like" on it. They want to ...

How Does Mastodon Work? - Kev Quirk

I’ve spoken about Mastodon numerous times on this blog. It is the social media platform I use more than any other, but for a new user it can be confusing because it doesn’t work like other social media sites.

Coho

Discover a simpler way to socialize online with Coho, the Mastodon app that prioritizes ease-of-use and clean design. Experience the open-source, decentralized social network without the clutter. Join communities, share your thoughts, and connect with like-minded individuals all with just a few taps. Say goodbye to overwhelming feeds and complicated features, Coho simplifies the social media experience.

FR#158 – What is Mastodon for?

On AI and place, and how Mastodon gives tools to create communities at the instance level, but people experience 'place' at the federation level.

Weaving The Web

The implosion of a popular bird-enthusiasts website left many people scrambling to find their friends on new social media sites like Mastodon. Let’s make sure we can find each other the next time this inevitably happens!

Expectations and preferences around community contributions/interactions · mastodon mastodon · Discussion #36552

There is a long-running pattern of conversations on issues/PRs around some features getting quite heated and sometimes turning into personal insults, venting frustrations, borderline conspiracy acc...

The State of the Open Social Web

A comprehensive look at Mastodon, Bluesky, and the growing ecosystem of open, interoperable social networks.

Exit to Community: A Community Primer

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The Future is Ours to Build - Together

We’re pleased to introduce Mastodon’s new leadership team, and to share some other important updates.