The time is probably right.

Back in 2022, when I was still using iOS, I wasn’t completely happy with the Fediverse apps that were available. I was mostly using Akkoma, and the interface I liked the most was actually its web UI, even on mobile. So I started playing with Xcode and put together the foundations of an app tailored to my needs.

A lot has changed since then and today we have great alternatives like IceCubes, Mona, Ivory, etc. Each one has strengths and weaknesses though, so I picked up my old project again and kept pushing it forward.

So I’m happy to announce that my app will finally see the light: I’ve been using it for the past few days and, in my spare time, I’m fixing bugs and adding missing features. I’m building it around my own needs, so it doesn’t have to “appeal to everyone”. I wouldn’t call it opinionated, but it’s definitely targeted.

The app will have one key trait: #snac2 support will be a first-class feature, not an incidental one. Many apps, especially on iOS, support snac as a side effect, but the experience is often not optimal. In this case, the choice is deliberate and it strictly follows the Mastodon API support implemented by snac. So snac will work properly (within the limits of the platform, of course).

Among the features already implemented: the app is minimal and lightweight (under 10 MB, including debug code), easy on RAM, and privacy-first (for example it strips EXIF data from media before posting, so the server will never see it). On snac it also cleans up the "Boosted by Aoderelay" messages that appear when using a relay, removes the character limit, and supports posting in Markdown.

I also added support for Apple Intelligence to generate alt text, both for the media I post and for media posted by others that is missing alt text.

Everything is processed locally through Apple APIs and only on supported devices. The results aren't amazing, Apple Intelligence is extremely limited, but in my opinion it's the only privacy-friendly and ethical way to approach it. And of course, you can disable it.

On Mastodon it supports all the main features: lists, quote posts, granular notifications (you can choose what you want for each category), notification grouping, multi-account support, and it works.

It's still missing a few things (block, etc.) and has some bugs, which I’m spotting as I keep using it.
As soon as it's stable enough, I'll invite a few people to test it. I still haven't fully decided how I'll distribute it: an Apple Developer account has a yearly cost, and I hope to reuse it for other projects too. So this app might be paid, with a trial period, but if possible (I still need to check what’s feasible) I'd like it to be free if you connect to one of the BSD Cafe instances, illumos Cafe, or any snac instance, including your own.

I don't know how long it will take before it's ready... but I can already tell you what it will be called.
It already has a name, and it's... MastoBlaster.

This name was chosen for personal reasons, and also because of its similarity to Master Blaster by Stevie Wonder, which even today feels relevant and fitting for the Fediverse.

Stay tuned!

#MastoBlaster #Fediverse #Mastodon #iOS #FediverseApp #Announcement #Apple #snac #snac2 #BSDCafe #illumosCafe

Alt...

MastoBlaster, showing my profile on my phone

I'm wondering why #Mastodon #PixelFed do not use #IPFS .

#Mastodev

I've created a little #Mastodon 🐘 toot edit history viewer that lets you explore the history of a toot, edit by edit, through the #MastodonAPI. Here's an example: https://tomayac.github.io/mastodon-edit-history/#https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/116002119945073671. Source code: https://github.com/tomayac/mastodon-edit-history.

⛔️⚠️NATO “guarantors” are not resupplying AFU’s air defense, purposely leaving Ukraine defenseless in effort to force country into capitulation (more) https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/4086869-ignat-some-air-defense-systems-are-sometimes-empty-before-enemy-attacks.html #Ukraine #Poland #Warsaw #Netherlands #Norway #Sweden #Estonia #Latvia #Lithuania #Paris #Rome #London #Berlin #Canada #Finland #Brussels #Denmark #Germany #France #Italy #Cyprus #PACE #SouthKorea #Press #News #Taiwan #Media #Japan #US #UK #EU #UnitedStates #UnitedKingdom #EuropeanUnion #Czechia #Romania #Austria
#Mastodon

@aral @fabio That's why I joined and support the idea of Mastodon. Freedom of speech is currently under strict control. I was constantly warned on Twitter, and I know that bots were filing complaints about my thoughts. We are here to say what corporations and politicians don't like. #freedom #mastodon

Bonus #Joke
Q: What kind of dog never throws anything away?
A: A hoarder collie.

(It's #HootinTootinTuesday again! Post some jokes or funny memes under this hashtag today, and bring lots of smiles to #Mastodon.)

#Humor #Humour #FunnyMeme #Puns #Dogstodon #DogsOfMastodon #DadJokes #Dogs #PuppyBowl #DogsOfTheFediverse #SpeedBumpComics #PuppyBowl2026

Alt...

Comic with a man in a park, about to throw a tennis ball for the dog standing next to him. The dog says, "I swear, Bob, it's like you're not even trying to hit the cat." Credit: "2019 SPEED BUMP, COM 5-17 DIST.BY CREATORS"

Someone is getting cleaned up for the #PuppyBowl on Sunday.

(It's #HootinTootinTuesday again! Post some jokes or funny memes under this hashtag today, and bring lots of smiles to #Mastodon.)

#Humor #Humour #FunnyMeme #Puns #Dogstodon #DogsOfMastodon #DadJokes #PuppyBowl2026 #DogsOfTheFediverse #Dogs #Puppies #Parenting

Alt...

Photo of an adult German Shepherd Dog and a cute little puppy. Mom is looking down at the puppy, who is propped up on its backside and is presenting its paws to Mom. Meme text reads, "Did you wash your paws?"

This coming Sunday is not only the #PuppyBowl , but also #SuperbOwlSunday . Remember to post your owl photos and owl memes under that hashtag on Sunday.

(It's #HootinTootinTuesday again! Post some jokes or funny memes under this hashtag today, and bring lots of smiles to #Mastodon.)

#Humor #Humour #FunnyMeme #Puns #Dogstodon #DogsOfMastodon #DadJokes #Dogs #PuppyBowl2026 #Owls #Owlstodon #DogsOfMastodon #OwlsOfMastodon

Alt...

Photo of two owls on a horizontal post. One owl is facing away from the other, and they both look angry. Meme text reads, "OK. I'm not a bird specialist, but I'm pretty sure this couple just had a fight."

Can one hide boosts from the Home timeline on the official #Mastodon #Android app?

Spain, France and the UK are considering following Australia in banning under-16s from using "social media". To put it differently, it means all social media users are required to prove their identity and age.

How do they define "social media"? All discussion I have seen so far has been really vague, and basically assumed that American tech giants and social media are the same thing.

Depending on their definition, this onerous requirement could destroy the Fediverse.

How has this affected Australian users and Fedi instances so far?

#askFedi #ausPol #mastodon

Automatisiertes Löschen

Eine Idee für die neu hinzugekommenen Menschen, für Menschen, die Hunde haben, und für Menschen, die von Katzen gehalten werden.
Vielleicht auch interessant für Menschen, die von einem AT Proto System kommen.

Die Stärke des Fediverses ist seine Skalierbarkeit, indem es niedrigschwellig um beliebig viele Instanzen erweitert werden kann. Es braucht keine Firmen mit viel Speicherplatz und finanziellen Ressourcen, sondern Fediverse Systeme können vollständig, d.h. als eigenständige, lauffähige Einheit, auf privaten Servern installiert werden.

Um die Belastung der Server gering zu halten, gibt es auf Mastodon die Funktion "Automatisiertes Löschen". Diese Funktion ermöglicht, dass die eigenen Beiträge nach einer festgelegten Zeit gelöscht werden. Zum Beispiel nach 2 Wochen, 3 Monaten oder 1 Jahr.

Menschen, die zum Beispiel von einem AT Proto System kommen, dessen Besonderheit es ist, Beiträge auch über einen Serverwechsel hinaus zu erhalten, mag diese Idee merkwürdig erscheinen.
Was ist mit den vielen schönen Beiträgen, die auch anderen Menschen geholfen habe, mit den Tutorials oder Fotos, mit wichtigen Informationen? Alles nichtig, alles verloren nach einiger Zeit?

Hier muss man etwas beachten. Ja, diese Funktion ist darauf ausgelegt, die Speicherbelastung gering zu halten, aber sie hat noch eine Besonderheit. Es kann eingestellt werden, dass Beiträge, die eine bestimmte Anzahl von Favs oder Retrööts haben, erhalten bleiben. Und damit wendet sich das Bild. Arbeitet Ihr mit dieser Einstellung, bleiben Beiträge erhalten, auch über die Löschfrist hinaus.

Das ganze hat einen philosophischen Gedanken: Wir überlassen es der Community zu entscheiden, welche Beiträge relevant sind und nicht gelöscht werden sollen. Natürlich können wir die Entscheidung grundsätzlich bei uns lassen, wenn wir diese Funktion nicht benutzen oder manuell löschen, aber die Funktion ermöglicht, die Beiträge zu halten, die für andere Personen einen Mehrwert haben. Langfristig führt es dazu, dass alle Beiträge, die zu keiner Interaktion führten, gelöscht werden und nur die Beiträge erhalten bleiben, die von anderen weitergesagt oder favorisiert wurden.

#neuhier #Mastodon #automatisierteslöschen

High traffic on my vanilla, non-docker, Mastodon instance starting in December with file /packs/assets/compact-NMaGTNYN.json, 81.1 GiB

That file is almost at 2gb tx this month and it's only the 4th day of the logging month. #MastoAdmin #Mastodon

What is this file? It appears to be emoji related.

The high TX started mid-December.

Alt...

Chart: # Hits Visitors Tx. Amount Method Protocol Data 1 1,430,764 (10.18%) 203,261 (26.26%) 81.1 GiB (59.64%) GET HTTP/1.1 /packs/assets/compact-NMaGTNYN.json 2 956,780 (06.81%) 156,147 (20.17%) 6.3 GiB (04.64%) GET HTTP/1.1 /api/v1/custom_emojis 3 65,618 (00.47%) 6,482 (00.84%) 4.7 GiB (03.47%) GET HTTP/2 /packs/assets/compact-NMaGTNYN.json 4 996,188 (07.09%) 160,252 (20.70%) 2.3 GiB (01.67%) GET HTTP/1.1 /api/v2/instance 5 60,993 (00.43%) 57,808 (07.47%) 1.3 GiB (00.99%) GET HTTP/1.1 /users/paul/collections/featured

Let's see where this cuts off on threads...

Using bash, python, and a systemd timer I have a check running every 5 minutes for new mastodon posts. Those posts are converted into an image and reposted to threads with a link back to my mastodon post.

I wanted to set this up for X as well, and its totally doable, but they switched new developer accounts to pay-per-use as of recently. Not ready to pay to post on X.

#x #threads #meta #mastodon #python #systemd #bash

Mastodon is only a decent community because we actively maintain it. If you see harassment, especially men targeting women, don't just scroll past. Call it out and report it. Let's keep the space clean. Take out the trash.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #FediTips #CommunityStandards #Safety #StopHarassment #WomenInTech #HumanRights

This is where I come to feel a part of something bigger than myself..

I love that there are so many people from so many different places and experiences.

This is a better social media experience.

How about you? Why do you come here?

#fediverse #mastodon #socialmedia

Re sur #Mastodon 4.5.6 😎

Gerade eben wurde das #Mastodon #Update auf Version 4.5.6 durchgeführt. Diese kleineren Updates sind in der Regel völlig geräuschlos und ohne wirkliche Unterbrechungen. Fühlt euch aktualisiert! :)

Was ist Neu?
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.5.6

- Sicherheitsupdates
- Verbesserung der "Quote Posts"
- Diverse kleinere Fehlerbehebungen

Pretty annoyed to learn contributors havent been getting credit since the release of 4.5.0 in the notes from Mastodon's official blurb. They owe people that worked on this project outside the people that work for the company.

#mastodon

In the #Fediverse there are now
716 media accounts federated by @Flipboard.
616 were active today.

Some accounts, that were active today are
@NHbulletin
@Esquireitalia2
@NewsLitProject
@HowStuffWorks
@ajcnews

Find the whole list on:
➡️ https://fingolas.eu/fediverse/overview.html

Built by @mho

#MastodonMigration #SocialMedia #Mastodon #Media #Press #Newspaper #TwitterMigration #Newstodon

Hoi te asiasta paremmin perille päässeet:
Peertube - pitääkö kirjautua, jos, niin luodaanko tili Peertubeen vai onko se jotenkin yhteydessä maasto- tiliin?
#fediverse #mastodon #peertube

A hoi hoi #mastodon v4.5.6 #elbmatsch

Die Instanz https://
bayerwald.social läuft jetzt mit Softwareversion v4.5.6

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases/tag/v4.5.6

#mastodon #mastoadmin #upgrade

Updated to #Mastodon 4.5.6, motherfuckers!

The #BSDCafe #Mastodon instance has been upgraded to v.4.5.6

#BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeAnnouncements #BSDCafeInstance

The #illumosCafe #Mastodon instance has been upgraded to v4.5.6

#illumosCafeServices #illumosCafeUpdates #illumosCafeAnnouncements

@hpod16 The state of things. X has 650 Million Active users and Mastodon has 2.5 million. There is a reason. #Musk #Mastodon #SocialMedia

We added our Vivaldi Social server to the Fediverse on November 15th 2022. We are still, I believe, the only browser company that is fully behind the Fediverse. It is something we are very proud of! The Fediverse is the natural alternative to Big Tech social media, just like, IMHO, Vivaldi is the natural alternative to Big Tech browsers.

#Vivaldi #Fediverse #Mastodon #Twitter #SocialMedia #AI #Meta #Facebook #Instagram

https://vivaldi.com/blog/news/vivaldi-social-a-new-mastodon-instance/

RE: https://mastodon.social/@MastodonEngineering/116007434602576018

Waiting for my #podman auto-update triggered

#mastodon

fedicat boosted

Mastodon Engineering » 🌐 2026-02-03
@MastodonEngineering@mastodon.social

We just released Mastodon 4.5.6, 4.4.13, and 4.3.19.

These versions contain various bug fixes, including a fix for a moderate security vulnerability.

Full release notes and update instructions are available on the GitHub releases page.

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/releases

#MastodonAdmin

Ich habe soeben meine #Mastodon Instanz auf die Version 4.5.6 aktualisiert. 😀

Looking for an instance allowing you to publish long posts?

You can migrate to Vebinet and enjoy having 15,000 characters per post.

#fediverse #Vebinet #Mastodon #SocialMedia

Would you like to create posts longer than 500 characters on Mastodon?

You can have longer posts by moving your account to a server that offers longer posts. I've done a list of well-run reliable servers with larger post sizes at:

https://fedi.garden/tag/larger-post-size

If you're not sure how to move your account to a different server, there's a step-by-step guide at https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server

#FediTips #Mastodon

If you want to boost content but feel it's too disturbing to share without a content warning and the author didn't put a content warning on it, no problem.

You quote post it yourself and add a content warning yourself. This way you can share it with your followers without pissing them off.

#Feditips #Mastodon

Can someone fork Enafore and keep it going? I love Enafore so much more than the regular Mastodon interface but I haven't seen updates on it for a while now! https://github.com/enafore/enafore #Mastodon #Fediverse #Enafore

@MontyRunner

Ich sehe Kinder nicht als verpflichtendes, aber als erfreuliche Boten in eine offene Zukunft.

Allerdings möchte ich mich nach den dauernden Beschimpfungen gegen Personen mit Klarnamen hier auf #Mastodon erst mal nicht mehr zu Lebensfragen äußern. Und verbleibe daher mit dem Hinweis: In der #Philosophie wird diese Debatte unter dem Stichwort #Anthropodizee bereits auf hohem Niveau geführt. Habe schon vor Jahren mal dazu geredet.

@Real_Tom @agitatra

https://scilogs.spektrum.de/natur-des-glaubens/dennoch-liberale-anthropodizee-nach-karl-popper/

@fabio I think it’s time to have a list of Zionist, pro-genocide Mastodon servers on Gaza Verified, just like we have a list of servers friendly to Palestinians suffering through genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and settler colonialism so our friends in Gaza – and anyone with even a sliver of a conscience – can know which parts of the fediverse to avoid.

I’ll add that to my endless todo list, then, shall I?

#israel #zionism #genocide #ethnicCleansing #apartheid #settlerColonialsm #Gaza #Palestine #mastodon #fediverse #complicity

@ulrich

Nun, im Bild der #Kneipe mit Einlasskontrolle bietet sich mir halt die Befürchtung einer mimetischen #Blase. Wenn ich damit zufrieden wäre, würde ich mich einfach aus #Mastodon zurückziehen.

Aber nach meiner Einschätzung brauchen freiheitliche #Demokratien immer auch Orte der gemeinsamen Öffentlichkeit und des Dialoges - der Begriff #Republik kommt von res publica = öffentliche Sache.

Eine "zerblasene" Gesellschaft wäre der Traum von Autoritären & ich möchte genau nicht dorthin.

@Real_Tom

An Verhütungsverbote halten sich auch z.B. unter katholischen Christinnen & Christen nur noch die wenigsten, die extrem kinderreichen Old Order #Amish kennen sie gar nicht.

Und auch, wenn ich damit gleich nach dem #Holocaust - Gedenktag 2026 das nächste, linke Shitstörmle auf #Mastodon riskiere: Es gibt auf der Welt noch eine einzige #Demokratie , deren Bevölkerungszahl durch v.a. religiösen Kinderreichtum deutlich wächst.

Sie heißt… #Israel 🇮🇱 🇪🇺 🇺🇸 🤔 https://scilogs.spektrum.de/natur-des-glaubens/israel-thymotische-religionsdemografie-und-das-saekulare-verebben/

>Wer sich in Foren wie reddit herumtreibt, dem wird diese Abkürzung vermutlich längst ein Begriff sein: tl;dr: too long, didn’t read – zu lang, nicht gelesen. Hinter dem Akronym verbirgt sich, kurz gesagt, der Wunsch nach mehr Effizienz. Als Antwort auf ausschweifende Texte in Online-Foren weisen die vier Buchstaben auf die unzumutbare Länge eines Beitrags hin.

https://adellink.de/trend-tldr-lange-rede-gekuerzter-sinn/

#tldr #Fediverse #blog #Mastodon #Kurznachrichtendienste

Habe wegen des regen Interesses an Demografie & Fossilismus heute morgen noch einmal dazu gebloggt.

Verbunden mit 1 herzlichen Einladung zum vertieften Dialog im #Fediverse, aber nicht nur auf #Mastodon.

#Demografie #Fossilismus #Kapitalismus #Kommunismus #Japan #Abenomics #Deutschland #Teilzeit #Deindustrialisierung https://scilogs.spektrum.de/natur-des-glaubens/mehr-arbeiten-fossilismus-gegen-familien-demografie-deindustrialisierung/

While in the tub thinking moments ago, i thought again about calls for violence / violent action that some call for here. I had a few thoughts on it i'll share now.

Not only is it obviously dumb for people to say these things openly, publicly on a #SocialMedia network like #Mastodon, especially one without #encryption, even more so with accounts on an instance that the #FBI had complete access to... but it's unproductive and i'll explain why imo.

#Violence begets violence, plain and simple. 🧵

Mountains.social is a Mastodon server focusing on hiking, mountaineering, climbing, backpacking and the outdoors.

This server has a post size of up to 2362 characters.

https://mountains.social

You can find out more at https://mountains.social/about or contact the admin account @bergmeister

#FeaturedServer #Hiking #Mountaineering #Climbing #Backpacking #Outdoors #Mountains #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse

I hope the Mastodon team can attend FediCon this summer, I know it's a long journey, but I'd seriously lose it if I was able to meet @Gargron and team in person.

I'm the biggest Mastodon fangirl, I already have some early toots that I want them to sign 😅

#FediCon #FOSDEM #Mastodon

Looking for pros/cons of joining a small Mastodon instance vs having your own instance (self or 3rd party hosted, doesn't matter for this question)

#mastodon #fediverse

Ohai.social is a fast, secure and up-to-date general Mastodon server where everyone is welcome:

https://ohai.social

You can find out more at https://ohai.social/about or contact the admin account @ohai

#FeaturedServer #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse

Mentioned by @andypiper :

The Mastodon team is planning to release a universal "share" button.

(It wasn't clear to me if this was just for Mastodon servers — or if it would work with non-Mastodon servers, too. It was mentioned briefly from the audience.)

#FediDev #FediDevs #Fediverse #FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026 #SocialWeb #SocialWebFOSDEM #SocialWebFOSDEM2026 #Mastodon

After the nice presentations of @haubles and @andypiper, I've asked them, "How can a grassroots movement like the Fediverse compete with social networks like BlueSky that have the resources to travel to Brussels every other week?"

I also mentioned the @leavex campaign, which makes it easier for us to contact politicians and ask them to leave X and possibly join us. And how some politicians are already asking to remove their names from the group of politicians still on X.

I'm glad I could meet @_elena again and discuss these issues.

#FOSDEM #Fediverse #Mastodon #SocialMedia #EU #Democracy

Alt...

Slide a a presentation: Our vision A human-centred social.web that serves the common good

We are excited to share that we are beginning work on a new onboarding experiment for #Mastodon: Default Server Recommendations.

Our intent for this experiment is to recommend the closest server geographically that is in the correct language during the sign-up flow. We will be running this experiment on our iOS and Android apps only to start.

1/6

Important announcement, especially for BSD Cafe friends who don’t have a local account.

Over the past few days I noticed that, when browsing some public pages on our Mastodon server (especially the federated timeline, meaning posts coming from other instances as well), certain content could appear without a CW and in some cases it was pornographic, illegal, or generally not suitable for a general audience.
The problem is that this was visible even to users who were not logged in, which effectively made BSD Cafe a gateway to that content. Also, some media files are cached on our server, so it could look like BSD Cafe is the source of it.

For this reason I had to make a decision: I have disabled the ability for non-logged-in visitors to view posts coming from other instances.
This way, anyone visiting BSD Cafe without an account will only see BSD Cafe local content, helping us avoid potential issues, including legal ones.
Some of you (from other instances) thought you had been blocked because you could no longer see your posts here, but that is not the case: your posts are still fully visible to local users, as usual.

I have also re-enabled (at least for now) hashtag browsing, since BSD Cafe is one of the most well federated instances for BSD-related content and it would be a shame to lose that. However, I may reconsider this decision if it leads to problems.

Let me know if you notice anything unusual.

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeAnnouncements #BSDCafeServices #Mastodon #Fediverse

If I press: "open in Webbrowser" to see the conversation and not only the post, then it will go to some /ap/ endpoint that is 404.
I think that was not always the case, but maybe I misremember it.
@grunfink@comam.es

#snac2 #mastodon #fediverse

Lately I tried PeerTube and Loops both but they kinda suck compared to TikTok.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasons they do. As well as the fact that by using them I help them grow.

Starting a federated, open source alternative to a major proprietary service is nearly impossible, isn't it.

Makes me even happier for Mastodon being a viable alternative to Twitter.

#fediverse #loops #peertube #mastodon #musings #wednesday

Did you know you can track network statistics from across the Fediverse?

On FediDB, you can see federated server statistics as well as an overview of the entire network.

As January begins to come to a close, why not check it out to get a peek into how much the Fediverse will grow over 2026? 📈

https://fedidb.com/

#SocialWeb #Fediverse #SocialMedia #FediGrowth #FediDB #Mastodon #Decentralised #Decentralized

#Loops has entered #beta with #ActivityPub support, allowing users to connect with creators across the #fediverse. This means users can follow and interact with creators on platforms like #Mastodon and #Pixelfed, and vice versa. Loops has implemented several technical features to ensure smooth federation, including a shared inbox, HTTP signatures, and smart content representation. https://blog.joinloops.org/loops-joins-the-fediverse/?Fedizen.EU #Fedizen #Fediverse #ActivityPub #News