Okay, I think #Universeodon should now be up, running and stable. There were a couple of bits I missed when I had deployed everything ready for the DB migration so we ran into some issues where we just got crushed with load and the server couldn't handle it properly.

It has flagged some other issues that I wasn't expecting when it comes to capacity and load but those are things I should be able to solve in due course and as part of moving MastodonAppUK over.

#MastoAdmin

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/115792174800397764

In reply to my post about rotating onboarding through a list of trusted instances instead of defaulting to Mastodon.Social, Mastodon says they have some ideas and they are "going to work on it over the coming months." #MastoAdmin #Fediverse

Some have expressed concerns about Mastodon centralization to Mastodon.Social due to the current onboarding process, which, to be fair to #Mastodon, was setup to address onboarding confusion during several rounds of Twitter migration spurts a few years ago.

AodeRelay boosted

Mastodon » 🌐 2025-12-27
@Mastodon@mastodon.social

@paul @EVDHmn @TheEddieShow indeed, we have some ideas to improve this. We're going to work on it over the coming months.

RE: https://oldfriends.live/@paul/115795604301718826

Troubleshooting so far (the quoted thread has discussion:

For whatever reason, webfinger for the account has the old avatar and Mastodon API is pulling the new, corrected avatar

Instances running #glitch_soc and #Mastodon 4.6 main/nightlies are ignoring webfinger and pulling the correct image. Mastodon instances like mine, masto.ai, and others that are not running #glitch or Mastodon's main branch is getting missing.png. #MastoAdmin

toot.io relay service boosted

Paul Chambers🚧 » 🌐 2025-12-28
@paul@oldfriends.live

A long time mutual changed their profile picture. I ran account refresh username in tootctl. I ran account refresh for their domain in tootclt. I did the long process of 'tootctl accounts refresh --all --verbose' I still can't get their profile image back. In account profile management, I clicked refresh profile. Nothing. Other instances got their updated profile. Any tips? #MastoAdmin

Alt...

Successfully refreshed from origin

Welcome to Mastodon 4.5.3 on #layer8space 🎉

If you find any problems, just shoot me a message

#mastoadmin

We have moved to approval-required registration in response to coordinated bot attacks affecting the fediverse. This protects our users, but the platform forces a binary choice: open registration that enables spam and harassment, or approval queues that lose legitimate users to friction.

The fediverse deserves better. There is an open proposal for improved registration options that would benefit instances across the network: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/36747

If your instance has faced similar challenges, or if you believe better moderation tools would strengthen the fediverse, please engage with this proposal. This affects all of us.

Registration will reopen when it's safe to do so. The fediverse should not be an exclusive place. This is a temporary measure, taken as a last resort to protect not just our users, but to minimize the impact these attacks have on the wider network.

#mastoadmin #goingdark

@EdwinG I'm at a loss. This user changed her profile picture and then it went missing for my instance. At my request, she changed it again and it still wouldn't update. Just missing.png. Header is where it should be. Very puzzled. #MastoAdmin

A long time mutual changed their profile picture. I ran account refresh username in tootctl. I ran account refresh for their domain in tootclt. I did the long process of 'tootctl accounts refresh --all --verbose' I still can't get their profile image back. In account profile management, I clicked refresh profile. Nothing. Other instances got their updated profile. Any tips? #MastoAdmin

Alt...

Successfully refreshed from origin

@iftas we are detecting more users engaging in pro Russian propaganda. Have you seen any pattern that could help us detect bad actors faster?

#mastoadmin

Hey Fediverse, does anyone have any experience in using slurp to migrate an account to another domain while keeping all posts, media, etc?

https://codeberg.org/vyr/slurp

I would like to migrate my account to another server but want to keep my data, is that possible with slurp?

From Mastodon to GoToSocial it seems to be working but does it also work to another Mastodons server?

Thank you!

#Fediverse #Slurp #Migration #MastoAdmin

Another migration complete. Our Mastodon instance burningboard.net now has a working full-text search again!

Before:
Elasticsearch 7.x on Debian Linux

Now:
Opensearch 3.2.0 on FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE

Importing 2 billion(!) docs into the search index took a couple of hours, but now that piece of infrastructure is also modernized and fully operational.

For performance reasons, opensearch runs on a seperate physical server than the rest of the Mastodon instance itself.

#elasticsearch #opensearch #linux #freebsd #mastodon #mastoadmin

We've reverted the visibility selection modal back to a dropdown, like it used to be. The modal required six clicks and was a disaster in terms of accessibility and usability.

I've submitted a pull request to the Mastodon core: Revert post privacy selection from modal to dropdown and add a separate quote policy dropdown. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/37346

#MementomoriSocial #MastoAdmin #Mastodon

Alt...

Visibility selection back in dropdown that only requires two clicks.

In 2022, before starting my own instance, I was worried it would feel like a burden, one more thing to be responsible for. But I've come to realize it's been one of the most enjoyable projects of my life. Sure, there's more pressure now that there are hundreds of daily users, but I get to do things my way, experiment with alphas, and learn so much about Ruby, JavaScript, React, job queues, sysops, and more. And then there's the social side of it all.

I've been focusing on Mastodon Bird UI, but lately I've also started digging into the Mastodon core. There have been a few things I've wanted to change. I'm constantly improving my skills and picking up new things. I also try to take it easy and not stress too much.

Of course, I don't always have time for everything. I get tired and sometimes lose focus, I'm human. But I never stay down for long.

I want to thank our users for being so patient with me. There will be bugs. There will be changes. But I'm all in and doing my best. Thanks for being here.

#MementomoriSocial #MastoAdmin #Mastodon

Mastodon 4.5 running on FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE with all major services seperated into different VNET Jails, different networks (different bridges, different l2-domains, firewalled by pf).

Did a little writeup about the infrastructure over at https://blog.hofstede.it/migrating-burningboardnet-mastodon-instance-to-a-multi-jail-freebsd-setup/

It's running extremely stable for 30 hours now, migration from the old (Linux) host was a full success!

And of course, everything implemented IPv6 first (It's 2025!) with IPv4+NAT only bolted on where neccesary for legacy-compatibility.

#mastoadmin #freebsd #jails #bastillebsd #runbsd #ipv6

Alt...

Console with overview about jailed services

Alt...

PF Firewall rules

We're running the Mastodon instance "burningboard.net" on a hardened FreeBSD/amd64 system (pf firewall, seperation in jails, zfs with snapshots every 15 minutes, offsite replication with zfs send etc.)

Since the initial setup of the new system is done and everything is running smoothly for more than 24 hours, I did now raise the kern.securelevel to 2 to lock the system down even further 🙂

https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?securelevel

#mastodon #mastoadmin #freebsd #runbsd #selfhosting #security @tux

Alt...

FreeBSD console where you'll see, that the kern.securelevel is raised to 2

@heidilifeldman Not being on their instances, I cannot donate directly to @Mastodon because I can't direct my funding to development only.

I have no interest in funding their instances, image hosting, social media, Mastodon.Social moderation, etc. I do have an interest in funding development.

Others have an interest in funding the instance they are on, whether there or another instance. I am self-hosted and pay for my own instance.

I have begged #Mastodon to let those of us that aren't on their instance to peg our donation to development but with the significant cost of them spinning up their two main instances, I have no interest in funding that.

As a workaround, I've been donating to some of the significant devs that work on the software that popup in Github PRs. #MastoAdmin

...and phpc social is back. Network issues at our host and it took them a bit to troubleshoot.

#mastoadmin

Today my mastodon server elytra15.com turns 3 years old and my account turns 3 in just a few days, i still love mastodon 🎉 🎉 #mastodon #mastoadmin

Da wir jetzt auf einen BSD-Server umgezogen sind, habe ich den Footer angepasst.

#bsd #mastoadmin #mastodon

Since we have now migrated to a Free BSD server, I have updated the footer.

#bsd #mastoadmin #mastodon

Fediway brings algorithmic feeds to Mastodon.

https://github.com/fediway/fediway

(Found it on Reddit. Haven't tried it yet.)

#mastodon #fediverse #mastodev #mastoadmin #fediway