#mastoadmin #fediadmin Seeing a new spamwave that i haven't seen reported on yet. Mass-mention combined with an open redirector, google.<tld>/share.google?<etc>, Seems to layer the redirection even further. One of these i saw redirected to a porn scam site but the latest ones seem to hit to a nya5.com and die there instead of completing.

1,591 accounts identified as participating in spam and scam activity — along with accounts that actively promote, defend, or amplify them.

Save as a CSV file, for example, block.csv, import (upload) the file, and merge it with your current block list.

https://gitlab.com/Fediverse-Express/Fediverse/-/blob/main/block_spam_scam_users.csv?ref_type=heads&plain=1

This post should be self-explanatory, but for a more exhaustive outline, see: https://fairy.id/@Linux/117385319051532229

#Spam #Scam #Fraud #FediBlock #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #Misskey #Fediverse #ActivityPub #IsraelVerified #GazaVerified

OUT NOW: 2026 Social Web Operations & Needs Assessment Report!

We surveyed operators hosting 6M ActivityPub accounts (~32% of the network).

Key takeaways:
- Overall growth in usage, creating pressure on operators
- Communities face surging botnets & regulatory pressure
- Shift toward third-party admin and moderation tooling

Read the full report & help safeguard the open social web:

https://about.iftas.org/2026/10/15/2026-social-web-operations-report/

#FediAdmins #FediMods #TrustAndSafety #MastoAdmin #Moderation

For the folks running their own instances - Having set up my own I'm not seeing much Neo Nazi content, do you folks use a shared instance blacklist or simply curb stomp the bigots, racists and anti-semites when they manifest?

#admin #administration #mastoadmin

🇬🇧 Wave of fake #AI accounts ⚠️

We are seeing waves of fake account registration attempts, some very convincing and impersonating real accounts (e.g. stealing a public profile and pasting the bio in the curated registration reason).

We are moderating those, please other admins be cautious and make sure to have account verification in place. It is a must, although it is no longer sufficient alone.

I will build a scoring tool to help out our moderators in deciding which candidate accounts are genuine and which are not.

And we will also enforce stricter chasing against ghost accounts.

Take care, the internet is full of bots and they are also invading the Fediverse.

#admin #MastoAdmin #MastodonAdmin

A #SysAdmin / #MastoAdmin Question for folks

Has anyone used mikrotik hardware in anger / in production?

I've had enough now of my Unifi gear causing problems, this is the second gateway I've purchased which exhibits these random lock-ups / crashes and I'm very much over it so am looking at alternatives and mikrotik continues to be one that looks sensible.

Just curious if anyone has much experience using it hands on?

In the past 24 hours, my firewall has stopped 172 malicious or spam account creations on this Mastodon server and 34 on my Mobilizon server.

Four humans got through the firewall and opened accounts here, one on Mobilizon.

Can you believe how bad it has gotten?

I keep registration open when I'm sitting here watching on my other screen, so if any succeed, I investigate how they bypassed the rules and I get rid of them.

But ... wow!

#Mastoadmin #bot #IFTAS

Recommendations for CDN providers that aren’t in the US?

I’m currently behind Cloudflare free tier.

#MastoAdmin #AskFedi

Thanks to everyone’s feedback I’m currently testing bunny.net with my fname.ca domain.

Onboarding wasn’t super-difficult, there were a few differences with terminology but overall it was fairly intuitive. They offer a 14-day trial that doesn’t require a credit card, so I’m hoping to get a feel for traffic/cost in that time.

#MastoAdmin #AskFedi #SelfHosting

@MSTDNotify@mastodon.au <<

No one from Mastodon or Misskey or anywhere on the Fediverse is going to ask for your debit card, credit card, PayPal, or Google Pay to verify you. In fact, no one is every going to ask you to submit anything to verify you on the Fediverse.

#FediBlock #MastoAdmin #FediAdmin #Verification

Alt...

A screenshot showing the mesage from a scam reading: ᴏᴜʀ ᴀᴜᴛᴏᴍᴀᴛᴇᴅ ꜱʏꜱᴛᴇᴍꜱ ᴅᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ɪʀʀᴇɢᴜʟᴀʀ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ. ᴛᴏ ʀᴇꜱᴛᴏʀᴇ ꜰᴜʟʟ ᴠɪsɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱ, ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇʀɪꜰɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇꜱꜱ. ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀᴇ: https://mstdn.fun/y4o33v2cg ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅɪɴɢ!

Alt...

A screenshot of the website if you clicked the link. The URL takes you to a page asking for your debit card, credit card, paypal, or google pay.

Let's take a moment to explore the concept of my block list.

"Billy Bob" is like:

> "I like child porn and share photos and videos of child porn."

So naturally, Billy Bob ends up on the block list. But along comes "Mary Sue," and she is like:

> "I support Billy Bob, and I am going to like, share, and boost Billy Bob's post."

So naturally, Mary Sue ends up on the block list. Then along comes "John Doe," and he is like:

> "It is completely unfair of you to add Mary Sue to your block list! Mary Sue is not Billy Bob — and so what if she is liking, sharing, and boosting Billy Bob's child porn post? I do not believe anyone should use your block list, and I insist that people should block you instead."

A wise person sees the problem and knows why all of these people are now on the block list, and why anyone who claims the block list is unfair should also be on the block list. No one should be defending child porn, nor the individuals who like, share, and boost child porn posts, nor should they come to the defense of such individuals while denouncing both the block list and its creator.

I am applying this exact same logic to spammers and scammers. It is not a hard concept to understand, and it is not unfair either — unless you are pro-spammer and pro-scammer.

(Speaking personally, I see scammers as just as bad as pedophiles, because they too often prey upon the weak, vulnerable, and defenseless. Scammers are known to target the young, the elderly, and the disabled.)

https://gitlab.com/Fediverse-Express/Fediverse/-/blob/main/block_spam_scam_users.csv?ref_type=heads&plain=1

#Spam #Scam #Fraud #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #Pedophiles #pedophile #FediBlock #Fediverse #ActivityPub #BlockList

Well this is a problem… #footiMac won’t boot. It is trying to run fsck on disk before booting but seems to time out after only about 25% and the screen goes blank, requiring a restart which just does the same.

Am I going to have to take the SSD out of this thing and modify fstab to get it to boot? ugh.

#mastoadmin #Debian

and now the wifi stations are grumpy. ok this is not how holiday Mondays are supposed to be. this feels like work. 😝 😿 #footiMac #mastoadmin #Debian

We are proud to announce that masto.nyc now has its own Android App! This is a fork from the mainline Mastodon that is a bit more tailored to the Masto NYC experience. Give it a try and we would love to hear any feedback!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nyc.masto.android

- This app is complementary to the greater Fediverse app ecosystem. Using it isn't, and never will be a requirement to use masto.nyc

- iOS is also in the works

#nyc #mastoadmin #mastodon

1,555 accounts identified as participating in spam and scam activity — along with accounts that actively promote, defend, or amplify them.

Save as a CSV file, for example, block.csv, import (upload) the file, and merge it with your current block list.

https://gitlab.com/Fediverse-Express/Fediverse/-/blob/main/block_spam_scam_users.csv?ref_type=heads&plain=1

This post should be self-explanatory, but for a more exhaustive outline, see: https://fairy.id/@Linux/117385319051532229

#Spam #Scam #Fraud #FediBlock #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #Misskey #Fediverse #ActivityPub

chaos.social is now again up-to-date with mastodon v4.7.3 #mastoadmin

1,555 accounts identified as participating in spam and scam activity — along with accounts that actively promote, defend, or amplify them.

Save as a CSV file, for example, block.csv, import (upload) the file, and merge it with your current block list.

https://gitlab.com/Fediverse-Express/Fediverse/-/blob/main/block_spam_scam_users.csv?ref_type=heads&plain=1

This post should be self-explanatory, but for a more exhaustive outline, see: https://fairy.id/@Linux/117385319051532229

#Spam #Scam #Fraud #FediBlock #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #Mastodon #Misskey #Fediverse #ActivityPub

Hello world, we’re alive again!

The UPS in the data enter where most parts of strafpla.net live broke a leg yesterday. People who I’m sharing a rack with organized parts and fixed stuff. I only know one name of those involved, so thank you Thomas!

(I used the chance to do some updates and ran into a strange problem with #docker and #caddyserver #alpine that I could only fix by downgrading. I’ll have a look at it later this week.)

#Mastoadmin

Someone calling themselves "OVODavid" is currently making up accounts on different instances to dodge bans and harass someone on Plush.city. Was banned on toot.wales

#Fediblock #Mastoadmin

I released two new versions of Mastodon Bird UI. Mastodon Bird UI is now versioned based on the Mastodon version it targets, followed by the release date. This makes more sense and reduces cognitive load.

The new format is:

4.8.0-alpha.3-2026-10-11
└─┬─┘ └──┬──┘ └───┬────┘
│ │ └─ release date
│ └─ Mastodon pre-release, nightly only
└─ Mastodon version

A stable release simply has no middle part: 4.7.3-2026-10-11.

Version 4.7.3-2026-10-11 brings all the fixes from the 4.0.1rc1 pre-release to stable: https://github.com/rollecode/mastodon-bird-ui/releases/tag/4.7.3-2026-10-11

Pre-release 4.8.0-alpha.3-2026-10-11 is for the current Mastodon development version, from before the 5.0 redesign: https://github.com/rollecode/mastodon-bird-ui/releases/tag/4.8.0-alpha.3-2026-10-11

We'll have a branch for v5 that explores redesigning Mastodon for the "traditional Mastodon Bird UI" theme, along with our ultra-accessible variants for visually impaired and color-blind people.

#MastodonBirdUI #BirdUI #Mastodon #MastoAdmin

We've upgraded our Mastodon server to v4.8.0-alpha.3+mementomods-2026-10-11. That is 253 new commits from upstream since our 15.9.2026 build.

Mastodon 4.7.3 is a security release and it is folded into this build.

🧭 About the new Mastodon design

On Tuesday, 6 October, Mastodon core enabled its upcoming 5.0 redesign for everyone running the nightly version, with no option to turn it off. It is still very much a work in progress, so we decided to stick with the latest update right before that switch. I feel it is not ready enough yet to force onto our users, and I still need to make plans for #MastodonBirdUI and its future.

Mastodon.social itself is also running a build from before it. We'll move to the new design once it is ready, perhaps when mastodon.social makes the move. In the meantime, nothing changes for you UI-wise.

🔒 Security

- Dependency updates from the Mastodon 4.7.3 security release.
- If you log in with just a password after more than 90 days away, Mastodon now asks for a security code it sends to your email first. Accounts with two-factor authentication are not affected (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40745).
- Fixed account creation through the API still being open on servers that only allow single sign-on sign ups (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40681). We don't use single sign-on here, so this one never applied to us.

🗑️ Privacy and account deletion

- Deleting an account now also removes its reported posts, avatar and header descriptions, link preview records and entries in featured collections (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40650, https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40621, https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40624, https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40623).
- Account deletion notices are now sent to fewer servers, only those likely to know the account (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40283).
- Deleting your own account always asks you to type your username to confirm (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40576).

🔧 Fixes & improvements

- Dialogs no longer close by accident when you press Enter or click a menu item inside them, and long dialogs scroll properly on iOS (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40757, https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40758, https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40725).
- Mastodon no longer lists HEIC, HEIF and AVIF as supported upload formats, matching the temporary HEIF shutdown from the last round (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40542).
- Apps can ask the server to leave boosts, replies or quotes out of the home feed (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40468).

🛡️ Moderation

- Moderators can no longer issue a warning to moderators of a higher position (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40646).
- Rate limits now treat different spellings of the same email address as one (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40658).
- The moderation view shows which app an account was registered with (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40567).

🚀 Under the hood

- The 5.0 redesign took 96 of the 253 commits. As explained above, none of it is switched on here.
- Ruby was updated to 4.0.7.

📦 Dependency updates

- Routine bumps and translation updates.

🏠 Changes specific to our server

These went live on 25.-26.9.2026, between this post and the last one.

- The footer now credits https://upcloud.com, who sponsor our servers.
- If the search service has trouble, searching for accounts falls back to the database instead of returning nothing.
- Pinned hashtag columns in the advanced web interface were missing their Unpin and move buttons. I fixed that here, and the fix was also accepted into Mastodon itself (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/40711).

Source code: https://github.com/mementomori-social/mastodon

As always, if you notice anything unusual or buggy, please reach out to me or any of the admins. Enjoy your time here, and feel free to message me with any questions or thoughts.

#MementoMoriSocial #Mastodon #MastoAdmin

I got my first hands-on experience with the Mastodon v5 alpha today (main branch). You can see the latest vanilla build in the screenshot. The core team still has a lot of work to do, as the right sidebar is completely empty right now. On iPad, it looks great.

This is the first time the main branch has looked this unfinished, though I realize it is a bleeding-edge nightly build. Still, I would have kept v5 behind a feature flag or in a separate branch until all the elements were in place.

I need to carefully consider which version to update our branch to, if at all.

The future of Mastodon Bird UI and its variants remains an undecided mystery.

#MastoAdmin #Mastodon #MastodonAlpha #MastodonNightly #MementomoriSocial #MastodonBirdUI #BirdUI

Alt...

Screenshot of Mastodon v5 alpha/nightly

Hey, #MastoAdmin, had a brief visit to my instance from a person who is not a regular. This is what they saw on their iphone. How to fix? I.e first-time visitor default theme readability.

Alt...

Totally unreadable white-on-white web-interface

Looks like postgresql has something called "peer authentication" which doesn't require ANYTHING for a database as long as its from localhost. So... I am going to have to set up a new user/password for the replica, which means reading more postgresql docs, lol.

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/auth-peer.html

#MastoAdmin #postgresql

Anyway, managed to get this up and syncing, PLUS, adding the read replica in .env.production and it's distributing postgresql requests!

(now, to figure out how to change the read replica to primary... I guess it is related to pg_promote, need to read docs, but probably more involves on the Mastodon side--probably .env.production to change the primary database, I would guess)

#MastoAdmin #postgresql

So, my database is now replicating over to a brand new server at a local ISP. BUT, there is a mysterious DB_USER and DB_PASS parameter and no instructions on WHAT the DB_PASS should be set to by default on Mastodon (which appears to be blank). I suspect a missing step in some instructions on creating a new user/password to do queries... or do you use the replication user? Very mysterious. (I hate skipped steps)

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/scaling/#mastodon--42

#MastoAdmin #postgresql

Alt...

Instructions on using a read replica database

Alt...

Creating user "the PostgreSQL user does not have a separate password and can be used by the Linux user with the same username"

Random Mastodon admin question (or maybe someone else has done this)... anyone here who has set up a Postgresql hot standby/read replica who might answer a few questions or lend some prior experience?

(looking to create a replica of an existing Mastodon database, on another server -- already all set up -- and just looking for some gray hair/experience on what to avoid and what does/does not work. Trying to start replicating an existing server from the cloud to a local ISP, with plans to eventually fail over to a new install... need to scale my server here up and NOT on a certain cloud provider that charges egress).

#MastoAdmin #postgresql

What’s up with all the docomo.ne.jp spam registrations lately? Did they only just open up free email accounts or something?

#mastoadmin

Anyone using actalis instead of letsencrypt ?

Would be nice to substitute a fundamental american piece with an european one.

https://www.actalis.com/

#selfhosting #ssl #europe #fediverse #mastoadmin

I have a need to know how many text posts, images, and videos this Mastodon server gets in a month, local and remote (separately).

Or, from anyone else who has such data, what that looks like such that I can extrapolate a likely volume of all three stratified by local vs remote per e.g 1,000 active. If anyone has some handy dandy data and/or queries to run, I'd be extremely grateful.

#MastoAdmin

We are making very good time because I had most of these steps documented from the @TechHubAdmin migration.

Once this is done, I'll publish them for #mastoadmin

Current status: Waiting on the DB to backup and the S3 to migrate.