Today I am stepping down from my role as the CEO of #Mastodon. Though this has been in the works for a while, I can't say I've fully processed how I feel about it. There is a bittersweet part to it, and I think I will miss it, but it also felt necessary. It feels like a goodbye, but it isn't—I intend to stay on and continue to advise the new leadership and contribute, because Mastodon—and the fediverse—is one of the very few beacons of hope for a better web.

Mastodon Blog

My next chapter with Mastodon

Reflections on my time leading Mastodon and what

"Sideloading" is the rentseeker word for "being able to run software of your choosing on a computing device you purchased". There is no reasonable case for an operating system developer having a say over what programs you run on your hardware. #Android #Google

Please report any account that tells you that you need to verify your #Mastodon account to continue using it through a private message. It is a scam. We do not require identity verification. Real staff accounts either have a special role badge on their profile or are verified through the joinmastodon.org domain and will typically never reach out through private messages.

We've published our new terms of service for mastodon.social and mastodon.online today, effective July 1. The same template will be available as an option to other servers in the upcoming #Mastodon 4.4 update. There are no changes to our policies or operations, just clarifications, e.g. if you upload content to be displayed to other users, you give us permission to display it to other users, but you keep all rights to it. We also explicitly prohibit scraping, even though it was never allowed.

Apparently, if you have facebook or Instagram installed on your phone, #Meta was able to track your browsing habits and link them to your real identity even if you never logged in on the web, used incognito mode or a VPN. I hope Meta gets hit with every fine in the book.

“Localhost tracking” explained. It could cost Meta 32 billion.

You just can't finish off Zuckerberg.

When we released post editing for #Mastodon, we first released a version that supported processing and displaying edits incoming from other servers, before releasing a version that flipped a switch allowing anyone to make edits. We're taking an identical approach with quote posts, as the upcoming 4.4 version of Mastodon will begin displaying quote posts from other servers and software. Once this is widely deployed on the network, 4.5 will bring the long awaited ability to quote posts.

The web feels so broken. Subscription and login gates at every corner. Using Google on a phone now means being periodically quizzed on which of the buttons to press to *not* be redirected to the app store. Opening an Instagram link casually throws up a browser alert dialog because it tries to automatically open an unsupported URL scheme, presumably their own app, and apparently everyone is fine with it. I'm proud that Mastodon never locks public content behind login walls.

Does anyone know what this is?

A street near Porte de Hal, Brussels. 📷 Pentax KX 🎞️ Ilford Delta 400 🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7, yellow filter ⚗️ Spieker Film Lab #BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #BlackAndWhite #MonochromePhotography #35mm #Brussels #Bruxelles

I’m making progress on my Skaven. #Warhammer #WarhammerCommunity #WarhammerAOS #AgeOfSigmar

One of those self-portraits. 📷 Pentax KX 🎞️ Ilford HP5+ @ 1600 🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7 ⚗️ Spieker Film Lab #BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #BlackAndWhite #MonochromePhotography #35mm

So, this has been in the works for a while, arguably most of last year. I intend to transfer my personal ownership of the Mastodon trademarks and assets, incl. copyright over my code, to the Mastodon non-profit, and transition to a different role at the organization.

Happy new year, Mastodon!

Mastodon is benefitting from the #X exodus (eXodus?) too: The official app downloads are up 47% on iOS and 17% on Android. Sign-ups are up approx. 27% compared to previous month with about 90K new accounts, while the MAU has jumped to 894K (across all Mastodon servers).

It baffles me that 67 million Americans can vote for a convicted felon and rapist. In hindsight it's amusing anyone thought there was some kind of blackmail tape someone had on that man. I figure about the only thing that can defeat him is his McDonalds diet at this point.

Please remember that Mastodon doesn't have a marketing team or budget. Whatever media coverage Mastodon gets is from inbound interest from journalists. The growth of the platform has been predominantly through word of mouth. If you want the fediverse to grow, tell your friends.

We've actually released two features today that I'm really excited about. One is, as you may already know, displaying the author's fediverse account underneath link previews. But the other is showing a profile preview when you hover a user anywhere in the web app, with a quick follow shortcut.

My first experience with Ilford Delta 400 was on medium format, so I should not be surprised it's a bit grainier than I expected on 35mm. 📷 Canon AE-1 Program 🎞️ Ilford Delta 400 🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.8, Yellow filter 👤 Wife #BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm

How is he a real cat? #Caturday #CatsOfMastodon

It's nice to find out breaking news on Mastodon.