
Mastodon 3.0 - Kye
https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/releases/tag/v3.0.0
======
katabasis
I just started using Mastodon and I'm pretty impressed with it as a product.
But I think you need to approach it in a different way from Twitter and
Facebook to really see all the benefits. If everyone just signs up to a major
instance like mastodon.social, some of the problems you see on platforms like
Twitter and Facebook will just be re-introduced as the number of users grows.

The programmer/artist Darius Kazemi has done a great job articulating a way to
use decentralized social networks like Mastodon in a "human-centric" way: "How
to run a small social network site for your friends." [1]

I really hope the Fediverse can succeed and thrive, and Mastodon is a big part
of that.

[1]: [https://runyourown.social](https://runyourown.social)

~~~
squarefoot
How would a home node cope with dynamic IPs, not having a registered domain
name etc? I mean, my flat broadband connection would allow say 10 Mb both down
and uplink dedicated to a small Mastodon instance 24/7 at virtually zero cost
without me even noticing, but my ISP changes my IP every night so that I'd be
a moving target for anyone willing to connect. Hosting is a solution, but it
costs money. Are there any means of connecting a node to the Mastodon network
without being forced to look for fixed IP and a DNS name? Admittedly I have no
experience with Mastodon, although it intrigues me, so be patient:)

~~~
parliament32
How do you expect to provide a web service without a domain and an ever-
changing IP? This isn't a Mastodon problem.

Use a dynamic dns provider, it'll give you a domain name that changes your IP
record as it changes.

~~~
squarefoot
"How do you expect to provide a web service without a domain and an ever-
changing IP?"

My thoughts were that if Mastodon nodes connect each other so that anyone on
any node can communicate with anyone on a different node, can't nodes with
dynamic IPs set up persistent connections to reachable nodes so that those
will work as a sort of DNS?

------
sschueller
Also take a look at PeerTube
([https://joinpeertube.org/en/](https://joinpeertube.org/en/)) a federated
youtube if you find mastedon interesting. Peertube is also using activitypub
and can be used with Mastedon.

Shameless self-plug. I'm currently working on a peertube android client which
you can find here: [https://github.com/sschueller/peertube-
android](https://github.com/sschueller/peertube-android)

~~~
ihuman
What does using peertube with mastedon look like, and vice versa?

~~~
Kye
Videos appear similar to YouTube embeds in toots when viewed through Mastodon.

Put Blender's PeerTube account in Mastodon's search for an example:
[https://video.blender.org/accounts/blender](https://video.blender.org/accounts/blender)

------
kemenaran
I'm truly amazed by the Mastodon team. After several years, they keep
delivering major features on a regular basis.

Even on my own projects, on a much smaller scale, I've never been able to go
that fast.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Hmm, I'm not sure if it says something about me or the current state of tech
that I find "regularly adding major features" to be a bad thing. Not that I
really know (or care) anything about Mastodon or its problem space in
particular, it's just the concept itself that makes me weary. I'd rather have
something simple and stable and understandable. Maybe that's why I still use
IRC.

~~~
cphuntington97
For a project as young as Mastodon, major features are still necessary to meet
people's expectations of a modern social network user experience.

But you _can_ use IRC:
[https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoMastodon](https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoMastodon)

------
FunnyLookinHat
I haven't used Twitter or Facebook in years, but I had been relying on Google+
to follow quite a few Linux / FOSS developers. When G+ died I joined a
Mastodon instance (linuxrocks.online) and have been really enjoying it. I
found quite a few interesting developers, including people like Drew Devault.
YMMV, but I think everyone should give it a try just to see how impressive the
platform is.

Now, to see a few more services jump on the fediverse wagon and work together
so we can have some choice... ;)

~~~
eterps
Can you link some of those interesting developers? I haven't found many
interesting devs to follow yet.

Already found Drew here: [https://cmpwn.com/@sir](https://cmpwn.com/@sir)

~~~
Kye
Someone set up a community directory.

[https://communitywiki.org/trunk/grab/Linux](https://communitywiki.org/trunk/grab/Linux)

[https://communitywiki.org/trunk/grab/FLOSS](https://communitywiki.org/trunk/grab/FLOSS)

The list with all the categories:
[https://communitywiki.org/trunk/](https://communitywiki.org/trunk/)

~~~
jpeeler
As somebody who has followed exactly one person before seeing these links, I
appreciate the list. But wow, is there no better way to follow than a three
click operation?

click one: click "follow" initially

click two: submit id to home server, "proceed"

click three: yes, really "follow" and click again

Also, those lists intersect quite a bit.

~~~
WorldMaker
This site could ask you to sign in with your home instance first, then Follow
would be a single click operation as it could call the appropriate API call on
your home instance. (It could even show you which ones you already follow in
that case.) It would require quite a bit more code though to get the OAuth
flow in place.

The Twitter bridge takes this approach.
[https://bridge.joinmastodon.org/](https://bridge.joinmastodon.org/)

It's open source and could be used as example code for the community list
tool.
([https://source.joinmastodon.org/mastodon/bridge](https://source.joinmastodon.org/mastodon/bridge))

~~~
Kye
The bridge died when Eugen deactivated his personal Twitter. He couldn't get
an API key for the project account.

------
robobro
Have you seen the Pleroma? It's like mastadon but written in elixir so it's
really snappy. It's made by a group of friends : Lain, the rabbit, mama
rinpatch, and hj. I really like it. It looks more like classic Twitter and
it's able to run on a rasperry pi. It even includes a mastadon front end,
called Glitch.

[https://pleroma.social/](https://pleroma.social/)

~~~
loceng
Do you happen to know any of their contact info? I've tried many times to find
an email for them on their website to no avail, maybe I'm blind.

~~~
olah_1
[https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma/issues](https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma/issues)

Maybe that will help. They'd also respond on their activitypub profiles most
likely.

------
Kye
Changes of note: an interface for the account migration activity that was
added to the backend a few releases ago, built-in OCR for easier image
captions, an option to disable live timeline updates, and custom emoji
categories.

------
dgudkov
Can someone make (or point to) a brief overview of the most significant
changes/improvements in version 3.0?

~~~
cphuntington97
[Mastodon 2.9.3 and work on
3.0]([https://www.patreon.com/posts/mastodon-2-9-3-3-29558693](https://www.patreon.com/posts/mastodon-2-9-3-3-29558693))

------
darkhorn
What are the minimum system requirements for Mastadon? I cannot decide what
VPS I need to rent.

~~~
nightpool
Mastodon takes about the same amount of usage as any rails app. For a small
instance (less then 20 active users) I generally recommend 1GB of RAM and 2
CPUs.

the storage requirements can get pretty beefy over time though, so make sure
to set up cheap block storage.

~~~
codewiz
Why 2 CPUs? Isn't the Ruby interpreter single-threaded like Python and
JavaScript?

~~~
nightpool
An introduction to forking web servers and multi-process concurrency is
outside the scope of this comment thread, but the general idea is that you can
run multiple processes per server, and each process can handle connections
independently without needing to handle concurrency itself. Threading is only
one way of achieving concurrency

------
mikece
Just curious: what all breaks with the removal of OStatus support?

~~~
mftrhu
Federation with GNUSocial, at the very least. Issue #256 [0] - add support for
ActivityPub - was opened two years ago, but it doesn't look like it got added
yet.

[0]: [https://git.gnu.io/gnu/gnu-
social/issues/256](https://git.gnu.io/gnu/gnu-social/issues/256)

~~~
mattl
GNU social development is slow. Pleroma exists if you want to talk to people
on both systems.

ActivityPub was led by someone working on another GNU project, MediaGoblin.

I personally recommend people to Pleroma at this point.

~~~
millwork
Mediagoblin is one of those projects that I really _want_ to like, but can't.
Admittedly the last time I tried to install it was a year ago, but I remember
the installation process being incredibly finicky, and more often than not,
resulting in a broken site.

And I'm no newbie to this. I've been comfortably RTM'ing and CLI'ing and
admin'ing in various Linux flavours (and the occasional *BSD) for over two
decades, after I cut my teeth on Slackware 2.something. I've often built LFS
just for fun. I've been replacing a gaggle of Excel/Access crap at work with
my own homemade golang web apps, despite us not being a tech company at all
and me not being a pro developer, just because I know I can do a better job.
The point I'm trying to make is that I'm not afraid of putting in effort to
learn how to do something complex on a computer. But the Mediagoblin install
process broke me each time.

But I wholeheartedly agree about Pleroma. It's a fantastic choice for someone
looking to host a reasonably-sized microblogging community on truly minimal
hardware. It's fast and stable.

~~~
mattl
I’m a cofounder of both MediaGoblin and founder and then cofounder of GNU
social after the merge with StatusNet.

I’ve given up hope on both projects at this point, but MediaGoblin in
particular a long while ago.

------
skybrian
What are some interesting accounts to subscribe to?

~~~
progval
What are you interested in?

~~~
skybrian
A variety of things. I asked to see if there was anything people wanted to
recommend.

------
riffic
I see a huge opportunity for the incumbent social media services to start
thinking about white-labeling their apps for organizations and to adopt
ActivityPub in order to do so.

Effectively this is the "G Suite" model: preserve auth and identity within an
organization's existing set of namespaces.

------
aklemm
If Mastodon is truly decentralized, then someone ought to be able to leverage
the identities (and possibly other data) in it to create a tool that has more
Facebook-like features for this wanting something different than a Twitter
clone. Is this underway?

~~~
thekyle
I believe Friendica tries to behave more Facebook like and also uses the
ActivityPub protocol.

This site keeps track of some of the various AP projects:
[https://fediverse.party/](https://fediverse.party/)

------
bedros
anyone successfully got mastodon to work with nextcloud, and use it on daily
basis?

Thanks

------
linusnext
Figured a license change was in order given the Gab use case.

~~~
sascha_sl
And how would you do that? There is no copyright assignment happening here.

~~~
philpem
It'd also be expensive and damn close to impossible to enforce.

You say "Assholes aren't allowed to use this code" and Major-General Asshole
will use it anyway -- because he's an Asshole.

Some battles simply aren't worth the resource cost of fighting them.

~~~
swiley
I've noticed the mastodon user community makes an unusual amount of impossible
demands like that. I really wonder why.

~~~
philpem
Sometimes a public statement of intent is worth it.

------
softwarelimits
What is going on here?

Mastodon does not come with features that enable the idea of "groups"?

I just found issue 139 [0], but "mastodon groups" is an extraordinary bad
combination of search terms.

The author seems to dismiss the idea that "groups" are an obvious requirement
(IMHO) for any "social" software. Instead he seems to be assuming that one
instance of the software might serve one "group" \- with no easy way to scale
"instance" to many servers.

Pleroma seems to plan for a groups feature [2][3], also using a framework that
might be much easier for scaling, but seems to be struggling with
implementation.

I see GNU social seems to have groups [1], but in the linked issues people
write about bugs with that.

I am not sure this is really how it is, so please correct me if I am wrong.

Would anybody with more knowledge please like to explain why such a basic
feature is missing from "social" software alternatives?

I want to understand what the problem is here, I feel like this is the first
feature that should be considered from day one. It seems to me trying to
handle such a basic feature as an afterthought has a high potential for
disaster score (PFD>80): will require a deep re-design and rewrite, trigger
several different implementations, standards and endless discussions, in the
end will destroy everything.

I understand that groups and p2p / federation is complicated - but is this not
a solved problem?

If not, is it a good idea to put this on top of the agenda for "offer
alternative for big social brother"?

[0]
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/139)
[1] [https://gnusocial.net/doc/groups](https://gnusocial.net/doc/groups) [2]
[https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma/issues/656](https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma/issues/656)
[3] [https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma-
fe/issues/625](https://git.pleroma.social/pleroma/pleroma-fe/issues/625)

No, tags can not replace groups.

~~~
bovermyer
Mastodon is an alternative to Twitter and not Facebook.

~~~
eitland
Which is sad IMO as Twitter - again IMNSHO - is one of the most overhyped and
useless ideas there is.

I still have an account on mastodon thought and I'm far more active there than
on twitter, mostly because new is interesting and to support a good cause.

I also sometimes follow development and hope that it might get more features
from both Google+ or Facebook. Groups would be an obvious improvement in my
book.

That way maybe it could become more than a twitter clone, which matters to me
because in my opinion Twitter is close to useless except as a better way to
receive spam and propaganda (it is even easier to ignore than the spam folder
in my mail.)

~~~
benplumley
I want to try Mastodon because it's open, federated, ethical etc, all the
qualities I seek out in the software I run (not to mention new and
interesting, like you say).

But at the end of the day it's still a Twitter clone, so offers absolutely no
value to me.

~~~
eitland
> But at the end of the day it's still a Twitter clone, so offers absolutely
> no value to me.

Agree in the long run.

In the short run playing with interesting tech has its own value at least as
long as it only replaces more useless stuff (I guess tv is the thing I
"sacrifice" to have time for tech.)

