Today Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new, European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control. #MastodonNonProfit
blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/…
The people should own the town square
It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership.Mastodon Blog
like this
reshared this
Mastodon
in reply to Mastodon • • •Eugen's vision for Mastodon was centered on user choice, community, and freedom. Now, we're formalizing that commitment with the formation of a new European non-profit entity. Eugen will transition to an alternative role in the team, with a new CEO to be announced very soon. Stay tuned for updates on these changes.
#MastodonNonProfit
reshared this
Nicolas Fressengeas, rhys, bituur esztreym, FlippoFlip 🏴☠️, Shannon Prickett and Tim Chambers reshared this.
Mastodon
in reply to Mastodon • • •Our core mission remains the same: create tools and spaces for authentic online communities. No changes to your user experience, just a stronger commitment to transparency and community-driven governance. Join us on this journey!
#MastodonNonProfit
Tim Chambers reshared this.
Mastodon
in reply to Mastodon • • •We're not just building a social network, we're building a community. Communities thrive when everyone contributes. We're growing our operating budget to invest in our contribution to the Fediverse as a whole, including our commitment to trust and safety, and user experience. Donate to support this vision!
joinmastodon.org/sponsors#dona…
#MastodonNonProfit
Donate to Mastodon
joinmastodon.orgreshared this
Hylke 🍵, mekka okereke and Shannon Prickett reshared this.
Mastodon
in reply to Mastodon • • •Transparency is a key part of our transition to non-profit ownership. Follow us to stay informed about our progress, priorities, and the move to community-driven governance. Together, we're building a safer, more open Fediverse. Join us 🙂
blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/…
#MastodonNonProfit
The people should own the town square
Mastodon Blogreshared this
Bass #AlleBurgers #EcoHumanist, marzuq märzenbecher, mekka okereke, JdeB, fanf42 and APC reshared this.
Phil Betts
in reply to Mastodon • • •Stephan Lichtenauer | נח סתו
in reply to Mastodon • • •reshared this
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
Dominic
in reply to Mastodon • • •Captain Jack Sparrow
in reply to Mastodon • • •*unless you happen to condemn the genocide of Gaza or the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
#Gazagenocide
Thibaultmol 🌈
in reply to Captain Jack Sparrow • • •(to be clear, I agree that the situation in Gaza being a genocide)
But that's what Mastodon is trying to say here: You can own your town square. It's up to the instance you're on to decide or you can make your own instance. There is no limit to having your voice be approved by the big corporate overlords of Facebook/Twitter etc....
That's exactly what they're saying here ..
EDIT: Didn't see blogpost also mentions the big two servers. my bad
ombremad
in reply to Thibaultmol 🌈 • • •Thibaultmol 🌈
in reply to ombremad • • •This post they made is about the software.
There is nothing in the software that limits this speech
Sally Strange
in reply to Thibaultmol 🌈 • • •@thibaultmol
"There is nothing in the software that limits this speech."
Let go of the deceptive idea of "the tech itself." The truth is that there is nothing "in" the software at all. Its only animating force is the people using it. Trying to separate technology from people is a fool's errand at best; it actively covers up bad deeds done by people using technology to do them at worst.
@ombremad @Mastodon @Captain_Jack_Sparrow
Thibaultmol 🌈
in reply to Sally Strange • • •@SallyStrange @ombremad @Captain_Jack_Sparrow as I mentioned in a previous reply. I had skipped over the blogpost also talking about the two main servers they have. (I knew the existed obv, just read over the section of the blogpost where they talked about them).
So I understand the reason for the original reply better now.
I don't want else to reply honestly
Sally Strange
in reply to Thibaultmol 🌈 • • •Thanks for the additional context. Really I was just ranting a bit about a framework I see as flawed and also way too common.
@ombremad @Mastodon @Captain_Jack_Sparrow
Apan
in reply to Mastodon • • •Thomas Barrio reshared this.
Ben Royce 🇺🇦
in reply to Apan • • •@Apan
let me guess:
FSB disinfo isn't showing up as much as you would like?
clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛 likes this.
Phoenix Paulina Schmid
in reply to Apan • • •Froge
in reply to Apan • • •Wouldn't happen to be the Nazi ones would it
Adderbox76
in reply to Apan • • •A right to speak your mind isn't the same thing as a right to force other people to pay attention to you. You can shout on a street corner all you want, but the other people there have no obligation to give you a megaphone.
Light🐧⁂
in reply to Apan • • •Are you one of those "free speech absolutist"? Then maybe the Fediverse is not the for you, if you want that sort of experience you should go back to any of the mainstream social media networks where you can have that.
JayT
in reply to Mastodon • • •Draken BlackKnight
in reply to Mastodon • • •Matthew Skelton
in reply to Mastodon • • •Starry Dynamo
in reply to Mastodon • • •John Samuel
in reply to Mastodon • • •Prefer not to say
in reply to Mastodon • • •ZZEPPOSS
in reply to Mastodon • • •#jugglingthefediverse
Exceleros
in reply to Mastodon • • •Is this something you would/could consider? Resp. what you were looking for?
What's steward-ownership? - Purpose
Purposenar-até
in reply to Mastodon • • •ThirdiHerman
in reply to Mastodon • • •greencactus
in reply to Mastodon • • •reshared this
Thomas Barrio reshared this.
Em
in reply to Mastodon • • •Weird Socks
in reply to Mastodon • • •Thomas Barrio reshared this.
Robert Sauer-Ernst
in reply to Mastodon • • •Why not connect with #bsky ? They write: "Why not use ActivityPub? ActivityPub is a federated social networking technology popularized by Mastodon. Account portability is a major reason why we chose to build a separate protocol."
atproto.com/guides/faq
Anybody thinking of building bridges between those two protocols?
#activitypub
#atprotocol
Afr
in reply to Mastodon • • •people on this thread are throwing around ideas to inspire more people to join: reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments…
Do you have any initiatives planned to stir up new active users?
CartyBoston
in reply to Mastodon • • •These posts feel important, who exactly is posting them?
They are very corporate sounding, let's be people here.
Andy Piper
in reply to CartyBoston • • •dionysus
in reply to Mastodon • • •morgunkorn
in reply to Mastodon • • •Rihards Olups
in reply to Mastodon • • •Andy Piper
in reply to Rihards Olups • • •Rihards Olups
in reply to Andy Piper • • •Andy Piper
in reply to Rihards Olups • • •Tofm2
in reply to Mastodon • •Clot
in reply to Mastodon • • •Matt × 🇳🇴 🇺🇦
in reply to Mastodon • • •Yours sincerely,
John Mastodon.
ℒӱḏɩę
in reply to Mastodon • • •your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
Andy Piper
in reply to ℒӱḏɩę • • •your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
Wild Islands
in reply to Mastodon • • •Dirk Gütlin on Mastodon
in reply to Mastodon • • •Honestly, I'd love to see Mastodon as a viable Twitter alternative, but by now I think it never will be. It's a completely different experience. When I open Mastodon, I see a maze of text, 3rd degree replies to I don't know what, and a star button that essentially nobody but me uses, because it does (almost) nothing.
I understand that some people like this type of experience, but me (and a lot of other ex twitter users who went to bluesky instead) would've preferred something else.
David
in reply to Dirk Gütlin on Mastodon • • •Dirk Gütlin on Mastodon
in reply to David • • •@David
That's nice if you liked it here, but me and all the other people ending up on bluesky wanted exactly the same but didn't get it here.
I use the star button like that too, but somehow almost nobody else does. When I check my feed, I see usually 0 stars, even for posts that have hundreds of reposts. For me this is just a gasping unused space.
David
in reply to Dirk Gütlin on Mastodon • • •RebelGeek99
in reply to David • • •@David @DirkGutlin I use the star feature the same way, to express a "like" without everyone of my followers getting into my business... I boost if it's something I want to see get more engagement (discussion), usually bc I agree with it, sometimes just because it's a relevant point on a nuanced topic.
I might be a minority, but sort of enjoy the random hanging third-degree responses. There are some real gems out there 😆 perhaps it's the Mastodon mystique
Voxel
in reply to Dirk Gütlin on Mastodon • • •Fedi.Tips
in reply to Voxel • • •Yeah, that's probably just the favourites not reaching your server. Favourites are mainly intended to just let the author know someone liked their post, and they do all reach the author.
Newsmast Foundation
in reply to Mastodon • • •Michael Foster
in reply to Mastodon • • •Saskia
in reply to Mastodon • • •Great to see the continued commitment to open, decentralised technologies in the EU specifically.
We have known for a long time, but it feels more prevalent than ever, that social media can not be controlled by the US. Looking forward to it!
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
Drip drip drip…
in reply to Mastodon • • •And yes come to me with "communist" jokes here but that is how it should be.
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
Julian
in reply to Drip drip drip… • • •Richard Dubreuil
in reply to Mastodon • • •katzenberger 🇺🇦
in reply to Mastodon • • •Under what comes next, you are still promoting the "Fediscovery" project.
Despite it being described as supporting multiple "discovery providers", the text says »This will specify how an instance will “feed” content to a discovery provider to index. And how a discovery provider can be queried to actually search and discover content.«
Nothing is being said about why there would ever be a need for a more than a few big providers, once it is established that the big ones "work". As usual, centralization is looming here, by a few corps "generously" offering high-speed "discovery" for "free".
Also, nothing is said about providers sharing results of the indexing, to enable true fediverse-wide search - instead, the proposal almost inevitably points to a set of a few providers that everybody needs to feed if they want posts to be found.
"Hope" will not change that hence just saying »We want to specify how a discovery provider works and interfaces with a Fediverse server instance. We hope to inspire several competing implementa
... show moreUnder what comes next, you are still promoting the "Fediscovery" project.
Despite it being described as supporting multiple "discovery providers", the text says »This will specify how an instance will “feed” content to a discovery provider to index. And how a discovery provider can be queried to actually search and discover content.«
Nothing is being said about why there would ever be a need for a more than a few big providers, once it is established that the big ones "work". As usual, centralization is looming here, by a few corps "generously" offering high-speed "discovery" for "free".
Also, nothing is said about providers sharing results of the indexing, to enable true fediverse-wide search - instead, the proposal almost inevitably points to a set of a few providers that everybody needs to feed if they want posts to be found.
"Hope" will not change that hence just saying »We want to specify how a discovery provider works and interfaces with a Fediverse server instance. We hope to inspire several competing implementations of the specification.« does not make much sense.
Nothing is said about who outside of the Fediverse gets to query a provider, or to process the data that has been extracted from a fediverse server feed - and for which purposes. It's even expressly mentioned that »These “providers” might serve other purposes than just search and discovery«
»The protocols and implementations will respect user privacy«, but the text only offers "shoulds":
Another red flag: »This means we might not always be able to incorporate all the feedback we get into the very first draft of everything we publish. But rest assured that we are committed to continue working on this even after this first project has ended, so we will be able to make adjustments later on.«
More privacy after the first implementation is out? And no: With Mastodon being the driver of this, and with the current wording, we can not "rest assured".
Johan Groenen (NL)
in reply to Mastodon • • •🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 🐧 🥦
in reply to Mastodon • • •IFTAS
in reply to Mastodon • • •reshared this
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 and Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈⧖ reshared this.
miket330
in reply to Mastodon • • •krims
in reply to Mastodon • • •Micha
in reply to Mastodon • • •yuhasz01
in reply to Mastodon • • •Please explain new Euro not-for-profit organization. Is this a trust that controls the mission?
"We will continue day-to-day operations through the Mastodon GmbH for-profit entity, which will become wholly owned by the new European not-for-profit entity. The Mastodon GmbH entity automatically became a for-profit as a result of its charitable status being stripped away in Germany. The existing US-based non-profit entity, the 501(c)(3), will continue to function as a fundraising hub."
Curious Magpie
in reply to Mastodon • • •This doesn’t distract us from the problematic relationship with Meta - that issue needs to be addressed upfront.
Hammer
in reply to Mastodon • • •schoolboy
in reply to Mastodon • • •Whitney Chavez
in reply to Mastodon • • •lin11c
in reply to Mastodon • • •Leefeller Guy
in reply to Mastodon • • •dionysus
in reply to Mastodon • • •ꓤ uɐᗡ
in reply to Mastodon • • •Deven Phillips
in reply to Mastodon • • •@kerfuffle
wraptile
in reply to Mastodon • • •a fish named dog 🎗️
in reply to Mastodon • • •Robert Crémieux
in reply to Mastodon • • •GeofCox
in reply to Mastodon • • •Placing IPR in a non-profit trust is a model that should be used more extensively.
Such a trust's constitution can enshrine their future use, including licensing within specified constraints, ensuring all future use of the copyright, patents or brands contribute to social and community benefit.
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Mastodon • • •"The people should own the town square"
Who could say it any better? Social media has to be a part of our public infrastructure or else it is just a tool of public manipulation and oppression.
It is antithetical for social media to be owned by a corporation.
Linux Is Awesome
in reply to Mastodon • • •You should also consider changing hosting providers, outside the United States.
#Mastodon #Fedi #Fediverse #ActivityPub
Linux Is Awesome reshared this.
Matt Zandstra
in reply to Mastodon • • •This is great.
What I find amazing and very frustrating is that even when opinion journalists address these issues seriously and thoughtfully they almost always fail to mention Mastodon -- as here:
"We need to support the creation of other platforms that are designed not to amplify lies and hate, or to just suck our personal data and sell us things, but to promote a better conversation."
theguardian.com/technology/202…
Elon Musk and the new world order: the hijacking of the global conversation
Peter Pomerantsev (The Guardian)your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
in reply to Mastodon • • •whew! this is good. this is really, really good. had no idea Germany stripped y’all of the non-profit status and that’s why you had to incorporate in the US.
so this will ensure the USA has no jurisdiction over Mastodon the software company, the software, correct?
the only quibble would be the TLDs: .social and .online are controlled by USA providers. there’s still vulnerability to abuse of power with the TLDs being under USA jurisdiction.
Renaud Chaput
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 • • •We try to use EU-based companies where we can, unfortunately it is very hard to do it for everything, domain names being a good example, and we consider this very low-risk (especially compared to other things like legal jurisdictions, or shareholder structure)
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 reshared this.
kurohana (黒花)
in reply to Mastodon • • •Carmen 🌸
in reply to Mastodon • • •elCelio 🇪🇺 🇺🇦
in reply to Mastodon • • •it's difficult to take these steps right, with all the legal and organizational implications they carry.
I wish you good luck.
Corey
in reply to Mastodon • • •Erik Uden 🍑
in reply to Mastodon • • •indy
in reply to Mastodon • • •Gaspar Jekely
in reply to Mastodon • • •Mastodon is the platform that deserves our presence and attention (to followers over the skies).
Mastodon will "transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components [ ] to a new non-profit organization, affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual."
"where people can build [] online communities free from ads, data exploitation, manipulative algorithms or corporate monopolies."
Paul Sutton
in reply to Mastodon • • •Private IcedC81
in reply to Mastodon • • •Old Fucking Punk
in reply to Mastodon • • •victorjavierlo
in reply to Mastodon • • •Cleo of Topless Topics
in reply to Mastodon • • •DasTausW
in reply to Mastodon • • •qfa
in reply to Mastodon • • •II_ARROWS
in reply to Mastodon • • •