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  • Self hosting Mastodon & supporting collectives & code

    I was reminded that I wrote about running your own Mastodon (on Heroku!) back in 2017. Heroku is on its way out, so I wouldn’t recommend it today.1

    Interesting to look back at that post and see how the beginnings of what would become Fission are there.

    Digital Ocean also has one click installs & @RangerMauve reports that you’ll need the $12/month droplet size.

    This is fine for highly technical people who like to experiment. @walkah is running his own Pleroma instance — I think even at home in his lab?2

    When I rejoined Mastodon more seriously 2 years ago, I joined Social.Coop. I didn’t want to worry about the care and feeding of a server, database, backups, and so on. I did want to be part of a group that supported such an activity.

    As you pick a Mastodon server to be part of, do some research. Who are the admins? Where is it hosted? Do they have a place to accept donations and support? Can you get involved in governance of the server? Which instances do they block? Or not block?

    At this point my main recommendation is to look for a donation and support link. As a “regular” user, $5/month or $50/year seems about the right amount to be donating.

    If you do a search on Open Collective you’ll see several pages of results of server admins having set up collectives.

    This also includes the “core” Mastodon project.

    If you’re going to be running a server instance for yourself or for an organization, don’t forget to also donate to your upstream. The way Open Collective works, you can use your collective to fund other collectives, so you can make this part of your standard way of operating. Supporting open source software development in this way should be a standard expense.3

    And anyone who says that’s “too hard for everyone” — sure, those of us who are more tech and media literate may need to go first. But if we’re not willing to support something better, who is?


    1. I haven’t had serious time to look at new alternatives to Heroku. I’m still allergic to Docker, and Digital Ocean works for a lot of classic apps. Railway is the one I’ve got my eye on but haven’t had the right project to try with it yet. [return]
    2. Pleroma is an ActivityPub server written in Elixir that is compatible with Mastodon. Or rather, Mastodon also runs ActivityPub, the open protocol that people can implement compatible servers for. [return]
    3. yes, you could also contribute in kind with code, answering support questions, documentation, etc. Please do, it’s likely even more valuable than cash donations! [return]
    → 2:48 PM, Nov 7   •  Blog, mastodon, Open Collective
  • Anyone saying “Mastodon should do X” should understand a couple of things.

    1) There are 4 staff listed as working for the German non-profit, incorporated in 2021

    2) ActivityPub-the-protocol is the bigger ecosystem, also without a “lead”

    → 12:40 PM, Nov 5   •  mastodon, ActivityPub
  • If you’re on the “main” MastoDotSocial server, I encourage you to find a cozier home server for yourself. Lean into federation! Explore! Experiment!

    More on account moving here

    → 7:15 AM, Nov 5   •  mastodon, ActivityPub
  • Some Mastodon Notes

    If you’re checking out Mastodon the open source Twitter-like microblogging service, my first recommendation would be to pick a home server that isn’t the main mastodon-dot-social one.

    There is a list of community servers. 
Figure out who runs different servers, what their model is to be sustainable across moderation & hosting, and what kind of people hang out there.

    What do I mean? What could go wrong with many part-time server admins? Read @atomicthumbs thread for some examples. 
And yes, you should consider if #socialcoop is right for you. It’s my home server that I pay to be a co-op member of. Read more on the Social Co-op Wiki.

    And of course, this is open source software. Consider supporting Mastodon on Patreon.

    I know that @walkah recently setup a personal Pleroma server at walkah.social, which is an option if you’ve got a bit of a home lab.

    My personal goal would be to see truly individual p2p microblogging flourish. The tools and protocols that we’re building at Fission are meant to help with that.

    And we’ve got grand hopes from our friends at Bluesky, who are also dedicated to moving “from platforms to protocols”.

    Finally, I help run a little twitter <> mastodon cross posting service called Moa Party. You can hook up your accounts on the app at moa.party and read more about the project at https://moaparty.com.

    We’re looking for both volunteer maintainers as well as developers who are paid an honorarium to work on the Python codebase. I wrote a thread about moa with more info.

    → 1:45 PM, Apr 27   •  Blog, mastodon
  • Went out for a bike ride along Arbutus Greenway. Beautiful sun and a stop at Beacoup Bakery on the way back, plus all the cyclists waiting for the train at Union.

    → 8:29 PM, Nov 8   •  Biking, mastodon
  • Yesterday’s lunch at Laksa King was a bowl of laksa, a bowl of mohinga (Fernando got a picture of it), and an order of roti canai

    → 7:52 AM, Nov 4   •  restaurant, mastodon
  • One of the few times I’ve stayed somewhere else on #bowenisland. Up on Eagle Cliff, looking out to Strait of Georgia and across to UBC. Wind and whitecaps.

    → 6:14 PM, Oct 24   •  bowenisland, mastodon
  • I should log my epic sandwich from yesterday’s lunch. Sourdough from Tall Shadow breads, polish mayo, pickle slice, Roma tomato, havarti, and salami.

    → 2:03 PM, Oct 20   •  cooking, mastodon
  • Spicy udon bowl for lunch today. Onions, ginger, garlic, some diced red peppers & carrots I had laying around. Diced Roma tomatoes. Miso. Soy Sauce. Samba Oelek. Rice vinegar.

    → 1:56 PM, Oct 20   •  cooking, mastodon
  • When we went for brunch at Forage yesterday, I also bought some of their sourdough starter. Looking forward to waking it up!

    → 9:06 AM, Oct 18   •  AllTheBestRecipes, mastodon
  • Rachael won an overnight stay prize pack from VanMuralFest and the Robson BIA. Finishing our downtown adventure with a nice breakfast at Forage.

    → 10:17 AM, Oct 17   •  Vancouver, restaurant, mastodon
  • I’ve been stuck not really reading much. Gave up on the book I was on, and bought Sue Burke’s Interference.

    I loved the first one, and have been happily reading this before bed.

    #book #scifi

    → 10:56 PM, Oct 14   •  book, mastodon, scifi
  • Ride out to our usual bench at Burnaby Lake was pretty cold. Got to get gloves and other gear sorted to keep #biking.

    The new Rad Mini in white has slightly smaller wheels, and of course no extended rear rack.

    → 10:40 PM, Oct 11   •  Biking, mastodon
  • Pulled out some old achiote and made a turkey thigh stew plus did a trial run of savoury waffles I’m going to serve tomorrow.

    → 10:09 PM, Oct 11   •  AllTheBestRecipes, mastodon
  • Our new Rad Mini got delivered today! It looks cute and small compared to my Rad Runner, plus a few upgrades: it has gears and a bike computer screen, and an improved front light vs the Run

    This will primarily be Rachael’s bike, but I’ll borrow it on occasion ;)

    → 1:52 PM, Oct 9   •  Biking, mastodon
  • I have a cute little like green Bodum charcoal BBQ that we can take to the park at the end of the street. But charcoal is a bit of an ordeal so doesn’t get used often. What about a Scottish made gas pizza oven???

    The Ooni: youtu.be/7kzenzsML…

    #cooking

    → 10:44 PM, Oct 8   •  mastodon
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