The visibility of a post or reply on Mastodon depends on its visibility setting. These settings decide which other accounts have permission to see that particular post or reply.
On Mastodon there are four types of post visibility. You can set the visibility of a post by clicking the icon that represents it in the row below the message editing window. It’s usually a 🌐, 🌙, 🔒, 👥 or @ icon, but some apps may use slightly different icons.
Some more details about each setting:
Public – Anyone can see it, even people who aren’t on the Fediverse, and the posts will be visible in searches on Mastodon. If you go to a person’s public profile page you will see all their public posts. This is normally indicated by a globe icon 🌎
Unlisted (aka Quiet Public) – Anyone can see it, but it won’t appear in the trending posts list or the Local or Federated timelines, it won’t show up in search results and it won’t show up in other people’s hashtag follows. Unlisted can be useful for replying in threads, so that you’re not filling search results etc unnecessarily. Normally indicated by a crescent moon 🌙
Followers-only – Only your followers can see these, normally indicated by a closed lock 🔒 or people 👥 icon. If you use this setting, it’s a good idea to switch on follower requests, otherwise anyone could follow you to see your followers-only posts.
Mentioned (aka Specific People) – Only people you @ within the message can see the post, normally indicated by an @ symbol. Be really careful who you @ because they will see the post.
Local – Only people on your server can see it. This option is only available on servers running Hometown Mastodon ⧉ or Glitch Mastodon ⧉. Most people are on servers running standard Mastodon and will not have this option.
Sending DMs in Mastodon
You can send people messages by setting a post’s visibility to @ Mentioned, then @ the people you want to receive the DM. If you use your server’s website or the web app, there’s a Private Mentions option in the menu which lets you see all your mentioned posts in a separate inbox.
⚠️ If you @ someone they will be able to see it, even in DMs or Followers-Only modes
In all post visibility modes including DMs and Followers-Only, if you @ someone in a post they will see that post! Because of this, you need to be really careful who you @ in a post.
If you absolutely have to mention an account but don’t want them to see it, try replacing the @ symbols with the word “AT” instead and make sure you’re using a visibility they don’t have access to such as Followers-Only (if they don’t follow you) or Mentions. Removing the @ symbol will break the address, and prevent the account holder seeing the mention.
I can’t see Unlisted as an option on my app?
Unlisted is available as a visibility option on almost all versions of Mastodon including the website, the web app and the third party apps. However, for some strange reason it is not included on the official apps.
If you want the official apps to support Unlisted and you’re comfortable using Github, you can let the developers know you want it added on the iOS version ⧉ and the Android version ⧉.
Click on ⚙️ Preferences (or ⚙️ on mobile web) at the right of the screen
Click on Other at the left of the screen (or ☰ and then Other on mobile web)
In the Posting Privacy dropdown menu, choose the default visibility you want
Click the Save changes button in the top right
NOTE: This is only a default setting. You can always set it to a different visibility for individual posts or replies by clicking their visibility icon when you’re writing them.
Is it possible to edit post visibility after it is published?
You cannot edit the visibility of a post or reply after you’ve published it, so make sure you choose the correct visibility when writing it.
If you absolutely have to change the visibility, your only option is to delete the post and start again, which is most easily done by clicking ⋯ below the post and then Delete & re-draft. If you use this option, the original post will cease to exist, its boosts and bookmarks will disappear, links to it will break and its replies will be orphaned.
Who can see my boosts?
When you boost a post, it will immediately appear in the home timelines of all your followers. The original author of the post will also get a notification to say that you boosted their post.
When do replies appear in the Home timeline?
Replies will appear in your Home timeline if any one of these are true:
The reply mentions you
You wrote the reply
The reply is by someone you follow AND mentions someone else you follow
Someone you follow is replying to themselves to create a thread
Someone you’re following has boosted the reply
When do Unlisted posts and replies appear in the Home timeline?
In Home timelines, Unlisted posts and replies will appear exactly like public posts and replies. Unlisted posts will only be hidden in the Federated and Local timelines, in search results and in the trending posts list.
What about visibility in searches? How do I set the searchability of posts?
Posts and replies will only show up in search results if they have a Public visibility setting. If you want a post or reply to be searchable, you need to set its visibility to Public.
You also need to decide if you want your public posts and replies to be searchable by full text or just by hashtags. By default it’s just hashtags, but you can also allow the entire contents to be searched by opting into the full text search system.
What about Local-only visibility? How do I make a post only visible to people on my server?
Servers running the standard version of Mastodon do not have a Local-only visibility setting. However, servers running forks of Mastodon such as Hometown Mastodon ⧉ or Glitch Mastodon ⧉ may include a fifth visibility setting called “Local” or “Local only”.
Posts or replies using the Local visibility setting can only be seen by people whose accounts are on the same server.
If I’m replying to someone else’s post, do I have to use the same visibility setting on my reply? How do I send a private reply?
You can adjust your reply to have any visibility setting you want, regardless of the original post’s setting. Bear in mind though that some settings may exclude the author of the original post from seeing your reply.
If you want to send a post’s author a private reply, use the @ Mentioned visibility and make sure you @ them in the reply.
What about muting and blocking people and servers? How does that work?
Muting and blocking are separate issue from post visibility. Post visibility is about who can see that post by default, muting is about what you see in your timeline, blocking is about who can see your public posts and follow you.
Yes, Mastodon has a built-in translation system. If everything is working correctly, and if your server is offering the service, when you see a post in another language there will be a “Translate” link either underneath the post or in the post’s ⋯ menu.
To use the translation system, just click “translate” and it will show you a computer-translated version of the post in your own language.
I don’t see a translate option on a post in a foreign language. What is going on?
If you don’t see a translate option, there are several things that may not be working:
Your server may not offer translation. The translation services cost money to run, and some server admins cannot afford it. If you would like them to offer the service, ask your admin about it and perhaps offer to donate towards it.
The person who wrote the post may have selected the wrong language setting. It’s important to set your own posting language correctly. If you post in a variety of languages, you can set your most common language as the default and set languages manually for posts where you use a different language.
Your app may not support showing Mastodon’s translation links, check with your app’s developer if you’re unsure. The website, web apps, official apps and many third party apps support translation.
How do I set my post’s language? Can I change it manually? What do I do if I post in many languages?
If you’re writing in your default language and you’ve set your default posting language correctly, you don’t need to do anything extra as that language will be automatically set. You can tell what language your post is set to at the bottom of the post when you’re writing or editing it, which will show either the language’s name or its language code (for example “English” or “EN”).
If you’re posting in a language other than your default one, you can set your post’s language manually by clicking on the language button at the bottom of the post when you’re writing or editing it.
I’ve set the wrong language on my post, what do I do?
Don’t worry, you can edit a post to change its language setting if you need to.
Why doesn’t Mastodon use some kind of autodetection system for deciding which language a post is in?
Mastodon used to use autodetection, but apparently the system became unreliable when dealing with very short posts and was selecting the wrong languages. This led the developers to a manual system instead.
If you disagree with this stance and would like to see automatic detection brought back in some way, perhaps as an option, there is a discussion about it on the Mastodon Github ⧉ (the issue is closed but you can still comment on it, and issues can get reopened if needed).
Most Mastodon servers use the open source translation providers LibreTranslate ⧉ or DeepL ⧉.
These providers have free websites, so why are server admins paying for them?
The websites of these translation providers are free for ordinary people to use, but their API (the system which lets other sites access their translation service) costs money. That’s how these translation services cover their costs, by selling access to their APIs to other sites.
Sometimes I see a translate option and other times I don’t. Sometimes clicking translate causes an error. What is happening?
The translation providers’ API costs are usually based on a number of translations per month. If your server’s users are translating more than the monthly limit of translations, it may cause the translation system to stop working until the next month starts again.
If this is happening frequently you might want to ask your server’s admin about it, they may need to raise the number of queries per month. Higher quotas cost more, so you might want to also offer them a donation when you ask them about it.
Are translations 100% accurate?
Translations by computers are never 100% accurate, and you should bear this in mind when reading computer-translated posts on any platform. The accuracy of computer translations also tends to vary between languages.
Can server admins use self-hosted translation systems instead of an API?
Yes, but this takes up server resources and requires the admin to have technical knowledge to install and maintain it. Not all admins are techy people, many of them run their servers through managed hosting services ⧉ which handle the techy stuff.
Whatever translation system your server offers, please support your admin as it will be costing them time and money whatever they use.
There are lots of language options on Mastodon to help you understand other people, and help other people understand you. At the time of writing there are 95 different languages and dialects to choose from.
Choosing your interface language
The interface language is the language used on menus, buttons, labels, forms etc when you are logged in. To choose your Mastodon interface language:
Click the link marked Other on the left of the page (on the mobile website click ☰ and then Other)
Scroll down to the section marked Filter languages
Tick the boxes for languages you want to see
Click the Save changes button
To switch the language filter off (so that you see all languages), make sure all the boxes are UN-ticked and click the Save changes button
When the language filter is on, posts in other languages will no longer appear in your timelines. However, if you follow someone this will override the language filter and show you all their posts regardless of language used.
Choosing your posting language
It’s important to set your posting language, because it means people using language filters to show your language will see your posts. Setting this also allows other people to automatically translate your posts using Mastodon’s built-in translation system.
To set which language you post in:
Log in through your server’s website
Click ⚙️ Preferences
Click Other (if you’re using the mobile website click ☰ and then Other)
In the section marked Posting language choose which language you use most often and click Save changes (by default the posting language will be the same as your interface language)
If you post in multiple languages, you can change which language you’re using each time you’re writing a post:
Write the post but don’t publish it yet
Select the language you are writing from the language button at the bottom of the post creation box. The language button shows your current language setting.
By default the button will be your selected posting language, unless you are replying to a post marked in another language in which case it will be set to that language.
The language button should remember your most recently chosen languages at the top of the menu.
Filtering search results by language
You can filter your search results on Mastodon to only show posts in particular languages by including the search operator “language:(LANGUAGE CODE)” using language codes from this list. For example to only show posts in French include the term language:fr in searches.
Wait! I’m still seeing languages I don’t understand in my Home timeline! Why aren’t the filters hiding them?
Unfortunately if you follow an account or a hashtag, this overrides the language filters, so by default you’ll see all posts in all languages on the Home timeline.
There is a workaround for filtering the language of accounts you’re following, but it’s slightly more fiddly than general language filters:
Go to the profile page of the account you want to filter by language.
Click ︙ and select Change subscribed languages
Tick the boxes for the languages you want to see
Click the Save Changes button
You have to do this for any account you’re following where you want to restrict which languages it shows. For example, if ten people you follow are posting in languages you don’t want to see you’ll have to do this for each of those ten accounts.
Obviously this isn’t as easy as just setting a single language filter, and if you’re following lots of people who post in many languages it can take a while to set preferences for each of them. Also, this option isn’t even available for followed hashtags. This situation isn’t satisfactory, and you may want to give feedback to the developers about this at the links below.
Mastodon has a section called Explore which shows trending posts, trending hashtags and trending links. Here’s how to see it:
On the official Mastodon apps click on the 🔍 magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen without entering anything into the search box, this will automatically make the trends appear. The tabs at the top are “Posts” (trending posts), “Hashtags” (trending hashtags), “News” (links being shared by a lot of people right now) and “For You” (this isn’t actually tailored to you, it’s just accounts that are popular on your server but which you haven’t followed).
Third party apps display trends in various different ways using their own interfaces. However, they usually use the word “Trending” in some way. Often you can find the trends link in the main settings menu, but this will vary from app to app.
What makes a post trend on Mastodon?
Posts trend if they are new and have many recent boosts. Only one post per account can trend at a time, to prevent popular accounts dominating the trending section.
What makes a hashtag trend on Mastodon?
Tags trend if many people have used them recently. They don’t have to be new, you may see the same tags trend quite often, for example the popular tag #Caturday trends every week.
What if I see an offensive post, hashtag or link trending?
Hopefully this won’t happen, as your server admin can optionally moderate posts, tags and links in advance before they are allowed to trend. If you see something offensive trending, contact your server admin and ask them about it.
I am a server admin, how do I adjust my server’s trends settings? And how do I moderate trending posts/tags/links?
News shows the most shared links on posts visible to your server, whether they’re from news sources or any website. Often this will be news items (hence the name), but not always.
Can I see discussions about trending news stories?
To see discussions mentioning a news story, click on the button listing the number of posts, this button is usually next to the story’s title. Clicking the number will take you to a chronological timeline of all public discussions about that story.
Can any link trend on the News section? What do I do if I see dubious news sources trending?
Your server’s admin can optionally choose to moderate which sites’ links end up in the News section. By setting a trusted set of sources, your admin can prevent the trending news section being hijacked by people spreading less trustworthy sources.
If you see a news source trending which shouldn’t be, contact your admin and they will be able to block it from appearing on the trends.
What about the People or For You sections in Explore? Are these trending people?
No. They’re just automated suggestions for accounts you might want to follow. It’s a bit unclear why these suggestions are listed next to the trends, to be honest!
They also aren’t any kind of personalised algorithm, the suggestions are the same for everyone on your server but it hides suggestions if you’re already following that account.
Can I view trends on other servers?
Yes. Most servers have a link to their 🧭 Explore section on their websites, and you usually don’t need to be logged in to browse this. The trending posts and tags on different servers will be slightly different as they have different views of the Fediverse. You do need to be logged in if you want to interact with the posts, however.
When you follow someone you’ll see all their posts in your home timeline in chronological order. No posts will be hidden, but when you follow a lot of people it can be easy to miss some of the posts because there may be just so many of them.
On Mastodon, if there are particular accounts where you want to make sure you see their posts, you can set these accounts to also notify you when they post. They will still be in your timeline as normal, but you’ll also get an an alert in your Notifications section.
Go to the profile of the person you want to be notified about
Click the bell icon 🔔 next to their follow/unfollow button.
Note that this only works for people you follow. Also, if you want to stop notifications just click the same bell icon again.
Can I do this through apps too?
Yes and no. The official apps don’t have notification bells yet, but some third party ones do such as Ice Cubes on iPhone/iPad, or Tusky and Fedilab on Android. The ones that support the notification bell usually show an actual bell icon, but some may have a slightly different icon.
Does this notify me about people’s boosts and replies, or just their posts?
The notification feature only notifies you about their posts. It does not notify about replies or boosts.
If you want your account and posts to be noticed by more people, here are some tips on how to do it:
Write something about yourself on your profile. It doesn’t have to be personal info, but it should let people know you’re a human being and give them some idea of what you’re interested in. Totally blank profiles are less likely to show up in search results, and can be off-putting for potential followers.
If you want the entire text of your public posts to be completely searchable, even without any hashtags, you can opt into being part of the full text search system. This will make your posts show up a lot more easily and more often in search results.
Use the correct visibility settings on your posts. Public posts are visible to everyone, but followers-only posts will only be visible to your followers. You don’t have to choose just one setting though, you can give different posts different visibilities.
Also, if you have a website, you might want to verify the website link too, as this will make people know you’re the owner of the site and also make your account appear on discovery services such as StreetPass ⧉.
Make sure the first line of your profile text sums you up well, as Fediverse discovery systems often only show the first line.
If you want to, add a profile picture and header image, but these are both optional. Blind people often don’t use images on their profiles, so it is totally normal for a profile to have no images on it.
Write a public post saying something about yourself, and include the hashtags #Introduction, #Introductions and #NewHere. Try also searching for these hashtags and replying to other people’s introductions.
If you want to be seen by other people from your country, try adding your country’s flag to your profile as this will make it easier for people to find you. (However, obviously be careful as in some countries certain flags may have nasty extremist connotations.)
Remember to use hashtags in posts that you want to be discovered, as lots of people follow hashtags and they are a very popular discovery method on the Fediverse.
Try joining and posting to Fediverse groups, they are seen even more widely than hashtags and can be a good way to connect with others interested in specific topics.
On Mastodon, log in through your server’s website or web app, go to your profile page, click Edit profile and then click the Privacy and Reach tab, then tick the box marked Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms and finally click Save changes. This will add you to automated follow suggestions that others may see. (Note that these aren’t really algorithms in the common sense of the word, they don’t use mysterious complex calculations and they aren’t designed to drive engagement. They are just simple bits of open source code that feature accounts followed by many people on your server.)
Even one follower makes a big difference
Because of the way federation works, follower numbers don’t matter as much as having followers on other servers.
When you have literally zero followers, your posts will only be searchable by people on your own server. If you can get even one follower from another server, it means anything you post after that follow will be searchable to everyone on that server. If you can get even a small number of followers from a variety of servers, that makes a huge difference to who can discover your posts in searches.
Timezones matter
As the timelines on the Fediverse are chronological, it’s important to bear in mind the timezones your followers are in. For example if you were posting about something of interest to Australians, it would be best to post it when most people in Australia are awake.
If you want to reach people in several different timezones, try to choose a time where their days overlap so that most of them are awake too. You can also boost your own posts later if you want to reach multiple timezones.
If you’re on Mastodon, you can follow other Mastodon accounts of course, but you can also follow accounts from other types of Fediverse server such as Pixelfed, PeerTube, Friendica, OwnCast, BookWyrm etc.
How do I follow accounts from other kinds of servers?
Exactly like you would follow accounts from Mastodon servers, you just click Follow on their profiles.
The following process on the Fediverse is so seamless that you probably won’t even notice you are following accounts outside Mastodon! No matter what kind of server they are on, all accounts will look like Mastodon accounts when viewed from Mastodon (and vice versa from their point of view). Fediverse servers always display content in their own style, regardless of the style used on the server the content came from.
How do I check what an account looks like on its own server?
If you’re using Masto through the website, you can see what an account really looks like by going to its profile’s original page. This will show you the account’s profile page on its own server.
What if I can’t find an account listed on Mastodon? How do I get it to appear within Mastodon?
The Mastodon equivalent of “Likes” are “Favourites”, click the star ⭐ to favourite a post. Favouriting tells the author that you liked their post, but does not affect the post’s visibility at all.
The Mastodon equivalent of a “Re-Tweet” is a “Boost” (and some apps call it a “Re-Blog”). To boost a post, click the circular arrows icon 🔃 or the rocket ship 🚀. Boosted posts will appear in the timeline of everyone who follows you, and boosting will also help a post appear on the trending posts chart in the Explore tab. Boosts are the only way to make a post more visible.
There’s also a third option called “Bookmarks” which lets you keep a private list of posts you want to read later. Only you can see your bookmarks, the people you bookmark do not know about it. To bookmark a post click ⋯ underneath the post and then “Bookmark” (some interfaces will also show a bookmark logo which you can click instead).
How do I browse all my Favourites and Bookmarks?
All your favourites and bookmarks are stored for you to browse, but are not shown to the public. Here’s how to browse them:
On the official Mastodon apps, go to your profile page and click on the star or bookmark icons at the top of the page.
Third party apps will have various interfaces, try looking on your profile page or on the options/settings menus.
How do I browse my past Boosts?
You can see all your past Boosts by browsing your profile page, they will be mixed in with your own posts in chronological order based on when you boosted them.
The boost button on a particular post is greyed out and I can’t click on it. What is going on?
If the post you want to boost has a non-public visibility setting, it may not be possible for you to share it with your followers. If this is the case, the boost button will be greyed out and you will not be able to click on it.
My bookmarks are disappearing! Is this normal?
Bookmarks should not be disappearing. If this is happening to you, it is probably because your server has an incorrect setting for “Content cache retention period”. Please let your server admin know if this is happening, and send them this link to a guide for how to fix it.
You can search for posts and profiles on Mastodon by typing ordinary words or hashtags or emoji into the search box. Select the type of result you want (posts, accounts, hashtags) and then browse through the results.
The search box may be in different places depending on how you’re accessing Mastodon. Here’s how to find the search box:
On the official app, tap the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen, and type in the search box at the top of the screen. The results will appear below it.
On your server’s website, if you’re using a phone click on the 🔍 magnifying glass icon at the top, then type in the search box that appears.
On your server’s website, if you’re using a computer type into the search box at the top and press enter. The results will appear beside or below the search box, depending on your window size. (Note that some servers have the search box in the top left of the screen, others in the top right.)
Third party apps will have various interfaces for search, but they’re usually quite obvious, using a magnifying glass icon or the word “search”. (One exception is Toot! which has its search function bizarrely hidden away in the ⋯ menu in the top right corner.)
What order are search results shown in on Mastodon?
Chronological, with newest posts at the top.
How do I make my own posts more visible in search results?
If you want your post to be more easily found in searches, opt into full text searches and also include relevant hashtags. Remember to use CamelCase on hashtags that contain multiple words. Hashtags are really good for actively indicating a topic being discussed, instead of a word just used accidentally or incidentally.
Although hashtags are no longer required to appear in search results on Mastodon servers, hashtags are still important in making posts visible, because many people follow hashtags and many people search for them (especially as some servers still only allow hashtag searches). You can find out more about hashtags in this special guide.
How do I search just my own posts?
To search just your own posts, include the phrase from:me in your search. If you want to also search posts that you’ve interacted with (such as bookmarks, likes, boosts), include the phrase in:library in your search.
There are lots more operators like this, scroll further down this page to see them all.
Are there any special operators for filtering searches on Mastodon?
Yes, Mastodon 4.2.0 introduces a number of operators you can use to filter your search results with:
has:media – Only shows posts with an attachment (images, audio, video)
has:poll – Only shows posts with a poll
has:embed – Only shows posts with a link that produces some kind of embedded media (such as a YouTube or PeerTube link)
is:sensitive – Only shows posts marked as sensitive
from:(FEDIVERSE ADDRESS HERE) – Only shows posts by that particular user, for example from:@FediTips@social.growyourown.services
from:me – Only shows posts you have made yourself
in:all – Searches all posts visible to you
in:library – Only searches other people’s posts you have interacted with (such as bookmarks, favourites, boosts etc) or your own posts
before:date, during:date, after:date – Filters for posts before, during or after the selected date. Dates are written in the format YYYY-MM-DD, so for example posts after 1st June 2023 would be after:2023-06-01
Make sure there’s no space between the : and the other words when using these operators. For example, to search for posts with the word “elephant” that are in English, you would search for elephant language:en
Wait, what’s an “operator”?
It’s a special phrase you include in your search that makes the search behave in a special way. The list above describes all of the ones available in Mastodon.
Can I use several operators in the same search?
Yes, just include several operators along with the keyword or hashtag you’re searching for.
Can I use negative operators to exclude certain kinds of posts?
Yes. Just add a minus sign before the term, for example to exclude posts with polls from results you would include the operator -has:poll
Can I exclude posts with certain words?
Yes, just include the word in your search with a minus sign in front of it. For example batman -robin would show you posts containing the word “batman” but hide those containing “robin”.
How do I search for stuff I’ve bookmarked or boosted or liked?
Include the operator in:library, this will also search your own posts too.
How do I opt in to my posts being searched by words as well as hashtags?
Yes! Any emoji can be entered in the search box, and will show posts and profiles containing that emoji in the search results.
It’s a bit more complicated with custom emoji though, you may have to strip away the colons :: around the alt text that appears when you add a custom emoji to a post. The alt text without the colons will show you posts and profiles containing that custom emoji.
My server says search options are unavailable, what’s going on?
Advanced search options require the server to be running a special add-on called “Elasticsearch”. If the operators don’t work and/or you can’t search posts by keyword, ask your server’s admin about this. It’s possible they haven’t installed Elasticsearch, perhaps because they lack the resources as it costs extra.
However, hashtag searches should work fine on all servers, even the ones without Elasticsearch.
Why are search results different on different servers?
Servers can search for posts and accounts they have noticed. Different servers notice different things on the Fediverse, so they produce different search results. If you want to find out more, see the guide to what servers notice.
I thought Mastodon only allowed searches with hashtags?
Before September 2023 Mastodon searches were entirely based around hashtags. Since then Mastodon also allows full text searches where you just type what you want and it searches the entire texts of posts for matches.
HOWEVER… for privacy reasons the full text search system is opt-in, so you can only get search results for people who have opted into their posts being included in full text searches. If you want your posts to be fully searchable you need to opt into this system, click the link to find out how.
Example of a Mastodon profile with a verified official website link and also running on its own server with its own domain name
If you have an official website, the most straightforward way to verify your identity on Mastodon is to link to your Mastodon profile from that official website. If you include a special piece of HTML code in this link, it will make your website address turn green on your Mastdon profile and people will instantly know that you are the owner of (or professionally connected to) that website. If people already trust your website to be official, then by extension they can trust your account to be who it says it is.
Alternatively, if you’re really keen, you can also create an official Fediverse server based on the web address of your official website. This is, for example, how the European Union has verified all its official accounts on the Fediverse.
How to make a link on your Mastodon profile page turn green
On Mastodon, you can create a special verified website link on your profile which turns green. This means anyone browsing your profile will immediately know you’re verified as the owner of the website:
On Mastodon, press the Save changes button in your Mastodon profile settings. It is really important that you do this step after you have already inserted the HTML code into your own website. This profile save is what triggers your server to check for the verification code, so it will only work if you do it after you’ve added the code to your website.
After you’ve done all this in the correct order, you should see a link to your official website on your Mastodon profile, which will turn green with a green tick next to it to verify you are the site’s owner. If you have any problems, see the troubleshooting section below.
This can also be used to verify specific pages on a website, for example if you’re listed as a staff member on an organisation’s website. As long as the creator of the website is willing to add the special verification code, you can verify the link.
My website address won’t turn green! How do I make it happen?
Don’t panic, there are things you can do:
Make sure that all the links to your Mastodon account on your website include rel=”me” in their link code. If there’s one without rel=”me”, for example in a dropdown menu, the verification process may fail.
Make sure you’ve done all seven steps in the instructions above in the correct order (“How to make a link on your Mastodon profile page turn green”). If you do these steps in the wrong order, or if you leave out steps, it may not work.
Bear in mind there may be some delay before your website address turns green on your profile, don’t worry if it doesn’t happen straight away.
The website address can be case sensitive, so try typing it entirely in lower case.
The website address has to have https:// at the beginning (which also makes it clickable)
Make sure the HTML code of the a href contains only rel=”me”, the link and no other attributes such as styles.
Make sure that you haven’t accidentally used http:// instead of https://
Try removing the link you want to verify, save your profile, then add the link back and save it again.
If you’re using Cloudflare this may interfere with the verification process. You may need to disable Cloudflare’s proxy protection to allow the verification to happen.
Also, note that each server on the Fedi verfies addresses independently and at their own pace. It is possible that people on other servers may see your address turn green before you do.
If your website link still won’t turn green, try verifying through the header instead
If you can’t get the normal link code to work for verification, you can instead insert this code into your site’s front page’s header:
Substitute your profile page’s URL for the example in the code, but leave it otherwise intact.
Alternatively, create your own server and have your official Fediverse account there
If you’re really keen, the most watertight way to verify your identity is to make your own Fediverse server as a subdomain of your official website. This is what the European Union did when they made their own Mastodon server ⧉. Because the European Union’s official website is well known as being at europa.eu, and their servers are all subdomains of europa.eu, it means all the accounts on their servers can be trusted as being official EU Fediverse accounts. Making your own server on a subdomain is much easier and cheaper than you think.
…but don’t verify by doing any of these!
Don’t use “verified” badges next to your name, they don’t mean anything. Because no one owns the Fediverse, there is no central authority to give out “verified” badges the way Twitter etc do. If you do see any Twitter-style verified badges these are just custom emoji and don’t mean anything, it’s just people having fun or messing around.
Don’t use centralised “verification” services or sites, even if they seem to be friendly and/or temporary. As the Fediverse has expanded, various brand new websites have sprung up trying to set themselves up as the one and only way to verify identity. It’s rubbish, don’t fall for it. The entire point of being on the Fediverse is to prevent any central authorities taking over, and there are already many tried and trusted ways to verify your identity on the Fediverse without using centralised services.
Fediverse accounts only let you log in on one server, because all the servers are independent. The server you joined is your gateway into the wider network, because all the different servers talk to each other to form a single network, despite being separately owned.
If that seems confusing, think of it this way: you can’t sign in on Yahoo Mail with a Gmail account, but you can still send emails between Yahoo Mail and Gmail accounts. The reason this works is because the different email providers talk to each other, despite being separate companies.
But I thought Pixelfed lets people log in with their Mastodon accounts?
Not really. Pixelfed servers have an option on their websites called “Sign in with Mastodon”, but what it actually does is create a new Pixelfed account and automatically copies over settings from your Mastodon account. You still end up with two separate accounts at the end of it (the original Mastodon one and the new Pixelfed one). If you do the same thing again on more Pixelfed servers, you will end up with even more Pixelfed accounts, all with info copied from your Mastodon account.
What if I want to use features that are only available on a different kind of server? For example tracking my reading on BookWyrm?
If you just want to follow people from other types of server, you can do that from your Mastodon account. Go to the profile page of the account you want to follow and click Follow, or if their profile isn’t visible in Mastodon then paste their account addresses into the search box on Mastodon.
If you want to actually use features that aren’t available on Mastodon, such as the book database on BookWyrm, then you’ll need to set up a separate account on a server that has those features. In the example of BookWyrm, you would need to set up an account on a BookWyrm server.
You can use Mastodon entirely through your server’s website if you prefer. This works especially well on computers, but the mobile web interface is good too and appears automatically on small screens. To log in through the web:
Go to your server’s website
Click the Sign in button
Log in with the same email and password you use to sign in on the app
What’s my server’s website address?
It’s usually the same as the name of your server. For example, if you joined Mastodon through the server kind.social you would log in through the website kind.social ⧉.
Why would I want to use my server’s website instead of a mobile app?
Mastodon’s official website interface is the reference platform for Mastodon’s development, and it usually receives the latest features first. Most features are eventually adopted by apps too, but they tend to be released first for the website interface.
Also, some features on the website are still not on any apps, and some account settings can only be adjusted from the website interface.
Can I install Mastodon as a web app on my home screen?
How does the website interface cope with small or large screens?
It adjusts its layout to cope with whatever your current screen size is, and includes layouts specifically for computers, phones and tablets.
Can I see the tablet and phone interfaces on a computer?
If you’re on a computer and want to see what the phone and tablet interfaces are like, try making your web browser’s window narrower. When it’s medium width it will show you the tablet interface, and when it’s narrow width it will show you the phone interface.
Can I log in from other servers’ websites?
No, you can only log in from your own server’s website. Each server on Mastodon and the Fediverse is independent and has its own website for that server’s members.
It’s exactly the same situation as with email: there is no central email website, you can only log into email through specific email providers such as Yahoo Mail, Gmail etc.
I have a web link to a post on another mastodon server. How do I interact with it on my server if I can’t log in on other servers?
Copy and paste the web link into the search box on your own server. This will make the post appear within your own server and you will be able to interact with it.
My password doesn’t work! I can’t remember my password! I can’t log in, help!
If you are unable to log in through your server’s website, try doing these steps in this order:
Make sure you are logging in on the correct website. You have to log in through your own server’s site, which will usually be the same as the server’s name. If you don’t know your server’s name, it’s in the last part of your account address.
Make sure you are typing the password correctly. Passwords are case sensitive, so you need to make sure each letter’s case is correct.
Underneath the login form there will be a link that says something like “Forgotten password?” or “Having trouble logging in?”. Click this link, then enter your email address and it will send you an email with a reset link in it. If the email hasn’t arrived after a few minutes, check your spam folder in case it’s there,
If you’re still having trouble logging in on Mastodon, go to your server’s website and click on ⋯ (if you’re on the mobile website) or on your server’s About link in the bottom left corner (if you’re on the desktop website). This will take you to your server’s info page. Your server admin’s public email address will be shown in the info page’s section marked “CONTACT:”, you can send them an email to ask for help with logging in even if you get locked out.
By the way, if you have a computer using Mastodon through the website is perhaps the best way to experience it. Fans of the multicolumn Tweetdeck may also want to try the advanced web interface.
The reason the Fediverse exists is to be spread out on lots of separate servers, it means no one person or company controls the network and if anyone does something bad they can be blocked by others.
By keeping the network spread out, if means if you are unhappy with how your server is run you can move elsewhere, or even start your own, and there are many other benefits for users. Click here for more about why the Fediverse is spread out on many servers. If everyone joins a single massive server like mastodon.social, the advantages of the Fediverse disappear.
I thought the largest server meant it was the best server?
No, this isn’t true:
The largest servers are the easiest for nasty billionaires to buy out, which puts the network as a whole at risk. By staying spread out on many servers, you are helping to protect the network from anyone taking it over.
The largest servers tend to have the worst staff-to-member ratio, which means the moderation will be worse. Also, if you have a technical problem it will be a lot harder to get hold of anyone who can fix it.
You don’t need to be on the largest server to get lots of follows and followers. The fedi.tips account ⧉ has over 200,000 followers but is on a single user server.
The experience of following an account is identical whether you’re on the same server or not. You don’t need to be on the same server as people you follow.
Smaller servers usually have a friendlier community atmosphere on their Local timelines, while the Local timeline on large servers is an unreadable firehose.
Why is mastodon.social in particular not a good server to join? What does “too big to defederate” mean?
There are four main problems with mastodon.social:
Mastodon.social is by far the largest Mastodon server now. As it becomes an ever-larger percentage of the overall network, the more it puts the Fediverse in danger of being bought out. It’s not a question of absolute numbers but of percentages: if most of the network is on one server, then that server effectively controls the overall network.
There’s a second problem: mastodon.social’s moderation has suffered, as the growth means it has fewer moderators per person. It is getting harder for mastodon.social’s moderators to keep tabs on what happens.
Added to this is a third danger: mastodon.social is so much larger than other servers, that other servers have become afraid of defederating it. Normally if a server’s moderation or behaviour goes downhill, other servers can block it, and the more a server is blocked the more isolated it becomes. This gives all servers an incentive to be well moderated. But if one server is far larger than the others, it makes it much harder to defederate because it would mean cutting users off from a massive chunk of the network. The more of the network is on a single server, the harder it becomes to block it, and the worse moderation becomes across the entire network.
The fourth issue with mastodon.social is who owns it: Mastodon gGmbH, the organisation owned by the lead developer of the software that all Mastodon servers run on. This organisation also owns the official Mastodon apps and the official Mastodon website, and owns the trademark for the word “Mastodon” in relation to social networks. This is a massive concentration of power in a single organisation owned by a single person.
Putting these together creates a nightmare scenario for the Fediverse: a server that is too big to block, with moderation going downhill, which controls the official apps and trademarks and website, and which is now using these official channels to grow their own server at the expense of other servers. In short, mastodon.social is helping to centralise a network which was set up to be decentralised.
How does mastodon.social control the official Mastodon apps and official Mastodon website?
Mastodon.social is owned by Mastodon gGmbH, the organisation owned by the lead developer of the software which runs on Mastodon servers. They also make the official mobile apps, and own the trademark of the word “Mastodon” in relation to social networks. There is a tremendous amount of power concentrated in one place here, and joining mastodon.social makes the situation even worse.
I’m already on mastodon.social. How do I move my account elsewhere? Can I keep my followers and follows? Can I move back if I change my mind?
If you want to move your account to another server, click here to see the account transfer guide. You can keep your followers and follows, they will be moved automatically as long as you follow all the steps. You can move back to the old account if you change your mind.
Can someone steal my username if I move off mastodon.social?
No. Once an account has been registered, no one else can ever register that username on that server. Even if an account is deleted, the server keeps a permanent list of usernames to prevent impersonations and will refuse signups with those usernames.
If I move off mastodon.social, will people know where to find my new account?
Yes, when you move servers your old account will redirect people to your new account. You can also manually add a message to your old account profile telling people about your new account.
But the Mastodon app said to join mastodon.social! Why would it do this if there was anything wrong with it?
The official Mastodon apps and official Mastodon website are owned by the same organisation as mastodon.social. This organisation is owned by one person, the lead developer of the software which runs on all Mastodon servers.
Ths organisation has highly irresponsibly started driving people to sign up on mastodon.social by default, which goes against everything Mastodon stood for when it was founded. It’s unclear why they are doing this now when they opposed it before.
Isn’t it just easier for non-technical people to join a single server? Isn’t that why the official apps suggest joining mastodon.social?
It makes sense to choose a server and say to unsure non-technical people “just sign up on this server”. That does make sign-ups easier.
However, it doesn’t make sense to tell new users to sign up on the largest server. Promoting the largest server doesn’t make it any easier to sign up, but it does put the network itself in danger. Also, centralising the network like this undermines the entire point of signing up on a decentralised network in the first place.
But I thought mastodon.social is the default server? Doesn’t it have some special status in the network?
No, mastodon.social is not special in any way. All servers are totally independent, and do not depend on mastodon.social in any technical sense.
Mastodon.social became a very big server mainly because it was the first Mastodon server and is owned by the Mastodon software’s lead developer. It has no technical advantages or privileges over any other server. It would be like expecting the oldest telephone company to be better than the others because ir was first.
But even if everyone joined mastodon.social, it would still be decentralised? People could still join other servers?
There is nothing technically requiring Fediverse servers to federate. There is an option in Mastodon’s software called “isolated mode” where all federation is shut off and the server runs as a single centralised social network. It’s rarely used, but the technical option exists. If the people running mastodon.social wanted to stop federating with others, they could do so.
But even if the technical option didn’t exist, decentralisation is only meaningful on a network when the network is spread out. If most of a server’s interactions are with people on other servers, the server’s admin will be forced to consider the opinions and needs of other servers and rely on their existence. But if most of a server’s interactions are within that server, the server’s admin will no longer need to think about other servers and will no longer depend on their existence. The network will effectively be centralised.
There is also a precedent for decentralised networks becoming centralised: Facebook’s messenger system used to be part of a wider open messaging standard called XMPP, which allowed Facebook members to message with people outside Facebook. Then one day Facebook just switched off federation ⧉, and its members could only message with each other while those outside Facebook were cut off from Facebook members. If the XMPP network had been more spread out, it would have been much more difficult for Facebook to switch off federation.
What about the other non-Mastodon platforms on the Fediverse?
At the moment, Mastodon’s userbase is larger than all the other Fediverse platforms put together several times over.
It would be fantastic if other Fediverse server types took up a larger percentage of the Fediverse, and an ideal situation would be if no one platform had a majority. But as things stand, Mastodon servers have by far the largest percentage of the Fediverse’s total userbase.
I’m on a very new small server, but it seems a bit quiet. How do I make it busier?
If your server is quiet, especially if it is new, perhaps it can’t see the rest of the Fediverse yet. As more people sign up on your server, and as your server’s members follow accounts from other servers, it will gradually start noticing more of the Fediverse and start to feel busier.
However, if you want to speed up this process of discovering the rest of the Fediverse, there are ways of doing this:
Join some Fediverse groups. Groups are available on a wide range of topics, and actively send all their posts to everyone that follows them, regardless of the size of their server.
Ask your server admin if they would consider using relay servers. This will quickly give a server a much wider view of the Fediverse, and are especially useful if they’re topic-specific relays.
Fediverse servers do sometimes decide to close for a variety of reasons. However, all of the servers listed at JoinMastodon.org ⧉ and Fedi.Garden ⧉ have promised to give at least three months notice if they are going to close down. This gives the server’s members lots of time to transfer their accounts to other servers. The transfer process lets people keep their followers, follows, blocks etc.
If you have any links to your account outside the Fediverse, remember to update them to your new account
How do I avoid being on a server that closes down suddenly?
Your best option is to choose a server listed on Fedi.Garden ⧉ or JoinMastodon.org ⧉ as all the listed servers have promised to give three months warning if they intend to shut down.
Do servers shut down because they’re small?
No.
Any online service of any size may shut down one day, even really huge services used by hundreds of millions of people ⧉, and those that keep going may not be quite the same ⧉. If an online service is centralised, which almost all commercial services are, then when it closes you lose your account and everything in it, no matter how huge and immortal the service might seem.
Mastodon and the Fediverse aren’t centralised. They are federated, which means you aren’t trapped if a server decides to shut down. If a server on a federated network says it is going to close, you can transfer your account to another server and keep your account alive. You can even set up your own server if you want to.
What if a server goes down just temporarily? What happens to posts or messages that are being sent to it while it is down?
If a server breaks down temporarily and other servers can’t get through to it, the other servers will wait a while and try to communicate with it again when some time has passed. When the server goes back online, it will start to automatically catch up on the posts and messages it has missed.
Messages and posts do not get lost because a server goes down, they just go in a queue for resending later.
(This is the same process used by email servers, they will also wait and retry later if an email doesn’t get through straight away.)
Yes, apart from fedi.tips there are lots of other places you can also get help:
If you prefer physical books, there’s “Mastodon For Dummies” by Chris Minnick and Mike McCallister (ISBN: 978-1-394-19336-3), available from bookshops and libraries. It’s also available as an e-book from services like Kobo or Kindle, and as an audiobook from all major audiobook platforms.
There’s an excellent friendly and simple (but surprisingly detailed) video called “The Crafter’s Guide to the Fediverse” ⧉. It’s made by a crafting channel but it also works as a general intro to Mastodon and the Fediverse for anyone.
Fediverse servers connect to each other using traditional sustainable methods that email and websites have used for decades.
I thought “decentralised” meant blockchain/web3/cryptocurrency?
No.
The so-called “web3” is just marketing crap that con artists have used to promote blockchain-based get-rich-quick schemes ⧉. Part of the deceptive marketing around web3 scams includes trying to steal the term “decentralised”, but in reality blockchain and cryptocurrency schemes are just about trying to make money through dodgy investments, they don’t care about their users.
Honest, proven, sustainable decentralised networks are nothing to do with blockchain/web3/cryptocurrency.
So, what is a true decentralised social network?
True decentralised networks are where many independent service providers talk to each other in a process known as “federation”, so that even people on totally different providers can still communicate. The Fediverse takes its name from this: it’s a Federated Universe of independent social network servers.
Federated networks have been around for centuries, and all of us have used them all our lives. The entire world is built around federated communications networks.
The postal service is federated, different post offices around the world exchange letters and parcels. You don’t need to use the German post office to send a letter to Germany, you just use your local postal service and they pass it on to their German equivalent. The traditional telephone network is federated, and so is email. That’s why you can make a call or send an email to someone else even if you’re using a completely different provider, because the providers on a federated network talk to each other.
Federated networks have been the default for human communications from the earliest days, since before computers or the internet even existed. It’s this sensible, sustainable, common sense tradition that the Fediverse is trying to bring to the modern social media world.
If a server does something awful like encouraging spam or allowing abuse or whatever, admins of other servers can block it, which is also known as “defederation”. The worse a server behaves, the more other server admins will block it, and the very worst-behaved servers will find themselves almost completely isolated from the network.
For example, in 2019 a notorious neo-Nazi group attempted to join the Fediverse, but so many other servers pre-emptively blocked them that the group gave up and abandoned its plans to federate. There was even one third party app which rickrolled anyone who attempted to use it to log onto the neo-Nazi server.
Perhaps the most confusing thing for new people on Mastodon and the wider Fediverse is that people are spread out on thousands of different servers. The servers talk to each other so that people on different servers can interact, and effectively they form a single giant network, but that begs the question: why? Why isn’t the Fediverse just all on one server, like other social networks?
The answer is that there are lots of important reasons why the Fediverse is on so many servers:
It makes it very difficult for anyone to buy the Fediverse out. There is no central server, so there’s no single thing anyone could purchase in order to take over the network. Twitter-Musk scenarios aren’t possible on a network that stays spread out on many servers.
It promotes higher quality moderation. Smaller servers tend to have higher quality moderation, because they have a much larger staff-to-member ratio. On massive servers, the number of staff per user is very low and the moderation quality tends to be much poorer.
It means each server can make its own rules, so if there are any disagreements people can move to a different server with different rules, or even start their own server with rules they write themselves.
Servers that find themselves in extreme disagreements over acceptable behaviour can disconnect from each other without disconnecting from the rest of the network.
If one server goes down or has technical problems, other servers keep working fine. Problems on one server don’t bring down the whole network.
Servers don’t all have to use the same software. This diversity means if one kind of software doesn’t work properly, it doesn’t affect the whole network, and servers can switch to other software if they want. The diversity also allows servers to specialise in particular kinds of content for users who just want particular features, for example PeerTube specialises in video publishing, BookWyrm in book reviews etc.
It’s now much cheaper and easier than most people realise, it starts from about 5 to 10 euros or dollars per month for a small server.
There are three main ways to start your own server on Mastodon and the Fediverse, depending on your technical skill level:
If you’re non-technical, you can use a managed hosting provider. The hosting company does all the technical stuff for you behind the scenes in return for a monthly fee, but the server belongs to you and you have total control over it through the web interface. You can find out more about managed hosting on my website Grow Your Own Services ⧉.
If you’re moderately technical, you might want to use Yunohost ⧉ which lets you install and manage a wide range of online services (including Fediverse servers) through a graphical interface. This option does require you to know how to install a server OS though.
If you’re very technical, all Fediverse platforms (including Mastodon) have manual installation instructions in their documentation which you can use.
Once your server is set up, you can follow people on other servers and they can follow you.
Should I set up my own server?
It’s much easier to join someone else’s server, but it’s really important that creating your own server is there as an option. Here’s an article on my other site about why someone might want to run their own server ⧉.
I’m interested, but I don’t know anything about this topic. Is there anywhere I can get advice?
Yes! I run a website at GrowYourOwn.Services ⧉ which is aimed at non-technical people who are interested in making their own online sites and services. This includes Mastodon and other kinds of Fediverse servers, and there’s an in-depth step-by-step guide to making your own Mastodon server ⧉. The site doesn’t have any connection to the providers mentioned, so it can give advice freely on what is possible.
There are also guides for Fediverse admins on Fedi.Tips, just go to the front page and scroll to the section marked Running your own server on Mastodon and the Fediverse at the bottom of the screen.
Do I need to make a public server that anyone can sign up on?
No. In fact it’s probably a bad idea to start out with a public server, as they can bring a very complicated set of responsibilities and moderation workload. It’s much easier to start out with a personal server where you’re the only member. There is more about this in the step-by-step guide ⧉.
I set up my own server but it’s hard to pull content in! What can I do?
Because the Fediverse is a network of totally independent servers, there is no central organisation setting rules.
Each server creates its own rules for acceptable behaviour, and that server’s admin team is able to enforce it through moderation tools. Usually the owner of a server sets the server’s rules, although some servers consult their members about what should be allowed.
If you’re on a computer, click the “About” link in the bottom left of the screen. If you’re on a phone, click the ⋯ icon on the right.
You will be taken to the server’s info page, scroll down the page until you get to a section marked Server Rules and click this to open it.
Also, everyone who signs up on a server sees that server rules as part of the signup process.
Are rules written in weird legal language? Are they human-readable?
It will vary from server to server, but usually server rules are relatively brief and written in plain language.
What kind of rules are typical on servers?
Most servers will have rules against bigotry, abuse, threats etc, but it is totally up to a server’s owner to decide. That’s why it’s important to check a server’s rules before you sign up or transfer an account, as they are not all the same and it’s best to know the kind of place you are joining.
How do I find servers with nice humane rules?
You can find servers which obey certain standards of responsible moderation over on Fedi.Tips’s sister site Fedi.Garden ⧉.
How are server rules enforced? What happens if an offender is on another server?
If the rule-breaker’s account is on an admin’s server, the admin can issue a warning, limit the account in some way, suspend the account temporarily or even delete the account permanently.
If the rule-breaker is on another server, admins can limit or totally block specific remote accounts from communicating with their server.
How do server admins and moderators find out about rule breaking?
Most of the time admins rely on ordinary people reporting bad stuff going on. If you’re reporting bad behaviour by someone from another server, the reporting form on Mastodon will include the option to forward the report to the other server’s admin anonymously.
What if I disagree with a rule? What if a rule is unclear?
You can ask the owner(s) of your server if you have any comments or questions about the server’s rules. Bear in mind though that the owners have the last word on what is allowed because they own the server, and in some countries server owners are legally responsible for what goes on there.
If you are unhappy with how your server is run and unable to get any satisfactory response from the admin, you can transfer your account to another server without losing your follows or followers.
What if a server fails to moderate its own members properly?
If another server is consistently full of problematic accounts and refuses to do anything about them, admins on responsible servers can defederate such badly-run servers. Defederation cuts off all communications in both directions, and means servers full of bullies or trolls or spammers tend to end up isolated because so many other servers defederate them.
Is it possible to run a server jointly, owned by its members?
Yes! Some servers are owned and run jointly by co-operatives, where the members vote on what should happen and what the rules should be. All real world ownership structures such as co-ops can be applied to online services very easily.
No single person or company or organisation owns the Fediverse or Mastodon. Its ownership is spread throughout the thousands of independent servers that make up the network.
No one can buy out the Fediverse or Mastodon because there is no single thing that could be bought, it would be like trying to buy out the global phone network. The Fedi is made up of thousands of independently owned and run servers, which makes it extremely difficult or impossible for anyone to purchase it.
Most Fedi servers belong to unpaid volunteers, or non-profit community groups and co-ops. The running costs are covered by the server owners themselves and donations from their users. There are no investors, no venture capital firms, no ads, no trackers.
Companies can start their own Fedi server if they want to, anyone can, but all they would control is their own server. They would have no control over the thousands of other servers out there.
The Fediverse is built on free and open source software, made by many independent groups, and the software copyrights are licensed in such a way that no company or organisation could ever take control of them.
I thought Mastodon belonged to some guy called Gargron or Eugen or something?
The software which runs on most Mastodon servers is developed by a non-profit software organisation in Germany called Mastodon gGmbH, which is run by Eugen Rochko (also known as “Gargron”). The non-profit publishes this software under a free open source licence so anyone can use it, distribute it or modify it. Many of the contributions made to the software are from people outside the non-profit, so this open licence is of benefit to everyone.
Rochko’s non-profit also runs two Mastodon servers (mastodon.social and mastodon.online) and the JoinMastodon.org promotional website, but they do not own or have any control over any other servers. Also, many Fediverse servers run on totally different kinds of software which aren’t made by Rochko’s non-profit.
What about the apps? Who owns them?
The “official” apps for Mastodon are made by Rochko’s non-profit and are aimed at new users. However, the third party Mastodon apps have been around a lot longer than the official ones, and tend to be better designed with more features. You can use your Mastodon account (and many non-Mastodon Fediverse accounts) with any of these apps, you don’t have to use the official ones.
The “official” Mastodon apps have no technical advantages over third party apps, they all have equal access to Mastodon’s features.
I thought apps and social networks were the same thing?
In recent years companies like Meta/Facebook and Twitter have attempted to drive people onto their official apps in order to control their experience more tightly. This has happened to such an extent that many people now refer to social networks as “apps”.
There used to be many third party Facebook and Twitter apps you could use, but the corporations who own Facebook and Twitter didn’t like this lack of control so they gradually started to block all other apps from their services except their own. Because Facebook and Twitter are built on closed standards and based on single servers, there was nothing the third party app makers could do about it.
Mastodon and the Fediverse are different, they are built entirely on open standards and spread across thousands of independent servers. That means no one can force you to use a particular app, you can choose from many different apps and they will all work with your account. Any company or programmer can make a new Mastodon/Fediverse app if they want to, and there are no restrictions on the features they can provide.
The servers on the Fediverse talk to each other, which means that even people on different servers can follow each other and communicate. Think of it like your telephone: you only need one phone with one SIM card to call anyone in the world.
To put it another way:
You don’t need phones for every phone network, because the world’s phone networks talk to each other.
You don’t need email accounts on every email provider, because the world’s email providers talk to each other.
You don’t need an account for every Fediverse server, because the world’s Fediverse servers talk to each other.
The reason these are all true is because phones, email and the Fediverse all operate on similarly structured federated networks.
(If your account is new and you don’t have any followers yet, don’t bother doing all this! Just sign up on the server you want and delete your old account. These instructions are for people who have followers and want to keep them.)
You can migrate your Mastodon account to another server if you want. Moving lets you keep your followers, follows, bookmarks, lists, mutes, blocks and domain blocks.
The instructions below might seem a bit complicated as they combine several different procedures together, but you only have to do these things once per migration.
You should use the websites of your old and new servers, as these contain all the features needed to do a transfer. (You can’t do a transfer via the apps at the moment.)
Why would I want to transfer my account?
There are many different reasons why people might transfer their account to a different server. The most common reasons are:
Moving to a server with better moderation
Moving to a server that is technically more reliable
Moving to a server where the community and/or rules fit your needs better
Wanting to use extra features on a different server such as larger character limits, rich text, local-only post visibilities etc.
Having to leave a server because it is closing down (this is why well-run servers promise to give several months warning if they ever close down, so people have time to transfer their accounts elsewhere)
There are also automated sites available with much wider selections of servers, but they may not be as reliable because they aren’t having to provide commitments to minimum standards. It’s safer to use a human-curated server list.
Before you do the transfer, make a note of your followed hashtags and filters
Followed hashtags and timeline filters aren’t currently transferred, so if you want to keep them you’ll need to make a note of your existing hashtag follows and filters before the transfer, then set them up manually on the new account after the transfer.
To see your current followed hashtags, go to your profile, click on ︙ and then Followed hashtags. To see your current filters go to Preferences > Filters.
How to transfer your account to the new server
This is a step-by-step guide to transferring your account from one Mastodon server to another. It’s a bit long because it combines several different guides into one list, but it takes care of everything in one go.
If you just want to transfer your followers (people who follow you) and you don’t care about transferring anything else, you can skip steps 1-3 and go straight to step 4.
Create a new account on the server you want to move to, but DO NOT delete the old account.
On your OLD account, go to your old server’s website and log in. Click on ⚙️ Preferences, then Import And Export, then Data Export and download all the “CSV” files one file at a time by clicking on the CSV icons. However, DO NOT press the archive request button! Archive request has got nothing to do with transfers. (You of course may want to separately request an archive just so you have a personal copy of an account’s contents. This is especially relevant if your old server is closing down.) Also note that there is no CSV for followers, as they are handled by a seprate process explained in steps 4 to 6 below.
Log into your NEW account on the new server’s website. Click on ⚙️ Preferences, then Import And Export, then Import and upload the CSV files one at a time (the files which you just downloaded in the previous step). When you’re doing the uploading, select the file type for each CSV file from the drop-down menu before you upload it, for example select “Bookmarks” if you’re uploading the bookmarks file.
On your NEW account, go to your new server’s website and log in. Go to ⚙️ Preferences > Account > Moving From A Different Account at the bottom of the screen, click on Create an account alias and follow the instructions. (When it asks you to write your old account’s handle, it needs to include the @ at the start as well as the @ in the middle.)
After you’ve finished the previous step, wait at least five minutes. The previous step can take a while for the server to actually carry out, and it’s important that it happens before you continue. While you’re waiting, you might want to optionally change your OLD account’s name to say “(YOUR OLD ACCOUNT NAME HERE) has moved” and change your OLD profile text to tell people your new account address. You don’t technically have to do this, but it helps make extra-sure that everyone can see you’ve moved.
When you’ve finished waiting, log into your OLD account on the old server’s website, go to ⚙️ Preferences > Account > Move To A Different Account (also at the bottom of the screen), click on Configure it here and follow the instructions. This will start transferring your followers to the new account. The accounts won’t transfer all in one go, they will come across in waves depending on how busy their own servers are. Some of your followers will automatically follow your new account straight away, while others may take hours (or in extreme cases even days!).
Even after the transfer, DO NOT delete your old account. It’s best to leave it where it is, because it will redirect people to your new account and leave your old posts intact. Your old posts will redirect people to your new account as long as you don’t delete the old account.
Make sure you do all these steps in the correct order. If you miss stuff out or do things in the wrong order, the transfer may fail or be incomplete.
After doing all these steps, your old account will redirect to the new one, and your followers, follows, bookmarks, mutes and blocks will transfer automatically. There may be a delay on some items transferring, do not worry if this happens.
This seems way too complicated, can I skip some steps?
If you only want to move your followers (people who follow you) and don’t care about transferring anything else, skip steps 1 to 3 and go straight to step 4.
I’ve clicked on ⚙️ Preferences but I can’t see the options you’re talking about?
If you’re using your server’s website on a phone, after you’ve clicked ⚙️ Preferences you may have to then click ☰ in the top right corner to see all the options within Preferences.
What happens to my old profile after the move?
After you confirm the move in step 6 above, your old account profile will automatically turn black and white, people will not be able to follow it, and there will be a notice on top of it telling people that you have moved your account to a new address, along with a link to your new account’s profile.
However, not every Fediverse app shows this automatic notice, and it may be a good idea to also add a manually-created note of the new account address. See step 5 of the procedure for more info on how to do this.
How long does it take for all my followers to transfer over?
Most people on your follower list should transfer over in a few hours, but for some of your followers it may take days or weeks to automatically follow your new account. There’s nothing you can do to speed this up, because it depends on how busy their server is and how many tasks it has to do before it gets to your follower’s update. Busier servers may have longer processing queues and take longer to handle follower transfers.
However, your followers can skip this queue by manually following your new account. It won’t cause any problems if they do this. You can encourage them to follow your new account manually if you prefer.
I did the transfer but there are still some followers on my old account. How do I bring them over to the new account?
If there are still followers on your old account after 30 days, you can do the procedure below to bring the remaining followers over to the new account. This won’t affect followers who have already been transferred, they will remain on your new account whatever happens.
To transfer followers that are still on your old account:
Log into your OLD server’s website or web app, this should take you straight to the old account’s settings page (if it doesn’t, try logging out and then logging in again, and do this on a desktop computer or tablet in horizontal mode rather than a phone)
Scroll down to the section marked Move to a different account and click the Configure it here link
Click Cancel redirect at the top of the screen
Scroll down to the Move to a different account section and enter your NEW account’s account address and your OLD account’s password
Click the Move Followers button
Your remaining followers should then start transferring over to your new account. Just like the first time, this second attempt may take days to finish. If there are still some followers on the old account after another 30 days, you can do it a third time etc.
The reason for the 30 day “cooldown” period is to give the first transfer time to work, as some servers do take days or weeks to get round to processing follower transfer requests.
Note that a small proportion of your followers may be on broken servers which aren’t processing transfer requests. There’s nothing you can do to transfer such followers, but that kind of situation is rare.
Why don’t the followers all transfer on the first go? And why do some followers never transfer even after repeating the process several times?
There are lots of reason why a follower might not immediately transfer to your new account when you start the transfer process:
They are already following your new account, and the transfer process hasn’t removed their follow from the old account.
Their server is down temporarily, the transfer should succeed automatically later.
Their server is unusually busy and isn’t currently handling automatic transfer requests.
Their server is down permanently. This means they can never be transferred. You can check if a follower’s server is down by visiting its original page.
Their server’s settings are incorrect, and this is messing up the transfer process.
Their account is deleted, but for some reason it’s still visible from your server.
Their account is on a server which uses software that isn’t compatible with the automatic transfer process. You will have to ask them to transfer their follow manually.
Your new account’s server has defederated the server of the old account’s follower, and this is preventing the transfer.
It’s worth trying to do the process again after 30 days because some of your followers on the old server will be ones that just had temporary barriers (such as a temporary fault on their server). But don’t worry too much if some followers remain stubbornly on the old account, because they are probably either following your new account already or their accounts no longer exist.
What happens to my old posts? Do they transfer over as well?
Your old posts cannot be transferred. However, your old posts will still exist on the old server, as long as you don’t delete your old account. Also, your old posts will redirect people to your new account if people click on the username above the post.
If you absolutely have to delete your old account for some reason, you can do so, but it will mean all your old posts will disappear and people will find it more difficult to find your new account.
If you want to make sure your content is completely under your control forever, you can start your own server for around US$8 a month on a managed hosting service ⧉. Managed hosting means the hosting company does all the technical stuff behind the scenes, so you don’t have to be a techy person to use this option.
Does the new account I’m transferring to have to be empty?
It doesn’t have to be empty. You can transfer your account to any other account, including accounts that already have followers.
Can I transfer my account if one of the servers is blocking the other?
Yes, but it requires a bit of patience.
If one server is blocking another, it prevents accounts being transferred directly between them. However, if you can find a neutral third server which isn’t blocked by either your old or new server, you can transfer your account to the third server temporarily, and then later transfer your account from the third server to the new server you wanted to go to in the first place.
Note that you’ll have to wait for your followers to transfer over to the neutral third server before you can go on to the new server. Think of it like booking a flight: a direct flight to your destination isn’t available, so you have to have an extended stopover on the way.
I keep getting an error message saying “something isn’t quite right yet!” when I try to enter my old account address on the new server.
If you are 100% sure you have entered the address correctly, then the error is possibly due to one of the servers blocking the other. See the tip above this for how to work around this problem.
Why isn’t there a CSV file for followers?
CSV files are easy to copy and upload to multiple different accounts. This makes CSVs unsuitable for transferring followers, as they could be misused to clone followers onto an unlimited number of other accounts.
Can I go back to my old account if I change my mind?
Yes. As long as you don’t delete your old account, and as long as the server it is on is still functioning, you can always go back to your old account and cancel the redirect.
To go back to your old account:
Log into the website or web app of your old server with your old account’s details
This should take you to a settings page with a message at the top saying the account is inactive
Click on the Cancel redirect link in the message at the top
Followers you transferred to the new account will remain on the new account even if you cancel the redirect, but you can transfer them back from the new account to the old account if you want by using the normal transfer process in reverse.
Can I go back to the new account again if I change my mind about going back to the old account?
Yes, you can go back and forth between accounts if you want, and transfer your followers back and forth too.
However, there will be a cooldown period of 30 days between such transfers. Also, if you do this a lot some people may get confused, and you may lose a few followers if they are on servers that aren’t handling transfers properly.
I tried uploading my data and it won’t recognise it! It says “Invalid CSV File”. What’s happening?
It sounds like you’re trying to upload your account archive file, which is not used in account transfers. The layout of the data export page is a bit misleading, transfers only involve the individual CSV links. The archive request button is not used in account transfers. (If you want to find out more about archives, see the guide to Mastodon post archives here.)
Click on the server you want, this will take you to the server’s own website where you can do the actual signing up.
Once you have signed up, you can log in on that server’s website, or if you prefer you can use it through a Mastodon app.
Also remember that if you pick the wrong server, you can always transfer your account to another server (including your follows and followers). It’s not a permanent decision, you can always move elsewhere if you want.
How do I find out more about a server before signing up?
If you click on a server on Fedi.Garden, that will take you to the front page of the server’s website. You can then find out more by clicking the ⋯ icon (on the mobile website) or the About link in the bottom left corner (on the desktop website).
If you’re finding a server via JoinMastodon.org, it will take you straight to a sign-up page. Click the link marked Back at the bottom of the sign-up page to go to the server’s front page, and you can then click ⋯ or About to find out more about it.
Do I need to sign up via the official Mastodon app?
No. Each server is totally independent, you can sign up directly on the server’s website without having anything to do with the app. Once you’re signed up, you can use that account on any Mastodon app you want.
I tried to log in on the official Mastodon app but it didn’t show my server? How do I log in?
To log in on the official Mastodon app with your server:
If you have already created your account on the server’s website, click on Log in at the bottom of the title screen
Type your server’s name in full in the search box. Don’t worry if the automatic suggestions don’t match, just keep typing! When you have finished typing your entire server name in full, it will show it below.
When your server appears below, click on it and then click Continue. This will open a special browser window where you can sign in on your server.
Sign in with your email address and password.
Click Authorize. (This screen is just your server’s way of asking you if it is okay for your app to use your account.)
That’s it, you should now be logged in with your account on the official Mastodon app.
You don’t have to use the official app, most people find that third party apps are better, but they will all have a similar process for signing in with your account.
I’m moving my account from elsewhere. Do I still need to sign up for a new account?
Yes, even if you’re moving you still need to sign up on the server you want to move to. The process of transferring accounts will ask you where you want to move to, and this is when you tell it about your new account.
Are all Fediverse servers listed on Fedi.Garden and JoinMastodon.org?
No. There are thousands of servers in total on the Fediverse, and only a small fraction are listed on these curated sites. The reason these sites only list a small fraction is because they need to meet certain minimum standards ⧉ and also be open for sign-ups. Some servers are closed to sign-ups, or don’t meet the standards, or they just don’t want to be listed on curated sites.
Also, in the case of JoinMastodon.org, it only shows Mastodon servers but there are many non-Mastodon servers on the Fediverse too. Fedi.Garden shows some non-Mastodon servers too.
Help! This server list is really overwhelming me with choice!
If you’re not sure where to sign up, just sign up on a general server from one of the human-curated lists above.
I found an automated Fediverse server list with huge numbers of servers listed! Should I use it to find a server to sign up on?
No. Automated lists just show every server they can find, regardless of whether it is reliable or safe. Automated lists are mainly designed just to show info about the entire Fediverse, rather than suggest servers to sign up on.
Simplified diagram of the Fediverse, showing many kinds of social media servers connected together
If you call someone on an ordinary phone, your phone provider will connect to the phone provider of the person you’re calling. You don’t need to be on the same provider to call someone. This works worldwide and seamlessly, because all the hundreds of phone providers in the world talk to each other. From the user’s point of view, it’s as if all phones in the world are on the same network.
The Fediverse (or “Fedi”) is basically the same idea, but for social media. The Fediverse is a collection of thousands of independent social media servers that talk to each other seamlessly. This means that the millions of users on these servers can interact with each other as if they were on a single social network.
There are many kinds of Fediverse servers, often with a specific purpose such as photo sharing, video sharing, livestreaming, book clubs etc. Although the various types of servers work very differently, they talk to each other with a common technical standard called ActivityPub. The common standard means people on totally different kinds of servers can follow and interact with each other seamlessly.
In fact, the process of interacting with other servers is so seamless, most people don’t even notice that they are communicating with other servers!
Could you give some examples of this in action? How do different kinds of servers interact?
Let’s suppose someone has an account on a Mastodon server, which means they have a Twitter-style timeline and features. They can create short posts, follow other people, reply to posts, share posts, like posts etc. That person can follow and interact with accounts from other Mastodon servers, but they can also follow accounts from completely different kinds of Fediverse servers too.
For example, if they follow a video account from PeerTube, videos from the PeerTube account will appear in their Mastodon timeline just like Mastodon posts do. If they reply to one of these video posts in their timeline on Mastodon, that reply will also appear as a comment below that video on PeerTube.
There are many other kinds of server on the Fediverse, such as Pixelfed for photos, BookWyrm for reviewing books, WordPress for writing blogs etc. All of them can be followed and interacted with from Mastodon accounts.
I thought the Fediverse and Mastodon were the same thing? Where does the word “Fediverse” come from?
Mastodon is currently the most popular kind of Fediverse server, but it’s just one kind. There are many other kinds, communicating through a common standard to form a single network. The collective term for this network of compatible servers is “The Fediverse”, which is short for “Federated Universe”. There’s a short video about the Fediverse ⧉ which sums up its nature.
