Due to the decentralised nature of Mastodon, finding people to follow may be easier on large Mastodon servers but on smaller ones may require some looking around outside your server. In particular if you are joining a new server or smaller server that will be the case most often than not. If you have just installed a brand new Mastodon … Read More
Access to backups
I have been “Flintstoning” Masto.host for over 4 years. Over time, I have automated much of the installation, deletion, backup and maintenance of the Masto.host platform but every single interaction on the current platform was carried out by me. This never represented a major issue for me and, in fact, it came with some benefits but there was one thing … Read More
About the Mastodon v3.4.3 upgrade
When I upgraded the Masto.host platform to Mastodon version 3.4.3, by mistake I changed to the `main` branch. Meaning there are several “unannounced” features that are now live for every Mastodon server hosted on Masto.host. Upon finding out, I had two options, either rollback to v3.4.1 and doing the proper upgrade or just leave it on the `main` branch for … Read More
New CDN for media files
I have decided to move the CDN of media files to BunnyCDN. This will change the URL for media files being served via CDN from: https://cf.mastohost.com/v1/AUTH_XXX/YOUR_CONTAINER to: https://cdn.masto.host/YOUR_CONTAINER The old URLs will still work. I will probably redirect them in the future. If you asked to disable the CDN in the past, it will continue disabled but you can request … Read More
Testing custom code to fight spam registration on Mastodon
Registration spam is a tricky problem. The common solution is to present a CAPTCHA but I do understand the hesitation to implement them and I also don’t like it. CAPTCHAs are an ugly solution, they bring the burden of a problem to the end user and cause problems with accessibility. Also, creating a good CAPTCHA that is not dependent on … Read More
Mastodon usernames different from the domain used for installation
By default when you install Mastodon on a domain, or subdomain, that will determine how the username of users on that Mastodon server will be. Example, if you install Mastodon on social.example.com a user on that server will be @myusername@social.example.com. This can be changed and you can install Mastodon on social.example.com but have your username be @myusername@example.com or even @myusername@differentdomain.com … Read More
New changes to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
In recent months I have noticed a small number of communities start that are around topics that for me are problematic and that I don’t want to be part in helping move to the Fediverse. So, I have included the following on the Terms of Service under “I will also not accept Mastodon servers that are mainly used for the … Read More
Custom processing of videos and GIFs
Masto.host server resources are shared between Mastodon servers. This offers some optimisation in terms of resource usage for concurrent active users, as people access at different times and peak active users per Mastodon server is very different depending on the location of most of its users. Still, the sharing of resources also causes a problem in terms of federation. When … Read More
New 2020 plans for Masto.host
I decided to create a new Pricing structure for Masto.host plans. Nothing will change for current subscriptions and you can use them at the same price and conditions to which you subscribed. Also, if you have an active subscription using the former plans, you will still be able to upgrade and downgrade using the old plans, plus the option to … Read More
Privacy Policy Changes
I have made the following changes to the Privacy Policy: The following line changed from : “I currently rely on two sub-processors MailGun and OVH.” to “I currently rely on four sub-processors MailGun, CloudFlare, ClouDNS and OVH.”. I added the following: CloudFlare provides CDN (Content Delivery Network) for media files. The usage of a CDN is intended to improve load … Read More