Hello, friends! Last month was momentous and exciting: we announced a new organisation structure; Eugen changed roles; and, we also announced a new path for donors to support us in Europe, thanks to fiscal sponsorship from WE AID.
Alongside these changes, we’ve also started ...
We are happy to announce fiscal sponsorship via WE AID, a German nonprofit organisation that supports charitable projects within an established legal framework. This move is part of Mastodon’s transformation.
This partnership offers donors tax-deductible contributions in Ger...
Earlier this year, we announced that Mastodon would be transitioning its legal and operational structures to better reflect our mission.
Today, we’re marking another momentous step in this ongoing process as our Founder and now former CEO Eugen Rochko begins his transition i...
After nearly 10 years, I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon and transferring my ownership of the trademark and other assets to the Mastodon non-profit. Over the course of my time at Mastodon, I have centered myself less and less in our outward communications, and to som...
We started the Trunk & Tidbits series to provide greater visibility into what we’re building, and the decisions that go into making Mastodon. At the start of October, we published our ideas on an upcoming feature - that we’re temporarily describing as “Packs”, or collect...
Mastodon 4.5 has arrived, with enhanced conversations across communities, expanded moderator tools, and new ways for admins to showcase their server communities. Read on for more details.
As always, if you use mastodon.social, you may already have seen some of the updates as...
Update October 31: Added a missing section about new timeline settings.
Mastodon 4.5 is almost ready. We just released the first (and hopefully only) release candidate, and the final release should be coming along very soon. This is once again a good time to highlight some o...
Last year, we launched our first batch of plushies, and our community has embraced the #Plushtodon literally and figuratively. It sold out in Europe within a few weeks. Sadly, that means a lot of you missed out on the chance to get one. We’ve listened to your feedback and de...
Hello! September was an exciting month, as we started to enable the ability to create Quote Posts on mastodon.social and mastodon.online (and, they also started to show up on other servers that run nightly builds of Mastodon). Coming to stable releases, very soon now!
Releas...
Background
Mastodon’s timeline doesn’t rely on dopamine-driven algorithms – it is chronological and consent-based, showing only posts from accounts you (the person using Mastodon) have followed.
This focus on privacy and conscious consumption is what leads many people to joi...
In a recent post, we shared that one of our priorities for 2025 is to establish a more sustainable financial base for the Mastodon organisation.
In 2024, Mastodon gGmbH took over hosting of the European Commission’s Mastodon service. We also signed a support contract with th...
Over the years, we’ve learned just how essential quoting is to many of you. When done responsibly, quoting allows us to expand discussions, make new connections, and amplify underrepresented voices.
Quoting is a powerful tool, and like any tool, it can be misused. That’s why...
Welcome to the 17th edition of Trunk & Tidbits: your monthly update from inside the Mastodon core engineering team. Let’s get into what we were working on in August 2025.
It has been summertime in the northern hemisphere, and various team members have been taking time aw...
It’s time for another recap of project progress, particularly from the engineering side of the team. Welcome!
News
In July, we announced that we’d be running a donation campaign in our mobile apps, visible to people on the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers. This is...
For too long, the internet has been shaped by platforms funded by venture capital and advertising. The Fediverse is testament to a different kind of social media: one built for its users, not corporate interests. This independence is what makes Mastodon and the wider Fediver...
It was another busy month in June, as we moved into the final stretch of the 4.4 release process. We also covered a lot of events during the month. Here’s what was happening.
Team
We welcomed Imani to the team, as our new designer. Very excited to have Imani join us!
We also...
Mastodon 4.4 is here, bringing you new ways to showcase yourself, manage your growing network, and enjoy what’s in your timeline. Administrators and moderators also gain new tools for keeping communities safe.
As always, if you use mastodon.social, you may already have seen ...
Mastodon 4.4 is just around the corner: the release candidate is now available, and the final release should be coming along very soon. Just before the final version arrives, we wanted to shine a spotlight on some of the new features and changes that will be particularly imp...
This week is UN Open Source Week, and we’re happy to share that today, Mastodon was added to the Digital Public Goods Alliance’s DPG Registry.
A goal of the DPGA is to promote digital public goods in order to create a more equitable world. Being recognised as a DPG increases...
We’re already well into 2025, and it has been a huge start to the year for Mastodon. We want to bring you an overdue update on exactly what we’re working on, from a strategic perspective.
Mastodon’s mission is to ensure that our online social spaces belong to the people fore...
Hello again! Thank you for reading our monthly engineering team update, we’re happy to share what we’ve been working on.
Events
We had a busy May, with several events that we participated in, or organized. The biggest one was re:publica in Berlin, where several members of th...
Mastodon’s core purpose is to connect you with your friends and communities, to have conversations that matter to you.
Communities need some ground rules; and, on the internet, we also need to be aware of any regulations that are relevant where our services are being operate...
This edition of Trunk & Tidbits marks the one year anniversary of our monthly development updates 🎉
Back at the beginning of 2024, we discussed how regular communication needed to be a part of our team’s culture, as a commitment to the people who help to make Mastodon wh...
As Mastodon continues to evolve and grow, we’re excited to announce several changes to our team (and also, to offer a brief update on our restructuring).
Restructuring Progress
We’re currently forming a new foundation in Europe as a new home for the project and its assets. T...
Greetings! We’re back, with our monthly update from the Mastodon engineering team.
Remember how last month was a bit lighter for news? Well, this time, we are making up for it and have a lot to share! Take a look below for team updates, some significant new features, and upd...
Hello again. Thanks for checking out our latest engineering updates. We hope that our monthly updates help you follow what we’ve been working on, and where we’re headed. This is a slightly lighter entry in the series, although there was plenty happening. At the start of the ...
Quote Posts are a popular feature of many social media platforms. They offer the ability to share another person’s post to one’s own followers, while adding a comment.
We want to share our thinking process in implementing Quote Posts in Mastodon, and explain why it has taken...
Welcome back to our technical blog series: Trunk & Tidbits. This is where we share updates on what the development team has been working on, and what we have planned for the future. This month we have a lot to tell you about, including a brief recap of our time at FOSDEM...
For any enquiry regarding this announcement, please contact press@joinmastodon.org
Mastodon was founded on the principles that people should be able to control their social circle online, curate their own timeline, and convene freely with any community of their choosing. We ...
A belated “happy 2025!” wish, from the Mastodon team (although, if you’ve been paying attention, there has been some important news already this month). We’re a little later than planned in posting a summary of the work that happened during December, but let’s get into it.
L...
