mastodon

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The threat of toxic content on decentralised social media platforms
2 months ago
- Mastodon is a decentralized microblogging platform where anyone can create their own instance or community.
- Instances can be isolated or federated, allowing posts to be visible across the network.
- There are about eight thousand Mastodon instances, each with its own moderation policies, leading to inconsistent content standards.
- Toxic content can spread freely across federated instances due to the lack of platform-wide moderation.
- Research indicates toxic content is becoming more prevalent on Mastodon, despite many users migrating to escape toxicity on other platforms.
- Decentralization offers advantages like no single entity controlling the network, but it also enables the spread of unwanted content.
- Finding a solution to toxic content on Mastodon is challenging because of its decentralized nature.
Beej's Bit Bucket
2 months ago
- The author removed Disqus comments from their blog because Disqus ended its free ad-free option, making it not worth the cost for low usage.
- They replaced Disqus with a system that pulls comments from Mastodon, leveraging the overlap between Mastodon users and their blog readers.
- The solution uses Mastodon's public API to fetch comments as JSON without authentication, then JavaScript parses the data and builds the comment HTML.
- The Mastodon post ID is embedded in the static HTML via a placeholder that gets replaced during site generation using a shell script.
- Comments are loaded on user click (not on page load) to reduce server load, and the function fetch() retrieves the JSON from the API endpoint.
- Each comment displays the user's avatar, display name, account name, content (already HTML-encoded), and media attachments as simple links with emoji icons.
- A blacklist feature allows filtering out specific comments or accounts by storing IDs in an environment variable, which is converted to a JavaScript Set for filtering.
- The deployment process involves a chicken-and-egg problem: the blog must be live before linking from Mastodon, then the post ID is used to rebuild and redeploy the blog entry.
- This is the first post using the new comment system, so the author is testing it for breakages.
Self-hosting your Mastodon media with SeaweedFS
2 months ago
- Mastodon 4.5.0 introduces changes that may encourage self-hosting Fediverse communities.
- Media storage is a critical decision due to local caching, security, and privacy benefits.
- The author recommends self-hosted S3-compatible storage, specifically SeaweedFS for better performance with small files.
- Detailed setup steps include creating a FreeBSD jail, installing SeaweedFS, configuring buckets and users, and setting up an Nginx reverse proxy.
- Mastodon configuration involves setting S3_ENABLED and related variables in .env.prod to point to the SeaweedFS server.
Aggressive caching for a Mastodon reverse proxy: what to cache, what to never cache, and why content negotiation will eventually betray you
2 months ago
- Mastodon serves different content (HTML, ActivityPub JSON, API JSON) for the same URL based on the Accept header, requiring careful cache key normalization.
- The cache key must include a normalized variant of the Accept header to prevent serving the wrong content type to clients.
- Key assumptions: AUTHORIZED_FETCH disabled, no signed URLs, federation uses HTTP Signatures (not Authorization header).
- Bypass cache logic is decomposed into small orthogonal maps for method, authorization, cookie, and URI patterns.
- Short TTLs (10–30 seconds) are used for dynamic public endpoints, while immutable assets have TTLs of days.
- proxy_cache_lock prevents thundering herds, and proxy_cache_use_stale enables stale-while-revalidate for static assets.
- The Vary header from upstream is ignored, and the proxy takes full responsibility for correct content negotiation.
- Logging includes cache status and variant bucket to verify behavior in production.
- Caveats include: short TTLs cost CPU, stale-while-revalidate can hide problems, AUTHORIZED_FETCH changes caching rules, and Set-Cookie responses must never be cached.
- The main goal is to reduce requests reaching Puma/Rails by absorbing repetitive public traffic at the proxy layer.
Mastodon, the Only Good Choice
3 months ago
- The essay argues that now is a good time to leave declining social media platforms, recommending Mastodon as a better alternative.
- Mastodon is decentralized, akin to email, with no single owner, no ads, and allows migration between servers without losing followers.
- Users report more meaningful interaction and conversation on Mastodon compared to other platforms, despite potentially smaller follower counts.
- The platform supports diverse content, including sex-positive and NSFW material, with content warnings to manage visibility.
- Moderation is server-based, with tools like defederation to combat abuse, encouraging a healthier community environment.
- Mastodon features link previews, good search functionality, and a variety of open-source client apps, enhancing usability.
- Its algorithm prioritizes chronological posts from followed accounts, avoiding engagement-driven feeds, with potential for future improvements.
- Funded by nonprofits and community support, Mastodon lacks profit motives, making it resilient and sustainable compared to venture-backed platforms.
- Bluesky is criticized for centralization and reliance on venture capital, which may lead to enshittification through ads or business pressures.
- The essay concludes that Mastodon is the only viable decentralized, non-owned social media option offering a fun and interactive experience.

mastodon

The threat of toxic content on decentralised social media platforms

Beej's Bit Bucket

Self-hosting your Mastodon media with SeaweedFS

Aggressive caching for a Mastodon reverse proxy: what to cache, what to never cache, and why content negotiation will eventually betray you

Mastodon, the Only Good Choice