ReportWire

Tag: open social web

  • Mastodon has a new plan to make money: Hosting and support services for the open social web | TechCrunch

    [ad_1]

    Mastodon, the non-profit organization that maintains the software powering the decentralized alternative to social networks like Threads and X, has a new plan to make money.

    Instead of relying entirely on donations and grants as before, the company announced this morning it will now offer paid hosting, moderation, and support services for organizations that want to join the open social web.

    That network, also called the fediverse, offers a way for individuals and organizations to set up their own servers that interconnect with others that run the same protocol, ActivityPub.

    ActivityPub powers a number of different software applications, including Mastodon, Meta’s Threads, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Misskey, Lemmy, and others, and has been integrated into larger platforms like WordPress, Ghost, and Drupal through plugins.

    While anyone can establish an account on a public Mastodon server, some organizations and entities would prefer to run their own so they can set their own rules and manage the service as they see fit. However, server setup and management require at least some technical knowledge. It’s comparable, perhaps, to deciding to run your own installation of WordPress versus opting for a hosted version of WordPress from a service like WordPress.com, Bluehost, DreamHost, or others.

    To solve this problem and potentially generate revenue to maintain its operations, Mastodon will launch hosting services. Customers can choose to run their own servers through this model, where Mastodon’s team will manage the servers and optionally offer moderation services.

    Techcrunch event

    San Francisco
    |
    October 27-29, 2025

    Another option will see Mastodon offering support contracts to aid with customers’ in-house tech teams focused on server management and maintenance. The latter would be an option for those companies and organizations that already have their own IT department, but are new to running Mastodon’s federated software.

    Mastodon says the servers it’s offering often operate accounts for brands or institutions, and are not general-purpose servers with external, open sign-ups.

    The company did not share its pricing, noting it offers a custom billing model that’s flexible, depending on the options they select, like hosting, support, and moderation.

    Hosted customers will still be able to define their own rules and policies, however.

    Mastodon has already been exploring this solution ahead of today’s launch by partnering with clients like the European Commission, the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, the city of Blois in France, and AltStore, a software company making an alternative app store. Through these relationships, Mastodon has been able to establish a more predictable revenue stream, compared with its Patreon donations.

    However, the company stresses that the goal is to diversify Mastodon’s revenue streams, not replace the current model of donations, grants, and sometimes, merch. The company will also continue to operate its own server, mastodon.social, as a well-established entry point for consumers interested in exploring the fediverse.

    “We are excited to expand our services to organisations that share our vision of a free, open, and decentralised social web,” said Felix Hlatky, Mastodon’s chief financial officer, in a prepared statement.

    “These offerings will provide financial stability for our team while ensuring the Fediverse remains a resilient, community-driven ecosystem.”

    [ad_2]

    Sarah Perez

    Source link

  • Mastodon rolls out quote posts with protections to prevent ‘dunking’ | TechCrunch

    [ad_1]

    Mastodon, an open source, decentralized alternative to X, is rolling out a somewhat controversial feature by adding quote posts, which will launch next week. The feature, which allows a user to quote someone else’s post and re-share it with their own response or commentary, has contributed to a culture of “dunking” on X, where users often deride other people by responding with snark or insulting humor.

    To address this concern, Mastodon says it’s implementing quote posts with safety controls.

    These protections are designed to allow quote posts to be used responsibly, to “expand discussions, make new connections, and amplify underrepresented voices,” the platform states.

    Image Credits:Mastodon

    Mastodon gives users several ways to control how their posts can be quoted. For starters, the platform lets users decide who can quote them through a setting where you can change your defaults. Here, you can set the permissions for who can quote you by choosing between “Anyone,” “Followers only,” or “Just me.” Additionally, you can control the visibility of quote posts by setting them to be visible to the public, to followers only, or a setting called “quiet public,” which makes the quotes public but removes them from Mastodon’s search, trends, and public timeline.

    Users will also be able to override their default settings on a post-by-post basis, if need be, by navigating to the “Visibility and interaction settings” within the composer screen. This would be useful if you know you’re about to say something controversial or anything that could attract unwanted attention from those with opposing views, for instance.

    Image Credits:Mastodon

    Plus, users will have control of their posts even after they’re quoted, the Mastodon blog post about the new feature explains.

    When someone quotes a post, the user being quoted is notified in the app, and they can choose to remove their original post from the other person’s quote post. This is accessible through the Options menu (the three dots icon). From this location, users can change the quote settings to address any future quoting of their post going forward. They can also block users to prevent them from seeing and quoting their posts in the future.

    Techcrunch event

    San Francisco
    |
    October 27-29, 2025

    Support for quote posts will first arrive over the week ahead to the larger Mastodon servers at mastodon.online and mastodon.social. It will then become available in Mastodon’s 4.5 software update.

    To quote a post, you’ll find the new option under Mastodon’s Boost (similar to X’s repost/retweet feature). Because the fediverse, or open social web, is a network of servers running different software, quote posts may not immediately appear everywhere, and some platforms may not update to use the technical specification enabling quote post support right away.

    [ad_2]

    Sarah Perez

    Source link

  • Bounce launches a service for moving accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon | TechCrunch

    [ad_1]

    Bounce, a new technology that adds a critical component to the open social web, launches to the public on Monday. The cross-protocol migration tool offers a service that allows users of open social networks like Bluesky and Mastodon to move their follow graphs between their accounts, even though the networks rely on different underlying protocols.

    Today, Mastodon users unhappy with the service can opt to move their account to a different Mastodon server, while Bluesky is developing technology that allows users to migrate their account to a new PDS (Bluesky’s term for “personal data server”) on its network. However, Mastodon runs on the ActivityPub Protocol and Bluesky on the AT Protocol, which has limited the ability to migrate accounts across the two platforms until now.

    To work, Bounce uses technology first developed for Bridgy Fed, a tool that connects Mastodon and Bluesky by making users’ profiles on one service visible on the other.

    To move accounts, Bounce first moves a user’s Bluesky account to a bridged account that straddles the two networks, then to the user’s Mastodon account. This migration also supports Pixelfed, an Instagram-like social app that also runs on ActivityPub, like Mastodon.

    At launch, Bounce can migrate users from Bluesky to Mastodon or Pixelfed, but not the other way around. That’s because Bluesky’s infrastructure currently only allows users to move off their servers, but doesn’t allow migrations back. When that changes, Bounce will launch migration in the opposite direction, too.

    In addition, early adopters should be aware that once they move their account off of Bluesky, they won’t be able to use their Bluesky credentials to log into the app again or other AT Protocol-based services again.

    Developed by a nonprofit called A New Social, which is also the maker of Bridgy Fed, Bounce’s launch is particularly timely for Bluesky users in Mississippi. On Friday, Bluesky announced that it would block its service in the state rather than comply with a new age assurance law that it considers overly invasive from a privacy standpoint and that would require too many resources for Bluesky’s small team to manage. This has left Bluesky users in the state without access to the social network, highlighting the need for tools that would allow users to take their accounts elsewhere.

    Techcrunch event

    San Francisco
    |
    October 27-29, 2025

    Bounce’s beta is available starting Monday and is aimed at early adopters and open web enthusiasts who are willing to try the service and offer feedback. While the service is open to the public, users should familiarize themselves with the migration process before making the commitment to move their accounts, given that it’s not yet possible to move back to Bluesky after they leave.

    [ad_2]

    Sarah Perez

    Source link