Mastodawn

Renaud Chaput Oct 17, 2024

I would encourage every Fediverse software project to implement a “dead-man switch" on registrations: if nobody with moderator permissions has been active in the last week, then disable new account creation.

The Fediverse has a significant number of abandoned instances that are used by bad actors to create accounts and send spam.

We implemented this in Mastodon (https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/29318) and it has been highly effective.

Automatically switch from open to approved registrations in absence of moderators by ClearlyClaire · Pull Request #29318 · mastodon/mastodon

This is not meant to replace #29280, but supplement it to avoid unmonitored servers keeping open registrations indefinitely. Automatically switch away from open registrations if no user with the pe...

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Renaud Chaput Oct 18, 2024

Another consideration: new installations should not allow open registrations by default. This should be a setting that the administrator needs to opt into, and this is a good place to inform them that open registration instances require moderation resources.

In Mastodon, we display a warning when the admin chooses this option. Mastodon also support requiring moderator/admin approval for new sign ups, which helps a lot in preventing automated registrations.

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Strypey

@renchap
> new installations should not allow open registrations by default. This should be a setting that the administrator needs to opt into, and this is a good place to inform them that open registration instances require moderation resources

I've been advocating for this for a while. Is invite-only registrations now the default in Mastodon? If so, this is great news.

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Strypey Oct 23, 2024

The most organic way for the fediverse to grow IMHO is via FOAF. Experienced fedizens shepherding their colleagues/ organisations/ friends/ family into servers they know will give them a good experience. Ideally servers those groups set up and run themselves

We don't want to exclude people from real world social networks who don't yet have anyone active in the verse. So open registration servers remain useful as places for total newbies to wander in and check out the vibe.

#fediverse

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Strypey Oct 23, 2024

But having fewer open registration servers in the network makes them even more useful, because it makes it easier to choose one. If the few open registration servers are well moderated, that's better both for the newbies who wander into them, and for the rest of us.

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