Inga
MastodonHello! We're the team that builds and supports Mastodon, alongside the community. Today, we wanted to share an update on our organisation. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/05/evolving-the-team/
In the coming weeks, we'll be using this account to share a wider range of posts about what we're working on - events we're attending, updates from team members, and so on. You can also follow the core engineering team @MastodonEngineering and if you have an account on mastodon.social or mastodon.online (the two instances we operate) you can follow @staff
You can also expect to see us sharing more about the project outside of the Fediverse (in places like LinkedIn or YouTube) - this is so that more people can hear about a better, decentralised and more user-oriented alternative to legacy platforms.
JBrickelt963 ✊(φ)🚩@Mastodon il faut pouvoir sensibiliser là où les gens sont. Ce qui est parfaitement normal.
[nate@social0 ~]$ 
@Mastodon i think this is great news! We need more people to know about mastodon. But. I worry about the things people have complained about in the past. Difficulty signing up, confusion around choosing a home instance, too many decisions having to be made in order to get started. and lastly, unfortunately, and unwelcoming user base.
I realize that some of this is out of your control. and some is human nature rather than a technical problem to solve. But i see a lot of folks try mastodon. and never even get past signup. Is there something that can be done there so that new users are not immediately turned off to the platform?
@gangrif thanks for these questions! We are working on it, and we're excited that some of the new folks on the core team bring fresh perspectives on these topics. We think we've made some improvements in the past couple of releases and we'll continue to do so.
Mostafa Hussein Omar@Mastodon they'll shadow ban you. Unless you pay them to promote your content. What's the point 😔
Fabian【ファビアン】🏳️🌈@Mastodon but currently, mastodon is by far to complicated. How will you go on fixing the huge usability shortcomings with finding people, finding posts, following people, reposting, reacting and stuff like this.
I mean you said you will share things outside the fediverse. But people clicking on shared things there will just notice the problem right away.
I mean you said you will share things outside the fediverse. But people clicking on shared things there will just notice the problem right away.
@fabiscafe thanks for this feedback. We've got a new designer joining soon, we have other new team members with additional perspectives. We've also been working on the Fediscovery project https://fediscovery.org to improve some of the things you mentioned. We're moving forwards!
@Mastodon Thanks! Please let us know any progress. 
I wanted to open a usability-collection-issue on github listing all the currently known shortcommings. Do you think this is something worth doing at this point?
I wanted to open a usability-collection-issue on github listing all the currently known shortcommings. Do you think this is something worth doing at this point?
@fabiscafe thank you so much for wanting to help! We have a lot of open issues, suggestions and discussions (as you can probably see on GitHub) so please look to see whether anything you want to open has already been created before logging something new.
el Celio 🇪🇺 🇺🇦It seems to me that what is necessary is more order on the GitHub suggestions: duplicates, suggestions that have been already ruled out, features impossibile to do, or otherwise easy to implement, suggestions not relevant because they pertain to specific apps or instances and not the software, etc. etc.
That would make easier for the team to make decisions and for the community to contribute.
My 2 cents.
Open Risk@Mastodon it will be tricky to liberate people from legacy social media platforms. People that embrace the values and vision of the #fediverse have already migrated years ago, despite the usability issues. New opportunities do come when there are major shocks, like political events but luck favors the prepared: #bluesky grew a lot as of late because of a smoother UX and catering in particular to US users fleeing X/Tweeter.
Tough job but failure not an option 🙏😍😬🖖
owls@Mastodon Why did you lose your nonprofit status in Germany in 2024?
And where's all this money for staff coming from? I thought you were unable to hire the trust & safety lead because the crowdfunding campaing stalled -- but you're bringing in several C-levels and a new project manager?
Why are those a higher priority than moderation policies and tooling?
@owls thanks for the questions. The non-profit situation is a major reason for our restructuring to a better organisational model / foundation. No new C-level hire in this update. Trust & Safety remains a high priority and we are absolutely working on the tooling side of things (and every hire comes with T&S in mind); we're also grateful to the team that looks after our hosted instances.
bazkie 👩🏼💻 bitplanes 🎵@Mastodon I'm not happy about hiring people who work/worked for Amazon, Google etc..
@bazkie we appreciate the hesitation about those organisations, but we're hiring individuals and their experience, rather than the company they worked for in previous lives. There's a strong value alignment amongst the people in the team.
@Mastodon yeah.. I'm sure people who work for Amazon and Google have a strong value alignment..
maybe not with OUR values, but hey, they have some tech experience! 🤡
jade
Ozzelot 
berry@mwyalchen @ozzelot @Mastodon I guess I have very little trust left in people.. maybe you are right and I'm being too harsh.
I think it's something very important in these times, to have a "clean" social network, away from corpo influence, so it's a very touchy subject to me 😅
it doesn't help that I kinda get corporate vibes from that whole mastodon organization thing, and it's based in the US, so yeah I'm touchy af lol.. and the board members are all these bigwigs from massive projects/companies.. some political operators no doubt.. I don't like that kind of power hierarchy stuff in my fediverse..
why have this official organization behind it in the first place..
@bazkie @ozzelot @Mastodon I feel you. I think the important thing is that Mastodon *is* open and federated. What are they going to do, shove ads and AI in everything and sell our data? Somebody will just fork the code and people will make their own better fediverse which will be larger than the shit one. There's no herding these cats.
@mwyalchen @ozzelot @Mastodon well, I am scared they will for example introduce algorithms, very slowly, small enough so that no fork really gains attraction.. (I think that already started, doesn't fedi now have some introductory algo thing for new people to find contacts? not sure)
or do other stuff that "drives engagement" because that's the thing.. people 'like that' tend to have that as a goal, as well as other cancerous stuff as 'growth' etc..
they rarely do it because they want to offer a fun platform for people to mingle. and that may seep through into the code in small, insidious ways, over time.
forking might not 100% help since it's a network, and it's very connected. for example, a lot of toxic/spam stuff coming from mastodon.social, but it's too big to defederate from for most. (luckily, a lot of instances did defederate from threads)
anyway, I'll stop ranting. I'm just not so positive as you about the future with people like this "in charge".
@bazkie @ozzelot @Mastodon idk, I think a full fork would be easy if enough people supported it. Make a small change at the network level and suddenly the old servers can't even find you. It wouldn't be tidy, it wouldn't come without losses, but it is possible.
I think we just have too great a weight here of people who don't like algorithms etc and won't be taken in by "fun" or corporatisation. Isn't that why most of us are here in the first place?
But we'll see. Bad things will probably continue to happen, but open systems are resilient.
Kevin Karhan 
@bazkie @mwyalchen @ozzelot @Mastodon my experience says:
"Trust is a weakness. You can only be betrayed if you had trust in someone. I never had that."
GunChleoc@bazkie @mwyalchen @ozzelot @Mastodon If I remember correctly, the US organization was set up so that they could take donations in the US - it has to do with tax status.
It's a coincidence that they lost their tax exempt status in Germany just as the US paper work was completed, and now they're working on getting a European organization again, so that's good.
I think it's also good that they are working on new governance structures and not just have 1 BDFL forever.
🇪🇺 Paul Schoonhoven 🍋🍉
☑️ Cath@vosje62 After @bazkie 's reply, she/he immediately blocked me 😄
Didn't even give me a chance to answer the question . Oh well..
@Mastodon
My answer would have been: Now you are being judgemental again and rude. You don't know me, but I believe in giving people a second, third and even way more chances.
Martin@[email protected]
Still, having worked for Goggle or Bezos shows you're of doubtful morale.
@[email protected]
Still, having worked for Goggle or Bezos shows you're of doubtful morale.
@[email protected]
Jan
Anca@Mastodon This is good news. As the premiere platform on Fediverse, Mastodon needs a more mature organization to continue demonstrating what decentralized social media can really be.
Fubaroque
MisterMultiverse@Mastodon are you for profit?
@MisterMultiverse we're non-profit - to ensure that this remains the case, we're restructuring into a new governance structure. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/
The people should own the town square
It is more important than ever that the social web is not controlled by corporations. Today, Mastodon is taking another step towards its founding ideals: independence and non-profit ownership. We're transferring ownership of key assets to a new European not-for-profit entity, ensuring our mission remains true to a decentralised social web, not corporate control.
don Elías (como los buses) 🥨@Mastodon happy to see Mastodon growing and taking care of tasks beyond coding
Distante@Mastodon It would make sense if by clicking on the author's name I could see the author's page or other articles written by the author
Lokjo - a European online mapAwesome! As a bit of feedback, since Mastodon is european, and roughly half of the users are european, it would be great to see more european posts/news/suggested accounts in the explore tabs. 😊
@lokjo great suggestion, will see whether this is something our mod and operation team can help with.
jonny (good kind)
Angela Scholder@Mastodon To be honest, I really think that Mastodon should not have a prominent office in the US, but it should be clear to be a European entity under EU laws.
With the US office in New York mentioned on the website as prominent as it is, I think might very well turn a lot of people who want a break from US tech away from using Mastodon.
@AngelaScholder thank you, we're working on this with the new European non-profit that is being created right now. We do need to list the details of the US 501(c)(3) entity (which is for fundraising) on the site, but totally understand your point. Please stand by while the necessary processes are completed.
@@Mastodon THX fer sharing
TeflonTrout 
he/him@Mastodon Mastodon is right, chill, it doesn't matter where they came from. Only thing that matters is "what can they do for us."
It doesn't matter that they presumably worked quietly and happily for organizations that do everything they can to profit, especially things that wreck our country and the planet
I mean, we imported actual Nazis from Germany to work on rocketry, and now we have the world's most advanced space program and NO OTHER PROBLEMS associated with Nazery WHATSOEVER
Y'all lost your goddamned minds
Hummus Member☭🔻@Mastodon Can you please have an algorithm so people can find posts relevant to them? It's the biggest issue for me to convince other users
iamdtms@Mastodon Welcome on board!
Tygeryder@Mastodon Good luck, I hope all proposed changes and taken actions will turn out to be good for the platform and for the account holders of the #fediverse.
In support of your decision to not accept VC funds, I just made a small donation.
Thank you, and Godspeed!
Grievous Angel@Mastodon well, this is good news