We’re taking another step in building a sustainable financial base as a non-profit. Today, we’re announcing new hosting and support offerings, tailored for larger organisations and public institutions. These enable organisations to own their social identities, on their own infrastructure.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/09/service-offerings-from-mastodon/
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@chris
> You are now competing with other providers of these services
One of the 4 core pillars of enshittification prevention. Interoperating with competing software. That's 2. Full source code available under libre license, enabling self-help. That's 3. HQ in Germany, in a jurisdiction actively regulating tech services, that's all 4. Sounds like an ideal tech market to me.
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@chris
> while you are the developer of the software too
Like WordPress, GitLab, Element, Loomio, Snikket, and innumerable others, who have served as good stewards of a libre codebase, while selling services based on it, to keep core dev sustainable.
Contrast this with Oracle and LibLime, who tried to ...
> use software and/or documentation to achieve that
... to ...
> keep [the] competition down
... with OpenOffice and Koha respectively, and got ruthlessly forked and routed around.
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@chris
> The Wordpress / Automattic drama is an excellent example for _one_ of the things I’m expecting to happen
You seem to be presupposing that WordPress is the bad guy in their conflict with WP Engine. I've yet to be presented with anything substantial to support that view. It seems to be a case of shoehorning the judgement into the theory, without bothering to check that the facts actually fit either.
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Again, you're ignoring Mastodon interoperating with other software. The WordPress case is totally different.
You're ignoring the freedom to fork. If WP Engine are the target of Bad Action, what's stopping them just forking WP and ignoring Automattic? Lots of people would probably jump on their fork the same way they're jumping to conclusions about who's at fault.
You're also ignoring the fact that both companies in the WP conflict have their HQ in the *US*, not the EU. Very different.
Mastodon
Strypey