Terry/terrehbyteJan 7
Mastodon.social Staff

We plan to disable the "live feeds" of the local and federated timelines on mastodon.social within in the next couple of weeks. They are already disabled on mastodon.online. While these feeds can be useful on smaller, topical or regional servers, they have limited use on larger servers like ours.

The live feeds present all content on the server immediately and essentially pre-moderation, which presents a particularly poor experience to new users finding the fediverse for the first time.

Jan 6 at 7:56pmWeb
Show threadMastodon.social StaffJan 6

Recommended follows, trending, and searching for hashtags all provide a far better discovery experience for newcomers, and we intend to improve discovery features more in 2026.

Note that we do have the ability to restore live feed access to individual users, and will consider this on a case-by-case basis. We will proactively reach out to trusted flaggers to offer this in advance.

Show thread7sleepersmusicJan 7
@staff So I can request to have these feeds restored on my account? Is that correct? I enjoy the live feeds, I like to see what's going on out there, outside of my personal curated feed.
Show threadSecoasecasMouseJan 14

@7sleepersmusic @staff Yo también quiero seguir viendo la línea local y federada. Quizás haya mejores métodos para descubrir nuevas cuentas, pero no veo ningún motivo para reducir las posibilidades. Cuanto más opciones mejor.

Ese cambio no debería ser obligado, si no una opción en la configuración, y que cada cual pueda elegir. No hay motivo para imponerlo. Esto no es twiter, donde los jefes imponen a la fuerza los cambios, creando polémica gratuitamente, en vez de dejar que la gente elija

Show threadDave MasonFeb 5

@7sleepersmusic @staff

Same.

Show threadDeadly HeadshotFeb 5
@7sleepersmusic
Same, I hang out there and welcome newbies. That said, it's become a bit of a hellhole recently, but the solution there is not destroying discoverability but not expanding a single server to a size where moderation is so difficult it's probably nearly impossible?
@staff
Show threadThomasFeb 5
@7sleepersmusic Same!!!!!
Show threadTundieFeb 7

@7sleepersmusic @staff Same😢
I was surprised.

I was enjoying the live feed too.

I was looking at the federate timeline and local timeline, and favorited and boosted.

I personally muted the unnecessary commercial accounts and enjoyed the experience comfortably.

Trend is like a Meta social media platform where only the popular become even more popular.

Show threadAoi_X_KaizakiFeb 7
@tundie With these gone, how do people follow and like other peoples stuff?
Show threadTundieFeb 8
@Aoi_X_Kaizaki I agree, and honestly they should just go back to the old mode, or at least make it easy for all users to go back to the old mode.
Show threadJøtaLui§Feb 18
@staff The idea is good, but please, I'd like to have the feeds to my account. Thanks.
Show threadDetun3dFeb 18
@staff
Looking forward to that. Keep up the good work. 💪💛
Show threadJMC 🌹🏴Feb 20

@staff Please restore live feed access for both local and global to me.

Also, please consider reversing this decision. As it is, I've taken many breaks from Mastodon due to the difficulty of discoverability. If this stays, I simply will never use the platform, which would be a damn shame.

Show threadCollette's Brain5d ago
@jmcolony @staff is it possible to request local live feed to be turned on for this account? It's *the* edge you have over bluesky.
Show threadAdam HonseFeb 24
@staff I miss the live feed. Bring it back! Trending is too much like for-profit platforms that only show what's algorithmically popular. Quit trying to be Twitter/Facebook/etc. and let the users control their own experience.
Show threadThomas K.Mar 6
@staff Is reaching out to so-called trusted flaggers mandatory or just obeying in advance?
Show threadMastodon.social StaffMar 7
@ThomasKdot When we refer to trusted flaggers here, we are actually referring to Mastodon users who file a lot of high quality reports. They're ordinary users who contribute a lot of effort to making the network nicer for everyone else!
Show threadj@mastodonMar 8

@staff

I'd like life feed access.

And agree with the part where it might not be a smooth experience for newcomers.

However having only the fully curated experience is very limiting.

Having the option to enable live feeds somewhere in the UI would be much better for those feeling adventurous.

Show threadMatthew NewtonJan 6
@staff Is this what would have broke the 'Local' page on Tusky? It stopped showing anything a few weeks ago, but I couldn't find any announcements with them or on mastodon.online's site to indicate anything that had changed, and no settings I could find could get it working again.
Show threadMastodon.social StaffJan 6
@mcnewton Quite likely. This setting was included in the last major release, but some third-party client apps may not have added support for checking if these timelines are disabled yet.
Show threadMatthew NewtonJan 6
@staff appreciated, thanks - gives a reasonable explanation to what changed! (There's no 'Trending' in Tusky that I'm aware of, so that was the only way to browse random stuff.)
Show threadkrzysdzJan 6
@mcnewton @staff There are "Trending" tabs for posts and hashtags. You have to add them in "Account settings" -> "Tabs". I also had to restart Tusky, because it wouldn't load posts when refreshing.
Show threadMatthew NewtonJan 6
@krzysdz @staff Ah awesome; that was well hidden. 'Account preferences' seemed to be all about the Mastodon account, not the Tusky config. Thanks!
Show threadNikJan 8

@staff @mcnewton To be fair, that change was not proactively communicated to third party client developers in the official Mastodon GmbH developer relations Discord channel.

Nor is it mentioned in https://blog.joinmastodon.org/categories/trunk-and-tidbits/.

It was mentioned in https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/10/mastodon-4-5-for-devs/, but only after 4.5 was released, and even then the original post didn't mention it, it was updated days later.

So it's unsurprising that third party developers missed this.

Trunk and Tidbits

Mastodon Blog
Show threadEvan ProdromouJan 6
@staff great!
Show threadwilliam.maggosJan 6

@staff

good decision. the magic of decentralized social is that you only have to see what you choose to, like the web. if somebody was trying to decide whether to leave AOL in the early 90s and looked at a feed of all the websites then being created to decide (hate sites included), it would deter them and not help them understand the experience of "web surfing" or what searching would turn up etc.

Show threadSupermoosieFeb 13

@wjmaggos @staff

So now the can't "choose" for see what others are posting on their instance.

Or in the rest of the feduated instances.

Some of us want to see that sometimes.

Trending hashtag or posts won't let you find interesting people with small followings or non popular haatags.

Taking away choices, isn't letting people choose.

Show threadMastodon.social StaffFeb 13
@SuperMoosie @wjmaggos We are granting access to everyone who has asked us for it.
Show threadPictoPulse356Feb 18
@staff @SuperMoosie @wjmaggos How can I get access?
Show threadSupermoosieFeb 18

@PictoPulse356 @staff @wjmaggos

So now there is a secret hidden level to Mastodon, that only those in the know and know who to ask get access to?

Show threadJMar 23
@staff I would like to have access to it again
Show threadFinchHaven sfbaJan 6

@staff

"While these feeds can be useful on smaller, topical or regional servers, they have limited use on larger servers like ours."

Maybe, just maybe:

1) @Mastodon shouldn't be so gargantuan in the first place, and

2) Maybe y'all shouldn't be directing every possible newcomer within your grasp *to* Mastodon dot Social?

Ya think?

Nah, how silly of me

Whatever am I even thinking?

#Mastodon #MaxiFedi #Fediverse

Show threadMastodon.social StaffJan 6

@FinchHaven The live feeds begin to become unappealing for general servers well below the scale of mastodon.social. Please note we are indeed planning to address your concerns.

https://mastodon.social/@staff/115729765835807165

Show threadFinchHaven sfbaJan 6

@staff

I am currently homed on three instances of 39K total users, 57K total users, and 79K total users and I keep one tab open to the /public/local feed for each of them simultaneous while I'm online, which is basically seven days a week

They are not "unappealing" in any sense of the word, and certainly not because of volume

They are not, however, the mega-monster that you have allowed Mastodon dot Social to become

Admit it: you have created a monster of your own devise, and it's out of control

All the spam posts I receive are from your instance without exception

I've simply stopped bothering to report spam; there's no purpose to it

Your (Gargron's) greed has simply metastasized beyond your control