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Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

martinfowler.com

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Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#51

Post by gpm »

sneak wrote: post #12

No organization wants to do this, unfortunately. Twitter and Instagram are “free”. Running servers costs money, made more expensive by the choice in the Mastodon design to not support virtual hosting on a per-domain basis. You have to run (and admin) a complete new instance of Mastodon for each domain you wish to support.

Hey look, a major organization doing this: https://social.network.europa.eu/about

It would be really really nice if it was easier for small organizations. For big organizations they're already in the business of running their own websites and this isn't anything new.

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#52

Post by phailhaus »

> How do you connect to millions of people without using Facebook or Twitter?

Oh interesting! Let me check out their instance that they linked to: "Find us at https://toot.thoughtworks.com"

> This is a Mastodon instance solely for employees of Thoughtworks.

Whoops!

In general, I don't see how this helps a company at all to reach the millions of users that they could through Facebook or Twitter. On those platforms, it's automatic and immediate. On Mastodon, it seems like you have to actively court users one at a time? Because ThoughtWorks wasn't even able to reach me, and I read their entire article. I went directly to their instance and learned nothing.

EDIT:

Aha! It turns out that the landing page is a red herring, and you can still click through to the "See What's Happening" page. I don't see how a non-technical user would figure this out and not get immediately discouraged. Linking to the /public page would have made a lot more sense.

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#53

Post by seydor »

anderspitman wrote: post #34

Yes. But even more important is software like Mastodon needs to get easier for people to selfhost, by about an order of magnitude. It shouldn't be any more difficult or less secure to run your own Mastodon instance than it is to run an app on your phone. In my vision of the future internet, when you upgrade your phone, your old phone gets plugged into a power socket and USB drive in the corner and becomes your new se…

should be wordpress-level easy at least. But last i checked it wasnt easy.

Otherwise , mastodon hosters will become sneaky corporate spies, ad injectors and data resellers

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#54

Post by ngrilly »

Arubis wrote: post #39
ngrilly wrote: post #37

Is there any Mastodon managed hosting where you can bring your own domain, a bit like Fastmail but for Mastodon?

https://masto.host/ but they're rate-limiting new signups due to demand.

Just found that article about them but you beat me at it :)

https://til.simonwillison.net/mastodon/custom-domain-mastodo...

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#55

Post by CJefferson »

mberning wrote: post #30

If the idea of federated Twitter was so good and so important why did everyone seemingly only get interested in it right now? Charitably it would seem that this is just the topic du jour and "top of mind" for many people due to recent changes at Twitter. But if running your own Mastodon server is a good idea today, surely it was a good idea two weeks ago. Cynically, it seems that many of these people seem motivated b…

Yes seem to be writing sarcastically and I'm not sure why.

You are right, I, like many people, believe Elon is going to ruin Twitter, possibly bankrupting it. Therefore it is worth looking at alternatives. The ruining of Twitter makes alternatives more attractive.

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#56

Post by disintegore »

mberning wrote: post #30

If the idea of federated Twitter was so good and so important why did everyone seemingly only get interested in it right now? Charitably it would seem that this is just the topic du jour and "top of mind" for many people due to recent changes at Twitter. But if running your own Mastodon server is a good idea today, surely it was a good idea two weeks ago. Cynically, it seems that many of these people seem motivated b…

Mastodon and ActivityPub in general have UX issues. I can't imagine trying to explain to non-technical users why they have to open a pop-up window to another website just to be able to follow someone, or why people keep changing handles, etc etc.

For most people using social media outside of the context of a professional organization, it also means trusting whoever operates the instance, most of which will probably be less reliable and potentially trustworthy than Twitter was or currently is under Musk ownership.

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#57

Post by TeMPOraL »

jimnotgym wrote: post #17
grzes wrote: post #9

why is hacker-news flooded lately with mastodon-related content? it's irritating

Because a rich man recently bought Twitter, because he felt some people were managing to avoid what he says. Some people think that it would be nice to find somewhere else to hang out

Yeah, those people don't actually try to avoid what the rich man says - they wouldn't have anything to be upset about otherwise. I mean, join Mastodon and see what's trending on Fediverse - it's the constant "rich man did this", "rich man did that", non stop, ad nauseam, for months now.

No, it's about a whole beehive of drama queens who thought Twitter is their domain, who saw their hated rich man prove them wrong by literally buying it from under them.

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#58

Post by CJefferson »

phailhaus wrote: post #52

> How do you connect to millions of people without using Facebook or Twitter? Oh interesting! Let me check out their instance that they linked to: "Find us at https://toot.thoughtworks.com " > This is a Mastodon instance solely for employees of Thoughtworks. Whoops! In general, I don't see how this helps a company at all to reach the millions of users that they could through Facebook or Twitter. On those platforms, i…

Yes, I am imagine their email server is also just for their employees. What's your point?

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#59

Post by riffic »

phailhaus wrote: post #52

> How do you connect to millions of people without using Facebook or Twitter? Oh interesting! Let me check out their instance that they linked to: "Find us at https://toot.thoughtworks.com " > This is a Mastodon instance solely for employees of Thoughtworks. Whoops! In general, I don't see how this helps a company at all to reach the millions of users that they could through Facebook or Twitter. On those platforms, i…

federation works just like email. I don't want just anyone to have a whitehouse.gov address (do you?)

Re: Your Organization should run its own Mastodon server

#60

Post by MBCook »

rambambram wrote: post #40
MBCook wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. Mastodon doesn’t have an equivalent to Twitter’s (old) verification system. So it’s on users to check if each individual is who they claim. But if there is an official CNN Mastodon instance, it’s suddenly real easy to see if someone claiming to be a CNN reporter is real or not. Are they @john.smith@cnn.news? If not they’re a fake. It would also work for official Microsoft accounts or Colgate-Palmolive or the g…

Can't a domain name, webserver and email address do the same thing? Or am I missing something?

That’s what the instance name (hosted on their domain) provides.

I can put an @microsoft.come email in my profile, but it’s meaningless because it’s not verified.

But if MS has their own instance, then your handle(?) proves you have an account on that instance. And presumably only employees and company accounts would be allowed to have such user accounts.

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