Updates from the Mastodon team
Mastodon now a non-profit organisation
In June, I was able to officially register Mastodon gGmbH after nearly 8 months of legal work (“gGmbH” means “non-profit limited liability company”). A non-profit limited liability company in Germany is structered and operates similarly to a for-profit limited liability company with a few key differences. The founding document of the company is written such that the activity of the company is working towards goals that benefit the public; the shareholders may not receive any revenue from the company’s activities and can at most withdraw the funds that they originally paid in; employees may not receive extraordinarily high wages; and the company can receive donations which are then tax-free, although any other income that does not fit the definition of a donation continues to incur various taxes. To found such a legal entity the founding document must pass a review by the German tax office and the founders must pay in 25,000 EUR of starting capital.
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Developing an official iOS app for Mastodon
Starting on Feb 8, 2021, we will be developing an official iOS app for Mastodon together with Sujitech and Lickability, which will be free to download and focused on helping new users get started
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Mastodon 3.3
It’s Mastodon 3.3 time 🎉 We’ve got security fixes, performance fixes, new moderation tools and quality of life features!
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Why EUNOMIA builds on Mastodon
An ever growing problem of the modern social media-rich world is misinformation. The trust that was previously placed into government officials and journalism has eroded; the internet gave everyone a voice but with it made it so much more difficult to distinguish truth from fabrication. The consequences of this are very real: Almost eradicated illnesses are making a comeback because people refuse to vaccinate their children, Covid-19 is continuing to spread because people refuse to wear masks and practice social distancing, more and more people start believing that the Earth is flat and descend down a rabbit hole of ever more absurd conspiracy theories.
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Mastodon 3.2
The new Mastodon release brings you a much better audio player and improved support for different audio and video formats, as well as some additional security mechanisms. The audio player has been completely reworked to have a more eye-catching design. It will extract album art from the uploaded audio file automatically, or allow you to upload a thumbnail of your own choosing to be displayed in the center. Dominant colors from the artwork or thumbnail will then be used to give the player a unique look.
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Adding sign-up to your Mastodon app
Since Mastodon 2.7, it is actually possible to let users sign up through your app, instead of asking them to go to a Mastodon website directly and then return. Let’s go over how this can be done.
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Mastodon 3.0 in-depth
Detailed notes on REST API changes, new deployment options, new admin settings and how to use them
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder
Mastodon 3.0
In this exciting new release: Moving accounts, trending hashtags, private servers and more!
Eleanor
Guest
Gab switches to Mastodon's code
After crowdfunding millions of dollars, social media platform Gab abandoned its own code and switched to the freely available Mastodon software in early 2019 as a way of circumventing Google’s and Apple’s ban on their own app from their app stores, since offering Mastodon’s client-side API would allow any existing Mastodon app to be used to access Gab. We have never had any sympathy for their thinly (if at all) veiled white supremacist platform so that was not a welcome move on our part, however the license that we publish our software under (AGPLv3) allows anyone to use it as they see fit as long as they keep the same license and make their modifications public.
Eugen Rochko
CEO / Founder