Mastodon is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. On Mastodon, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, video.
All Mastodon servers are interoperable as a federated network (users on one server can seamlessly communicate with users from another one, including non-Mastodon software that implements ActivityPub)!
Pre-requisites
- A machine running Ubuntu 18.04 that you have root access to
- A domain name (or a subdomain) for the Mastodon server, e.g.
example.com - An e-mail delivery service or other SMTP server
Features
No vendor lock-in: Fully interoperable with any conforming platform
It doesn’t have to be Mastodon; whatever implements ActivityPub is part of the social network! Learn more
Real-time, chronological timeline updates
Updates of people you’re following appear in real-time in the UI via WebSockets. There’s a firehose view as well!
Media attachments like images and short videos
Upload and view images and WebM/MP4 videos attached to the updates. Videos with no audio track are treated like GIFs; normal videos loop continuously!
Safety and moderation tools
Mastodon includes private posts, locked accounts, phrase filtering, muting, blocking and all sorts of other features, along with a reporting and moderation system. Learn more
OAuth2 and a straightforward REST API
Mastodon acts as an OAuth2 provider, so 3rd party apps can use the REST and Streaming APIs. This results in a rich app ecosystem with a lot of choices!
More info: Github, JoinMastodon
Preparing your machine
Setup
Related Courses
