Mastodon

What it's good for#

Mastodon works a lot like the big social networks: you post short updates, follow people, reply, boost and favourite. The difference is that there's no single company in charge. Thousands of servers run it, each with its own rules, and they all talk to each other. Running your own means your account, your posts and your followers live on your hardware, and nobody can change the rules on you.

It suits a household, a club or a small community who want their own corner, and people who'd like their fediverse address to be their own domain rather than someone else's.

Before you install: it needs a domain#

This is the decision you can't change later, so it's worth a minute before you press Install.

Mastodon builds every account around the address it was installed with: your handle is @you@ followed by that address, and it's written into every post that leaves the server. Mastodon's own developers are clear that it can't be changed afterwards without starting again from scratch.

So LibrePortal won't install Mastodon until you have a domain set up and Traefik running. Unlike most apps in the catalogue there's no home-network version to fall back on: Mastodon only answers on the one name it was installed as, and only over HTTPS. Opened on http://192.168.1.50:port, it shows nothing but an error.

The address is social.<your domain>, for example social.example.com. LibrePortal writes it down the first time, as Server Address in the Advanced settings, and never changes it again. If you change your domain later, Mastodon stays where it is, and Traefik keeps sending that name to it. Moving to a new name means uninstalling, which deletes every account and post, and installing again.

Signing in#

A new Mastodon has sign-ups closed, and there's no page where the first visitor becomes the admin. LibrePortal makes the main account for you during the install, with Mastodon's own tool, and closes sign-ups again to be sure.

That account is the Owner, Mastodon's top role. Its username is admin, and you sign in with its email address, not the username. The install asks for that email (it's optional); leave it empty and it becomes admin@ followed by Mastodon's address, like admin@social.example.com. Mastodon checks that the part after the @ is a real domain, so a made-up one is refused. The email and the password are in the Login Details shown when the install finishes. Press Welcome on the app's page to see them again.

The first start takes a few minutes while Mastodon sets up its database. LibrePortal waits up to ten minutes for it before making the Owner.

Adding people#

Rather than opening sign-ups to the whole internet, which on a public server attracts spam accounts within days, make accounts for the people you want.

The account is confirmed and approved already, so it can sign in straight away, even with sign-ups closed. List Accounts shows everyone, with their email and role. As the Owner you can also make invite links in Mastodon's own preferences.

If you'd rather let people sign up themselves, Open/Close Registrations has three choices: Closed, By approval (anyone can apply and staff approve each one) and Open. Anyone who signs up needs the email that confirms their address, so set up mail first (see below), or keep making accounts with Create Account.

On your phone#

Mastodon has official apps for Android and iPhone, and there are plenty of others: Tusky on Android, and Ivory or Ice Cubes on iPhone, among many. When an app asks for your server, give it your Mastodon's address, like social.example.com. Phone apps sign in through the browser, so you type your password on your own server's page, not in the app.

Following the rest of the fediverse#

If you also run Friendica, Funkwhale, Owncast or WriteFreely on this server, Mastodon's Works with list shows whether they can follow each other, with a Check button that tests what another server would need, and Follow links that open Mastodon's own follow page for the other app. LibrePortal never follows or posts anything for you. Both sides need a domain. See Apps that work together for how the list reads.

Translating posts#

Mastodon can put a Translate button on posts in other languages, using LibreTranslate on your own server, so nothing you read is sent to an outside translator.

All you do is install LibreTranslate. It's offered beside Mastodon under Also install, and whenever it's installed LibrePortal fills in Mastodon's Translation Server and a fresh Translation API Key for you, the key going straight into Mastodon's secrets and never shown in a log. The Translate button then appears. Remove LibreTranslate and LibrePortal empties those settings again, and the button goes away. Mastodon's and LibreTranslate's Works with lists show whether the two are connected.

Good to know#

• Email is off until you add a mail server. Posting, following and federation all work without it, but Mastodon sends nothing: no sign-up confirmations, password reset links or notification emails. To send mail, fill in Mail Server and the settings beside it on the Config tab with the details of a mail account you have. Accounts made with Create Account don't need it.
• Updates wait for you. Every Mastodon release changes its database the first time it starts, and some ask for extra steps in their release notes, with no going back. So LibrePortal pins an exact version and a new one arrives only when you press Update. Afterwards LibrePortal checks that every database change finished and that Mastodon reports the new version before it calls the update done. A backup is taken first.
• Search is limited. Mastodon's full-text search needs a separate search engine, which LibrePortal leaves out. Search finds hashtags, accounts and your own posts, not everyone's.
• Backups include the database and everything people have uploaded: avatars, headers and media attached to posts. Media cached from other servers is included too, and on a busy server that folder grows quickly.
• The secrets that protect sign-ins are made at install and kept when you reinstall. Don't change them by hand: a new session key signs everyone out, and a new encryption key breaks everyone's two-factor sign-in.
• It's a bigger app. Mastodon is five containers (the website, a live-updates server, a background worker, its database and its cache), and together they use about 1.2 GB of memory while idle.
• One per server. Its address is its identity, so it can't run as several copies side by side.