Mobilizon

What it's good for#

If your walking group, repair café or residents' association organises itself through a Facebook group, Mobilizon is the way out. You create a group, post events with a date, a place and a map, and people say they're coming. The group gets its own page, discussions, a shared list of resources and a calendar of what's next.

Because Mobilizon speaks the same language as Mastodon, people don't need an account on your server to keep up. They can follow a group from their Mastodon or Friendica account and see each new event there.

Before you install: decide on its address#

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

Mobilizon builds every link, every group and every event around the address it was installed with. Other servers know your groups by that address, so it's your Mobilizon's identity on the fediverse.

• If you have a domain set up in LibrePortal, with Traefik running, and Mobilizon's access is Public, it takes https://events.<your domain>. This is the only kind of address that can federate.
• If you don't, Mobilizon uses your server's own address and port on your network, like http://192.168.1.50:4123. That's fine for a club that only meets on your own network or over the LibrePortal VPN, but other servers can never follow it.

To check: LibrePortal works Mobilizon's address out again whenever it rewrites the app's setup, rather than writing it down for good as it does for Funkwhale; check what an existing Mobilizon does when a domain or Traefik is added later, or the server's network address changes

Signing in#

Sign-ups are closed in a new Mobilizon, so the way in is the admin account LibrePortal makes for you. Mobilizon has no setup page for a first visitor to claim, so it doesn't need to be kept to the server while that happens. Mobilizon signs people in with an email address rather than a username. The install asks for the Admin email; leave it empty and one is made up: admin@events.<your domain> with a domain, or admin@mobilizon.invalid without one. The .invalid address can never receive mail, so no stranger's inbox gets your admin's messages.

The email and 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 while: Mobilizon sets up its database before it answers, and LibrePortal waits up to ten minutes for it. Once the account is made, the install checks that the admin pages refuse anyone who isn't signed in, that sign-ups really are closed, and that the new login works. If either of the first two fails, it stops Mobilizon rather than leave it open.

The first time you sign in, Mobilizon asks you to create a profile: the name people see on your events and in your groups. One account can have several profiles, so you can keep your book club and your campaigning apart.

How to use it#

Start by making a group, then add an event to it. When you type the event's address, Mobilizon looks it up and shows it on a map, so people can find the place.

To share it with people who aren't on your server, send them the group's or the event's link. Anyone can open it in a browser. People with a Mastodon or Friendica account can follow the group from there instead, and each new event shows up in their feed.

Letting other people in#

There's no LibrePortal tool for adding accounts: Mobilizon manages its own. When you're ready, open sign-ups in Mobilizon's admin settings, and people can register themselves. As the admin you can then manage them from the same admin area.

The Tools tab has two tools. Reset User Password takes an account's email and sets a new password (leave it empty to generate one). Use it for the admin too: it updates the Login Details at the same time. List Users shows every active account, its profile name and whether it's an admin or a moderator.

Works with#

Mobilizon works with the other fediverse apps in the catalogue, like Mastodon and Friendica. It works one way: people follow your Mobilizon groups from there. Mobilizon itself can't follow a Mastodon or Friendica account. What it can do is follow a whole other Mobilizon server, from its admin settings, so their public events appear on yours.

If you run both on this server, Mobilizon's Works with list shows whether they can reach each other, with a Check button that tests everything another server would need, and Follow links for your public groups that open the follow page in the other app. LibrePortal never follows anything for you; you press Follow yourself.

Following needs a domain on both sides. Without one, Friendica can still follow a public group's feed on your own network.

Good to know#

• Updates wait for you. Every Mobilizon release changes its database the first time it starts, and going back means running a command by hand before the old version starts. So LibrePortal starts Mobilizon on Manual and pins it to an exact version: pressing Update brings fresh builds of that version, and nothing jumps to a new release on its own. When a newer release appears on the Updates tab, Upgrade moves Mobilizon up one version at a time, taking a backup and checking it at every step, so you do it when you've read the release notes. If you'd rather it climbed on its own, set it to Automatic and it steps up one verified version a day. A backup is taken first, as always. See Updates.
• It's light. It used about 390 MB of memory at rest on a test install, database included.
• Maps come from OpenStreetMap. When someone opens the map on an event, their browser loads the map pictures from openstreetmap.org. When someone types an address, your server asks OpenStreetMap's address search for it. Nothing else leaves your server unless you federate. If you run your own map or address server, Map Tiles and Address Lookup point Mobilizon at it (they show in Advanced mode).
• Searching other servers is off. Mobilizon can also send searches to search.mobilizon.org, its project's index of public events everywhere. Turn on Search Other Servers if you'd like that.
• Its own port stays on plain http. Everything Mobilizon writes points at the address it was installed with, so its own port isn't switched to HTTPS. The domain address is HTTPS either way.
• Public, with no extra login in front. Other servers have to reach it to follow your groups, and an extra login would lock them out. If it's only for your own network, you can make it private, and it simply won't federate.
• Backups include everything: the database and the uploads folder, with every picture and participant export.
• One per server. Mobilizon can't run as several copies side by side.