mastodon.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The original server operated by the Mastodon gGmbH non-profit

Administered by:

Server stats:

360K
active users

Eugen Rochko

After levelling off for a few months, it looks like Mastodon's MAU is climbing upwards again. From 1.15M at the beginning of April to 1.21M today.

@Gargron that's to be expected after one month of continuous grow at a rate of +2,000 accounts/h, isn't it ?

@Gargron Sure that’s what happens when that other place keeps finding more ways to suck money out of people.

@Eugen Rochko As long as Eloon keeps pissing everybody but his right wing buddies off, we're going to see more and more people here on the Fedi.

@Gargron happy to be a party of this MAU and chip in to pay for it

@Gargron This is good news! Keep up the good work with Mastodon.

@Gargron can you do something about Comments in time line? シ

@Gargron

What steps are you taking to improve moderation on Mastodon.social with the plans to funnel all new users to that server?

Looks like a big influx from Twitter and that seems like a exponential increase in interactions.

@Homebrewandhacking @Gargron just a quick question? Why would users be funneled to one server?

@samrocksc

Join Mastodon now defaults to Mastodon.social. it is possible to change it. But unless you know, that's where you will go.

I think it's being done in the name of user experience and easing sign up.

I predict: big surge in complaints about poor moderation, new moderators are hired post hoc, they moderate badly, eventual stability.

At each step minorities step away making Mastodon less diverse.

@Gargron MAU? ah... Monthly active users?

@Gargron Would love to see some sort of Mastodon annual report at some point! I know it's federated, but I think many would be interested!

@Gargron can you make the default server random on signup? just anything in general. the idea is good but that would make it more fair to everyone.

@newsorpigal @Gargron not a official one, but here it is: mastodon-analytics.com
But it might be pretty inaccurate, as it’s very hard/impossible to count all global users in a federated network.

Mastodon AnalyticsMastodon AnalyticsHow many users, active users, servers are on Mastodon?

@Gargron I just made my account today. The blue check mark thing really had an impact. Twitter has soured quite a bit recently. At least for me.

@jesuisatire Mostly, I like the friends I have on Twitter.

@Gargron 或许沉默是金,但能畅所欲言,本是前提性的权利。
作为中共极权治下的噤若寒蝉者,我尤其感谢Mastodon对言论自由的努力、坚持。

@shqm2 @Gargron

Google Translation
"Perhaps silence is golden, but being able to speak freely is a prerequisite right. As a silent person under the CCP’s totalitarian rule, I am especially grateful for my efforts and persistence in freedom of speech."

@miguelpergamon Thank you for your recommendation, but a more appropriate translation (also from Google) should be——
【Perhaps silence is golden, but being able to speak freely is a prerequisite right.
As a silent person under the CCP’s totalitarian rule, I especially thank Mastodon for his efforts and persistence in freedom of speech.】

@aurochs @Gargron 谢谢。
中共凭借权力、利益的双重垄断,打造了一个信息茧房,几十年来持续向民众灌输谎言,以降低(扭曲)人们的心智,而且也确实取得了成功——大多数民众,或因被欺骗,或因恐惧,而表现出愚忠,这情形类似几百年之前的漫长历史中,“地心说”被火刑捍卫着,而成为不容置疑的“正确”,受到绝大多数人的拥护。那些敢于置疑者,成为“异端”。
是的,在中国,真正的“进化进步”,被中共专政、被厚黑传统联手而刻意中断了,以致奴隶们如此忠诚于奴隶主,飞鸟们如此憎恶笼子外的天空。

@aurochs @Gargron
Thanks.
Relying on the dual monopoly of power and interests, the CCP has created an information cocoon. For decades, it has continued to instill lies in the people to lower (distort) people’s minds, and it has indeed achieved success-most people, or because they were deceived , or because of fear, they showed foolish loyalty.

@aurochs @Gargron This situation is similar to that in the long history hundreds of years ago, the "Earth Center Theory" was defended by burning at the stake, and became unquestionably "correct" and supported by the vast majority of people. Those who dare to question become "heresy".

@aurochs @Gargron Yes, in China, the real "evolutionary progress" was deliberately interrupted by the dictatorship of the CCP and the combination of thick and black traditions, so that the slaves are so loyal to the slave owners, and the birds hate the sky outside the cage so much.

@Gargron was this because you started pushing new joiners to .social? Worried in the pursuit of ease of use you’re creating a target for an as yet unseen commercial takeover that could undermine the fediverse entirely.

@del @Gargron
Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer.

That can’t happen. mastodon.social is an asset of “Mastodon gGmbH“. gGmbH are basically a special kind of companies who serve charitable causes and get tax credit in return.
To ensure that they stay nonprofit, the managers are not allowed to pocket any of the profit the company makes, even when liquidating assets.

(if you want another explanation: firma.de/en/company-formation/)

firma.degGmbH: What is the German non-profit limited liability company? – firma.deWant to start a social entreprise in Germany? Get to know the gGmbH. It's a non-profit limited liability company and you can learn about it here.

@cloudy @Gargron That’s a fair assessment though I don’t know that it excludes an asset being sold for the purpose of funding the company’s charitable goal at some unforeseen point in the future.

Who knows what the future holds or even if those rules will exist in the future or if there’s a particularly wild swing in government policy.

I’m uncomfortable that the first client many will use is using that position, and the default effect, to grow its own instance’s user base.

@del @Gargron Sure, I understand why you’re sceptical, but we’ve had a pretty stable government and probably will continue to have so.

They technically CAN sell for profit, but the gained capital needs to go towards the cause specified in the shareholders agreement.

@del @Gargron I totally understand why you’re careful, and I’m as well. But for different reasons:

I trust Mastodon gGmbH with doing a good job running the servers, but Mastodon (and ActivityPub) is so great, because it’s federated. Running a few huge instances and funneling all new users towards them is really undermining the core concept imo

@Gargron Nice! I'm a recent joiner, but was not sure how to get started and needed a break to decompress after the last social service I used fell apart.

Mastodon has brought some joy back to using the internet, and is really easy! I wish I'd tried it sooner.

@Gargron I wasn't even regularly using Twitter, but Elon's latest made me want to try Mastodon out again.

@Gargron
I, for one, shall not rest until this world is free of Twits

@Gargron I’m brand new here. So that helps, I guess.

@Gargron Not shocking, Twitter's going down the tube fast. I'm checking most things out, but I've been surprisingly impressed with Mastodon.social so far. It's more usable than Post, that's for sure.

For everybody who keeps asking:

MAU = Monthly Active Users

@Gargron bluesky social will also make it more popular.

@Gargron twitter became unstable enough that people start usin alternatives more and more
also the deactivation of the free twitter API helped with that i would guess