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:

366K
active users

@aral I have to say - I have been very intrigued around starting a server of my own, but I don't really know what I'm getting in to. I'm not used to managing my own personal infra, servers etc. I've done so before when I was a lot younger - but have landed very much in the "these aren't the problems I want to spend time on"-camp.

Perhaps it's a mindset shift? Maybe I'll value that more and take the steps for myself, because I see the importance of small over big?

Simeon Nedkov

@pavsaund @aral I’ve gradually shifted into that camp as well. Spent years running my own Nextcloud server and got tired of all the tiny things that kept popping up. At the end I bought managed Nextcloud to be rid of them and one day realized: that’s what Dropbox has been all along.

I’m not saying Nextcloud should not exist because there’s Dropbox. My point is that running/owning alternatives to Big Tech should be as hassle free as using Big Tech itself.

@pavsaund @aral I think we should promote “hassle free Mastodon” experiences instead of “run your own server”. The latter screams “work I don’t want to do” at me.

The underlying implementation can stay the same. It’s a matter of packaging the thing, meaning: you tell customers that they pay for and create a Mastodon account but under water you spin up a new instance for them.

In this scenario you are creating personal servers for everybody without them knowing (because they don’t care).

@aral @pavsaund Agree and I love the/your Small Web concept.

Would a Mastodon-instance-per-person qualify as Small Web or are there other things to consider (as well)?

@simeon @pavsaund Thanks! A mastodon-instance-per-person would likely qualify but is unrealistic and would be both overkill. Mastodon’s architecture mirrors that of Big Tech. It’s a server capable of supporting one to several hundred thousand people on a single instance. That’s very different from a system designed to support just one person. The latter has orders of magnitude less complexity and requires similarly fewer resources.

@simeon @pavsaund Running Mastodon on an instance of one is like buying a hotel to live in just for yourself. Sure, you can do it, but it’s going to cost you. In the Small Web model, we all own our own cottages and it’s the collection of cottages that makes the villages.