Difference between revisions of "Mastodon"

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(a blanket ban on any mastodon archiving is unrealistic and problematic due to growing importance and popularity)
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'''Mastodon''' is a federated social network which is comparable in functionality to Twitter and part of the [[Fediverse]]. Due to the federation, instances are constantly joining the network or disappearing.
'''Mastodon''' is a federated social network which is comparable in functionality to [[Twitter]] and part of the [[Fediverse]]. Due to the federation, instances are constantly joining the network or disappearing.


As of January 2019, it is not possible to properly migrate an account from one instance to another<ref>{https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177}</ref>.
{{As of|2019|January}}, it is not possible to properly migrate an account (including posts) from one instance to another<ref>{{URL|https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177}}</ref><ref>{{URL|https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423}}</ref>.
 
Since May 2019, ArchiveTeam has not archived Mastodon or any other Fediverse instances; see the [[Fediverse#ArchiveTeam_and_the_Fediverse|Fediverse]] page for details.


== Archival ==
== Archival ==
Instances can be archived reasonably well by starting a recursive crawl from the "about" page, which contains a link to the admin profile. This may not cover the entire instance though. A more complete coverage requires first crawling the API to retrieve a full list of accounts on the instance, then starting a recursive crawl from those. The API as well as the ActivityPub endpoints also offer other ways to obtain a dump of the status data, e.g. by iterating over the public timeline or over the accounts' outboxes; this does not produce (easily) browsable archives but can be accessed much better programmatically.
Instances can be archived reasonably well by starting a recursive crawl from the "about" page, which contains a link to the admin profile. This may not cover the entire instance though. A more complete coverage requires first crawling the API to retrieve a full list of accounts on the instance, then starting a recursive crawl from those. The API as well as the ActivityPub endpoints also offer other ways to obtain a dump of the status data, e.g. by iterating over the public timeline or over the accounts' outboxes; this does not produce (easily) browsable archives but can be accessed much better programmatically.


Mastodon has a built-in feature allowing for automatic post deletion, instancewide <ref>https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/875</ref> or at the behest of individual users <ref>https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/109367449562229972</ref>.
A [https://github.com/jwilk/zygolophodon/pull/3 patchset] for a CLI Mastodon viewer can output URLs for archiving, including JavaScript based pages, the API requests they make and RSS URLs as well as outlink URLs, but it is not production ready yet and only intended for targeted archiving.
 
Mastodon has a built-in feature allowing for automatic post deletion, instancewide <ref>{{URL|https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/875}}</ref> or at the behest of individual users <ref>{{URL|https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/109367449562229972}}</ref>.


== Lists of instances ==
== Lists of instances ==
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== Dead and dying instances ==
== Dead and dying instances ==
* 2024-01-01<ref>https://cybre.space/~chr/cybre-space-eol</ref> cybre.space, 2.86k users
* 2026-01-31<ref>{{URL|https://mastodon-japan.net/@kuroringo/115353035008655852}}</ref> mastodon-japan.net, {{as of|2025-09|lc=y}}, there are 6,455,338 posts.<ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/mastodon-japan.net}}</ref>
* 2023-05-09<ref>https://mastodon.lol/@nathan/109836633022272265</ref> mastodon.lol, 18k users
* 2025-03-16<ref>{{URL|https://tbs.social/@thisisrjg/113844024503274325}}</ref> tbs.social, user count unknown
* 2022-12-01<ref>https://ashfurrow.com/blog/mastodon-technology-shutdown/</ref> mastodon.technology, 23.6k users
* 2024-12-27<ref>{{URL|https://aethy.com/@News/113556676109175443}}</ref> aethy.com, user count unknown
* 2020-11-1<ref>https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117</ref>: snouts.online<ref>https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117</ref>, 3054 users, 2265852 statuses, {{partiallysaved}}/{{notsaved}}
* 2024-12-17<ref>{{URL|https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-social-faq}}</ref> mozilla.social, 182 active users
* 2024-12-01<ref>{{URL|https://npo.nl/innovatie/projecten/decentrale-sociale-media}}</ref> social.npo.nl, 6 users
* 2024-10-29<ref>{{URL|https://muffinlabs.com/posts/2024/10/29/10-29-rip-botsin-space/}}</ref> botsin.space, 2.5k users
* 2024-09-23<ref>{{URL|https://blog.strangeobject.space/posts/2024-09-23-shutting-down.html}}</ref> strangeobject.space, 168 users
* 2024-07-04<ref>{{URL|https://enshittification.social/@Enshittification/112594134173798653}}</ref> enshittification.social, 21 users
* 2024-05-18<ref>{{URL|https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2024/edps-decentralised-social-media-pilot-end-successful-story_en}}</ref> social.network.europa.eu, 18 users
* 2024-01-01<ref>{{URL|https://cybre.space/~chr/cybre-space-eol}}</ref> cybre.space, 2.86k users
* 2023-05-09<ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.lol/@nathan/109836633022272265}}</ref> mastodon.lol, 18k users
* 2022-12-01<ref>{{URL|https://ashfurrow.com/blog/mastodon-technology-shutdown/}}</ref> mastodon.technology, 23.6k users
* 2020-11-1<ref>{{URL|https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117}}</ref>: snouts.online<ref>{{URL|https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117}}</ref>, 3054 users, 2265852 statuses, {{partiallysaved}}/{{notsaved}}
* between 2019-10-09<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20191009151917/https://mastodon.dregin.com/about</ref> and 2019-11-16: mastodon.dregin.com<ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.dregin.com/@dregin/101841772024992131}}</ref><ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.ie/@dregin/102033888477173336}}</ref>, 16 users, 98 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|6t10b41nvx3gdl7pjsebx56dm}}
* between 2019-10-09<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20191009151917/https://mastodon.dregin.com/about</ref> and 2019-11-16: mastodon.dregin.com<ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.dregin.com/@dregin/101841772024992131}}</ref><ref>{{URL|https://mastodon.ie/@dregin/102033888477173336}}</ref>, 16 users, 98 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|6t10b41nvx3gdl7pjsebx56dm}}
* between 2019-07-14<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190714012148/https://www.bookbeezhive.com/about</ref> and 2019-08-11<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190811222932/http://www.bookbeezhive.com/</ref>: www.bookbeezhive.com<ref>{{URL|https://www.bookbeezhive.com/@PletchaPJWebb/101982288878668788}}</ref>, 101 users, 6345 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|tthg1hszz9bjl1uwxzoy9a7w}}
* between 2019-07-14<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190714012148/https://www.bookbeezhive.com/about</ref> and 2019-08-11<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190811222932/http://www.bookbeezhive.com/</ref>: www.bookbeezhive.com<ref>{{URL|https://www.bookbeezhive.com/@PletchaPJWebb/101982288878668788}}</ref>, 101 users, 6345 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|tthg1hszz9bjl1uwxzoy9a7w}}
* 2019-05-18: berries.space<ref>{{URL|https://berries.space/@mods/102039498886510781}}</ref><ref>{{URL|https://is.nota.live/@ida/102103468237073449}}</ref>, 3k users, 634k statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|11lu0srbwxroh7huboiej67wp}}, {{Job|8grwhmq7awexfnuozbd6o29h9}}
* 2019-05-18: berries.space<ref>{{URL|https://berries.space/@mods/102039498886510781}}</ref><ref>{{URL|https://is.nota.live/@ida/102103468237073449}}</ref>, 3k users, 634k statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|11lu0srbwxroh7huboiej67wp}}, {{Job|8grwhmq7awexfnuozbd6o29h9}} (The fallout of the archiving of this instances resulted in the moratorium on Fediverse archival)
* between 2019-05-06<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190506180209/https://waytoo.online/about</ref> and 2019-11-16: waytoo.online<ref>{{URL|https://waytoo.online/@hypirlink/102021347784209856}}</ref>, 3 users, 786 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|au35hf4x8hwq290wf3v7nr4vt}}
* between 2019-05-06<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20190506180209/https://waytoo.online/about</ref> and 2019-11-16: waytoo.online<ref>{{URL|https://waytoo.online/@hypirlink/102021347784209856}}</ref>, 3 users, 786 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|au35hf4x8hwq290wf3v7nr4vt}}
* 2019-05-07: smusi.ch<ref>{{URL|https://smusi.ch/@smusi/101844877814629349}}</ref>, 548 users, 4776 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|a1ylhltresype3wqgti7j75xq}}
* 2019-05-07: smusi.ch<ref>{{URL|https://smusi.ch/@smusi/101844877814629349}}</ref>, 548 users, 4776 statuses, {{saved}}, {{Job|a1ylhltresype3wqgti7j75xq}}

Latest revision as of 04:15, 11 October 2025

Mastodon is a federated social network which is comparable in functionality to Twitter and part of the Fediverse. Due to the federation, instances are constantly joining the network or disappearing.

As of January 2019[update], it is not possible to properly migrate an account (including posts) from one instance to another[1][2].

Since May 2019, ArchiveTeam has not archived Mastodon or any other Fediverse instances; see the Fediverse page for details.

Archival

Instances can be archived reasonably well by starting a recursive crawl from the "about" page, which contains a link to the admin profile. This may not cover the entire instance though. A more complete coverage requires first crawling the API to retrieve a full list of accounts on the instance, then starting a recursive crawl from those. The API as well as the ActivityPub endpoints also offer other ways to obtain a dump of the status data, e.g. by iterating over the public timeline or over the accounts' outboxes; this does not produce (easily) browsable archives but can be accessed much better programmatically.

A patchset for a CLI Mastodon viewer can output URLs for archiving, including JavaScript based pages, the API requests they make and RSS URLs as well as outlink URLs, but it is not production ready yet and only intended for targeted archiving.

Mastodon has a built-in feature allowing for automatic post deletion, instancewide [3] or at the behest of individual users [4].

Lists of instances

Dead and dying instances

Other archives or attempts

Outdated instances

Instances that are running old versions of Mastodon are likely to not be properly maintained anymore and may be at risk of disappearing. They are tracked at:

Instance homepage grabs

User:JustAnotherArchivist is regularly running !ao jobs for all known instances' homepages (= "about" pages for current versions of Mastodon) through ArchiveBot based on the instances.social list:

References

  1. https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  2. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  3. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/875[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  4. https://infosec.exchange/@Em0nM4stodon/109367449562229972[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  5. https://mastodon-japan.net/@kuroringo/115353035008655852[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  6. https://mastodon.fediverse.observer/mastodon-japan.net[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  7. https://tbs.social/@thisisrjg/113844024503274325[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  8. https://aethy.com/@News/113556676109175443[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  9. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-social-faq[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  10. https://npo.nl/innovatie/projecten/decentrale-sociale-media[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  11. https://muffinlabs.com/posts/2024/10/29/10-29-rip-botsin-space/[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  12. https://blog.strangeobject.space/posts/2024-09-23-shutting-down.html[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  13. https://enshittification.social/@Enshittification/112594134173798653[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  14. https://www.edps.europa.eu/press-publications/press-news/press-releases/2024/edps-decentralised-social-media-pilot-end-successful-story_en[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  15. https://cybre.space/~chr/cybre-space-eol[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  16. https://mastodon.lol/@nathan/109836633022272265[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  17. https://ashfurrow.com/blog/mastodon-technology-shutdown/[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  18. https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  19. https://snouts.online/@Sapphicgiraffic/105133310163251117[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  20. https://web.archive.org/web/20191009151917/https://mastodon.dregin.com/about
  21. https://mastodon.dregin.com/@dregin/101841772024992131[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  22. https://mastodon.ie/@dregin/102033888477173336[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  23. https://web.archive.org/web/20190714012148/https://www.bookbeezhive.com/about
  24. https://web.archive.org/web/20190811222932/http://www.bookbeezhive.com/
  25. https://www.bookbeezhive.com/@PletchaPJWebb/101982288878668788[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  26. https://berries.space/@mods/102039498886510781[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  27. https://is.nota.live/@ida/102103468237073449[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  28. https://web.archive.org/web/20190506180209/https://waytoo.online/about
  29. https://waytoo.online/@hypirlink/102021347784209856[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  30. https://smusi.ch/@smusi/101844877814629349[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  31. https://mastodon.social/@mastohost/102028765248401685[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  32. https://friends.nico/@friends_nico/101827010188335801[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  33. https://muses.gallery/@giantrobotbee/101954430173985710[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  34. https://prose.zone/@kindness/101936000262244658[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  35. https://humanities.one/@lrhodes/101818106595113336[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  36. https://humanities.one/@lrhodes/101870169333337017[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  37. https://djs.social/@damien/101381657119712906[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  38. https://djs.social/@tipsandtricks/101387593257993357[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  39. https://djs.social/@damien/101549632451437412[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  40. https://web.archive.org/web/20190413170337/https://djs.social/about
  41. https://web.archive.org/web/20190422202227/http://djs.social/
  42. https://lamp.institute/@amy/101860606687776398[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  43. https://web.archive.org/web/20190408175646/https://lamp.institute/about
  44. https://web.archive.org/web/20190413174519/http://lamp.institute/
  45. https://pleasehug.me/@Kirschn/101891650141822033[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  46. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://mastodon.rocks/@Glenn[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  47. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://mastodon.rocks/@UBports/with_replies?max_id=101419312194725348[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  48. job:132ttwrv8yg8mxk5hr0d8w73u
  49. https://crt.sh/?id=1003316809[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  50. https://crt.sh/?q=mastodon.rocks[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  51. https://web.archive.org/web/20190115160206/https://mastodon.rocks/about
  52. https://ilovela.in/@tA/101404667036176695[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  53. https://twitter.com/ThreddyTheTrex/status/1083482118095687681[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  54. https://mastodon.xyz/@MrJimmy/101391264142311165[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  55. https://web.archive.org/web/20190107100851/https://theboss.tech/[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  56. https://web.archive.org/web/20181112130414/https://theboss.tech/about[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  57. https://webdev.network/@akmur/101259121075585625[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  58. https://unixcorn.xyz/@unixcorn/100661126190416872[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  59. https://www.whois.com/whois/bofa.lol[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  60. https://web.archive.org/web/20180905070653/https://bofa.lol/about
  61. https://witches.town/@TheSupreme/99790692010452099[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  62. https://hiveway.net/@hiveway/99637137678915164[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  63. https://framapiaf.org/@franckridel/99466298851989160[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]
  64. https://web.archive.org/web/20170615132342/https://fern.surgeplay.com/about/more
  65. https://mastodon.social/@bkeej[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]

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