Windows & PC

Mastodon instance administrators often need to screen new registrations to keep their community focused and spam-free. The default sign-up form collects only a username, email, and password, which gives you no insight into why a person wants to join. Adding a custom sign-up question lets you ask applicants for a reason, an introduction, or a … Read more

Mastodon instance administrators often need to control who can join their server. One effective method is restricting new user registrations to specific email domains. This prevents spam accounts and ensures users belong to a trusted organization or community. This article explains how to configure email domain whitelisting or blacklisting in Mastodon’s settings. Key Takeaways: Restrict … Read more

If you run a Mastodon instance, you likely use hCaptcha to prevent automated spam account registrations. However, hCaptcha has changed its pricing model and now charges per verification, which can become expensive for larger instances. This article explains how to switch your Mastodon instance from hCaptcha to an alternative captcha provider such as MastoCaptcha or … Read more

Mastodon instances store user-uploaded images on the same domain as the instance by default. This can increase server load and expose the main domain to potential security risks from malicious file uploads. Separating image hosting to a dedicated subdomain improves performance and security by isolating static content. This article explains how to configure your Mastodon … Read more

Running a Mastodon instance requires a reverse proxy to handle TLS termination, request routing, and WebSocket support. Caddy is a modern web server that simplifies this process with automatic HTTPS and a clean configuration syntax. Many administrators choose Caddy because it eliminates the need to manually manage SSL certificates. This article explains the key settings … Read more

Running a Mastodon instance requires a reliable web server to handle client connections and proxy requests to the Mastodon application server. Nginx is the most common reverse proxy for Mastodon, and enabling HTTP/3 on it brings faster connection establishment and better performance on unreliable networks. HTTP/3 uses the QUIC transport protocol instead of TCP, reducing … Read more

You want to know if your Mastodon instance is reachable and responding to requests without logging in manually every hour. Mastodon provides a public health check endpoint that returns a simple JSON response when the server is running correctly. This article explains what the health check endpoint does, how to set up Uptime Kuma to … Read more

When you run a Mastodon instance, new users register with a default language setting that affects their entire experience. The default language determines the interface language, the content language filter for the federated timeline, and the suggested accounts shown during onboarding. Many instance administrators want to set a different default language than the server locale, … Read more

Mastodon instance administrators often want to display their own legal terms, community guidelines, or privacy policies to users. By default, Mastodon shows generic placeholder text for terms of service and privacy policy pages. This article explains how to replace the default text with custom content using the administration panel. You will learn the exact steps … Read more

Mastodon instances often receive spam account registrations that pollute the local timeline and waste moderator time. The platform includes built-in anti-spam heuristics that automatically flag suspicious sign-ups before they become active. Enabling these heuristics reduces manual review workload and prevents bots from posting unwanted content. This article explains how to activate the anti-spam heuristics in … Read more