Mastodon is part of a decentralized social network called the Fediverse, where different servers communicate by speaking the same language: ActivityPub. You may have noticed that you can follow users on other Mastodon instances or even on platforms like PeerTube and Pixelfed without leaving your home server. This article explains the technical concept of federation … Read more
When your Mastodon federated timeline stops showing new posts from other instances, the experience feels like the network has gone silent. This problem usually stems from a connectivity disruption between your home server and remote instances, a stalled background refresh process, or a local caching issue. This article explains the root causes of a frozen … Read more
You want to follow someone who uses a different Mastodon server than yours. Mastodon is a federated network, meaning users on different instances can still interact. This article shows you the exact steps to follow a user on another instance using their full handle or profile URL. You will also learn how to avoid common … Read more
When a Mastodon server defederates from another server, it blocks all communication between the two instances. This means users on one server can no longer see posts, follow accounts, or interact with users on the blocked server. If you are a user on a server that gets defederated by another server, your followers who are … Read more
You run a Mastodon instance and need to confirm which other servers your instance communicates with. Mastodon instances do not show a simple friends list by default. The federation dashboard gives you a directory of known remote instances, their connection status, and recent activity. This article explains how to access that dashboard and interpret the … Read more
Mastodon users have long awaited direct interoperability with Threads, Meta’s Twitter-like platform built on the ActivityPub protocol. As of early 2025, the connection status between Mastodon instances and Threads remains partial and asymmetric. This article explains exactly what federates between the two networks, what does not work, and how to verify your current federation status. … Read more
Federation breakage occurs when two Mastodon instances can no longer exchange posts, notifications, or direct messages. You may notice that profiles from a remote instance appear blank, posts from a specific server stop appearing in your federated timeline, or direct messages from users on that instance never arrive. The root cause is often a blocked … Read more
Mastodon instances communicate with each other to exchange public posts and profile data. This open federation model can be abused by malicious servers that scrape content or bypass blocks. Authorized Fetch Mode, also known as Secure Mode, forces every server-to-server request to include a signed authentication header. Enabling this setting stops unauthorized servers from pulling … Read more
When you follow accounts on Pleroma or Misskey servers from your Mastodon account, posts sometimes fail to appear or replies get lost. This happens because Mastodon uses ActivityPub, but Pleroma and Misskey implement parts of the protocol differently. This article explains how to establish federation with these servers, how to search for users across instances, … Read more
When you administer a Mastodon instance, you may need to restrict another server that violates your instance rules or behaves abusively. Mastodon provides two distinct moderation actions: limiting a server and suspending a server. Many instance admins confuse these two tools or use the wrong one for a given situation. This article explains the exact … Read more