When you sign up for a new Mastodon instance, many servers offer two software versions: Glitch and Vanilla. Both run on the same core Mastodon protocol and can communicate with any other Fediverse instance. However, Glitch includes extra features for power users, such as advanced post formatting and custom column layouts. Vanilla, the default Mastodon … Read more
You want to share a message with only people on your home instance, but standard Mastodon posts always reach the wider fediverse. Mastodon Glitch Edition includes a local-only posting feature that keeps your toot visible only to users on the same server. This article shows you how to enable and use local-only posts on any … Read more
Mastodon instance administrators must decide how their server talks to other servers across the fediverse. The default mode, often called open federation, lets your instance communicate with any other instance unless it is explicitly blocked. However, some administrators need stricter control to protect their community or comply with internal policies. This article explains the difference … Read more
Running a Mastodon instance on bare metal gives you complete control but often leads to dependency conflicts and manual update procedures. Moving to Docker containerization standardizes the environment, simplifies upgrades, and reduces the risk of configuration drift. This guide walks through the exact steps to export your existing Mastodon data, set up a Docker-based instance, … Read more
Mastodon instances rely heavily on Redis as a high-speed cache and job queue for Sidekiq. When the Redis memory limit is set too low, Sidekiq jobs fail silently or are evicted, causing delayed or lost federated posts, notification failures, and timeline gaps. This guide explains how Redis memory allocation interacts with Sidekiq queues and provides … Read more
Mastodon instances store user-uploaded images, videos, and other media files locally on the server by default. As your instance grows, serving these files directly from the application server increases load times and bandwidth costs. A content delivery network, or CDN, caches media files at edge locations closer to your users, reducing latency and server strain. … Read more
When you run a Mastodon instance, the streaming API handles real-time updates like new posts and notifications. By default, this API runs on the same domain as your web interface. You can improve performance and security by moving the streaming API to a separate subdomain, such as streaming.yourinstance.com. This article explains how to configure Nginx … Read more
Mastodon instances store user media files such as images, videos, and profile avatars. By default, these files are saved on the instance server’s local disk. As your instance grows, local storage fills up quickly and becomes expensive to expand. Wasabi offers a cost-effective S3-compatible object storage solution that integrates directly with Mastodon. This article explains … Read more
Mastodon instances store user-uploaded images, videos, and other media files. Local storage can fill up quickly and become expensive to scale. Cloudflare R2 offers an S3-compatible object storage service with no egress fees, making it a cost-effective option for Mastodon admins. This article explains how to configure Cloudflare R2 for your Mastodon instance and breaks … Read more
Mastodon instances generate large amounts of media files from user uploads and cached remote content. Storing these files on the same server as your database and application code quickly fills disk space and can degrade performance. Moving media storage to Backblaze B2 reduces server disk usage and lowers hosting costs. This article explains how to … Read more