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
Mastodon does not include a built-in quote post feature like Twitter or Bluesky. Some Mastodon instances enable quote posts through a server-side setting, but this toggle is not visible to all users. If your instance supports quote posts, you can enable the feature from your instance preferences. This article explains how to check if your … Read more
Mastodon instances can show trending posts, hashtags, and links that are popular among local users. By default, this Local Trends feature is enabled for all members of an instance. However, instance administrators may want to restrict who can see these trends for privacy or content moderation reasons. This article explains how to configure the visibility … Read more
Mastodon instance administrators often need to monitor how well their server connects with other instances across the fediverse. Federation statistics show the number of known instances, active users, and posts exchanged. The Mastodon API provides these metrics through a dedicated endpoint. This article explains how to access the /api/v1/instance endpoint and interpret the federation data … Read more
Running your own Mastodon instance gives you full control over your social media presence and data. For a single user, a cheap VPS from providers like DigitalOcean, Linode, or Vultr is sufficient to host a functional instance. The key constraint is that Mastodon requires at least 2 GB of RAM and a dedicated domain name. … Read more