When Mastodon instances communicate with each other, they rely on Webfinger lookups to resolve user addresses like user@example.com into local profile data. Each lookup result is cached to reduce network load and speed up subsequent requests. The default cache Time to Live (TTL) controls how long this data stays fresh before the system re-fetches it. … Read more
When your Mastodon server cannot communicate with other instances, content may fail to arrive in federated timelines or direct messages may not reach their destination. These failures are caused by network timeouts, SSL certificate mismatches, protocol version incompatibilities, or remote server rate-limiting. This article explains how to access and interpret federation error logs from the … Read more
When you follow a user on a remote Mastodon instance for the first time, you may notice that their older posts do not immediately appear in your Home timeline. This is not a bug or a missing feature—it is a deliberate design choice to control server load and bandwidth usage. The mechanism that controls how … Read more
When you follow a new account on Mastodon, the server does not automatically fetch that account’s past posts. This means your federated timeline may show only new posts from that account, leaving a gap in your feed. The missing older content is not a bug but a design choice to reduce server load and storage … Read more
Mastodon instances exchange posts and activities through federation. When a popular account on a remote instance posts, your instance must process that activity for every local follower. This can cause a sudden flood of jobs in Sidekiq, the background job processor, leading to high memory usage, queue backlogs, and degraded performance. The root cause is … Read more
Mastodon relies on federation to deliver posts, likes, and boosts to remote servers. When a remote server is slow or under heavy load, your posts may take minutes or even hours to appear there. This delay happens because Mastodon queues outgoing deliveries and retries them with backoff timers. This article explains how to adjust server-side … Read more
Mastodon instances periodically refresh their connection to other servers to keep the federated timeline up to date. This background refresh process pulls new posts, boosts, and replies from remote instances that your users follow or interact with. Without a properly configured refresh schedule, your instance may show stale content or miss updates from the broader … Read more
Mastodon server administrators must decide how to handle unwanted or harmful remote domains. The two primary domain block actions are Suspend and Silence. Choosing the wrong action can either under-protect your users or over-censor legitimate content. This article explains the technical difference between Suspend and Silence and provides step-by-step instructions for applying each block type. … Read more
Some Mastodon instances enable Federation Limited Mode to restrict content from unknown servers. You may notice your timeline is missing posts from users you follow on other instances. This happens because the instance administrator has configured the server to block or limit incoming content from servers that have not been manually allowed. This article explains … Read more
Mastodon federation allows users on different servers to follow each other and share posts. But sometimes you cannot tell if your instance is actually federating correctly with the rest of the fediverse. You might see an empty federated timeline or your posts never reach users on other instances. This article explains how to use an … Read more