Hackers' Pub

Syntax	Description	Examples
`"` keyword `"`	Finds the string within quotes, including spaces. Case-insensitive. (Escape quotes inside with `\"`)	`"Hackers' Pub"`
`from:` handle	Finds content written by the specified user.	`from:hongminhee` `from:hongminhee@hollo.social`
`lang:` ISO 639-1	Finds content written in the specified language.	`lang:en`
`#` tag	Finds content with the specified tag. Case-insensitive.	`#HackersPub`
condition condition	Finds content that satisfies both conditions on either side of the space (logical AND).	`"Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
condition `OR` condition	Finds content that satisfies at least one of the conditions on either side of the OR operator (logical OR).	`#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" lang:en`
`(` condition `)`	Combines the operators within the parentheses first.	`(#HackersPub OR "Hackers' Pub" OR "Hackers Pub") lang:en`

FediThing 🏳️‍🌈 @FediThing@chinwag.org

11/4/2025, 3:25:00 PM

Public

We need to talk about Mastodon gGmbH. They are the main developers of Mastodon's server software & official mobile apps, they own mastodon.social and Mastodon's trademarks. Their behaviour is inexplicably going in two totally opposite directions.

A couple of years ago they started promoting mastodon.social on the official apps while downplaying other servers, causing their server to grow while other servers shrank. Mastodon.social is currently about 28.7% of the active Fediverse and growing.

For comparison, another major server mas.to is just 1.2% of the active Fediverse. Mastodon.social is about twenty-four times bigger.

🧵 1/4

Two screenshots from Mastodon shown side by side.

On the left side is the "more replies found" dialogue box which indicates new replies in a thread, allowing people on small servers to see the same number of replies in a thread as people on large servers. This screenshot is captioned "This button is building the Fediverse..."

On the right side is a screenshot from Mastodon's official app's front page, which has a large "join mastodon.social" button and below it a less noticeable "pick another server" button. This screenshot is captioned "...this button is destroying the Fediverse."

If you have a fediverse account, you can quote this note from your own instance. Search https://social.chinwag.org/users/FediThing/statuses/115492120189076969 on your instance and quote it. (Note that quoting is not supported in Mastodon.)