Mastodon
Over the next few days, people that have accounts on mastodon.social and mastodon.online may see a donation banner in our official mobile apps. Here's the background on this small message.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/07/a-nudge-to-fund-our-future/
Jimmy Sjölund 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 🇬🇱
@Mastodon I suppose you will get a banner even if you are already donating monthly on Patreon?
Mastodon
@matp92 we understand! This is still in progress. More news as soon as we have it to share.
matp92
@Mastodon
what about the new non-profit org in EU supposed to arrive in 2025 ? I understand there is some work to create it but lots people will prefer donate when this new non profit structure is created
Mastodon
@paulschoe as mentioned in the blog post, we are considering ways to do this further down the line.
Paul Schoe
I feel that all Mastodon Administrators should have an option to place a non-intrusive (rotating) banner on their instance.
As in this case, it can be used to make users aware that funding is welcome for stability.
But I can also imagine that it is a way to attract some income from other parties. If their users do not like it, then those users can move to another instance that does not do that.
I would think positively about parties that support my instance.
Mastodon
@jimmysjolund thanks for asking about this. We don't track or have a way to check that, so the simple answer is yes. It should only be one quick tap to dismiss the message, but we know it is not ideal when you're already donating. We appreciate everyone that supports us, and thank you for your patience! 🫶
Mastodon
@stux they do, we know, and we appreciate everyone running Mastodon! We are trying this as a first step and have ideas for ways to do this more broadly for other instances in the future.
stux⚡️
@Mastodon I will uh just put out a post :blobcat_praise:
Sm0ller instances also cost monie 💸
Goldmaster
@Mastodon quick question, but for those on #patreon do they get to remove and not see these banners? Much rather stepup and support Mastodon rather than pay for #twitter or #bluesky I mean there is the @buyfromeu movement. Mastodon may not have the prettiest or easiest sign up (yet) but it will outlive twitter and maybe bluesky
chris actual
@Mastodon Well, the link to the donation page worked on me. Enjoy the 20 euro and keep up the good work!
Adelina
@Mastodon I think this is a great idea, and i personally would prefer to give direct support than via patreon. Hope it will be successful and more people will consider supporting you.
Mastodon
@joeneXtra there is an account @staff that is specific for mastodon.social and mastodon.online; and @MastodonEngineering that is about the software. This account @Mastodon covers the project as a whole, and although this blog post refers to this campaign being visible to people who use our servers, the funding discussion is about the whole organisation. Apologies for any confusion. We aim to communicate about our plans, organisation, fundraising, as well as the software, as clearly as we can.
joene extra
@Mastodon It would be better if this post is not visible for users who are not on mastodon.social/online. If I read your bio it looks this account is for Mastodon in general, not mastodon.social/online. So to avoid confusion I highly recommend to open a different account for mastodon.social/online users.
Dan 🌻
@Mastodon 2 years open https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android/issues/726 😭
Mastodon
@Goldmaster the banner will still show (and can be easily dismissed with just a tap) if you already support us via Patreon - thanks for doing that, by the way - we don't make a connection between your account and Patreon or track you, so there's no way to premptively hide it. We hope it's only a small inconvenience.
Goldmaster
Mastodon
@dnkrupinski @rriemann we do not collect any data with this feature. This is all done client-side in our mobile apps (which are open source). The app knows your instance and sign up date (for your currently signed in account) because these are already part of the account data. It makes an anonymous API request to know if there is a campaign in progress. If so, the app gets some text to display. The only data collected is for the donation, if the user chooses to initiate a payment.
DNKrupinski 🧡🏴☠️
@rriemann Was dabei aus meiner Sicht **noch** schlechter ist:
Da man die Anzeige leicht wegblenden können soll und sie im Nachgang auch nicht wieder erscheinen soll, muss ich auch noch tracken, welche nutzende Person die Meldung angezeigt bekommen hat und diese weggeklickt hat. Es sind also schon 3 Datenpunkte, die man benötigt, um das Ganze technisch umsetzen zu können:
* Instanz,
* Dauer seit Anmeldung auf der Instanz,
* Banner bereits angezeigt.
DNKrupinski 🧡🏴☠️
@rriemann Dauer der Anmeldung, genauer:
"… if they are signed-in to an account on one of our instances, and only if their account has existed for four weeks or more… "
Es wird also ausgewertet, auf welcher Instanz die nutzende Person aktivi ist und wie lange die Anmeldung her ist. Also mind. 2 Datenwerte, die hier "getrackt" werden.
Für das Funktionieren der App oder die Funktionsfähigkeit der Instanzen sind beide Informationen nicht notwendig.
(Da dies auch für andere Instanzen ausgeweitet werden soll, ist es also keine einmalige Einzelmaßnahme sondern möglicherweise auch periodisch nutzbar.)
Dies war der Grund die #Mastodon-App zu löschen, denn es gibt genügend andere Apps.
Robert Riemann 🇪🇺
Gute Frage. ePrivacy und DsGVO-konform soll es sein. Welche persönlichen Daten werden denn von den Nutzern verarbeitet?
DNKrupinski 🧡🏴☠️
@Mastodon Is there any reason why you are allowed to use the necessary data for marketing things? Is there any consent on https://mastodon.online and/or https://mastodon.social which allow you to act like that?
Mastodon
@joeneXtra @mackaj we plan to continue sharing project news and blog posts on this account, thanks for the feedback.
joene extra
@mackaj If you don't want to miss these mastodon.social/online announcements, you can follow @staff.
Mackaj
@joeneXtra @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @staff
It doesn't hurt to remind users from time to time that the server they're using has running costs that needs to be met. It's free advertising for other admins too and I expect they're grateful for it.
I'm not in either of those servers but was interested to see this post and subsequent discussions. If it's restricted in future I'll be disappointed.
joene extra
@Mastodon @MastodonEngineering Thanks for the explaination. So please use next time the @staff account, because a funding campaign like this is not related to my and other servers.
︎ ︎
@Mastodon :kirby: :kirby: :kirby: :kirby: :kirby: :kirby:
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