Catodon.social and Catodon closing down
I thought whether I should post this from @catodon 's account but I'd like to speak on a more personal level, since it's now just me in Catodon anyway. So, I'm pretty sad about it coming to this, but what can you do - things like that can happen in group projects. We started as a fork of Firefish, then rebased to Iceshrimp, and then we froze development waiting for Iceshrimp's C# rewrite to be completed, since the announced timeline at the time said that the first stable should be out before the end of 2024. This target wasn't met - of course, they don't owe anyone anything, I'm just describing what happened. Combined with the bitter aftertaste my involvement in Iceshrimp left to me, it's not a project I would like for Catodon to rely on. If Catodon was to continue, I would like it to be, or at least start off as, a more minimalistic soft fork of Sharkey, without the local-only features etc.
However, at this point all devs who were interested in Catodon have moved on to other things, so it's not feasible for the project (and the server, which was mostly meant as a showcase for the software) to continue. On November 10 the domain name expires, and I'm thinking of not renewing it.
If any of the existing members wants to maintain the server, either as an Iceshrimp or as a Sharkey instance, drop me a line, if you're serious then I'd happily transfer the domain and vps so that the server can stay online.
I apologize to anyone affected by this, I hope you don't find it difficult to find a new home. I have to say that we never accepted donations, so we practically run a free service for two years. Wish it could go on, but I simply don't have the technical knowledge to run the server responsibly. I am not a sysadmin or a dev, and it's not something I feel very drawn to - I'm sure ADHD also hasn't helped me to learn more about running a server. I'm ok with it.
So there you have it, in around 50 days catodon.social goes kaput, unless something improbable happens - like if someone wants to take the responsibility of running the server, or if a javascript dev thinks that a scaled-down version of Sharkey sounds like something they'd like to try.
Thanks for being part of this, I really believe this could have been a fun project - I loved being part of Firefish and I wanted a chance to do some things better this time, but it seems that it wasn't meant to be! Oh, well =)
#Catodon
catodon
That's it, I've practically finished with the first release of Catodon, I want to go through a few details later today, then I'll start setting up a public server so that you can all see what I've been working on non-stop for the past couple of months. I'm extremely happy with the result and I think you'll like it.
I will probably launch the server alongside the first RC for the stable release. This week!
#Catodon
Jueves 27 de febrero de 2025, 11:20 p.m. UTC-6
#CatsOfMastodon #catodon
Mi gatita Diva.
Le gusta acompañar.
Cat People! Cat Reviews are here!
Post a photo of a random* cat you encountered. Write a brief appraisal of their qualities and give them a score out of ten.
( * Yes, you can review a cat who lives with you.)
#cat #cats #CatsOfMastodon #Catodon
#CatReviews #introduction
#appy added and #catodon updated
https://codeberg.org/fediverse/delightful-fediverse-experience
I am adding an Instagram-inspired Media timeline, based on Home (Following), and I'm wondering what would people want from something like that. For example, should it include only photos and videos, or audio files too? And anything else I might be missing (never used Instagram tbh). Thanks!
#catodon
What would you like to see in a "Media" timeline?
I see #catodon moved to #codefloe
https://codefloe.com/catodon/catodon
Following Codeberg's recent decisions about projects developed with the use of AI, we have moved to @codefloe . The new Catodon repo url is https://codefloe.com/catodon/catodon - please update your git remote!
We are thankful to Codeberg for hosting us so far, but we will not apologize for utilizing one of the biggest technological breakthroughs in decades for the development of open source software, nor for spending countless hours in order to create a great fediverse platform with unique features, bridging the microblogging and the threadiverse sides of fedi. If you need to judge the project, you can judge it by the end result instead of the tools we use for development.
We prefer not to be judged for just doing what we love and making it available to everyone for free, though, so we're excited to join Codefloe!
#catodon #codefloe #codeberg
Catodon repo moved to Codefloe
Catodon recently implemented Mobilizon/Gancio events, but users on Mastodon or other platforms see events as posts that they can't interract with. This makes events on fedi far less useful. We're gonna change that - we'll create an events.bot account that users from other platforms will be able to send a DM to, and respond to an event (Attend/Deny) via the bot. This way, anyone on fedi will be able to attend an event originally published in Catodon.
#catodon #mobilizon #gancio
Catodon's develop branch now supports PostgreSQL 18 (but always take a backup before attempting an update in the db).
#catodon
We've seen quite a few foreign accounts signing up at electricrequiem.com lately, I suppose to try Catodon, since it's the biggest server showing up on FediDB. But it's a greek-speaking community server - please use catodon.rocks if you want to try Catodon (and, even better, set up your own server if you like it and if you know how to do it!)
#catodon
Today, the URL of your standalone blog page in Catodon is using this structure: https://catodon.rocks/@catodon/blog , so /@user/blog. Would this be a reason for you to not host your blog on a Catodon server? Is a domain.com/customblogname URL better? Would this be good enough, or is a URL structured like customblogname.domain.com a prerequisite for your blog?
In general, which are, for you, the things that the platform that hosts your blog must absolutely have, and which are your nice-to-haves? Any features that you haven't seen in any software, but you think are a good idea for a blogging platform?
Thanks!
#catodon #blog #blogs #blogging
Catodon blog URL and other questions
Valkey has a new security release, so if you've moved from Redis to Valkey, please make sure your server is running the patched version!
#catodon #valkey
Valkey security release
Just added a small feature in Catodon, which might not sound that important but it's a quality of life improvement that I think Sharkey and Misskey admins will appreciate: You can now set "Alt names" for custom emoji - other names that still work, even if they are not advertised as the specific emoji's name. This helps a lot when you want to rename or delete an emoji, but you know that past posts on your server will now look like :abandonedEmojiName:. Now, when you rename a custom emoji, the old name is automatically added to its Alt names, so that any post that still has the old name works. Or, if you delete a custom emoji, you can add its name as an existing similar emoji's alt name.
#catodon #misskey #sharkey
Cross-posted from !catodon-talks@catodon.rocks
A new website for Catodon, and more updates
#catodon
Blog post: Catodon's official website is just one more reason why.catodon.rocks
One of the things that have me seriously worried about AI lately is how easy it gets for bots to make Fediverse accounts - they can bypass bot protection guards at registration, as they can act more and more like humans. A mass influx of spambots could seriously bring servers to their knees and make the network unusable. So we need stronger moderation tools!
Our next release will not only have more moderation options per user, but you will be able to apply them to up to 100 accounts at once. I really hope fedi admins won't need to deal with something like that, but it's always better to be prepared to defend your community.
First release candidate for 26.11.0 "Nyan Cat".
Events. Federated events (FEP-8a8e) with invitations, RSVPs, calendar export and their own page, plus an Events tab in Search.
Videos. New Videos page and timeline. Shorts feed that also takes Loops and portrait PeerTube videos, a popup player, Up next, and Add channel as a search.
Blogs. Write in Markdown, mention people in a blog post, and offer the blog's posts by email.
Forums. Discover forums through Catodon's Threadiverse Catalog, from Search > Forums, Explore > Forums and the sidebar.
Moderation. Mass actions on up to 100 accounts, delete all posts, block an email address on delete, warnings with appeals, and reviewable trending hashtags.
Email and terms. Notifications by email, filters for notifications you would rather not hear, and terms of service a server can write, date and version.
Layout. Posts first, Accounts becomes Streams, 16 new themes, Ctrl+K command palette, and bookmark categories.
Mastodon API. Sign-ups from apps, paging through lists, more notification kinds, and per-account server blocks.
For admins. Warnings about critical updates and about the end of support of your release line; email and terms stay off until you turn them on. Migrations run on first start, so back up first.
Full details with the stable release.
#catodon
Catodon 26.11.0-rc.1 is out!
I really like one of the features I squeezed in just before the RC, it's a small thing that I've wanted to do it for a long time: Something borrowed from Facebook, where I found it super convenient. When you have no unread notifications and new ones come while you\re online, if you hover over the popup cards, they are marked as read. So if you do the hover (as an "I saw this") for all incoming notifications, you never have to visit the notifications page or click the "Mark all as read" button mid-session - your unread notifications count will stay at zero, without clicking anywhere.
#catodon
And now that the RC for Catodon 26.11.0 "Nyan Cat" is out, we can continue development, towards 26.12.0 "Grumpy Cat". First feature I'm working on: a Library, a feature close to (and compatible with) Bookwyrm's Shelves, but not just for books: You will be able to add reviews for films, music albums etc, since Catodon Libraries will also be compatible with NeoDB!
#catodon #bookwyrm #neodb
Alright, we're looking for beta testers for Catodon's mobile app, as Google demands 12 testers having it installed (and ideally using it) for at least 14 days.
The app is nothing exciting tbh, it's a glorified TWA, which allows you to switch server. However, it might be interesting for some people because you don't need a Catodon account: If you select catodon.rocks, you can also use it with your Mastodon or Misskey or Sharkey account (basically with anything that uses the Mastodon, Misskey or ActivityPub API), as an app. You can get a taste of Catodon's UX this way, even though you'll be missing a lot of features. Or of course you can make a Catodon account if you don't have one yet.
So, if anyone is interested in installing our app and keeping it for at least a couple of weeks, please send me the email that you're logged into Google Play with, and I'll send you the links.
Thank you, and please repost this, so that we can find our testing group!
There are such cool projects on the Fediverse. Honestly, I don't think there is any social network that can compete. We have microblogging, blogging, videos, audio, events, reviews for books, films and more, podcasts, image sharing, streaming, forums, link aggregators...
But we have mostly been seeing just parts of all this ecosystem, because each project focuses in one or a few of these things. One of our aspirations for Catodon is to bring as many of these features and services together, to the extent that we can keep the platform coherent. We already support many of those, but we still have work to do. We will show you fedi like you haven't experienced it before - at least with only one account!
#catodon #fediverse
Working on a FediHood-inspired "Nearby" feature for Catodon. Since FediHood's development has halted, I'm using it as a base, but without being restricted by it. I'm trying to build this not only thinking of Catodon's implementation, but with fedi on my mind, since we don't have a standard for location, and it could be useful for a lot of cases (events, marketplaces - even a federated dating app could use something like this, why not). So once I'm done, I'll propose two FEPs, so that other projects can also build on this.
#catodon #fedihood #fediverse #activitypub #fep
This is a big one! Caught up with Misskey 2026.10.0, added ActivityPub C2S API support (we know there are not many clients, but we want to do our part for standardization in the Fediverse), added post languages and language filters, replaced Redis with Valkey and many more - read the release notes for a full list of everything we did this month!
#catodon
Catodon 26.10.0 "Bongo Cat" released!
