Today we're sharing the first in a series of three posts from our leadership team, starting with @mellifluousbox discussing our mission, and priorities for 2026.

[meowki@meowstodon.eu]

@benroyce @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron i think they are discussing that they may have to perform verification on their own servers: mastodon.social. I don’t think they can enforce verification on other servers.

[pablomuyo@mastodon.social]

@Mastodon @mellifluousbox Mastodon could aspire to replace X in Europe (given the current situation in the U.S. and the state of X). It is urgent that it include translation capabilities for this multilingual region

[iju@mastodon.social]

@meowki @benroyce @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

Just so.

Also worth noting that some countries (at least my own) are enabling age-verification because you can't trust algorithms to show stuff people want/should see. If this is taken into account in the legistlation (which is still being written), then it wouldn't even apply to Mastodon.

Similar use-cases are probably found in other EU-countries, if not in Germany?

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

My understanding is that they will be making the software updates available to other servers that are also forced to comply or get shut down. Is my understanding wrong? It could be

[nitrml@tyrol.social]

@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

1. Mastodon's code already includes a setting which server admins can enable to set a minimum age for their server, which will ask for a date of birth to be entered during sign-up. The date of birth is not stored, only checked once. This has been part of Mastodon's code since multiple months now: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34150

2. What they say in the blog is that they will audit the GmbH's own servers, which probably includes an audit of this feature.

3. The interesting stuff is what that "working group" will come up with.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

thank you

you educated me

{hat tip}

[mark@mastodon.fixermark.com]

@nitrml @benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Age verification won't, of course, stop someone from setting up their own server.

... which, at least regarding the federation choices this little node will be making... Is enough of its own age-gating process that we will welcome all nodes regardless of age of their admins.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

which is great of you, thank you

...and your stance is dependent upon the legalities of your jurisdiction

so people who do enable the age verification are not assholes, they just don't want their govt coming after them

and your own govt may change its mind, then you have to think about it

the problem is govt

not mastodon admins

[mark@mastodon.fixermark.com]

@benroyce @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic All of this is very good insight.

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

which is all fine and good, because you're talking tactics not emotional grand standing

what you won't do therefore is attack some admin of a server of thousands or more for doing what they *have* to do so the govt doesn't knock on their door

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

what do you think about my post above asking for a credit card?

it achieves the same effect, and no one is getting a credit card without id. no server is getting your id and the security hassle with that, and you're not revealing your id anymore than it already has been

the big benefit: with your cc already attached to your profile, donating to your server becomes a breeze. and more people should be doing that

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

i yearly enjoy the services that sometimes say happy birthday to me...

on the fake birthday i've been entering since forever

🤭

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

again that's all fine and good

but if you're asking a server to shut down with thousands of accounts when people can just enter a fake birthday it's far too dramatic

effective resistance is not about purity

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

you mean tor and VPN providers that spy on the people who use it because anyone using that it is flagging their activity as sensitive?

tor was started at the us naval research laboratory for dissidents in countries unfriendly to the usa

you think they don't have enough exit nodes to see what is going on?

and mastodon needs support

i'd almost (i said almost) support the idea of mandatory ccs on sign up with or without id laws

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

great

would you characterize yourself as the average mastodon user? or more broadly, the average social media user?

most people want to sign onto a server, browse, and post

that's it

you can't go after them for that, people don't have the bandwidth or time for the hassles

and we can't become a tiny whisper of a cryptic fringe to adhere to some unnecessary purity test

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

.onion doesn't use exit nodes but it uses rendezvous nodes

and nobody wants to kill tor, the intelligence services love it

the foolishness is people who think something built by the us govt is perfectly anonymous

it *is* anonymous. to most every other entity

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron

zero argument

and if you make the services you talk about user friendly enough that the average social media user can point and click and zero hassle, even better

until then, some servers are stuck in unfriendly districts

and that's not their fault

the govt is at fault

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

understood

but we're now very far away from your average normie who just wants to see cat pictures

and that's where this topic truly lies

[benroyce@mastodon.social]

@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic

100%

and that's why we can't do purity tests on resistance

purity tests destroy effective resistance

effective resistance that isn't pure is not a betrayal

we resist how we can, in the ways we can

this isn't an argument against your words, i'm just harking back to the argument up higher

[qgustavor@urusai.social]

@ariarhythmic @benroyce @starlily Great, fascism will make good Mastodon instances have the same status as BitTorrent trackers and pirate streaming websites!

Well, the tracker I used to contribute for is still up even today, thus we may think disobedience is fine, they will not go for small instances. On the other hand, it's a false correlation: one thing is Crunchyroll, Netflix and other companies choosing not to go against small groups because they may die out of just from not getting enough donations, other thing is fascist governments. They are already going against individuals, people fear ICE, as an example.