Configuring your new Mastodon instance

Now that you've gotten your new instance set up, it's important to configure it so that it works as you want it to.

Logging in

When setting up an instance on Fedihost or on your own, you created a user account. This user account is the instance admin account.

Admin accounts: The instance admin account can also be your personal account, but it's often good practice to keep them separate. This is more secure and separates different concerns. For example, Consultatron's IT department controls the admin account - so even if the CEO robot (who isn't good with computers!) clicks the wrong thing on accident, she can't do too much damage.

Things to do to customize your new instance

You can access administration tools by going to "Preferences" from your Mastodon sidebar, then clicking "Administration" on the left sidebar. This will take you to the dashboard, where you can see your instance's statistics. Under "Administration" you can also access some sub-menus to customize your instance.

Set your server's branding and info

Where: by going to the "Server settings" sub-menu of "Administration", on the "Branding" tab

Here, you can set:

• a server name, such as "Consultatron Social",
• a contact (Mastodon) username and email address for yourself,
• a description of your server and its purpose, such as "The official instance for Consultatron. See our website at https://consultatron.com/ !", and
• a thumbnail image, such as Consultatron's logo.

You should typically set all of these, so that people know what your server is about.

Limit who can register

Where: by going to the "Server settings" sub-menu of "Administration", on the "Registrations" tab

Here, you control who can create an account on your server. You may want to set this up in several different ways - see below for the scenario that best describes your instance.

Warning: Setting registration to "anyone can sign up" is very dangerous if you don't have a moderation team ready to handle it! You risk exposing your instance to lots of spam and unwanted content.

Scenario: Single-user instance

If you are the only user on the instance, you want to set it to "nobody can sign up" - as the admin account, you can still generate invite links if you need to create a new account for whatever reason.

Scenario: Instance for your friends or a small club

If your instance is limited to people you know or people your instance members know, then you still want to set it to "nobody can sign up". As the instance admin, you can generate invite links always.

Also, you can allow your users to generate invite links - under "Roles", edit "Default permissions" and check the "Invite Users" box. That way, other users can generate links, not just you.

Scenario: Instance for a community

If your instance is public in nature, for example for a community around a hobby, you should set it to "Approval required for sign up". Then, anyone who finds your instance can submit a request, that you or a moderator can approve, to sign up.

By requiring approval, you make sure that spammers or bots can't register freely. You don't need to have a super long registration process - just a simple text box is what most instances use.

If you have a active, dedicated moderation team, you may consider enabling "Anyone can sign up" - for this, you should fully understand the risks first and make sure your mods are able and willing to review new sign ups and ban any disruptive users as needed.

Define your instance's rules

Where: by going to the "Server rules" sub-menu of "Administration"

Here you can define rules for your instance. Keep them short and simple! These are what users will see when they join your instance. They will also see them when submitting a report - they can choose a rule they think the post they're reporting violates.

If you're having trouble coming up with rules, take a look at some other instances for inspiration! Many instances listed in the public server picker have a solid set of rules. They all follow the Mastodon server covenant which sets out a good baseline for moderation.

Restrict other instances with undesirable content

Where: by going to the "Federation" sub-menu of "Moderation"

Sometimes you will encounter other instances which tolerate or harbour content you don't want to see or you don't want your users to see. You can limit how these instances interact (federate) with yours.

There are three levels of blocking:

• Limit is a soft-block. Posts from users on the limited instance won't be seen by users on your instance, unless they already follow them.
• Suspend is a hard-block. Your instance will delete all data (profiles, posts, etc.) from the suspended instance. Users on your instance won't be able to follow users on the suspended instance or see their posts at all.
• None just means media files (images, videos, etc.) won't be received by your instance from the other instance.

There are also blocklists which other people have made that allow you to block known problematic instances many at a time. You should consider using these to avoid any problems from coming up in the first place.

Generate invite links

Where: by going to the "Invite people" menu; the instance admin can always see this menu, but not everyone can

If you have new user registrations disabled, but you want to invite someone to your instance, you'll need to create an invite link.

You can do this in the "Invite people" section of the Preferences menu. Just click "Generate invite link" and copy and send the link to whoever you want to invite.

You can delete old links from there, which is useful if you want to control who joins your server tightly.

Join a relay for discoverability

Where: by going to the "Relays" sub-menu of "Administration"

A new instance won't know about any other instances on the Fediverse. You can quickly get set up on a relay (a network of instances) so you'll see a lot more instances quickly. This way, you and your users can find more content easier.

You may want to spend some time looking for a relay that has the kind of posts you or your users might be interested in (based on specific hobbies, etc.).

Under the "Administration" section on the sidebar of the Preferences menu, you can add a new relay. Just enter its URL and click "Save and Enable".

Warning: Be careful which relay you join! You want to make sure that instances on a relay don't have unwanted content (say, they don't moderate for hateful speech the same way you do). Also, the larger the relay and the instances on it, the more space they use on your instance. You can run through disk space very fast by joining a large relay!