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FAQs

FAQs

  • Tim Chambers has led IndieWeb.social since its inception in February 2019, creating a great community of users on the open social web. Tim is now looking to move IndieWeb.social to its next stage and to find a long-term home to support the community, and is transferring the administration of the server and the community to the Newmast Foundation. The Foundation plans to create a user group to take over the leadership of the server. Tim will remain on as a member of the IndieWeb.social community.

  • We are a UK registered educational charity, with a mission to share knowledge through microblogging. We’re best known in the Fediverse for knowledge based community building through a server, app and Newsmast Community Feeds. We also campaign to raise the public profile of the open social web and will soon launch Channel.org, a new service aimed at onboarding socially beneficial organisations to the open social web. You can learn more about the team here: https://www.newsmastfoundation.org/about-us/our-team/

  • We worked closely with Tim last summer on the Kamala Harris Win group, through which we built a good working relationship. Our Foundation is based outside the US, which is helpful in the current climate, and has moderation and technical resources to support the IndieWeb.social community. We are honoured to have the opportunity to support and work with the community at IndieWeb.social. It is one of the outstanding Fediverse servers, with a strong culture and we really respect what everyone has done to build it into the community it is today.

  • Keep using IndieWeb.social! It has a great and thriving community and we don’t want to see that eroded. There is also a Patreon page to help finance running costs and we’re keen to get more users involved in running the server so if you’re interested in volunteering, or joining a user group, please email support@newsmast.org

  • Ownership will be transferred on Monday, 31st of March 2025.

  • No, you can continue using IndieWeb.social as usual.

  • Yes, enthusiastically so.

  • No. The server's location remains in France. Please see MastoHost's website for more details: https://masto.host/infrastructure/

  • Moderation will be led by the existing co-moderator, @Thor@indieweb.social, with our help behind the scenes with support from Newsmast admins.

  • No, this will stay the same.

  • All funds raised through the IndieWeb.social Patreon will go towards the maintenance of IndieWeb.social.

  • Yes. The only change is to the ownership of the IndieWeb.social domain and the administration of the IndieWeb.social server.

  • In order for the handover to be completed legally, we have paid a token fee of $1.

  • IndieWeb.social will remain the same and any changes we consider will be developed through consultation with the community.

  • We’re very sorry to see you go, the community won’t be the same without you but having control over your account is central to the Fediverse and we respect that. You can migrate your profile, you can find a guide here: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/

  • The creation of Newsmast was inspired by the emergence of an incredible online community of news and comment following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the direction of Twitter under Elon Musk. The growing gap between the two led to our vision to build a microblogging service around communities of interest, with a charitable structure, free of advertising. The emergence of Mastodon as a credible alternative to Twitter gave us the platform we needed to deliver this vision.

  • When we first launched, we were backed by a generous donation from one of our co-founders. That helped us find our feet and hire a small team to kickstart the project. Now we’re further along, we’re reaching out to potential funders, other organisations working along similar lines and - most importantly - smaller donations from people who like what we’re doing and want to help us develop further! Newsmast is a non-profit, owned by a charitable foundation. Any money made by Newsmast is used to cover costs and enable us to grow

  • Newsmast is part of the decentralised social network powered by Mastodon. It runs on Mastodon's open-source technology which is proven, scalable, and developed by a non-profit. We've also made a few changes ourselves. You can find our federated server at newsmast.social. Our web app is available on desktop at newsmast.org to browse or you can download the PWA, for mobiles it’s on the App Store and Google Play. A full breakdown of the tech behind Newsmast is available on our GitHub repository: https://github.com/newsmast22/mammoth

  • Your data is yours. Any cookies you encounter on the Foundation website or Newsmast are essential cookies to abide by international regulations and ensure the smooth running of our products. For more information, check out our Cookie Policy. Unlike most social media organisations, we will never sell any of your data. The only records we keep are the information relating to your Newsmast account, such as the email you signed up with. We don’t even ask for your name. For more information, check out our Privacy Policy.

  • Newsmast Community Feeds are a key part of our mission to promote peer to peer knowledge sharing, helping people see curated topical knowledge across the Fediverse - whether they’re a part of Newsmast or not! Our feeds only post unlisted boosts, so you won’t see them if you don’t follow them. Our community feeds have their own server, newsmast.community which tells you more about what they’re for, how they’re made and how to use them. You can find out more here: https://newsmast.social/@newsmast/111963831495789541

  • Yes we’ve updated our GitHub so anyone can see what’s going on behind the scenes. You can see our repository here: https://github.com/newsmast22/mammoth