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mastodon - Link to source
Hi! Today is my first official day as the Executive Director of Mastodon, replacing @Gargron as CEO. I joined the Mastodon team more than 5 years ago, mostly working for Mastodon in the evenings on top of a 120% day job. I was the driving force behind the incorporation of the German non-profit, am a co-founder of the US 501c3 non-profit, and I have contributed to most of the fundraising success, which allowed us to expand the team.
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@Eugen Rochko
This entry was edited (4 days ago)
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
I’m humbled to be given this opportunity and want to tell you a bit more about myself and how I think about the future of Mastodon and the Fediverse. I have a business and finance background. I have worked for technology companies my whole career but have become increasingly tired of the extractive venture capital model of financing them, which only works for the rare outliers and seemingly never leads to the best product humans deserve.
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in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
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Mastodon and the Fediverse matter to me because they present a truly viable alternative to this model, by showing its users no advertisement, respecting users’ privacy, focussing on keeping users safe, and allowing them to connect to the Fediverse and beyond rather than putting them into a digital prison to extract as much metadata about them to please advertisers.
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Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
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My vision for Mastodon is a different direction than all previous attempts at social media, by focussing on community ownership, Trust & Safety features, slow user & server growth, and financial sustainability - for the non-profit project, the server administrators, the moderators, and creators in the Fediverse. I’m thrilled to have @haubles as Community Director and @renchap as Technical Director on my side in making this vision a reality.
(4/13)
@Renaud Chaput @hannah aubry

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Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
My personal heroes and projects I admire are @signalapp @Mer__edith @torproject @gnome @thunderbird @ryanleesipes . I’d much rather have Mastodon be inspired by the contributions of these people and projects to the FOSS and non-profit technology world than trying to rebuild early Twitter.
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@Signal @GNOME @The Tor Project @Meredith Whittaker @Thunderbird: Free Your Inbox @Ryan Lee Sipes ⚡🦅
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
I have huge respect for everyone contributing to the Fediverse: the larger-than-life architects like @cwebber @evan (without whom we would literally all not be here), implementers like @dansup bringing photo & video to it, new projects like @newsmast @michael @FreddieJ @saskia @bonfire @ivan @mayel orgs like @Flipboard @mike @john @ghost @activitypub.blog @pfefferle bringing the media over to the Fediverse, and @rileytestut @altstore for trying out completely new things.
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@Christine Lemmer-Webber @Evan Prodromou @Bonfire @Flipboard @dansup @Matthias Pfefferle @Mike McCue @AltStore @Riley Testut @John O'Nolan @Ghost @Mayel @ivan @ActivityPub for WordPress @Michael Foster @Newsmast Foundation @Freddie Johnson @Saskia
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
Thanks to amazing people like
@jaz @iftas @swf @mallory @bjoernsta @j12t we can see through topics larger than us related to policy, regulation, protocol development as well as how to deal with spam attacks, how to design a safer product for everyone, and how to deal with occasional interpersonal conflicts in our beautiful part of the internet.
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@jaz @Johannes Ernst @IFTAS @Björn Staschen @Mallory Knodel @Social Web Foundation

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Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
I want to send my heartfelt thanks @karienbez @alshafei for their wisdom and emotional support during this crazy journey so far, to @codinghorror @biz for your visionary strategic & financial support without which this restructuring would not have been possible, and to the team of Paul Hastings for your pro-bono legal advice.
(9/13)
@Jeff Atwood @Biz Stone @karienbez @Esra'a

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Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
Thanks @Gargron for allowing us to do this the pure non-profit and FOSS way by saying no to earlier offers, some of which would have given you more than 10x the payout. I have been inspired by your vision about this project from the moment I met you 5+ years ago. It takes a lot of courage and greatness to let this project go. Super excited for continuing to work with you!
(10/13)
@Eugen Rochko

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Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
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But Mastodon wouldn’t be where it is without so many more people than Eugen. I’m incredibly grateful to be able to work with the best team we’ve ever had. Each one of you brings so much value to the Mastodon project and I want to thank you for making our mission your day job while you could certainly earn double or triple at one of our for-profit competitors.
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in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
We’re still an absolute skeleton crew of 14 people, competing with teams sometimes 100x as large as ours. To get to our humble team size was only possible through the less than 1% community members who donate to Mastodon, a handful larger donations, & EU grants, all of which we are forever grateful for. We still have a large funding need for 2026, so please consider making a donation before the year-end if you’d like us to continue building and improving Mastodon joinmastodon.org/sponsors#dona…
(12/13)

Donate to Mastodon

Donate or become a sponsor and help us build the social web for everyone!
joinmastodon.org
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Felix Hlatky
mastodon - Link to source
Felix Hlatky
• •
Most importantly, thanks to everyone here, to the whole community. I promise to always put the humans here first and to keep this a safe space for you, no matter how you express yourself and where you come from. I will treat my new position with the most respect. Let’s make Mastodon and the Fediverse even more beautiful than it already is ❤
(13/13)

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Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™
mastodon - Link to source
Furbland's Very Cool Mastodon™
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@Mastodon very excited to see what this new chapter will bring! we're all counting on you, don't let us down!
@Mastodon
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸
mastodon - Link to source
Chris Alemany🇺🇦🇨🇦🇪🇸
• •

congrats on your new position and on your vision moving forward. It sounds like something I personally, and I as @chris@socialbc.ca at the tiny non profit #socialBC can really get behind. That gets me excited about the future of the social web.

Truly wishing you and the team the best, and am thankful for all the work of @Gargron and others who got us to this place!
#fediverse #activitypub #mastodon

#fediverse #mastodon #activitypub #socialbc @Eugen Rochko @Chris Alemany
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Daniel Gomes
mastodon - Link to source
Daniel Gomes
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Congratulations on your new role. You really earned it. Wishing you a wonderful tenure

Do you know how much it would cost each user on Mastodon per year to support it if there was an annual fee/donation? Eg if every user donated €10 a year Mastodon could that more than cover costs?

Maybe people might be interested in an annual donation if affordable. Even if 20% donate €10 a year it might help a lot?

in reply to Daniel Gomes

Philip Schroepel
mastodon - Link to source
Philip Schroepel
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@dfgomes
Based on 2024 numbers and a rough calculation as little as €1 per year from each (100%) active user would cover our annual cost. Alternatively, if 20% of users gave €5 each year - instead of the current rate of under 1% - this would also cover our total annual cost.
@Daniel Gomes
in reply to Felix Hlatky

dansup
mastodon - Link to source
dansup
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Congratulations, Mastodon is very lucky to have you, and I look forward to this next chapter!
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Chad
mastodon - Link to source
Chad
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Congratulations! Mastodon is very lucky to have you and I look forward to seeing what direction you take the project!
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Rickd6
mastodon - Link to source
Rickd6
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thank you for what you’ve done and for what you will and have to do.
in reply to Felix Hlatky

IFTAS
mastodon - Link to source
IFTAS
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Congrats, Felix! Your commitment to privacy and ethical sustainability shines through. It’s heartening to see a continuation of leadership grounded in care for community wellbeing and a refusal of extractive models. On a very auspicious day for digital sovereignty, I wish you, @haubles and @renchap steady hands and shared vision as you guide Mastodon into its next mission-driven chapter.
@Renaud Chaput @hannah aubry
in reply to Felix Hlatky

Chewbecca
mastodon - Link to source
Chewbecca
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RRRRRRR-GHGHGHGHTULATIONS! WWWWRRRAAAGGHHGHGHGH! RRRR-GHGHGH-RRRROLE!

@Gargron

@Eugen Rochko
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