Sense checks for Mastodon 4.4 update
Dan Phiffer
Public
Seen by 240
Mastodon 4.4 introduces a couple new features that we should consider as a cooperative. I'm posting on behalf of Tech Working Group to get a sense check on a couple topics.
Poll Created Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
How should we approach new options in Mastodon 4.4? Closed Mon 28 Jul 2025 5:00PM
I see enough concerns on the referrer header that I'm okay with leaving the status quo setting (not including it). I'm not opposed to someone doing a separate poll on the referrer header, but the fact that some people do have privacy concerns gives me pause about pursuing it further myself.
I didn't see any objections about the Terms of Service, so I'll make sure someone from TWG brings that to the Organizing Circle. Thanks for participating in the sense check!
What are you proposing?
1. An option to add an explicit Terms of Service. We currently have bylaws and a code of conduct. We don't currently have a terms of service document, but maybe we should.
2. Outgoing referrer headers on links. When you click on a link on social.coop to another website, we don't include any hints about the website visitor coming from our server. We could opt into including those headers, saying "this traffic is from social.coop," but without revealing any particular profile or specific URL.
Why is this important?
We have an existing Loomio discussion talking about the Mastodon Terms of Service. This thread is for discussing preferences that aren't so centered around how Mastodon-dot-social (the service) is implementing their ToS, but whether we want to adopt ToS for the coop—including Mastodon and other services we offer to members—and what is important for us to include in it.
Switching on outgoing referral headers would have a general awareness-raising benefit for the Fediverse, as many websites currently don't know how much of their traffic comes from Mastodon. The privacy trade-off is that a website could tell that you've clicked on a link from social.coop (without any specific URL, just the server address), even if you clicked on a link posted by a user on a different instance.
What are you asking people to do?
For now the Tech Working Group is not including a ToS and we're not including referrer headers, the status quo settings before we upgrade to Mastodon 4.4. We can change those settings if there is agreement from membership (and we actually draft our ToS). Please share your thoughts on either topic in this thread.
Proposal:
We enable referrer headers on outgoing links.
The Organizing Circle explores drafting a Terms of Service document (based on member input).
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Looks good | 85.7% | 60 |
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| Abstain | 7.1% | 5 |
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| Concerned | 7.1% | 5 |
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| Undecided | 0% | 394 |
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70 of 464 people have participated (15%)
Flancian
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
This is a great example of the kind of process I hope we can go through every time Mastodon introduces significant new features that can have an impact on the freedoms of members; thank you for putting it together!
Luis Villa
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
0) appreciate this thoughtful process
1) I think the referrer headers are… fine? I don’t love them but they’re fairly light on detail and it really is good for publishers to understand that Fedi is a thing.
2) it’s been a long time since I looked at ToSs in the context of an unusual org like this one; I suspect a traditional ToS is almost entirely useless but I’d need to do a careful re-read. Pretty sure im not the only tech lawyer hanging around here but please poke if I can be of use.
Laura James
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
good to check with folks through this process. I think raising the profile of Fedi with publishers is worth it, with the light referrer headers. ToS, seems a reasonable idea, devil will be in the detail but let's try.
Dan Phiffer
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
I never know whether I should vote on my own proposal, it seems redundant. But here is me reiterating that I favor turning on referrer headers and attempting a ToS.
benjamin melançon
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
Definitely on the referrer headers as soon as possible; no reason to rush the terms of service though in my opinion (a bad one is probably worse than none?)
Jorge Toledo
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
Referral headers seem fine. Relevant info for the website without too detailed info from the user. Although I'd prefer if they just said "Mastodon" instead of "social.coop".
About ToS, I have no idea how those would look in a project like this, but I agree it's worth some exploration.
Dan Phiffer Sat 26 Jul 2025 4:20PM
@Danny Garside I don't think it is possible to change what address the browser sends, except by changing the address of our server. Here's the specific mechanism that is used there: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Headers/Referrer-Policy
Ed Summers @edsu
Tue 22 Jul 2025 6:01PM
I like the idea of setting referer information for the social.coop instance and letting web publishers know about us!
Danny Garside · Fri 25 Jul 2025 7:04PM
@eldelacajita
@dphiffer - is "Mastodon" an option rather than "social.coop"? If so, I think this might serve double purpose: aggregating traffic from across mastodon (if others follow this decision) means that sites will get a clearer impression of the importance of mastodon (rather than having to look up each little server), while preserving privacy.