As Mastodon celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2026, the open source platform’s new Executive Director, Felix Hlatky, is focused on what it’ll take to make the next 10 years even more impactful.
That vision includes an overhaul in version 5.0, a new feature called Collections, and continuing its critical role at the heart of the fediverse.
Highlights of the conversation include:
00:56 What Felix is most excited about right now
02:11 Felix’s Mastodon history
04:16 Mastodon’s growth and organizational change
08:10 Getting set up for success
10:27 Collections — a major new feature
15:18 Lesson to learn from Bluesky
17:05 Weaponization, privacy, nuances around collections
19:35 Making social media more manageable
21:00 Groups
23:44 Power of building at the protocol level
25:40 Collaborations across platforms and protocols
27:27 Bridging technologies and standards work
31:15 Mastodon’s backend infrastructure
33:56 Funding and the EU
37:27 Governments use of Mastodon
40:05 The Forkiverse
45:05 Podcasts in the fediverse
47:14 Custom feeds on Surf, ex dotsocial.surf.social
49:58 Vibrant creator communities on the social web
51:20 Mastodon 5.0, FASPS
53:59 Entering a new era
Mentioned in this episode:
🔎 You can find Felix at @felix@mastodon.social
✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.
🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/
