<![CDATA[Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received.]]>Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received.

The new guidelines, and more background about these changes, are available on our blog:
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/08/sharing-guidelines-about-mastodons-trade-mark-policy/

]]>https://fedi.wiki/topic/2703475e-156b-4511-a36e-3537353719ca/today-we-re-sharing-additional-guidelines-about-our-trade-mark-policy-based-on-community-feedback-that-we-received.RSS for NodeTue, 25 Aug 2026 08:21:51 GMTWed, 12 Aug 2026 17:22:25 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:30:39 GMT]]>@Mastodon i think this is pretty bad

thats like if ubuntu could decide what specific computers you can install it on, and the manufacturer (be it a company or someone building his own pc) would need to ask canonical for permission to install their operating system in that computer

idk... but for an alternative to big tech, asking one big corporation for permission to use the name of the software it runs on really seems like the first step into becoming the next big tech to avoid

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://woof.tech/users/Sorro/statuses/117094576227222861https://fedi.wiki/post/https://woof.tech/users/Sorro/statuses/117094576227222861Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:30:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:31:19 GMT]]>@bugbear You're assuming a lot here.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093871114651599https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093871114651599Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:31:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:30:56 GMT]]>@xvilo Again, how is it protecting me? So far I've only heard how it's protecting the company (value of their brand). You said it's protecting everyone.

Yeah, funny how it's not affecting you at all and at the same time you are happy with the change and defending it. If they banned whisky tomorrow, I would be okay with it, too, I don't drink it. (Though I might miss whisky sauce, to be honest)

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093869616428243https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093869616428243Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:30:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:29:18 GMT]]>@bugbear @hamatti Also, unfortunately I have to continue playing Capitalism Simulator at work right now, otherwise I might get homeless unfortunately

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093863157575698https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093863157575698Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:29:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:28:53 GMT]]>@bugbear @hamatti Again, this is no fight on who's wrong and who's right from my point of view. I can understand the move, I'm also not too fond of it tbh. And I will see what my options are as an instance maintainer. Issues like what the UK launched last year (user identification) and what the EU is implementing more and more (e.g. chat control) worry me more as a public operator at this point

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093861497290953https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093861497290953Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:28:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:27:05 GMT]]>@xvilo @hamatti till Mastodon™️ the company changes its mind. Read the guidelines you are defending so much!

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093854428293035https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093854428293035Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:27:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:26:08 GMT]]>@xvilo yes, because email has been around for ages. People know it.

Again, GMail is a closed source service. No one else is running GMail software. Not the same.

But since you like to bring up Google products so much, GTalk effectively killed wide adoption of XMPP (or as many people still call it, Jabber. See how it can get confusing?). Many people didn't even know they were using XMPP when chatting away on GTalk so when GTalk was cancelled (like almost every other Google service with the exemption of their search and GMail itself), people didn't know they could just move away to hundred of other servers and continue to use the same underlying technology.

Facebook did even better, they just stopped supporting XMPP and kept all the users using their Messenger and cut off everyone on XMPP servers.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093850708416436https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093850708416436Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:26:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:24:52 GMT]]>@bugbear Disclaimer: I'm nowhere near an expert on the field. But from what I know:
- It protects the users. What says 'mastodon' is 'mastodon' as an org. If it isn't (e.g. impersonation), there is a legal takedown path. You can still run the mastodon software, just not anymore on a domain like mine, however, that's exempt from this policy.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093845729923923https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093845729923923Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:24:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:19:41 GMT]]>@hamatti @bugbear You can send them an email and get approval, after that you don't have to fear for that. And then again, they can use other ActivityPub compatible software instead.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093825351641960https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093825351641960Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:19:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:18:59 GMT]]>@xvilo @bugbear I also believe it will deter people from starting instances because they fear they might break the trademark policy and get into trouble.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093822579475371https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093822579475371Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:18:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:18:30 GMT]]>@hamatti @bugbear I'm replying to two people at once, but I think this applies here too https://mastodon.org.uk/@xvilo/117093818441050722

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093820677264893https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093820677264893Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:18:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:17:56 GMT]]>@bugbear I think you should compare it to email. Through out the years we've seen different clients, protocols and and hosters. They all implement email as a spec. I think we need to look at it that way. I can migrate away from gmail to any other provider, and still be in touch with the world that access to email

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093818441050722https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093818441050722Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:17:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:17:12 GMT]]>@xvilo @bugbear

I believe that if users of Mastodon talk about it to their friend and encourage them to join and it becomes harder to find Mastodon servers because of the trademark restrictions, it will decrease the user adoption.

If everyone has to use different name and logo for the service they provide, I think it's going to be detriment to adoption.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093815561256815https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093815561256815Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:17:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:15:26 GMT]]>@hamatti @bugbear Has it become harder for any non-technical person to sign-up for an instance with this move? Or it only for server administrators and people creating other tooling and directly using their trademarked name?

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093808629746488https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093808629746488Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:15:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:15:20 GMT]]>@xvilo I admit writing your own ActivityPub server is much easier than forking Linux, but why the same attitude as Linus Torvalds' meltdown over AI pushback?

The fact is that most people out there aren't going to write their own software (I really enjoy seeing projects from people who are writing their own ActivityPub servers, though. The diversity is a good thing), they're gonna use what's out there already. And most people from that group will use hosted solutions which are disproportionately using Mastodon™️, so regular people don't have that many options to use whatever they'd like.

Not mentioning writing my own server software is once again irrelevant to what we're arguing about.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093808255113594https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093808255113594Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:15:20 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:14:39 GMT]]>@xvilo @bugbear

Do you think making it harder to use Mastodon in a way that's easy for the user to understand is going to increase the adoption of ActivityPub?

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093805565656129https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093805565656129Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:14:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:13:55 GMT]]>@hamatti @bugbear I whished more people used ActivityPub, I don't care if its mastodon, or something else that plugs into a shared decentralized protocol, just like how email works. I don't care if someone uses gmail, outlook, icloud mail or rolls their own server (the last I did and is an absolute headache because email is old and horrible and never designed for all the abuse on the platform)

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093802642379514https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093802642379514Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:13:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:12:31 GMT]]>@xvilo @bugbear Sure. I do like Mastodon and I wish for more adoption of it. That's why I'm arguing that this is a bad policy.

Do you wish more people would run Mastodon servers? If yes, do you think that Mastodon's trademark policy is likely to increase that and make it clearer for the user to understand?

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093797177591854https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.world/users/hamatti/statuses/117093797177591854Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:12:31 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:10:18 GMT]]>@xvilo and you better pick one that uses Mastodon API as that's becoming a de facto standard. You want clients to be able to communicate with your server, right?

Mastodon™️the company positioned their software Mastodon™️ to be the centre of fediverse. Now they're crying that people actually use it and advertise using it.

And yes, if I ever run my own server again, I am gonna use different software. Not over this issue, but because I don't want to buy a data centre just so I have enough resources on my server to see my Internet friends' cat pictures.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093788428399576https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093788428399576Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:10:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:05:01 GMT]]>@xvilo how is it protecting me? Serious answers only.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093767643249087https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093767643249087Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:05:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:43 GMT]]>@Mastodon@mastodon.social as a genuine question - have y'all considered renaming Mastodon (the software) to entirely avoid the trademark collision with Mastodon (the company) and Mastodon (the instance)?

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://enby.life/notes/apwgrp9zxwhttps://fedi.wiki/post/https://enby.life/notes/apwgrp9zxwFri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:29 GMT]]>@bugbear You have the option to use any other software you'd like. Make a GNU alternative and go for it.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093765599087295https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093765599087295Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:12 GMT]]>@bugbear @hamatti That I definitely don't like, how are we supposed to have a discussion on anything.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093764474546414https://fedi.wiki/post/https://mastodon.org.uk/users/xvilo/statuses/117093764474546414Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Today we're sharing additional guidelines about our Trade Mark Policy based on community feedback that we received. on Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:02 GMT]]>@xvilo @hamatti the new guidelines are affecting everyone, not just companies. Therefore not the same.

]]>https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093763815328375https://fedi.wiki/post/https://indiepocalypse.social/users/bugbear/statuses/117093763815328375Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:04:02 GMT