There’s a bot for that

FediDB has always been a place you visit. You open the site, look up a server or a piece of software, check a chart, and leave. That works when you know what you’re looking for. It doesn’t help with the things you didn’t know to look for: the new project that showed up on a handful of servers last week, or the release half of Mastodon upgraded to over the weekend.

So we’re bringing FediDB to your timeline. Starting today, five bots post what FediDB sees, and you can follow them from any fediverse app.

Meet the bots#

@[email protected] posts a chart of the whole network twice a day, at 09:00 and 21:00 UTC: servers, accounts and monthly active accounts over the last 30 days, with how much each changed in the past week.

@[email protected] tells you when FediDB starts seeing new software. Once a project shows up running on a server we can reach, the bot posts what it is, where it’s running and a link to its page. It posts at most three a day, so a busy week won’t flood your timeline.

@[email protected] picks one project a day and charts which releases its servers run. It works through the 12 most used fediverse projects, so every day is a different one. If the project publishes releases, the post also says how many servers are on the latest one.

@[email protected] posts when FediDB finds a new server that already has more than 1,000 accounts. Big new servers are usually a sign of something: a community moving, a new regional home, or a project growing fast.

@[email protected] posts every Monday and Thursday with the software growing fastest, measured in servers compared with about a month ago. Only projects with at least 20 servers count, so one new server can’t make something look like it doubled overnight.

Every bot has a page#

Each bot now has its own page on FediDB with its posts, its followers and when it posts. You can see them all at fedidb.com/platform/bots. Every post has its own page too, with a link you can paste into your app to reply or boost.

Followers who turned off discovery on their accounts are counted but not listed, the same as on the blog.

Built the FediDB way#

These are ordinary fediverse accounts, so you follow them the way you follow anyone else. They only post: they don’t follow you back, read your timeline or track anything about you.

The charts are drawn on our own server from the same data as the rest of the site. No third-party charting service sees anything. Every chart comes with a written description, so screen reader users get the same numbers as everyone else.

If you have an idea for a bot, or something one of them got wrong, send it a direct message. It reaches the FediDB team.

One more thing#

You can now sign in to FediDB with a code sent by direct message. Enter your handle on the sign in page and @[email protected] will send you a one-time code. It works with any fediverse software that can receive a direct message, so servers that don’t support app sign in can still edit the wiki and manage their listings.

On Mastodon, private mentions from accounts you don’t follow land under filtered notifications, so look there if the code doesn’t show up, or follow @[email protected] first.

Stay awesome, thanks for reading!