A Mammoth of an update

Mastodon app Mammoth has released a new version of their app, Mammoth 2. The app was launched in early 2023 for the iPhone, Mac and iPad, and it is made by startup that is backed by Mozilla. Mammoth has focused on the user experience, especially of new users, and over the summer they launched a For You feed. In the announcement post for Mammoth 2, co-founder Bart Decrem says that ‘Social needs to be an open protocol that anybody can build on’. To illustrate their belief in the value of open software, Mammoth 2 is now open source as well.

One common criticism of the fediverse is that it is hard to get started. Finding interesting people and content to follow is harder than on other platforms, who are more willing to suggest accounts and posts to you. Decrem talks about wanting to make something that takes the values and the passion of FOSS projects, and make them accessible to a larger base of people. With Mammoth, he is actively working on making Mastodon more accessible for new people, in multiple ways.

The standout feature for Mammoth 2 is curated ‘Smart Lists’, where Mammoth has asked people within the community to curate lists around certain topics, from Space to Indieweb to Queertech. The handpicked curation provides a counter to algorithmic feeds, and also provides new accounts with a good place to start. If you have been in the fediverse for a while, you will probably recognise most accounts on the Smart Lists that interest you, but for a new account it can certainly be helpful.

The For You feed is now makes use of the smart lists as well. Mammoth explains how it works in more detail here. You can customise your For You feed as well, selecting which parts you want to be included or excluded into your feed. You can select each smart list you subscribe to, Friends of friends, Trending among follows, and handpicked accounts by Mammoth.

The two algorithms of Trending among follows and Friends of friends are still in the testing phase. Decrem explains that these algorithm are hard to implement well, both from a technological perspective as well as a cultural viewpoint. The entire fediverse network is currently also on the small side to get enough engagement to create a well functioning feed.

Bart talks about that there are communities on the fediverse that have critical mass, and are self-sustaining with worthwhile content, but that other bla

For 2024, Decrem expects that it’ll be the year of social as an open protocol, with many different products being build. For Mammoth, that means making Mastodon and the fediverse accessible to a wider audience, with the following priority they are working on: first of all, making sure that Mammoth provides a great Mastodon experience. Secondly, provide a good experience for interacting with the fediverse at large. Thirdly, they are watching closely what Threads is doing, and making sure that Threads is accessible on day 1 that they launch ActivityPub support.

A large part of the Mammoth 2 update is about content curation. Decrem says however that being a content curator is a not a part of their core business, stating that Mammoth is especially good at thinking about the user experience. For now, that means helping with content curation. That is why other organisations such as Newsmast, and people from the community have been actively involved in taking the role of content creation.

Mammoth is also thinking about how to sustain the project, to which they have introduced Mammoth Gold. This optional subscription (2.99 USD/month) is about supporting the project, and gets you optional features such as more icons, early access and votes on new features, and being present on the quarterly board meetings.

The app will not be just focused on Mastodon forever, and Decrem sees a lot of potential for Threads implementing ActivityPub. This is something he actively hopes to make use of, and provide Threads users with another app that they can use. He sees a lot of options how Mammoth can do things better than Threads, and give users more handpicked and curated content to browse.