We’re ready to show you a new feature coming in Mastodon 4.6 - Collections.
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"My one request is to keep my profile out of a collection - full stop. I do not want anyone to be able to add me."
I second this
Will there be a clear and immediate way to opt out of this new Mastodon "Feature"?
The Mastodon obsession with onboarding massive numbers of newcomers as quickly as possible is pretty...
...undignified
Exactly how fast and how large does @Mastodon dot Social -- currently at some 288,028 Active Users -- need to grow?
And no, please stop
This is about Masto Social growth
The official party line that this is for all Mastodon instances anywhere is put to lie by following the comments / discussions at Mastodon Github -- particularly those discussions that are silenced as violations of the Github TOA by the official Hall Monitor
Where does it all end?
Anywhere?
Who decided Mastodon needs to conquer the entire "Fediverse"?
This isn't about onboarding as many users as quickly as possible, but rather giving a better onboarding experience to users who do find us. Retention and a better user experience, not acquisition at all costs. Thanks!
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@Mastodon @imanijoy I think that adding a "you followed this account from this feature" might be handy for these. That way when a collection is updated and someone gets removed that you followed from that collection you could get a notification, sort of like when you boost a toot that got edited later. That would also remove ambiguity caused by following a person then a collection with that person for such features.
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@MagentaRocks @Mastodon @imanijoy The blog post says that if you don't want to be in it, just exclude your account from the aggregation stuff. It's an existing setting that they're going to be adding this to which makes the most sense to me.
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@Mastodon @imanijoy I highly appreciate your usual care and moving in slow/small steps. I know that this is a rare thing these days, but I feel like this is a solid approach in general.
Either way, looking forward to see this in production!
Just recently thought about who I could add to my follower list.@alexkaessner Thanks for the kind words! @Mastodon
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We’re ready to show you a new feature coming in Mastodon 4.6 - Collections. These are a way for people on Mastodon to curate and share bundles of accounts that they’d recommend to others, to help find connections and grow their network more quickly.
@Mastodon Will accounts from servers that aren't on 4.6 be able to be included in Collections?
If not, I'd be concerned that if this takes off it's going to have the effect of concentrating connections and attention on accounts on bleeding-edge servers.
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In a new blog post, @imanijoy provides a deeper dive into the design process for Collections, and explains what we’ve included (and things that are left out) for the first release. We’ll be enabling this feature on mastodon.social next week, and rolling it out more widely in Mastodon 4.6 very soon. We’re excited to hear what you think!
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/designing-collections/
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We’re ready to show you a new feature coming in Mastodon 4.6 - Collections. These are a way for people on Mastodon to curate and share bundles of accounts that they’d recommend to others, to help find connections and grow their network more quickly.
@Mastodon no need. I don't want anyone to add my profile in any random group without my permission. Full stop
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@Mastodon no need. I don't want anyone to add my profile in any random group without my permission. Full stop
@GOKUSHRM @Mastodon
I had the same concerns, but it looks like we'll be able to opt out:"Privacy and moderation — You can opt out of having your account be eligible for inclusion in Collections by disabling the existing 'Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms' account setting..."
Source
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/designing-collections/ -
@Mastodon Speaking as a contributor of @fedidevs which currently hosts Mastodon “starter packs” at https://fedidevs.com/starter-packs/
We're working on interoperability with Mastodon Collections and will use the same technical mechanisms in the future, but completion of this work is months away. We endorse people migrating their Fedidevs starter packs to Mastodon Collections wherever that makes sense.
We were involved with the backend tech behind Mastodon Collections. No competition and no bad blood!
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This isn't about onboarding as many users as quickly as possible, but rather giving a better onboarding experience to users who do find us. Retention and a better user experience, not acquisition at all costs. Thanks!
@imanijoy @FinchHaven @Mastodon
Agree. When I started on bluesky, the starter packs were helpful to find people. Keep in mind, bluesky has a lot more public users. For example, reporters & publications. The user base here is smaller and spread across instances. This feature makes sense for public type of profiles - like reporters. But for individuals like me, it makes no sense to put them in a collection. However, bsky has lists so you don't have to follow every account. So much easier.
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@rakoo
How do I opt out if I'm not on Mastodon ?
Yup, same question here.
@gudenau @Magenta Rocks @Mastodon @Imani -
@imanijoy @FinchHaven @Mastodon
Wonderful and appreciated!
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@IGVazquez How can you communicate if it's not working?
@Mastodon@NatureMC @Mastodon I meant the joinmastodon.org blog post on the new feature (https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/designing-collections/, now working)
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@GOKUSHRM @Mastodon
I had the same concerns, but it looks like we'll be able to opt out:"Privacy and moderation — You can opt out of having your account be eligible for inclusion in Collections by disabling the existing 'Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms' account setting..."
Source
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/designing-collections/@RichardWrightFan I already excluded my profile from searching. But I want this platform simple and bloatfree. I already ditched all other social platform. If Mastodon keeps adding more & more things and makes this platform heavier thn I'll opt out this platform too
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@blogdiva @Mastodon @imanijoy this was my first thought as well, it should probably default to "ask me every time" before adding a given user to a collection (with of course options to opt out and opt in to inclusion in collections), and probably include the collection name/info in the follower request/notification if the new follower is following via a collection.
Probably should also be easy for a user to see a full list of what collections they've been included in and to remove themselves from a collection if desired, maybe even including a message sent to the collection owner when they do so?
I'm just thinking through all of the potential abuse scenarios and how to best mitigate them without completely gutting functionality
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In a new blog post, @imanijoy provides a deeper dive into the design process for Collections, and explains what we’ve included (and things that are left out) for the first release. We’ll be enabling this feature on mastodon.social next week, and rolling it out more widely in Mastodon 4.6 very soon. We’re excited to hear what you think!
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/04/designing-collections/
@Mastodon@mastodon.social @imanijoy@mastodon.social
imagine you follow all accounts in a Collection, but then, some of the accounts are removed from the Collection. Do you expect to be able to bulk unfollow all of the accounts you previously followed from that Collection, even if they no longer exist there?
It’s all about whether you decide to label the button ‘Follow all’ or ‘Subscribe’.
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@RichardWrightFan I already excluded my profile from searching. But I want this platform simple and bloatfree. I already ditched all other social platform. If Mastodon keeps adding more & more things and makes this platform heavier thn I'll opt out this platform too
delivering on features people want is not "bloat"
it does you no harm whatsoever to ignore something you don't intend to use
i don't understand people like you, who have an antisocial desire to whine about things that don't affect you at all, on contrived bullshit "concerns"
