socialwebfosdem

tags.pub is a new service under development by the Social Web Foundation. It is a global hashtag server — it lets you follow a hashtag across the Fediverse. There’s lots of information on the tags.pub home page, and I (Evan) did a talk about tags.pub at FOSDEM 2026. This blog post answers some basics about tags.pub.

• To follow a hashtag globally, search for a user with that name at tags.pub, like @example for the #example hashtag. Follow that account, and it will share all the content it sees with that hashtag to you. If you unfollow the account, it should stop sharing to you. The usernames only have letters and numbers in them, and they only go up to 64 characters.
• To share your content with tags.pub, search for and follow the @_followback account. It will follow you back (thus the name) and your public posts will be shared by the hashtag accounts on tags.pub. If you unfollow the follow back account, it will unfollow you back, and your content will no longer be shared.
• You can connect a whole server to tags.pub by using the relay interface. Add https://tags.pub/user/_____relay_____/inbox (Mastodon) or https://tags.pub/user/_____relay_____ (Pleroma) to your server relays. This is a one-way pipe — your server will send public posts to tags.pub, but tags.pub won’t send all its public data back to you. Instead, your users should follow hashtag accounts to get specific feeds.
• We respect your agency. If your server is connected to tags.pub and you don’t want it to boost your content, add #NoTagsPub to your bio. If you already have #NoBots, that should be plenty. You’ll still be able to follow tags.pub hashtag accounts. If you don’t want to see or be seen by tags.pub at all, you can block the domain ‘tags.pub’ entirely.
• Becoming the ‘global’ hashtag server is a goal. We are still ramping up, and there are a lot of people and servers that are not yet connected.
• tags.pub will not share your content with accounts or servers that you have blocked. It only shares the link to your content, so your block will be respected.
• tags.pub is developed and operated by Social Web Foundation. We are a US non-profit. The servers are located in Beauharnois, Quebec, Canada in a data centre run by OVHCloud, a French corporation. We try to keep the data storage to the absolute minimum necessary to provide the hashtag sharing service. There is no search index, and we don’t archive your content. The code is Free and Open Source software under the AGPL-v3.
• If you have a feature request, or a bug report, please add a GitHub issue. If you have a private comment or question, please use our contact form.

Next week is European Open Source Week in Brussels, culminating in FOSDEM 2026 on the weekend. There are several important ways to stay connected to the Fediverse while you’re visiting this week!

• Mastodon maintains a booth at FOSDEM throughout the weekend. It’s a great place to get Mastodon merch or take a selfie with the Mastodon team.
• The Social Web Dev Room is a day-long event on Jan 31 in room H.2215 with loads of talks about Fediverse software and Fediverse organizing.
• There will be a loose mingling of Fediverse people at the À La Mort Subite bar in Brussels on Friday Jan 30 after 8PM. Wear a Fediverse symbol on a nametag or some other creative way so people can find you. Find your own table and then start mingling. There’s no organized activities or special space; just a node in space-time where you’re more likely to run into Fediverse people than normal.

As always, watch the #FOSDEM and #socialwebfosdem and #FOSDEM2026 hashtags for news and updates.

If you’re not travelling to Brussels, watch for streaming video from room H.2215 . There are also Fediverse events happening throughout the world throughout the year; Fediforum keeps a great list of the most prominent.

The schedule for the Social Web Developer Room at FOSDEM 2026 is starting to be populated as the speakers confirm their availability. We had a tonne of great submissions for this year’s track, and even with double the time from last year, we still had to leave some great talks on the cutting room floor. But we still managed to fit in 24 great talks, large and small. We’re going to see some additional events happening as FOSDEM 2026 gets nearer. Watch the #SOCIALWEBFOSDEM hashtag for more news and events.

Hey, all. One thing that’s different this year about the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2026 is that we’re going to include talks about the organizational and social aspects of rolling out Open Source Fediverse software for individuals and communities. Last year, we focused pretty heavily on technical talks from the principle developers of FLOSS packages. This year, we want to make sure the other aspects of Fediverse growth and improvement are covered, too.

Consequently, the guidance for last year’s event, which was focused on how to make a great technical presentation, might seem a little outdated. But on reviewing it, I’ve found that it still has good advice for social and organizational talks. Just like software developers, community builders see problems and construct solutions for them. The solutions aren’t just about writing code, though; more often they involve bringing people together, assembling off-the-shelf tools, and making processes and rules for interaction.

Talks about Open Source software to implement ActivityPub and build the social web are still welcome, of course. We’re just expanding a bit to cover the human aspects of the Fediverse as well.

I’m looking forward to having the interesting discussions about bringing people together to make the Social Web. If you haven’t already, please consider submitting a talk to https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2026/cfp. Select “Social Web” from the “Track” dropdown, and include the length of your talk (8/25/50) in the submission notes. The deadline is December 1, 2025, so get them in as soon as possible!

It’s been more than a week since the last event at #SocialWebFOSDEM, and I’m just now getting to writing up some summary thoughts and follow-on notes. We had three big planned events at FOSDEM, so there is an overwhelming amount to think about, and take-aways to discuss. The biggest take-away for me was: we needed this. The Social Web developer community came together in person for the first time in a while, and it was remarkably fruitful.

For those who weren’t able to attend in person, or who want to go back and review or share great talks, there are a few options. First, the Social Web Devroom talks were all recorded with audio and video, some of which have begun appearing on the FOSDEM web site; check the specific talks for details. Most of the schedule entries have attached slides in PDF format, also.

The Social Web BOF was not recorded in video, but most of the talks have published slides. Benjamin Bellamy of Castopod also thoughtfully recorded audio for the talks, so I will try to slice them up into listenable chunks, one for each talk. The BOF talks were some of my favourites, so I’m looking forward to getting these released.

Finally, the Social Web After Hours event was not recorded at all, but some of the presenters have released their slides. Julian Lam’s talk, “The Fediverse is Quiet“, was re-recorded for you to view. This event was a great way to end the weekend, with a much more casual and intimate vibe than the lecture rooms at ULB. A fun time.

Lastly, I’ve organized a FOSDEM debrief for speakers at all of the events for this week. If you were at FOSDEM and you’d like to attend, comment here or DM me at @evan .

A quick update for people at #FOSDEM who are interested in the Fediverse. There are three main public events: the Social Web Devroom is a main track in room ua2118 from 3pm to 7pm Sat Feb 1. The Social Web BOF (“birds of a feather”) is on Sunday Feb 2 from 12pm to 1pm in . Finally, Social Web After Hours is on Sunday Feb 2 from 7pm to 9pm at HSBXL. And use the #SocialWebFOSDEM hashtag to track the community on the Fediverse!

Are you coming to FOSDEM 2025 to attend the Social Web Devroom? Do you like helping make things happen? We need volunteers to help with the audio/visual (A/V) system (no experience necessary), to answer questions at the door, to coordinate questions, to keep time for the speakers, and otherwise keep things moving smoothly. Reply here if you’d like to help out, or email social-web-devroom-manager@fosdem.org .

We’ve got an amazing lineup for the Social Web Devroom at FOSDEM 2025. We managed to fit 12 talks into 4 hours, covering a huge range of topics related to Open Source software and the Social Web.

FOSDEM is the premier Free and Open Source software conference in Europe. It’s a grass-roots event, available free of charge, and attracts hackers and advocates from around the world. The event is organized into presentation tracks called “developer rooms” or “devrooms”, which bring afficionados of a particular technology all together for a long block of presentations on related topics.

The main programming in the Social Web dev room on Saturday, Feb 1, will focus primarily on technical topics. A related Social Web Birds of a Feather (BOF) meetup on Sunday, Feb 2 will feature another 5 presentations about social aspects and advocacy for the Fediverse. It’s still in the scheduling phase; BOFs get scheduled late at FOSDEM. But the speakers have confirmed, and it should be a really good track.

Finally, SWF and Hacker Space Brussels are hosting Social Web After Hours on Sunday, Feb 2. It should provide some closing talk. Some of the most interesting speakers in the Social Web will be presenting; this should be a great way to wrap up the FOSDEM weekend.

To stay informed about Social Web activities at FOSDEM, follow the #SocialWebFOSDEM hashtag, or join the Social Web Devroom Matrix channel on the FOSDEM Matrix server.