What is MyStatus.fyi?

I enjoy reading the personal blogs of many people on the indieweb, and wondered how I could lend a hand in fostering an even deeper sense of community among us. You’re cool, and I want to get to know y’all better.

What’s your status right now?

In particular, I’m interested in what you’re doing. Like, right now, currently. What’s your current status? I want to peek into the daily lives of the folks I regularly interact with online. I want a more frequent version of the end-of-week notes and /now updates, one that I can easily reply to.

I see it as a great way to spark conversation, learn more about someone, and build community through simple replies—yes, even about otherwise routine things.

This is a community for oversharers. Not for self-centered reasons, but because sharing is an exercise in human connection. It’s a generous act, a proactive effort at planting a seed that might sprout into a conversation, and often, deeper relationships and social ties.

An experiment in community building

In some ways, MyStatus.fyi is a quasi-return to those early days of social media networking, when the question in the text box was “what are you doing?”

At some point along the way, the whole purpose of these “social” platforms changed. It went from keeping your friends apprised on what was happening in your life, to well…a vessel for everything else. The question in the text box expanded from the highly personal, to the all-encompassing “what’s happening (in the world)?”

How it works

MyStatus.fyi runs on a nonfederated Mastodon server. All posts here are semi-private and only shared with other club members; you must be logged into the site to see them. You can, however, use a standard Mastodon client to post, view, and interact with other MyStatus members.

Beyond that, you simply post things that you’re doing. Maybe that’s heading to a movie theater, or going for a hike, or checking out a library book, cooking a new recipe, hanging out with an old friend, celebrating your grandma’s birthday, traveling to a new state, enjoying an adult beverage, tending to your garden, or whatever else you might be doing when inspired to post.

MyStatus.fyi is different than your standard fediverse account. Yes, it’s running Mastodon, but you won’t find shared news articles, opinions on current tech issues, or the latest election results. Instead, it’s a small, tighter-knit community of folks who want to share what they’re up to today.

FAQ

So…we just post what we’re doing?

Yep! The point is to post about the things you’re up to. Sooo much of social media is about other things—tech products, politics, memes, social issues—but this is about what you’re doing; what activity you’re engaged in, right now. Tell us what you’re up to!

Isn’t this like omg.lol’s statuslog?

Well, sorta! Statuslog is great, I’m a big fan. In fact, I use not one, but two statuslogs! But it’s not designed as a conversation starter. In fact, the only interaction you can get is if you cross-post to a separate Mastodon account, which many people have set as public. And everyone’s status is public at status.lol. The default user behavior is also a bit less regular. So, yes it’s similar, but MyStatus is designed with a heavier emphasis on more regular postings, and in particular, in fostering replies—all with a bit more privacy.

How often do I have to post?

Well, there isn’t a rule about posting frequency. Obviously, the more you post, the more opportunities for connection there are. But how much you share is entirely up to you. It shouldn’t feel like work to engage in the community.

Why is the community not federated? Isn’t that the core philosophy of Mastodon?

Yes, it sure is, and it’s a good vision for all-purpose social media. But this is, purposefully, something less public. Because it’s more private, it’s easier to post more personal details about what you’re up to—things that you wouldn’t necessarily share on your public fediverse account. MyStatus is about sharing more often with an intentionally smaller, more intimate community. I’m using Mastodon for this because it works well enough and is easy and cheap enough for me to host.

What if I don’t want to see updates from every member?

Well, instead of using the local feed, you can follow the people you’re interested in and just see their updates. You can also mute or block anyone that you don’t want to interact with. You can even post to “followers only” if you’d like.

What is the monetization strategy here?

There is none. This is a free public service for the indieweb community that I’m self-funding (don’t worry, it’s pretty cheap!). A community like this necessarily needs to remain somewhat small, so I can’t imagine costs getting out of control.

I want to publish weekly notes like so many of the cool kids do, but I’m terrible at compiling what I’ve been up to throughout the week. This could help me!

Once again, that’s not a question, but you’re right, it sure could. :)

What does “experimental” mean?

It means that this is an experiment—it may work, or it may not. It might not reach critical mass, or some unforeseen issue might arise, or we might all just get bored with it. Who knows what’ll happen! Let’s find out.

Join the community

You can create an account at https://mystatus.fyi/auth/sign_up.