Little observation on the side: When someone posts a link to your website on Mastodon, you get hundreds of requests from different servers within seconds. I guess that’s expected when you think about it, Mastodon being a distributed microblogging system and all. Calling that “Masto-DDoS” might be exaggerated, but I was alarmed for a moment when I had the logs open…

Edit: Apparently that observation isn’t new. Interesting! Also, there’s no real solution other than caching or other ways to make your website lean on resources.

08:39:57 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://chaos.social/) Bot"
08:39:59 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.pub.solar/) Bot"
08:40:00 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://norden.social/) Bot"
08:40:02 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://waldvogel.family/) Bot"
08:40:02 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://phpc.social/) Bot"
08:40:04 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://hostux.social/) Bot"
08:40:04 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.world/) Bot"
08:40:06 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://rstokes.uk/) Bot"
08:40:06 "Mastodon/4.4.0-alpha.1+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://inductive.space/) Bot"
08:40:07 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.gamedev.place/) Bot"
08:40:07 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.tchncs.de/) Bot"
08:40:08 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://gruene.social/) Bot"
08:40:10 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://toot.martyn.berlin/) Bot"
08:40:10 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.meenzen.net/) Bot"
08:40:11 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.ffmuc.net/) Bot"
08:40:11 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://techhub.social/) Bot"
08:40:11 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://burningboard.net/) Bot"
08:40:11 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://flownative.social/) Bot"
08:40:11 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://linux.social/) Bot"
08:40:12 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://det.social/) Bot"
08:40:13 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.netz.org/) Bot"
08:40:13 "Mastodon/4.3.0+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://fedifreu.de/) Bot"
08:40:14 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.online/) Bot"
08:40:14 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.social/) Bot"
08:40:15 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://patashnik.club/) Bot"
08:40:15 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://d-64.social/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://floss.social/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.caserio.de/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.raspinerd.de/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://scalie.zone/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.4.0-alpha.1+mementomods-2024-10-16 + Mastodon Bird UI 2.0.3 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mementomori.social/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.adlerweb.info/) Bot"
08:40:16 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://lohmann.social/) Bot"
08:40:19 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://fosstodon.org/) Bot"
08:40:20 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://nrw.social/) Bot"
08:40:21 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodonczech.cz/) Bot"
08:40:21 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.green/) Bot"
08:40:22 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://fabulous.social/) Bot"
08:40:22 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mathstodon.xyz/) Bot"
08:40:23 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.vtubers.place/) Bot"
08:40:23 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://rtsn.dev/) Bot"
08:40:23 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://digitalcourage.social/) Bot"
08:40:23 "Mastodon/4.3.0 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://fidget.place/) Bot"
08:40:24 "Mastodon/4.4.0-alpha.1+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://dragonscave.space/) Bot"
08:40:24 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://social.tollofsen.se/) Bot"
08:40:24 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://mastodon.scot/) Bot"
08:40:25 "Mastodon/4.4.0-alpha.1+tom (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://tomkahe.com/) Bot"
08:40:25 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://livellosegreto.it/) Bot"
08:40:26 "Mastodon/4.3.0-nightly.2024-10-01+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://tweesecake.social/) Bot"
08:40:26 "Mastodon/4.3.0-nightly.2024-09-07+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://catlang.social/) Bot"
08:40:27 "Mastodon/4.3.0-rc.1+glitch (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://soc.saiyajin.space/) Bot"
08:40:28 "Mastodon/4.3.1 (http.rb/5.2.0; +https://planetearth.social/) Bot"
...

Still, when I want to search for that URL to find the post containing it, the search yields nothing?!

I thought I kinda understood how Mastodon works (“You see, it’s a whole fediverse of self-hosted nodes communicating using ActivityPub…”, zzzZZZ) – but how do I search for posts there?

Edit: Found the post! The trick was to omit the protocol part of the URL because, um, of course! Anyway, thanks for the shout-out! :)

PS: Not to shit on Mastodon, though – I’m as happy as the next person when everyone hangs out at a Musk-free microblogging service. Depends on who you expect as “everyone” of course. For now, BlueSky feels a bit nicer to use, and I think those starter packs are a nifty feature to add whole chunks of “everyone” to your feed.