this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Mastohost Subdomain (alien.top)
submitted 1 year ago by thejoymonger@alien.top to c/mastodon
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When signing up for mastohost with an existing domain I own (whatever.com) the signup process forced me to use a subdomain (something.whatever.com). I don’t currently have a website on that root domain, but I would like to one day. Do I really have to have a long three part domain? Is there a way around it or is this a limitation of mastodon/mastohost?

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[–] Aggravating-Salad441@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry for all the comments you're getting. You can absolutely do what you're trying to do.

The technical answer is you first have to setup a subdomain. Then, using webfinger, you can point that subdomain back to your primary domain. This will make your Mastodon server appear as your primary domain even though your website / email is already parked there.

It's explained in this blog post on Masto.host. I had someone else set this up as I'm not technical, but it absolutely works.

https://masto.host/mastodon-usernames-different-from-the-domain-used-for-installation/

[–] thejoymonger@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Oh great, documented right on mastohost. I'll give that a go this weekend.

Yeah, I don't really why this caused so much confusion. Seems like having a better domain is one of the first things people would want to do.

[–] IMTrick@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t currently have a website on that root domain, but I would like to one day. Do I really have to have a long three part domain?

It sounds like you're saying you don't currently have a website at "whatever.com," but would like to at some point. That being the case, I'm not sure why you would not want put Mastodon on a subdomain (for example, on "mastodon.whatever.com," rather than on "whatever.com"). If you don't, you're going to run into some fairly major problems when you have to move the Mastodon instance to a new URL.

[–] thejoymonger@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Longer domains are less human readable. I don’t want to move the instance, I’d like it to always be at whatever.com

My email is emailhandle@whatever.com, I’d like my mastodon to be mastodonhandle@whatever.com

What I’m hearing is, this is possible but it’s more of an alias being setup on the whatever.com webserver but under the surface it’s always something.whatever.com?

[–] IMTrick@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

The message you posted seems to indicate you can't use "whatever.com" if there is another site already there, because of course you can't... the same name can't point two different places (well, it technically can, but don't do that). I'm not super familiar with Mastodon, but this sounds like a warning rather than a restriction.

In any case, yes, you can make whatever.com a DNS alias for mastodon.whatever.com and handle it with configuration. Just be aware that if you ever want something else at whatever.com, it's not easy to change the name later.

[–] rgsteele@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

I don’t know about whether mastohost supports this or not, but Mastodon definitely allows you to host the service at e.g., mastodon.whatever.com but have your handle be mastodonhandle@whatever.com. This is documented here: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#web_domain

[–] kamtib@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Be warned though since the user account is tied with the domain and the domain will tied with the secret, so whenever you have a problem with it, and destroy it without tootctl self destruct.

It can become funky, which means that the other instances that were federated with it cannot federated with the new one.

The command is documented here https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/tootctl/#self-destruct

[–] cromarty79@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Hey all. I’ve followed the instructions on Masto.Host and set up an instance on a subdomain (let’s say it’s m.Cromarty.com - it isn’t) but have usernames set without the subdomain (i.e. @cromarty@cromarty.com not @cromarty@m.Cromarty.com). Everything seems to be working fine, and in my app of choice I’m not seeing the subdomain. For some reason my handle is showing as @cromarty@m.cromarty.com in certain places, for example the Mastodon iOS app and Ivory. Is this to be expected or is there an additional step that I have missed in order to see @cromarty@cromarty.com everywhere? Any help appreciated!