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Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:08 PM
The codebase has been about 6 months in the works at that point (the first git commit was dated March 16, 2016) and mastodon.social had been running for a while too, since it was my way of testing how the federation works with other fediverse servers (and software, like GNU social) at the time. The API was the very first thing I worked on, and some of those API methods are still literally unchanged today, but the UI had already gone through multiple iterations by October 5.
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Replies

Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:14 PM
There is a little time capsule of the UI as it was on that exact day, as I recorded a demo video for the Product Hunt submission. You can see how some UI concepts have persisted to this day, even as the details and level of refinement changed. You can also see the original blue accent color... I took that color palette from a website where people posted various color palettes, I do not remember its name anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO1jQ8_rAMU
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Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:20 PM
It's interesting that my bio as seen in the demo said "Developer of Mastodon, a GNU social alternative". That was the level of my ambition at the time: GNU social had a niche, tiny as it may in the grand scheme of things, and it appealed to me, so I just wanted to make something that would be nicer to use. (My original intent was making a TweetDeck-like app for GNU social, but I quickly pivoted into writing my own backend because GNU social's API was a mess and I like things to be neat).
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Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:35 PM
The mascot was born around November 2016 when I asked my #Dota2 friend @dopatwo for an illustration to put on Mastodon's error page. It was meant to be a homage to Twitter's "fail whale". As you can see, the design of the mascot has changed considerably in ten years. It was cute then, but more realistic, less round. I much prefer the contemporary design, and the fact that it's not a single character.
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Wouter Kobeswouterkobes@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:13 PM
@Gargron 2016?
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Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:15 PM
@wouterkobes Thanks, fixed.
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Sven 🛌esureL@chaos.social
Oct 18, 2026, 5:09 AM
@Gargron Same error in the alt-text of the initial image, I reckon? 😄
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Larry Anderson 🕊️larand@appdot.net
Oct 16, 2026, 9:19 PM
@Gargron As one of the first 5000, I was wondering why you didn’t mention it on the day. Anyway, still glad to be on Mastodon. 😊
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flowermeow_67@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 10:38 PM
@Gargron @dopatwo i remember this! i made my first mastodon account in 2017, when everybody was trying it out, although i haven't tried mastodon regularly until recently.
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Maximilien :omgdotlol:MaximilienMoreau@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 10:52 PM
@Gargron Well done ahah
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Scott Murray :neurodiversity:scott@sfba.social
Oct 17, 2026, 4:09 PM
@Gargron Lovely history! How rewarding and powerful to see how your tiny project has grown up!
The blue may have come from: https://www.colourlovers.com/
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Eugen RochkoGargron@mastodon.social
Oct 17, 2026, 4:11 PM
@scott Yes!
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Evanvanzick@mastodon.social
Oct 18, 2026, 8:06 AM
@Gargron @dopatwo this is an adorable illustration I love it!
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tootstoots@fairy.id
Oct 18, 2026, 8:09 AM
@Gargron @dopatwo the way this looks is almost as-if twitter-birds are holding up or ""dominantly"" proving support to the/a tooter-mastodon, but I don't know:! 🙏 😅
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flowermeow_67@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 10:42 PM
@Gargron
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Stefan Rother-Stübsrother_stuebs@mastodon.online
Oct 17, 2026, 5:54 AM
@Gargron
Congratulations.
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DHeadshot's Altddlyh@topspicy.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:21 PM
@Gargron
Colorhunter maybe? That's the one I used to use. Launched by Steve DeGraeve.
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iamdtmsiamdtms@mas.to
Oct 16, 2026, 9:28 PM
@Gargron Tweettodon or Mastodeck?
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P. S. F.prsfalken@mastodon.social
Oct 16, 2026, 9:51 PM
@Gargron Oooohhh, the memories...
The UI wasn't very different when I joined in 2018.
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Christian Oestreichcoe@digitalcourage.social
Oct 17, 2026, 6:14 AM
Thank you @Gargron for all your efforts. Mastodon is the best thing that happened in the social network landscape during the last decade.
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Ethan Black :foundation:‌:starting_dvd:golemwire@social.golemwire.com
Oct 17, 2026, 9:02 PM
Hah, I remember that old PFP. I still see it in my head when I think back to old Mastodon.
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Mike Taylor 🦕mike@sauropods.win
Oct 16, 2026, 9:15 PM
@Gargron "the first git commit was dated March 16, 2026"
Surely 2026 must be a typo.
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