Mastodon Digest

This is a Python project that generates a digest of popular Mastodon posts from your home timeline. The digest is generated locally. The digests present two lists: posts from users you follow, and boosts from your followers. Each list is constructed by respecting your server-side content filters and identifying content that you haven't yet interacted with. Digests are automatically opened locally in your web browser. You can adjust the digest algorithm to suit your liking (see Command arguments).

Run

You can run in Docker or in a local python environment. But first, set up your environment:

Before you can run the tool locally, you need to copy .env.example to .env (which is ignored by git) and fill in the relevant environment variables:

cp .env.example .env

MASTODON_TOKEN : This is your access token. You can generate one on your home instance under Preferences > Development. Your token only needs Read permissions.
MASTODON_BASE_URL : This is the protocol-aware URL of your Mastodon home instance. For example, if you are @Gargron@mastodon.social, then you would set https://mastodon.social.
MASTODON_USERNAME: This is your Mastodon account username on your home instance. For example, if you are @Gargron@mastodon.social, then you would set Gargron.

Docker

First, build the image:

make build

Then you can generate and open a digest:

make run

You can also pass command arguments:

make run FLAGS="-n 8 -s Simple -t lax"

Local

First, make sure you've set your environment variables:

set -a
source .env
set +a

From within your Python3 environment, simply:

pip install -r requirements.txt

You can immediately generate a Mastodon Digest with:

python run.py

The digest is written to render/index.html by default. You can then view it with the browser of your choice.

Command arguments

A number of command arguments are available to adjust the algorithm. You can see the command arguments by passing the -h flag:

python run.py -h

usage: mastodon_digest [-h]
                       [-n {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24}]
                       [-s {ExtendedSimple,ExtendedSimpleWeighted,Simple,SimpleWeighted}]
                       [-t {lax,normal,strict}]
                       [-o OUTPUT_DIR]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -n {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24}
                        The number of hours to include in the Mastodon Digest (default: 12)
  -s {ExtendedSimple,ExtendedSimpleWeighted,Simple,SimpleWeighted}
                        Which post scoring criteria to use. Simple scorers take a geometric
                        mean of boosts and favs. Extended scorers include reply counts in
                        the geometric mean. Weighted scorers multiply the score by an
                        inverse sqaure root of the author's followers, to reduce the
                        influence of large accounts. (default: SimpleWeighted)
  -t {lax,normal,strict}
                        Which post threshold criteria to use. lax = 90th percentile, normal
                        = 95th percentile, strict = 98th percentile (default: normal)
  -o OUTPUT_DIR         Output directory for the rendered digest (default: ./render/)

If you are running with Docker and make, you can pass flags as:

make run FLAGS="-n 8 -s Simple -t lax"

Algorithm Options

-n : Number of hours to look back when building your digest. This can be an integer from 1 to 24. Defaults to 12. I've found that 12 works well in the morning and 8 works well in the evening.
-s : Scoring method to use. SimpleWeighted is the default.
- Simple : Each post is scored with a modified geometric mean of its number of boosts and its number of favorites.
- SimpleWeighted : The same as Simple, but every score is multiplied by the inverse of the square root of the author's follower count. Therefore, authors with very large audiences will need to meet higher boost and favorite numbers. This is the default scorer.
- ExtendedSimple : Each post is scored with a modified geometric mean of its number of boosts, its number of favorites, and its number of replies.
- ExtendedSimpleWeighted : The same as ExtendedSimple, but every score is multiplied by the inverse of the square root of the author's follower count. Therefore, authors with very large audiences will need to meet higher boost, favorite, and reply numbers.
-t : Threshold for scores to include. normal is the default
- lax : Posts must achieve a score within the 90th percentile.
- normal : Posts must achieve a score within the 95th percentile. This is the default threshold.
- strict : Posts must achive a score within the 98th percentile.

I'm still experimenting with these, so it's possible that I change the defaults in the future.

What's missing?

Probably many things!

You likely noticed that this repository has no tests. That's because I'm still treating this as a toy and not work. But tests might be good!

I'm still thinking about the best structure / process / whatever to incorporate new interesting algorithms. Maybe I'll devote time to that, maybe not.

I've tested this on my Intel and M1 macOS machines. I believe it'll work on other architectures and operating systems, but I haven't tried. The availability of a GUI web browser is important.

A Matt Hodges project

This project is maintained by @MattHodges.

Please use it for good, not evil.

BenWard/mastodon_digest