Mastodon introduces clickable author bylines

Twitter/X alternative, Mastodon, the decentralized social network, has introduced a new feature to increase visibility for journalists and writers.

Starting Tuesday, users will see clickable author bylines on link posts, directing them to the author’s fediverse account if it is active. This feature aims to help journalists gain more exposure and followers.

Initially, the bylines are available to select news publishers such as The Verge, MacStories, and MacRumors. The bylines display the publication’s headline and image, followed by the author’s profile photo and name, providing more context than the standard @username references.

To access this feature, users must be on the main Mastodon server at mastodon.social or use an official mobile app. Other servers must support the latest Mastodon nightly release, and the feature will only work for moderator-approved websites.

Mastodon’s API will also support the bylines, enabling third-party apps to incorporate the feature.

The technology behind this feature is a new type of OpenGraph tag: <meta name="fediverse:creator" content="@Gargron@mastodon.social" />. This tag can be easily added to websites and can refer to any fediverse account, including those on Flipboard, Threads, WordPress (with the ActivityPub plug-in), PeerTube, and Pixelfed.

Currently, the feature supports only single authors, but there are plans to accommodate multiple authors in future updates. Mastodon will propose a specification draft for other ActivityPub platforms soon.