Mastodon Moderation (for iOS)

Up until July 2024 I worked on Mastodon for iOS and since May 2024 I am volunteering as moderator for a small community. But the official, web-based Moderation-interface annoyed me and so I wanted to do something about it. In other words: I decided to build a small, native iOS app to help me deal with moderation on the go.

Say hello to Moderation for iOS!

It is far from finished and I don't know where it will lead. Still, I wanted to put the code somewhere and share it and work in the open, for a number of reasons:

1. This app will probably never hit neither the App Store nor the AltStore, it's just too small, too niche. Either way, there would be a mandatory Apple Review and that would require an isolated Mastodon-instance for this — and I'm both too lazy and not competent enough to care. So how to distribute it instead?
2. By trade I'm a freelance iOS developer but without work at the moment. Still, I have to make money somehow^[1]. The first idea was to rent this out to Mastodon-instance operators to help them make moderation more attractive and easier for their moderators. But let's face it: There's no money to be made with this niche app (for now?). So why keep this small tool locked away? Oh, and also the fediverse doesn't like business.
3. I'm still reading The Cathedral and the Bazaar and while I don't intend to run this project in bazaar-style, the book convinced me to make the code available at least^[2]. Even if I'm not asking for help: Why keep a tool useful to me away from other people if it might be useful to them, too? Still: If you encouter a bug or have a question, please open a ticket.
4. This is a small and fun project to me, a playground to try out new things. Build something small, but useful. Work with a small, self-hosted fossil-server and avoid Microsoft Github at all cost^[3]. There is no reason not to write the to-be-written manual using LaTeX. It is my project, I can be as weird as I want.
5. There are way too many overengineered iOS architectures with three-letter-names. I wanted this project to show how I prefer to build a native iOS-app. Use MVC and UIKit and UIViewController and Coordinator for navigation (and even small doses of SwiftUI for the V-part). See, how far it takes me. So consider this a little marketing, too :-) ^[4]
6. Even after having worked in the open for more than two years, I still feel uncomfortable when strangers from the internet look over my shoulders and see me and judge my work. So this is about fighting that fear, too, I guess?

So now it's out. Maybe this is useful for one other person, indeed? Maybe that person is you? If you have any questions, reach out to me either by writing a ticket (you don't need an account for this) or via Mastodon. Thanks for reading and checking this out!