Server administration

Server administration

Set the rules for your server, back up your moderators, and keep things running smoothly.

Server settings

Choose your server's identity, who can get in, content limits and the defaults that suit your community.

  • About your server

    Tell visitors what your server is about and how to reach your staff.

    • Use the About tab for the full server description, a support email and a staff contact.
    • Administrators decide who can see the domain block list and its public reasons.
    Say how the server is run, choose who can see your domain blocks and the reasons for them, and add a contact email.

  • Branding

    Help people recognize your server in previews and public information.

    • Set your server's display name, a short overview and a cover image.
    • You can preview your server information right on the branding screen.
    Set your server's display name, cover and overview, and check the public page in the live preview.

  • Default appearance

    Pick the default mode, theme and font for your server.

    • The Appearance tab sets the starting look for everyone on your server.
    • Each person can still pick their own appearance settings.
    Set how the server looks by default. Everyone can still pick their own look in their personal settings.
    See all screens

  • Open or private server

    Decide whether visitors can read your server before they sign in.

    • On an open server, visitors can see public feeds, groups and events.
    • A private server shows visitors sign-in, sign-up and basic server information.
    • This choice is separate from your federation mode.
    The Access tab has settings for public access to the server, the Help group option and open federation.

  • Security controls

    Limit failed logins and help locked accounts get back in.

    • Set how many wrong passwords someone can try and how long a login lock lasts.
    • Set how many times someone can get their current password wrong before the server revokes their session.
    • Look up a local account by username or user ID to remove its login lock.
    Limit failed password attempts, choose how long the count lasts, and unlock an account that got locked after failed sign-ins.

  • Registration modes

    Let anyone join, review every application, or let in only certain people.

    • Pick open sign-up, staff approval, an email domain allowlist or closed sign-up.
    • Turn user invitations on or off.
    • If invitations are on, people can still join a closed server with an invitation link.
    The Registration tab covers approval, invitations, CAPTCHA, and closing sign-ups automatically when nobody on staff uses the server.

  • Application questions and CAPTCHA

    Add checks before someone can join your server.

    • Make people give a reason to join when sign-ups need staff approval.
    • Turn on hCaptcha with your own keys.
    • Write your own message for when sign-ups are closed.

    hCaptcha relies on an external service and needs setup by the server operator.

    The Registration tab covers approval, invitations, CAPTCHA, and closing sign-ups automatically when nobody on staff uses the server.

  • Close sign-ups automatically

    Sign-ups close if no administrator or moderator uses the server for a period you choose.

    • Set the inactivity period on the Registration tab.
    • When that happens, the server closes sign-ups and invitation links, then emails administrators and moderators.
    • After that, staff need to turn sign-ups back on by hand.
    The Registration tab covers approval, invitations, CAPTCHA, and closing sign-ups automatically when nobody on staff uses the server.

  • Server roles and permissions

    Give your staff the permissions they need.

    • Make and edit server roles with permissions for each resource and action.
    • See who holds each role and take a role away from someone.
    • In the admin panel, read access and management access are separate permissions.
    The default roles are admin, moderator and user. Duplicate one to make a custom role.

  • Server rules

    Keep your community rules short, clear and easy to find.

    • Add, edit and remove server rules on their own tab.
    • When people report something, they can point to the rules.
    Add a server rule with a short title and an explanation. Rules show up on the server's About page.

  • Post and attachment limits

    Set limits for post length, attachments and pinned posts on your server.

    • Pick the default Markdown format on the Content tab.
    • Set how long a post or comment can be.
    • Set the maximum number of attachments and pinned posts.

    Other servers may use different limits and might not show a long post in full.

    The Content tab has the Markdown defaults and the limits for post length, number of attachments and pinned posts.

  • Image, video and audio policy

    Choose what media your server accepts and how it processes it.

    • Set file size limits, allowed extensions, image resolution and conversion sizes.
    • Set the maximum video length and the threshold for adaptive HLS video.
    • Choose whether the server keeps the original image, video and audio files.

    What someone can actually upload depends on these settings and their account or group quota.

    The image policy covers keeping original files, file size, resolution and conversion.
    See all screens

  • Custom emoji

    Give your server its own emoji.

    • Upload emoji one at a time or a whole collection as a ZIP file.
    • Sort them into categories and choose which ones show up in the picker.
    • Organize lots of emoji at once with bulk controls.
    The custom emoji editor shows the file requirements, a shortcode, a category, and whether the emoji shows in the picker.

  • Welley Help access

    Make it easy for people to reach the Welley Help group.

    • The Access tab controls the links to the help group on welley.social.
    • On open servers, help access stays on.
    • Private servers can still offer help access when federation is limited or closed.
    The Access tab has settings for public access to the server, the Help group option and open federation.

Tools for server staff

Review reports, look after local communities and keep a record of what staff do.

  • Reports queue

    Staff can review reports and deal with problems in one place.

    • Filter reports and look at each one along with the users and posts involved.
    • Add staff notes and record your moderation decision.
    • Permissions decide which staff can read reports and which can manage them.
    Look at a report with its reason and the reported account, assign someone to review it, then dismiss it or moderate the account.

  • User moderation

    Find local and remote users and see their moderation state.

    • Search for a user and open the profile drawer to see details.
    • Staff can limit or suspend users if their role allows it.
    • Changing someone's role or deleting an account needs management permission.
    Find local and remote accounts by username, email or other fields, then open one to moderate it.

  • Internal staff notes

    Keep helpful moderation context next to each user's record.

    • Staff with permission can add internal notes.
    • The moderation view shows notes together with state changes.
    • Internal staff notes don't appear on the public profile.
    Staff can add a private note to an account so other admins know the background. We didn't save this note.

  • Group moderation

    Review local groups with filters that fit how communities work.

    • Filter by name, domain, member, privacy, visibility or join mode.
    • Open a group's drawer to see its details and moderation history.
    • Bulk moderation and deleting groups need group management permissions.
    Find local groups by name, privacy, visibility or join mode, and open one to moderate it.

  • Group moderation history

    Keep staff notes and state changes together for each local group.

    • Add internal notes to a local group.
    • The group drawer shows the moderation history in time order.
    • Remote groups don't have the local group notes view.
    Staff notes on a group record what moderators checked, so other staff know the background before they act.

  • Sign-up requests

    Review applications when your server needs approval to join.

    • See who's applying and why they want to join.
    • Administrators can approve or reject requests.
    • Staff with read access can look at requests but can't approve or reject them.
    When sign-ups need approval, each request shows up here with the person and why they want to join. This server has no pending requests.

  • Audit log

    Follow administrative changes in a separate audit record.

    • Filter administrative events and see the context around each one.
    • User and group drawers show the related history too.
    • The audit log has its own read permissions.
    Follow admin changes such as new accounts, group updates, moderation notes and rule changes.

  • Domain moderation

    Apply your server's decisions to a whole remote domain.

    • Suspend or limit a domain, and choose whether to reject its media or its reports.
    • Record public and private reasons for each decision.
    • Manual decisions on your server take priority over imported block lists.
    Block a domain to stop federating with it, add public and private comments, and manage the blocklists you subscribe to. No domain is blocked on this server.

  • Import and subscribe to block lists

    Use curated public block lists and still keep control of your own decisions.

    • Import a block list from a Mastodon-format CSV file.
    • Subscribe to supported public lists and refresh them hourly, daily or weekly.
    • See where each active block comes from and the history of subscription updates.
    • When you unsubscribe, choose what happens to the blocks from that list.
    Import a Mastodon-compatible CSV, or subscribe to a curated public blocklist and choose how often it syncs. We didn't subscribe to a list.

Run your Welley server

Keep an eye on activity, updates, media work and the background jobs that keep your server responsive.

  • Server dashboard

    See your server's key activity and tasks in one place.

    • See reports, sign-up requests, the registration mode and upcoming releases.
    • Look at statistics for a period you choose, broken down into local and remote activity categories.
    • The dashboard shows a missing measurement differently from a zero.

    The storage usage card on the dashboard doesn't show disk use yet.

    The dashboard sums up reports, sign-ups, releases, federation and user activity. This server doesn't report storage use.
    See all screens

  • Release information

    See which releases are available before you update your server.

    • The Releases tab lists the releases on your release channel that are newer than your server's current version.
    • Read about each release and its migration estimates.
    • Attention markers flag unsafe or edited migrations and a higher estimated impact.

    Migration estimates don't take the size of your server into account. The list doesn't give an exact time for the next update.

    See which release is installed and what changed in it, and decide whether and how often the server updates itself.
    See all screens

  • Automatic updates

    Pick the update period on the Releases tab.

    • This setting controls automatic application updates.
    • On Compose installations, the server deployment tool uses it for platform updates too.
    • If you choose Never, those automatic checks don't apply updates.

    Terraform installations update the platform on their own deployment schedule. Web applications and the platform can update separately.

    Check for available updates and choose how often the server installs them on its own.
    See all screens

  • Installed applications

    See the applications that make up your server.

    • The Applications page lists each installed application.
    • Open an application to see its details.
    • The application update policy is tied to the update period on the Releases tab.
    See the applications that make up your server, such as the feeds, Forum, Events and Chess, and open one to see its details.

  • Media jobs

    See how media conversion is going.

    • Check submitted, active and finished media work.
    • Open the generated outputs and error details.
    • Summary cards show staff where processing stands right now.
    The Media Jobs page shows summaries for submitted, active, completed and failed queues, with the values for each queue.

  • Remote media cache

    Decide how your server stores remote media.

    • Turn the remote media cache on or off.
    • Set size limits for each file and for the whole cache.
    • Set when cleanup runs and how many files each cleanup handles.
    The media cache form has the cache limits and the cleanup controls.

  • Upload quotas

    Manage storage and upload limits for accounts and groups.

    • See storage use, upload rate, quota tiers and overrides.
    • If your role allows it, pin a tier, set custom limits or block uploads.
    • Act on one entry or on several you select.
    See each account's storage use and upload rate against its tier, and filter by tier, override, storage or upload rate.

  • Quota increase requests

    Review requests for more storage or upload capacity.

    • See pending requests from users and groups.
    • Approve a higher limit or keep the current one.
    • The request count updates for administrators who are online.
    The quota request view is empty here, with filters for the request type. You don't see an approval decision.

  • Queues, retries and workers

    Check on background jobs before a small problem turns into a bigger one.

    • The Jobs page shows queues, failed jobs, retries, scheduled jobs, workers and processes separately.
    • See each job's state. With management permission, you can retry or remove jobs.
    • See process heartbeat status and Redis information.
    The Jobs metrics table shows a queue with its concurrency, retry, latency and activity values.

  • Job statistics

    See background job activity over time.

    • The Stats page shows job statistics for each day.
    • Pick a queue to see its activity.
    • Use it together with the job queues to make sense of work and failures.
    The job chart shows counts per day, with filters for queue and state.

  • Feed diagnostics

    Check the feed cache and repair it if needed.

    • See cache size, feed coverage and regeneration state.
    • Compare a cached feed with the database results or with rebuilt results.
    • Look at operation timings over several periods.
    • Feed repair controls need management permission.
    The feed cache page shows cache metrics and diagnostic controls. We didn't run any cache action.