Maybe someone should post this link every day for the foreseeable future because I think it’s gonna be a sleepless week for the Fediverse, but a great one as well....
Like, if you're totally fine with not being able to effectively moderate a server you operate, then by all means, test out #kbin and #lemmy, but encouraging folks to use either en-mass as if they're anywhere near the calibre of Mastodon or Pixelfed* then you're in for a very very bad time.
Alpha software does need alpha users to test and provide feedback, but we should be VERY careful recommending alpha software to mainstream massive audiences as an alternative to $centralisedPlatform.
@pixelfed The first step is stop calling legitimate basic user rights expectations "nonsensical". That spirit pretty much disqualifies you as a developer of publicly used software. The only sensible behaviour is never transfer user data to third parties without consent. If you can't agree with that basic principle, and instead laugh down users who want their rights protected, please refrain from publishing software for users.
Friends of the #Fediverse — I'm looking for nominations of Makers on Mastodon! Share your best follows with me and I may be able to get them some extra visibility!
Today was a huge milestone in our quest to federate #Flipboard and tear down the walls around our own walled garden.
First, we launched a new version of Flipboard for iOS and Android which brings the promise of two way federation to life. Now when a federated Flipboard user curates, people in the fediverse can reply, favorite, boost or follow those Flipboard users who will in turn see that activity in their usual notifications tab. Even better, Flipboard users can directly reply to people in the fediverse -- and very soon they will also be able to follow each other.
Second, we federated some of our best curators today who are actively curating more than 10,000 magazines about everything from climate change to kale smoothie recipes. I'm grateful to our many curators and the service they provide to so many others who want to find the best content about a shared interest. I know our curators are excited to have millions more people who could potentially benefit from their curation. I also know that people in the fediverse will give a warm welcome to these curators. Especially now that everyone can hear and talk to each other over what was once two totally separate networks but now increasingly are in one and the same #fediverse.
Chief problems for me are the fact they gather and store data of non-users, they gather location data, they sell that to third-parties for reasons not related to their service, they buy data about you from third-parties, they force binding arbitration, they limit liability to ludicrous levels.
@dansup Thanks Dan! Next up is finishing our #activitypub integration such that all Flipboard users can follow anyone on Pixelfed. I can't wait to feature your best users to ours.
@paninid The former Twitter is now this generation's Radio Rwanda, as is Meta/Facebook given how both have encouraged violence against ethnic/race/religious groups.
Interfere with the signal before the genocides spread.
The #Fediverse needs to learn some serious conflict resolution...
If we ever aspire to become a serious alternative to corporate platforms we can't continue with this behavior. Let me explain.
Two days ago someone created a "The_Donald" community of a well-known #Lemmy instance. Immediately there were cries for defederation, blocking, and suspicion about the admin letting racists run rampant on his instance.
What ultimately happened was that when the admin logged in they removed that community. But before they even had time to realize what was happening they were already being accused of stuff and if any instance heeded the call to block, it would have caused damage to the users who would have their subscriptions / follows severed.
Some users who've just arrived from Reddit and bring a fresh perspective are already wary of the shit show this can become.
That instance resisted massive blocks because it was large enough. But what if it was smaller?
curate public timelines and shield users from interactions that could be unwanted but which can be allowed if the users decided to accept a follow or follows back.
And most importantly, any big moderation decisions need be discussed with time, a cool head and a user-oriented attitude first.
Otherwise what's the point of us smaller instances existing if we're going to be rolled over by larger ones on a whim?
@Wander@mastodonmigration “If we ever aspire to become a serious alternative to corporate platforms”
Well, that’s the crux of the issue, isn’t it? Do we aspire to become a “serious alternative” to corporate platforms? I suspect many of us do not. And even among those of us who do, many likely have very different ideas about what a “serious alternative” might look like.
I have no problem with the Fediverse consisting of several entirely isolated and mutually unfederated parts, as it already does today, and I see instances defederating as part of the dynamic nature of changing relationships among the disparate islands in the Fediverse archipelago, even if those shifting alliances mean breaking connections among individuals. The Fediverse encompasses everyone using ActivityPub, not just those of us on instances that subscribe to the Mastodon Server Covenant.
The only way to have a “serious alternative” to corporate platforms is to recognize that the Fediverse is not, will not, and cannot be a uniform, united entity. Just like individuals and states, islands in the Fediverse are constantly renegotiating their diplomatic relations with other islands. Sure, this means that individuals may see their connections to people on other islands severed, but individuals in the Fediverse have agency, and I consider it a strength of the seriousness of the Fediverse that with that agency comes the responsibility to manage one’s own information and connections.
The patronizing approach of corporate media to individual “users” is what needs to be replaced. People are so used to the us-vs-them approach of users and corporate owners, that they mistakenly bring that mindset to the Fediverse. There is no THEM in the Fediverse. There is just US.
Some of us volunteer our time to write code. Some of us volunteer our time to run instances. Some of us volunteer to moderate instances. Some of us donate money to help support instances. Some of us engage with people. Some of us write fascinating articles. Some of us find and boost interesting posts. Some of us are readers. But nowhere in all of those individuals is a “them”.
If individuals feel that people losing connections due to defederation is a problem, the solution is not to rail against defederation, but rather for those individuals to identify how they would like maintain their connections in the inevitable and, I would argue, desirable dynamic of shifting alliances, and to then implement those solutions in code.
The serious alternative that the Fediverse offers to commercial platforms is the concept of individual agency, respect, and responsibility as a replacement for Owners and Users.
Des filles du collège Katia et Maurice Krafft (REP+, que je crois être à Béziers) se sont qualifiées, avec la section minimes (14-15 ans) de leur AS, à la finale du championnat de France de foot en salle.
Ils n'ont pas les moyens de les y emmener. Elles et leurs profs ont ouvert une cagnotte, mais ça patine un peu : 750€ en 10 jours, sur 2.500€ minimum, 5.000€ optimal...
Est-ce qu'on ne leur montrerait pas la puissance du #Fediverse ? 💪
Bon les amis, il y a une nouvelle un peu en demi-teinte. La mairie (Béziers, Robert Ménard, extrême-droite, of course) a refusé une subvention à la classe.
Ce qui veut dire qu'ils comptent ENCORE PLUS sur la solidarité des gens. Le lycée est en REP+, les familles n'ont pas les moyens de payer le voyage.
Allez, allez, on lâche rine, on les emmène à Bar-le-Duc !! (vous vous rendez compte que des gens veulent volontairement aller à Bar-le-Duc, ça a pas du leur arriver depuis 35 ans)
The Dutch government has officially launched their own Mastodon server. In an accompanying letter, the State Secretary explains how this relates to the government strategy of supporting digital common goods.
Threads now has a Supplemental Privacy Policy (https://help.instagram.com/515230437301944) regarding "Third Party Services" like Mastodon. Should Threads interconnect with Mastodon via #ActivityPub, this addresses what they will do with our data.
Note that they will collect information from anyone "allowing Threads users to follow you or interact with your content". The information they collect will include your profile, your content, and your interactions.
This Supplemental Privacy Policy (https://help.instagram.com/515230437301944) also addresses what Threads will do with the information they collect. These uses include advertisements.
@mastodonmigration I thought I might re-share this for #Fediverse instance admins — in addition to #FediBlock-ing #Threads from federating with your server, here’s a list of iptables firewall commands to drop all inbound and outbound traffic to and from #Meta’s IP address ranges (including Threads). This should completely stop all interaction from Threads to your server! https://mastodon.moule.world/@MOULE/110586556696261405
We've been on the #fediverse for almost 6 months now! So we thought we'd do a little reintroduction.
Hi! We're KCTS 9, #Seattle's local #PBS affiliate station. We share updates about national PBS programs, as well as our awesome locally produced series' and news from our newsroom at #Crosscut.
We're excited to be here and connect with our community! 🤗
@kcts9 we're excited to have you here! Please recommended the fediverse to other affiliates! public television, public radio, public social media! this can be a thing!
if public media institutions could wrap their heads around hosting their OWN instances (for their shows, journalists, and region), we could see a real healthy revolution in society!
a learned society is centred on a scientific field (nation-wide or wider) rather than geographic territory as a university, so more intense exchange between members is expected—more effective in a #decentralized network such as the #fediverse
a learned society is less likely to be at odds with opinions expressed by academics than the employers of those academics.
That implies some reciprocity: over some territory (Europe eg), one uni would run a #mastodon server for physics (supervised by a physics learned society), another one for humanities and yet another one for maths... (biology I think has this head start thanks to @Co_Biologists, although not sure how big they want to grow!)
GBH News is a PBS/NPR newsroom in Boston, Massachusetts.
We start each day with a greeting, the weather, a news brief, and a poll.
It surprises me when we get people who say they think this is the full output of our newsroom, but of course it is not. We simply care enough about the #fediverse to engage here.
I'm so excited about federating #Flipboard to the #Fediverse! We are getting closer every day.
I just recently saw a demo from our engineering team of a Flipboard account being fully federated and followable from #Mastodon. Now we need to interpret all the engagement signals (commenting, favoriting, etc) properly. This includes designing what Flipboard users should see when they click on Mastodon users who reply to them and vice versa. A bunch more to do but we are making serious progress.
@9pfs It's a social magazine that let's you flip through great stories curated by editors, experts and enthusiasts for many interests across work, play and life. It's a free app in the App Store for tablet and phone as well as avail on the web. You can see the stuff I've curated on Flipboard at https://flipboard.com/@mike
@feditips Thought about hosting #twitch streamer #vods#archives using #peertube to offset traffic costs but unsure how viable and cost efficient that would be.
Considering it may be very low traffic per video if the archive spans back 5 years, the benefit may only show when playing vods from recent streams.🤔
The income for most streamers is also relatively low so there's very little incentive for setting it up unless depending on charity.
I know #ActivityPub does not exactly have an official holiday, but on January 23rd (2018) the WC3 gave their official recommendation of ActivityPub, which I believe helped it gain popularity amongst numerous social platforms.
So if you can, raise a glass of gratitude to the five founders of the Fediverse (listed in the link), as without them the masses would lack credible alternatives to the major social networks that exist today.
Hmmm, every server I'm getting spam from has a new user in their public directory named yqqwe, and each one of these users is following mastodon_admin_yggwe on a single-user instance mastodon.tinynews.org. One can look at the 924 followers of this admin and they all are named yqqwe and they are all on servers I've been getting #spam from. #fediverse#moderation#administration
@vees@simplenomad@dansup
The account will continue to log in even if it's suspended. Please reset that password as well.
and #Pixelfed also identifies the victimization of YQQWE's use of ad image storage.
We suspended the account and ran media:gc (Delete media uploads not attached to any active statuses), but the hundreds of images uploaded by this account are not being deleted are still being called externally.
