We need to better incorporate our Mastodon feed into the CoffeeGeek.com website.
Part of the problem is, in the platform we use (Wordpress / Elementor), there's almost zero support for Mastodon in our share, follow, and embed tools. So either we have to write something from scratch and make it work with our existing share tools, or... well if there is an Elementor / WP friendly share plugin out there that actively supports mastodon, I want to know about it.
Any thoughts? Ideas? Guides? Step by step to make it happen? The research I've done so far shows it's tricky to have a proper share popup for Masto like you can have for Facebook, for eg (second screen cap below) because of the decentralized nature of mastodon.
For instance, I want to have a Mastodon share button in this cluster, which is created via a convenient widget in Elementor:
A few items, but for the tl;dr please scroll down towards the end. The first few appear to be precisely what you asked for, the third is my rather enthusiastic recommendation.
I believe this first one is the plugin I mentioned, and was found to be quite lacking, further, frustrating to most - This showcases the glaring problem associated with conflating mastodon with that of the #Fediverse - most things break, early and often, over and over again.
A simple share button that breaks about a fourth of share attempts:
Here's Terrence Eden's article on the Share on Mastodon plugin. I thought a link to this article best, as it leaves you lots of breadcrumbs to pick up along the way to the plugins page at WordPress. Including Jan's blog article. I believe this was the one with the least utility, that caused the most problems with people, which is quite a bit more than frustrating for a lot of people, angering many. masto isn't even the big man on campus anymore - those days have passed, and are in the past; it's just one of many increasingly popular platforms that people use in the ActivityPub portion of the Fediverse.
I believe Jan is incorrect on the number of images that masto can accommodate - yes it used to be four, but lately, when authoring articles in the Fediverse with platforms that accommodate inline media in the posts, I've noticed that masto actually will include 5 images, the rest it summarily discards, making for an even more confusing event for those on masto (NGI Zero funding has just been secured BTW, to at least bring masto into the 21st century withQuote Posts- like pretty much everyone else has had for a long time,some for a decade now).
Perhaps in time this will improve, or you can get into it with the aid of some of the others below, or just move past all that and install the plugin at the end of it all which performs famously ;)
Conflating mastopub with the Fediverse is a Bad thing:
I've heard a few good testimonies of how well the Fediverse share button performs. Note that no where in the description or documentation is the word mastodon used; no one is mislead to believe that there is such a thing as a mastodon network - because there isn't.
People should be offered the opportunity to share interesting content into (and throughout) the Fediverse, not some small slice of the available platform choices existing there:
This next option was heavily inspired by the old AddToAny plugin back when a kazillion different silos were popular and extant. I remember using that plugin to support sharing across upwards of 30 or so various social networking, bookmarking, link aggregation, and other types of obscure sites in far flung places of the world. I've also heard some good things about this solution too - please take note of all the certified platforms that it supports, and yes, mastopub is one of those ;)
If you do choose this method, do please join us in the Fediverse-City Matrix room to offer a review / evaluation as to how well Fediverse Share works for you. Several project leads there are always interested in viable solutions that are inclusive and accommodate the wider community at large without any marginalization through misleading brand recognition.
Either through simple naivety or conscious exclusionary arrogance, here's some other masto branded share options, at least one, IIRC, was much less than satisfactory, but I typically don't traffic mastodon branded things anymore when the insinuation is that the product represents the Fediverse. You may find, however, that one of these is just what you need, and that with a little bit of tweaking will fit nicely into your website's business processes. A little branding can go a long way, but sometimes a solution depends on, for example, a "share API endpoint", not strictly compliant with the W3C's published specifications, that serves to marginalize all other platforms by excluding them (that's commonly regarded as EEE). I'll just post the links w/o commentary:
There's another utility by Nikita Karamov (creator of the Toot Proxy above) that doesn't embrace the predatory branding of a diluted trademark:
Share₂Fedi - Share₂Fedi isn't a button, exactly, but the functionality is there and it is inclusive of the larger diaspora of the ActivityPub powered portions of the Fediverse, avoiding any sort of marginalization as a result of marketing through leveraging overt, and predatory branding campaigns.
Alright, I know you're interested in getting to the good part. Yes, I'm guilty of that same sort of mindset that makes you scroll down to the bottom of the ToS before you can click on the submit button. But before we get to the tl;dr:, we have one more which in spirit at the very least, is promising, I encourage you to read it:
Honorable mention goes to shareOnFediverse, which works even with GNU Social, Diaspora, PixelFed, Hubzilla, Lemmy, Friendica, Kbin, Misskey, Pleroma, Etc.
tl;dr:
That bit of markdown above (the H1) may not show up on your platform, depending. Regardless, you've arrived. Here's the solution that I personally recommend, a very fine solution that not only allows one to share their content into the Fediverse by providing links back to their website, but providing the gateway for people in the Fediverse, #Fedizens, if you will, to engage the authors of news and blog and lifestyle and cookbook style tutorial and HowTo sites, directly, with two way commenting and sharing of dialog in true open and participatory fashion:
First, (and it has indeed come a long way since the post of this article), a page on how exceedingly simple it is to install and configure this, the WordPress ActivityPub Plugin:
Bear in mind that the plugin was in beta at the time, so never mind the sourpusses in the comments who wanted it, and yet couldn't have it because they weren't self-hosting #WordPress. I must reiterate that development has come a long way, the plugin is in general production release and available for any WordPress site, managed, self-hosted, or otherwise, and it's got a powerful feature set.
Posting links back to clear-net websites on the open Internet is fine, it's not like clicking a share to Faceplant or InstaSPAM button when you share an article that you like into the Fediverse, After all, it's every blogger's mission to drive traffic to their own site (not Faceplant or InstaSPAM), but then your visitors are limited to offering comment replies in the manner of a form submission on the site that really only allows you to subscribe your email for subsequent comment notifications for the article or thread that your commenters spawned.
What the #ActivityPub plugin enables for those who engage with you, is to provide an instant audience of several million MAU (monthly active users) throughout the Fediverse who will be able to directly participate and engage in the conversation from their own native Fediverse platforms, receiving replies as well.
I've called this, A Game Changer, before. A few times, actually. @matthias@pfefferle and his small team of developers created and curated this plugin that enables this hitherto (mostly) inaccessible feature set for the masses. Literally anyone in the ActivityPub portion of the Fediverse can now comment and reply to the comments of others on WordPress sites, which is pretty much like 40% of the entire word wide web nowadays, and you can check this out for yourself right now by visiting his blog at https://notiz.blog/ in the comment section of any one of his articles.
There were some issues, which could be attributed to the predatory marketing practices by Mastodon gGmbH, whereby a lot of what is actually ActivityPub or Fediverse centric was being referred to, and worse, attributed to mastodon in one sense or another, further diluting their trademark which places it in jeopardy of losing its registration (the first item in mastodon's general guidelines states, "Only use the Mastodon marks to accurately identify those goods or services that are built using the Mastodon software." - but the defense of trademarks themselves is another matter entirely, although the discussion has come up many times with the responsible parties, often, in very heated, public, forums.
Anyway, Mattias and his team have become incrementally more mindful of placing emphasis upon #Fediverse, the brand, instead of masto, the brand, and that's a good thing because it goes a long way toward correcting the existing confusion that exists due to the abuse certain marketing personalities have, and continue to pursue. Indeed, the plugin itself is named ActivityPub, which is appropriate - and it certainly is not an exclusive tool for mastopub.
You can download the latest and greatest version of the WordPress ActivityPub Plugin HERE, which was released just 3 days ago, and I know because I was on the periphery of an issue that was resolved, making this an even more relevant and quickly becoming (IMO) essential tool for #DeSoC and Fediverse aware bloggers, journalists, chefs, and anyone else that knows they can benefit from deploying their own WordPress site for business or personal use in communicating with the world beyond the walls of the deprecated, proprietary, privacy mining monolithic silos.
In wrapping things up here, it goes without saying that one of the very most powerful aspects of the #WordPress_ActivityPub_Plugin isn't actually that people can respond to your published articles from the comfort of myriad clients such as #FediLab, #Husky, #Phanpy, or the native web or desktop interface for their Fediverse instance, but the reality that they can simply follow you, on your blog, and receive your blog or news or HowTo articles in their streams whenever you publish a new item. From there, they can boost (more exposure for your published works), reply (of course), and even offer a bit of narrative introducing your work with a #Quote_Post. It's like a butterfly affect, or concentric circles emanating from one little plop of a pebble into a pond.
Oh, one more thing, there's nothing preventing you from including one of the pretty little Fediverse Share buttons either, in conjunction with the ActivityPub plugin. After all, some folks like to comment and let you know their thoughts, while others prefer to simply share it with others who will also tell two friends or themselves offer comments to your articles - it's a win win for everyone on both sides of the line that divides the Fediverse from those so-called Big Tech institutions comprising the walled gardens of subjugation by the #Sunnyvale_Syndrome.
I hope you've found this helpful, I didn't want to send you on an errand of discovery without making sure that there's been some decent coverage of several different alternatives currently available for you.
Hm. I wonder if I can get any fediverse admins onboard to disable all images on their instance on the World Sight Day in October, so that only alt text shows up.
...I really ❤️ your idea to make it "automatic" for people, aka users.
This way, we "only" need to convince a "couple of thousands" instance #admins, instead of 15 million #Fedizens.
Brilliant 👏
Once we have a critical mass, we should involve the press.
This is a good thing on several fronts. 👍
FYI for my international audience. The #German government is openly discussing to change the constitution to make sure the rich can't be taxed and the poor can be made even poorer.
@jwildeboer
I don't know what finance minister said today (I worked until now) - is he with Spahn?? (wtf?), but there are only very rare occasions Lindner is on my side.
So at that occasion did Lindner discussed constitution changes and might you have a link?
And please please do not assume things that have not been said by fellow #fedizens, e.g. being in favor of Lindner or Spahn or similar nasty persons.
#tamisanatomy Wasser
Da es irgendwie gerade oft Thema ist und gerade in meinem Job immer ein wichtiger Punkt ist, gibt es heute mal was zum Lebenselixier Wasser.
Wir bestehen zu einem großen Teil aus Wasser. Je jünger wir sind, desto mehr. Wir benötigen also Wasser, um viele wichtige Körperfunktionen am Laufen zu halten. Wir schleusen damit Abbau- und Giftstoffe über den Urin aus, regulieren die Körpertemperatur und den Blutdruck damit.
Zu wenig Wasser im Körper sorgt für Kreislaufprobleme 1/X
Evening #babkans and other #fedizens. I am here to tell you that food poisoning sucks, and that while I'm definitely feeling better after being very sick yesterday I'm still pretty wrung out Hoping tomorrow is better. #today
I have a question for my fellow #fedizens. I have this account @verdantsquare I don't follow them, no one whom I follow boost them and we don't share the server yet their posts are appearing on my home timeline somewhat consistently. Not that I am displeased to see but the appearance of their posts goes against my current understanding of how mastodon posts propagates. Anyone have an idea? #AskFedi
We're also doing the winter solstice, so happy and blessed solstice to my pagan pals.
It's a lazy day for John and I. He's sleeping in, and I'm watching Israeli news while scrolling my home timeline.
Also, I think I may have figured out how to break Send To Braille with a large file. We'll see if it ever translated, since Braille Blaster, old or new version, doesn't support US braille and only supports UET, which I hate. #today
It's frickin freezing outside Mr. Bigglesworth. To be more precise, it's 24F out, only going up to 28F, and it's been snowing off and on all night and it's supposed to do that all day. So we'll be staying inside and practicing the art form of strategically opening windows to counteract the fact that the boiler for the building is under our bedroom floor.
I have a quick job I'm going to get done today, and we're also reading the new Spenser book. Then we'll go back to the Kinsy Millhone series. #today
If you're in the US and you're celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope it's as meaningful for you as it can be and that it includes lots of your favorite foods and as little drama as possible.
We're going over to John's brother's house for dinner later and we'll be having a small family gathering with lots of food.
Get in #fedizens we've made it to Friday. We've also all made it through this week. John is going to make some chili this weekend, and we're just listening to a book. Otherwise today looks to be a relaxing day.
Part of unleashing the concept of personal freedoms, is dependent upon the notion of personal infrastructure.
The IBM 5150 Personal Computer w/64K of RAM on the motherboard and a DIN connector interfacing a cassette deck with Microsoft ROM BASIC was one such innovation (as opposed to S-100's) that brought such freedoms to people in 1981.
"I get way more interactions and engagement on my Mastodon than I ever did on Twitter. As small as my Mastodon is, it is #2 in converting people to my other platforms and even sales on my Etsy store, second only to TikTok. I have less than 1000 people following me on Mastodon, I have over 300,000 following me on TikTok.”
Hey #Fedizens, good morning! It's definitely been a while since I have checked in. It has just been busy at work, and I've just been worn out.
I've also felt just like distancing myself from social media for a while. It has been good to disconnect for these past few days. Just to focus on me, my family, etc.
Let's kick off our day with the #KoffeeWithKyle chat. For today's chat, what tasks are you working on? Anything you've been waiting to finish but have been putting off? Maybe you can get that done before the day is over?
For me, I just have work, per usual. I am going to be taking a certification exam sometime today. I also have been trying to get a client onboarding checklist complied so maybe I can get that done.
Good morning and happy Monday #Fedizens. It’s another week.
Time for our #KoffeeWithKyle chat. Let me know what your plans are for the week ahead. Anything interesting on the agenda?
It’s just the usual work stuff for me. I have a webinar today for work about an upcoming update to the RMM software we use. Tomorrow the kids go back to school so that’ll be fun.
Let’s begin the day with our usual #KoffeeWithKyle chat. Tell me about your day and what you hope to accomplish.
For me, it is just work stuff as per every week day. At least it is something that I love doing and not some mundane job. Then tonight will just be relaxing and winding down.
We Distribute is bringing in a new feature - The Mixtape! We create playlists of songs that broadcast through Radio Free Fedi, and share it with the wider fediverse. It’s an opportunity for people to discover music by Fedizens, and help support artists on the network....
Good morning and happy Friday #Fedizens! It's the weekend!
I am a little late for our #KoffeeWithKyle today. I am not feeling well :(. For our chat today, let's discuss what our plans our for this weekend. Anything interesting in your agenda?
For me, nothing much plans which seems to be the usual as of late. I will just take it as it comes. :)
For today’s #KoffeeWithKyle chat, let’s discuss how we learned the knowledge we use in our jobs. Our we self taught, go to college, etc.? Let me know!
I am solely self taught. Everything I know, web development, software development, IT work, all has been self learned. I just get out there and learn it. I want to know, I take the effort to learn it.
I want to take this #KoffeeWithKyle moment to let every one of my followers and friends here know that I appreciate each and every one of you. Y’all have made this place enjoyable and worth while. 🫶🏼
With that said, I’m going to be taking a while away from social media to reset and focus on my #MentalHealth. Sort of defrag/purge my mind so to say. I will be back though, so don’t go disappearing. 😉
Good morning and happy Sunday #Fedizens! Hope this weekend has treated yall well.
Let’s take a quick moment for our #KoffeeWithKyle and discuss our plans for the day and closing the weekend. Whatcha doing today?
I’m kinda sad since there’s no #F1 today. We have our meeting/church later this morning. After that, nothing planned. I overdid myself yesterday, my neck and back are in pain. Probably just relax and tend to those.
OC Introducing The Mixtape – Hot Music from Radio Free Fedi (wedistribute.org)
We Distribute is bringing in a new feature - The Mixtape! We create playlists of songs that broadcast through Radio Free Fedi, and share it with the wider fediverse. It’s an opportunity for people to discover music by Fedizens, and help support artists on the network....