I reported a Mastodon bug that exposes private DMs (now called private mentions) as public posts (aka "toots"). The ENTIRE Mastodon team REJECTS this bug as NOT REAL because this bug exists only in the UI layer and not deeper in the application code layer. Mastodon engineers INSIST that this exposure of user's PRIVATE DMs to the general public is WORKING AS DESIGNED. Mastodon further BLAMES THE USER FOR EXPECTING ANY LEVEL OF PRIVACY IN THE FIRST PLACE and says that if I want to send private DMs then I should USE A DIFFERENT PLATFORM INSTEAD!!!!!
Yes that's right, the warning/disclaimer attached to the DM User Interface implies basic privacy but not encryption, but then when pressed on an intermittent failure to deliver even the basic privacy implied by this disclaimer, the Mastodon team blames the user for expecting even basic privacy!!! This level of CONTEMPT FOR USER SAFETY & PRIVACY is utterly astounding.
This type of obtuse catch-22 abusive gaslighting mental gymnastic tap dancing and dishonest parsing of the meaning of the word "is", is something that we have all come to know and loathe in the corporate environment, but here it is now got in our house like a pigeon from hell, infecting FOSS like the disease that it is.
We all want salvation from the corporatization and enshittification of the internet. Crowd-funding of slick marketing campaigns won't save us. There needs to be substance under the hood, there needs to be vision, there needs to be some coherent ethical framework. Being okay with the leaking of user's private communications is not it!
Yes Mastodon is better than a nazi genealogical project hosted on IBM servers, but then again so is being trapped in an elevator for 24 hours with your most annoying co-worker. That's not exactly a very high standard, is it? Unfortunately when I look under the hood at Mastodon's vision, I find this team to be capable of building nothing more than a Roomba to Nowhere. Cute, but certainly not revolutionary, and for some unlucky users, downright dangerous.
[update] To thank me for reporting this bug on Github, the Mastodon team has now blocked me on Github.
@renchap@Claire@marcus@grishka@mellifluousbox@dopatwo [this list of mentioned has been edited to remove blocking users, so as to avoid having this privacy/security complaint cause any further unwanted disruption of their tranquility.]
https://mastodon.lol has already shut down, but it didn't shut down cleanly (it didn't send a request to other servers to purge its content).
It seems that we the admins will need to manually purge its content from our servers, so not only remote media and posts are deleted, but also accounts and posts interacted with.
So, what exactly happens when an instance shuts down? Do other servers automatically delete their cache of this instance's data, after a certain period of time? And if so, how long would that typically take?
The server mastodon.lol seems to have shut down for good, about 5 days earlier than had been announced.
It won't be possible to migrate from old accounts with the server offline, but if you or somebody you know from the server would be a good fit for sunny.garden, registrations are open.
sunny.garden is a community for artists, musicians and creators who draw, write, design, program, play, sing or build (or garden!). You're also welcome if you just like the vibe :blobsmilehappyeyes:
@mike Uh this is a good guide for moving servers in general but since mastodon.lol isn't up (and apparently won't be up again) the steps which refer to the old server won't work. But one thing which might work: use the #MastodonLOL hashtag to find people you used to follow or answer any questions you might have. A few of us are hanging out there trying to help as we are able.
First there's the breathtaking confidence that this this exciting AI thing will solve the problem. As if Twitter didn't have literally hundreds of ML engineers working on this for years. YEARS.
Then there's the notion that you could possibly create AI magic without doing enough of the manual work to really understand it. Nope!
Third, there's apparently a belief that a magic technical solution exists to social problems that are so complex that they're demoralizing and hard to deal with.
Fourth, I see no recognition that they should have had at least some starter solutions before letting users on at all.
Lastly, there's the lack of recognition that anti-abuse work, hard though it is, is not nearly as hard as dealing with the abuse.
@davidslifka@nova Admin burnout is definitely an issue. I'm more familiar with the #MastodonLOL case than this one which seems odd because Kris Nóva did set up a team but I guess that wasn't enough?
People ask what happened at #MastodonLOL . I will try to summarize as I know it. This instance dates from 2020 or so and had about 2000 users until November 2022 when it shot up as high as 70,000. The admin, Nathan, ran it by himself (with the exception of some moderation help for a while he declined to form a team on the grounds that users had trusted him with their data, not others he might bring in). 1/3
Two month reminder that mastodon.lol has indicated it will be shutting down on May 9 :yell:
If you or somebody you know on that server would be a good fit for sunny.garden, registrations are open.
sunny.garden is a community for artists, musicians and creators who draw, write, design, program, play, sing or build (or garden!). You're also welcome if you just like the vibe :blobsmilehappyeyes:
I made a little something : a small app that tells you on which Mastodon instance your friends are!
It might help people like me who had to migrate to another one 🥲
It's called TootExplorer 💫 and I hope it'll be usefull!