@zack@toot.cafe
@zack@toot.cafe avatar

zack

@zack@toot.cafe

Developer in Greenville, South Carolina. I'm into video games, comics, and board games.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

leaverou, to random
@leaverou@front-end.social avatar

We’ve always told devs that browsers prioritize what to implement based on dev demand.

There is one exception: .

SVG is used on >65% of websites. Yet, browsers have been refusing to work on SVG, ignoring pressure and pain points from web devs.

showed SVG as the top content pain point: https://2023.stateofhtml.com/en-US/features/content/#content_pain_points

Tons of work (SVG 2, fill & stroke, and more) has sat unimplemented for years. At this point, in standards circles, we know not to touch SVG with a barge pole.

[1/2]

rasterweb, to random
@rasterweb@mastodon.social avatar

“Link in bio” is the stupidest fucking thing ever. Links should be everywhere.

Holding Hands with the "Fediverse" – ActivityPub at SFO Museum (millsfield.sfomuseum.org)

SFO Museum has joined the “Fediverse”. We have begun to operate a series of automated “bot” accounts that are published using the ActivityPub protocols and that can be subscribed to from any client, like Mastodon, that supports those standards. These are automated, low-frequency, accounts and they currently only support...

0x1C3B00DA, to bluesky
@0x1C3B00DA@stereophonic.space avatar

How do people against the bridge feel about https://rss-parrot.net/? I saw nothing but praise for that when it was announced a little while back, but it’s the same thing. It’s a bridge translating one protocol to another, meaning someone’s public posts could end up on a platform they didn’t opt-in to.

Db0, to fediverse

Looks like someone really kicked the hornet’s nest recently on mastodon by announcing (not even deploying) a Mastodon-BlueSky bridge. Just take a look at the github comments here to get an idea of how this was received.

Plenty of people way more experienced than myself have weighted on this issue so I don’t feel the need to leave my two cents. However I wanted to talk about a very common counter-argument made towards those who do not want such bridges to exist. Namely, that Fediverse already provides the tools towards not having such a bridge be an issue: The allow-list model.

The idea being that if your ActivityPub server by default rejects all federation except towards trusted instances, then such bridges pose no problems whatsoever. The bridge (and any potential undercover APub scrappers) would not be able to get to your instance anyway.

Naturally, the counterargument is that this is way too limiting to one’s reach, and they shouldn’t be forced into isolation like this. Unfortunately the alternative here appears to try and scold others into submission, and this is unlikely to be long term solution. Eventually the Eternal September will come to the Fediverse. If you spent the past few years relying on peer pressure to enforce social norms, then the influx of people who do not share your values is going to make that tactic moot.

In fact, we can already see the pushback to the scolding tactics unfolding right now.

The solution then has to be a way to improve the way we handle such scenarios. Improve the tooling and our tactics so that such bridges and scrappers cannot be an issue.

A lot of the frustration I feel also comes down to the limited set of tools provided by Mastodon and other Fediverse services. A lot of the time, the improvement of tooling is stubbornly refused by the privileged core developers who don’t feel the need to support the needs of the marginalized communities. But that doesn’t mean the tooling couldn’t be expanded to be more flexible.

So let’s think about the Allow-List model for a moment. The biggest issue of an Allow-List is not necessarily that the origin server restricts themselves from the discussion. In fact they’re probably perfectly happy with that. The problem is that if this became the norm, it massively restricts the biggest strength of the Fediverse, which is for anyone to create and run their own server.

If I make a new server and most of everyone I want to interact with is in Allow-List mode, how do I even get in? We then have to start creating informal communication channels where one has to apply to join the allow-circle. Such processes have way too many drawbacks to list, such as naturally marginalizing Neurodivergent people with Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, balkanizing the Fediverse, empowering whisper networks and so on.

I want to instead suggest an alternative hybrid approach: The Feeler network. (provisional name)

The idea is thus: You have your well protected servers in Allow-List mode. These are the servers which require protection from constant harassment when their posts are spread publicly. These servers have a few “Feeler” instances they trust on their allow-list. Those servers in turn do not have an allow-mode turned on, but rely on blocklist like usual. Their users would be those privileged enough to be able to handle the occasional abuse or troll coming their way before blocking them.

So far so good. Nothing changes here. However what if those Feeler servers could also use the wider reach to see which instances are cool and announce that to their trusted servers? So a new instance appears in your federation. You, as a Feeler server, interact with them for a bit and nothing suspicious happens, and their users seem all to be ideologically aligned enough. You then add them into a public “endorsed list”. Now all the servers in your trust circle who are in allow-mode see this endorsement and automatically add them to their allow-lists. Bam! Problem solved. New servers have a way to be seen and eventually come into reach with Allow-List instances through a sort of organic probation period, and allow-listed servers can keep expanding their reach without private communications, and arduous application processes.

Now you might argue: “Hey Db0, yes my feelers can see my allow-list server posts, but if they boost them, now anyone can see them, and now they will be bridged to bluesky and I’m back in a bad spot!”

Yes this is possible, but also technically solvable. All we need to do is to make the Feeler servers only federate boosted posts from servers in allow-mode, to the servers that the ones in the allow-list already allow. So let’s say Server T1 and T2 are instances in allow-list mode which trust each other. Server F1 is a Feeler server trusted by T1 and T2. Server S1 is an external instance that is not blocked by F1, but not yet endorsed either. User in F1 boosts a post from T1. Normally a user in S1 would see that post by following that user. All we need to do is to change the software so that if F1 boosts a post from T1, the boost would only federate towards T2 and other instances in T1’s allow-list, instead of everyone. Sure this would require a bit more boost complexity, but it’s nothing impossible. Let’s call this “protected boost”.

Of course, this would require all Apub software to expose an “Endorsement” list for this to work. This is where the big difficulty comes from, as you now have to herd the cats that are the multitude of APub developers to add new functionality. Fortunately, this is where tools like the Fediseer can cover for the lack of development, or outright rejection by your software developer. The Fediseer already provides endorsement functionality along with a full REST API, so you can already implement this Feeler functionality by a few simple scripts!

The “protected boost” mode would require mastodon developers to do some work of course, as that relies in the software internals which cannot be easily hacked by server admins. But this too can potentially just be a patch to the software that only Feeler-admins would need to run.

The best part of this approach is that it doesn’t require any communication whatsoever. All it needs is for the “Feeler” admins to be actively curating their endorsements (either on the Fediseer, or locally if it’s ever added to the SW). Then all allow-list server has to do is choose which Feelers they trust and “subscribe” to their endorsement list for their own allow-list. And of course, they can synchronize or expand their allow-list further as they wish. This approach naturally makes the distributed nature of the Fediverse into a strength, instead of a weakness!

Now personally, I’m a big proponent of the “human touch” in social networks, so I feel that endorsement lists should be a manual mechanism. But if you want to take this to the next level, you could also easily set up a mechanism where newly discovered instances would automatically pass into your endorsement list after X weeks/months of interaction with your user without reports and X-amount of likes or whatever. Assuming admins on-point, this could make widely Feeler servers as a trusted gateway into a well protected space on the fedi, where bad actors would find it extraordinarily difficult to infiltrate, regardless of how many instances they spawn. And it this network would still keep increasing each reach constantly, without adding an extraordinary amount of load to its admins.

Barring the “protected boost” mode, this concept is already possible through the Fediseer. The scripts to do this work already exist as well. All it requires is for people to attempt to use it and see how it functions!

Do point out pitfalls you foresee in this approach and we can discuss how to potentially address them.

https://dbzer0.com/blog/can-we-improve-the-fediverse-allow-list-model/

FEP-61cf: The OpenWebAuth Protocol (socialhub.activitypub.rocks)

This is the proposed FEP-61cf: The OpenWebAuth Protocol. OpenWebAuth is the “single sign-on” mechanism used by Hubzilla, (streams) and other related projects. It allows a browser-based user to log in to services across the Fediverse using a single identity. Once logged in, they can be recognised by other...

0x1C3B00DA, to Java
@0x1C3B00DA@stereophonic.space avatar

https://wedistribute.org/2024/01/sublinks-a-replacement-for-lemmy/

It’s crazy how much of the comments about on the threadiverse are mad that the author is using or just complaining that they chose to build another implementation.

Most of it seems to be users who think that , , , etc don’t exist and no other federated link aggregator should exist.

inautilo, to Blog
@inautilo@mastodon.social avatar


Let’s make the indie web easier · “We need more than WordPress.” https://ilo.im/15xm2z

0x1C3B00DA, to wordpress
@0x1C3B00DA@stereophonic.space avatar

Just read a bit of reactions about the plugin and there seems to be a sect of ppl who find it abhorrent that posts might federate.

In their opinion, if they post “on Mastodon”, that post shouldn’t leave . They think its understandable that a post may leave their own server and federate to other mastodon servers but federating outside of that is unacceptable. (I don’t know how they think about their posts federating to non-mastodon servers, especially non-microblogging servers like Friendica, kbin, etc)

Once again, I think the problem is caused by mastodon. They market mastodon as a Twitter-alternative and hype it as the platform instead of the fediverse. Now these users don’t understand the breadth of the fediverse and are “confused” that their posts could be “leaving” mastodon.

You’re not “on Mastodon”; you’re on the fediverse. Just like someone who runs a blog isn’t on Nginx or Apache, they’re on the web.

davatron5000, to random
@davatron5000@mastodon.social avatar

The Website vs Web App Dichotomy Doesn’t Exist by @jakelazaroff

Loved this post. I have pre-existing biases here because I hate it when people get high and mighty about “apps” or say “the document web” so they can forego basic HTML or a11y. ughck.

But I think Jake’s four quadrant chart of offline ↔️ online vs static ↔️ dynamic is a much better framework to discuss the differences/nuances in the type of projects we work on.

https://jakelazaroff.com/words/the-website-vs-web-app-dichotomy-doesnt-exist/

MidnightRaven, to random

What I like about Mastodon is that it's not one big Hellsite but 10s of thousands of individual Hellsite that all fight each other. Like fueding City States. Watching people vague about drama in the far reaches is like hearing the gossip in a tavern, where people say stuff like "The City Lord of the Artisan City claims to be a Pagan, yet aligns themsleves with Church Doctrine... How foreboding"

jenniferplusplus, to random
@jenniferplusplus@hachyderm.io avatar

This is your occasional reminder that mastodon isn't decentralized. It's federated. It has multiple centers.

nolan, to random
@nolan@toot.cafe avatar

New blog post: "Let’s learn how modern JavaScript frameworks work by building one" https://nolanlawson.com/2023/12/02/lets-learn-how-modern-javascript-frameworks-work-by-building-one/

Some step-by-step instructions on how to build a new JavaScript framework, if you're so inclined. Or just my way of learning how they all work!

wedistribute, (edited ) to random

, we wrote this because we love you and care about you. People have been saying a lot of things, and we need to get the facts right.

https://wedistribute.org/2023/11/debunking-the-top-10-myths-about-mastodon/

scalzi, to random
@scalzi@mastodon.social avatar

This just went live: The John Scalzi Humble Bundle! Get a whole bunch of my books really cheap - and support the literacy charity First Book, which provides books and literary resources to kids in need. A perfect way to stock up on my eBooks. Please feel free to share around!

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/john-scalzis-interdependency-old-mans-war-and-more-tor-books

boxy, to random
@boxy@wetdry.world avatar
0x1C3B00DA, to mastodon
@0x1C3B00DA@stereophonic.space avatar

This is what happens when one project takes over all discussion of an open standard and becomes synonymous with it. If you have a problem with , apparently you’re only alternative is . There are so many projects that most people don’t know about that provide a much better experience. Stop using fediverse as a synonym for mastodon.

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@Binks/111450750138151848

hamatti, to random
@hamatti@mastodon.world avatar

A company lays off thousands of people, nobody bats an eye.

A company fires one CEO and everyone loses their mind.

sebastianlaube, to firefox
@sebastianlaube@layer8.space avatar

Remember when browsers used to display an RSS icon in the URL bar when feeds were available on that website?

After the lost decade in social media, can we please bringt that back now?

Pleroma Blog - We got a grant from NLNet! (pleroma.social)

Nice to see the Pleroma team getting an NLNet grant so development can pick back up. I missed it when it happened but apparently there was a big shakeup with the Pleroma dev team. I'm glad they seem to be recovering from that and hopefully we'll see some sustained progress with Pleroma again.

0x1C3B00DA, to fediverse
@0x1C3B00DA@stereophonic.space avatar

I don’t think pitching to existing social media makes sense. Adding federation to a non-federated social media service isn’t a net win.

You have to spend the time and money to implement it. Then you have to spend the time and money to maintain it. Most of the time, ActivityPub support is implemented as mastodon compatibility, not true AP support. This means having to constantly make sure you keep up with masto changes and constantly fielding issues with other implementations because you didn’t fully implement AP.

And after implementation, you don’t just gain access to a ton of new users, you have to take on the burden of moderating all of it (which is a persistent ant recurring time and money cost). And since the has a ton of opinions on moderation, you’re always pissing somebody off.

And after all that, what you’ve enabled is an easy way for your users to recreate their social graph without your service. The idea of an interconnected social web is cool, and hopefully it’ll be the futrue, but it doesn’t make sense for profit-driven businesses.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/111325739732212734

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