I'm gonna be honest y'all, it's felt dark lately, and for good reason, LGBTQ+ rights in the balance, an election coming up, women struggling to get basic Healthcare, mass shootings, SCOTUS, the environment. The list goes on and on, and the media twists everything to sound even worse, or just straight up ignores actual news. But here's the thing, I know a lot of you, and the fact that you exist in the world gives me hope. You care about the future and you want good things, and so do I, and as long as that spark is there, we have hope. So, let's focus on some good today! Share a good headline, some positive news either on a larger scale or just something personal, a nice picture you took, a funny meme or video, whatever made you feel good or at least, gave you a smile. Let's share some joy!
One of the funnest things about running an instance is noticing all the interesting and unexpected accounts that chose to make this their home. Here, as well as all the wonderful humans that make up our little community, we have:
@seaward, an East London based independent women's football club
@bbcmicrobot, a robot that runs BBC BASIC code and posts the results
Friendly Fedi Advice: It's great to boost toots; however, make sure you pin 1–5 of your own toots to the top of your profile so people can get a quick look at the things YOU post so they can better tell if you'd be a good fit to follow.
Jamie Rubin, the special envoy and coordinator for the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC), did not specify which countries he was particularly concerned about, but said that the primary targets would likely be in Europe.
If you are a citizen of any EU Member State, I implore you to consider signing the Tax-the-Rich citizens' initiative: https://www.tax-the-rich.eu/
The idea is to tax the super rich and then use the money for climate transition. :blobcathappypaws:
This is an official EU citizens' initiative, meaning that if it reaches certain thresholds, it will have to be considered by the EU institutions. That's a really powerful tool, if actually used.
When I criticise it, I know what I'm talking about.
I was drawn in by the idea of a new financial system that didn't rely on traditional banks. I was excited by the idea of rebuilding digital ownership in a post-streaming world.
In the end, I came to realise my idealism had blinded me. The philosophy was largely false.
And outweighed by the scams, thefts, fraud and grift.
So, @kissane and I have formally kicked off our Fediverse research project! Briefly, we are doing interviews with admin/mod teams about governance models and practices that are in place on servers with ~150-2500 active users. More info is available here on the project blog:
The blog hosted at write.as which means you can follow it at @fediversalist@write.as, or via RSS, or via email (there's a form on the bottom of the main blog page).
Real freedom is saving 4% on my taxes by living in in a country with no healthcare, child support, or functional education system, then paying like 50% of my post-tax income if I happen to want any of those things
Europeans simply cannot comprehend this level of freedom
I'm looking for someone experienced to lead the building of a cybersecurity-focused online learning platform for No Starch Press. I have some ideas but I'm open. Fresh, useful, relevant, and wow are some operative words. Suggestions? Please share!
A poll: if you're planning on blocking Threads , do you want your posts to federate there so that hate groups can interact with them and Meta can track you?
The way blocking works on Mastodon, if your instance hasn't enabled "authorized fetch", blocking Threads won't actually prevent your posts from federating there if somebody on another instance who hasn't blocked Threads boosts your post. This means that anybody on Threads can still potentially see your posts, including hate groups like Libs of TikTok and Gays Against Groomers. And Meta's privacy policy says they'll use the information to target advertising and improve their products by training AIs. And most large Mastodon instances today haven't turned on authorized fetch.
If you're planning on -- or considering -- blocking Threads, do you still want your posts to federate there?
The recent excitement surrounding Thread's arrival on the Fediverse is concerning. To understand why this is not a good idea, consider their economic interest in harvesting data, their poor moderation, and their manipulations. Nothing good can come from their federation. Don't roll out the red carpet for them.
Threads seems to be beginning to test ActivityPub federation, and since Kbin can be used for microblogging, this affects kbin.social. What are your thoughts on federating or defederating with them?
The concept is that overtime, communities and connections will organically grow. If Threads has a disproportionally large ubserbase, then overtime they will create a similarly larger number of communities. This then would give them a lot more influence over the fediverse and anyone federated with them.
For smaller instances that become accustomed to seeing those communities and content, the danger is that Meta can just “pull the plug,” defederate, and extinguish the competition, or at the very least hurt their competitor's users experiences when interacting with content from Threads. The reason they might do this is purely because it fits into their business model which is selling user data to advertisers; it is in Meta’s interest to have as much data on their users as possible, and to have those users be based on Meta’s platform.
As I said in another comment, I could be totally wrong and this could benefit the fediverse. I just think the opposite is more likely because I do not trust Meta. I think they will play nice in the beginning, but then start to flex their muscles once they feel they’ve got enough influence.
Also, there is nothing stopping them from expanding Thread’s capabilities to include the threadiverse. Kbin has already demonstrated both are possible in one app.
The W3C, founded in 1994 by web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, has quit X and declared the fediverse to be their primary social media channel. Follow them at: @w3c
US warns of Russian efforts to turn public opinion against Ukraine in upcoming European elections (kyivindependent.com)
Jamie Rubin, the special envoy and coordinator for the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC), did not specify which countries he was particularly concerned about, but said that the primary targets would likely be in Europe.
Yes, climate activism can win | Here are four different ways activists went about achieving real climate progress in 2023. (heated.world)
The South American activists who knocked on doors to stop drilling in the Amazon...
How do we feel about federating with Threads?
Threads seems to be beginning to test ActivityPub federation, and since Kbin can be used for microblogging, this affects kbin.social. What are your thoughts on federating or defederating with them?