Where to? The Fediverse !
Choice is good?
Alas having had ONE place for academics, activists, and journalist to find eachother was useful.
Notes taken on the migration path
@n1vux@Mastodon.Radio aka BRicker@fosstodon.org
Original version Nov 3, 2022; updated shortly after I learn something? To see just the diffs, since you last looked, view Diffs.
I think we know why.
As the bluebird app turns emerald green
Choice is good?
Alas having had ONE place for academics, activists, and journalist to find eachother was useful.
The Fedirated Universe (Fediverse) is every server that publishes and subscribes via W3C recommended ActivityPub decentralized social networking protocol, playing nicely with others.
https://fediverse.party/ lists 10 major federated (non-centralized) social apps, with info pages for each
Except as noted the following Fediverse projects are microblogging and were started 2014-2018.
which omits forks, old-school precursors, private gardens, & minor players that appear on charts and lists.
connections
Key
Mostly just like Twitter, Non-Federated & Centralized, but with additional problems; but a few are Non-Federated &/or Centralized in some sense.
Private-Label Social
There is (are?) firm(s)
selling turn-key Social Media phone+web apps that will provide a
walled-garden community for the sponsor’s palls. At remarkably low rates
since the app is merely branded for each client.
Likely invitation-only or sponsor’s mailing list / website only.
That reminds me i need to check the Beta …
Alt-Right choices (without fact-checking)
(which private gardens might be purchased from above vendor(s)?)
Old School
/., reddit,
4chan etc, various Forums packagesAlt-Left alternatives? (or Alt and not Alt-Right??) or at least, pro-Democracy, and suppressing “fake news” is fact-based. But not necessarily Progressive or “left”.
BlueSky looks to federate by its own rules, unlcear if bridging to Fediverse ActivityPub would be plausible or allowed.
BlueSky - BlueSKy is apparently a Protocol in competition with the Fediverse’s ActivityPub, with a demo implementation only just in Beta; backed by Dorsey, to make something that his Twitter could’ve been but didn’t as “protocol for large-scale distributed social applications that will allow for account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperability and performance”. Anti-commercial. oct.25 article. Started as a Twitter FLOSS spinoff? Original rumors of Blockchain denied. Dorsey BlueSky may be collaborative with Musk Twitter!?(sounds like a conspiracy theory but by an insider so might be real?) Not ready yet. Intersting to watch.
TribelSocial claims to be pro-Democracy, but is reportedly just as data-harvesting as the big Socials where we’re the product, not the customer.
Counter.Social (CoSo)
Overtly political Twitter-alternative, run by an anonymous, career
Grey-hat hacktivist.
Anitifa? Anarcho-Socialist? Unclear, but not GQP. Radically
anti-troll.
https://fediverse.party/en/mastodon/
Mastodon is the current center of the Federated Multi-Verse (Fediverse) per above graph from Fediverse Party data.
Instead of Tweeting, we Post (or
Toot if one wants a pun); instead of
#Twitterstorians, there are #Histodonts; there
is no Verified ✓ , just verified URLs. Unless you buy a server, there’s
usually no charge, just a tip jar.
Instead of an edge-cloud with eventual-consistency distributed DB run by one mega corp, Fediverse is scaled by having many collaborating instances under separate management that collaborite, each scaling according to own daily output & input, and funds available.
Each instance server can but is not required to exchange content with (most) others, Mastodon or fork or other compatible project (see chart).
Each instance sets it’s own content policy, moderation policy, privacy policy, open enrollment or invite only, etc., and picks which nodes it trusts to federate with.
(E.g. mastodon.radio does NOT
accept federation with nodes that have a looser a policy registered, or
fail to enforce their stated policy, e.g., masthead.social
which is nominally for journalists, whose policy says
NoSpam, but is actually just unmoderated spam. This
isn’t censorship, this is decentralized federation providing for policy
backbone.)
Since there’s no Algorithm, Favorites ⭐ are like they used to
be on Twitter ages ago before they adulterated it with faceless
^Algorithms^: they tell the author you like it
(and perhaps them), but doesn’t help the post fly further. If you want
to boost the post, you use the Boost 🔄 button to relay it to your own
Followers (like RT on bluebirdapp).
Also since there’s no Algorithm, #HashTag all the things.
Many are named Mastodon.${TLD} but not all; can be
whatever someone wants. (If not masto- or -don something, it may be a
clone or an API compatible as opposed to a Mastodon instance per
se , or they had a better pun.)
Alas the published indices don’t currently show any US-based regional servers.
And a lot of natural birds of a feather communities aren’t yet represented, but likely will pop up during the migration period. I don’t feel like putting up the cash to start one, but we could chip in to have our own server!
@feditips@mstdn.social for how-to tips (more
below)follow #FediTips in a spare column to get tips, follow
@feditips@mstdn.social to get them in your stream, or
subscribe via RSS; https://fedi.tips/ is the
Archive. Beginners
Start Here has a brilliant explanation of WTAF is a
Federated Network.
Federated networks have been around for centuries, and all of us have used them all our lives. The entire world is built around federated communications networks. The postal service is federated,…
elucidating that what’s different is this decentralized, federated social network is not that it’s novel, but that it’s not the private walled garden of singular mega-corporation, it’s a return to how things used to be in real life and in Internet 1.0, but with the sort of modern interface that set Twitter apart from e.g. Usenet.
Intros
Setting reasonable expectations is welcoming; setting unreasonable expectations “it’s easy!” may drive away folks.
Matt Blaze @mattblaze@federate.social
I have to disagree with my friends who keep hammering on the idea that people shouldn’t say Mastodon is confusing. The user experience is fine (it’s confusing, but not in any unexpected ways, and you can figure it out). But onboarding process, ambushing prospective users to choose a server, is something lots of people have trouble with. Not at even acknowledging that it’s confusing amplifies how off putting this can be.
I’m no expert here, I’ve only been around for a few days. But I’ve helped a number of people sign up, and every one of them has been BAFFLED by this. So was I when I signed up. Claiming that it’s not confusing just signals that they aren’t welcome, or that this place isn’t for them.
For things that some folks would rather not see or forward, use a Content Warning.
@vantablack@beach.city](https://beach.city/@vantablack/109298070673055369) writes:
okay more new user tips
content warnings are extremely important here
they're ingrained in our culture
they're not censorship, but rather consent
they allow someone to decide if they wanna engage with your post, and if so on what terms
they're a courtesy, and you have legiterally no reason to not use them as much as possible
they're one of the best features mastodon has
think of it like a subject line or a title for your post
you're MORE LIKELY to get "engagement" if you use them rightContent Warnings allows you to display a warning, and hides the content of your post; folks who want to view can click to unwrap, and others can scroll past. an Intro post to CW
This is more built-in in Mastodon & ActivityPub, and enforced; it was just a convention in TW&FB. Each node will have policy as to which Content Warnings are required on their node, and nodes with tighter warning policy will not accept un-warned content from those with looser. Failure to abide by home-node CW policy is expected to result in “Moderation” (which may be timeout/warning or straight boot/ban if Mods are busy, guess what, it’s AOL September for Mastodon, they’re busy).
It’s suggested that Twitter is a content-warning topic as well as the usual.
Article discussing content warnings usage in Mastodon.
Not only can you block or mute a single annoying account, if the host (=node, =instance) name looks like it exists solely to be a source of bother (Spam, Trolls, Ponzi, Phishing, …), you can block the whole instance.
In
Preferences > Appearance, you can select the option “Slow mode” to hide automatic feed updates. You will then have to click at the top of the timelines to see new posts (ex: “10 new items”). @Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange
When writing hashtags, please use CamelCase instead of alllowercase! Example: not “mastoart”, but “MastoArt”.
That way, they’re easier to read and it’s easier to spot typos :] In addition, screen readers generally do a much better job with camel case because they can see the word breaks.
The hashtag suggestions often suggest the all lower-case version because so many people use those. Please resist the temptation to just click it and move on, type out the CamelCase version :D
#FediTips
Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere or perhaps Everywhere.
Don’t have your created content locked into a host that may vanish or claim ownership.
Use Mastodon and the other social media to spread awareness and have discussions, but keep the actual content yours.
If using free services to host your content, be sure to keep another copy elsewhere for safety !! Backup all the things.
(I’m using GitHub Pages for this content. Which you might think is giving them content, but the original copy is on my harddrive and checked into a Git repository that they have a copy of … and i can replicate to any other webserver or repository i want, it won’t go away if M$ ever closes or pivots GH. But as long as GitHub.io exists, RSS or SocialMedia links to (t)here will be good; and if it vanishes, this can (will) reappear elsewhere.)
FediFollows @FediFollows@mastodon.online
RSS fans!
You can get RSS feeds of any specific tag in https://fedi.directory by adding
/feed/to the end of the tag’s URL.
For example the tag for “Gardening” is at the URL: https://fedi.directory/tag/gardening/
…so if you wanted to use RSS to track all new gardening accounts, the feed would be: https://fedi.directory/tag/gardening/feed/ When new accounts are added to tags you follow like this, they will appear in your RSS feed.
#RSS #Fediverse #Mastodon
Fedi.Tips @feditips@mstdn.social
There are no “verified” badges on here. If you see someone using a symbol like :verified: it’s just a custom emoji that means absolutely nothing.
However, there are still ways you can verify your identity on here. For example we know that the European Commission’s official account is @EU_Commission
Here’s an article going through how to verify your account on Mastodon and the Fediverse:
https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-advanced-tips/
#HowDoIVerifyMyAccount There’s no charge on here for verifying, and anyone can do it.
(I have inserted <a rel="me" href=...> tags in
hopes link here will verify.)
Fedi.Tips @feditips@mstdn.social Livestreaming people!
Do you want people on Mastodon to be able to follow your livestream and be notified when you go live?
There’s a free open source streaming platform called @owncast which is also part of the Fediverse:
➡️ https://owncast.online
You can follow OwnCast streams from Mastodon, and a post will appear in your timeline when they go live.
For example you can follow music accounts like @live or tech & gaming streamers like @Hamish or @hatnix
#Fediverse #ActivityPub #OwnCast
Per Axbom @axbom@social.xbm.se
An etiquette tidbit I just learned from @HunterZ
When you write threads, you can set the visibility of all the reply posts to “Unlisted”. This way all the non-initial posts won’t flood user timelines in reverse chronological order (and interspersed between others’ toots), which can confuse. People will just see the initial post and upon clicking that see the whole thread.
I will try to remember this. But I will obviously also forget at times.
#FediTips
One of the guiding lights posts
Per Axbom @axbom@social.xbm.se
Mastodon gGmbH is a non-profit (only since 2021), but that is not what makes it ”not possible to buy”. The software is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 so any code based on it, or any modifications, have to be made freely available.
I guess a big player can come in and make a big instance and lure people there (easier-to-use, better performance, apps, etc) but they would have to surrender and make available any code changes for free.
Now a billionaire could just refuse and drag things out in court. But Mastodon as we see it would still be open source and free and possible to install for anyone. The community would likely rally to best any improvements.
So there is no way a billionaire can take away the premise of open-source software and our option to use Mastodon for free. But they could use all sorts of tactics to make something else appear more attractive. Some may be seduced.
Ovid asks a great question -
Q. Given the federated nature of Mastodon, if a server goes away (domain expires, doesn’t pay the bills, etc.) do I lose my account? (And thus, do I forever lose my history unless I’ve backed it up?)
My answer
A. yes and no. The JoinMastodon index compact requires 60 day notice of node shutdown. The account transfer tool moves profile, follows, and (amazinglu) followers. This works, someone ran into life events and had announced they can’t transfer years of trust to new Ops quickly, so shutting at EOY. Posts alas aren’t transferable - I’m guessing because no algorithm to assure bulk remoderation to new host policies? But also, under POSSE, better to treat microblog as ephemeral, save the good ones into a macroblog or static web page?
(Obviously if a node goes down unexpectedly and irrecoverably, well, that’s bad and sad. Volunteer run nodes fueld off tip-jars are NOT expected to have cross-region disaster recovery replication let along in-region hot-spares.)
Bryan Cantrill @bcantrill@mastodon.social
I love @Luca’s Fedifinder (https://fedifinder.glitch.me/); t’s been very important to get networks rehydrated here! For me, it seems to stop at “14999 accounts scanned” when scanning followers; are others hitting this as well? Do folks happen to know if this is a Twitter limitation?
in addition to
@MyFavoritThing ,#HashTags in your Profile#Introductions post,@ExampleTopic@a.gup.pe brings it into existence if
not already there, and having followed, you’ll get in your home stream
any message that tags @ExampleTopic@a.gup.pe as the bot
Boosts as the topic-user anything tagging it. (Which this message just
did.)#NatickFoss or @algot@mastodon.art
in a column.
MORE “Delightful Fediverse Clients”
Don Watkins :linux: @donwatkins@fosstodon.org
A curated list of Fediverse client applications based on the ActivityPub protocol. - delightful-fediverse-clients - Codeberg.org https://codeberg.org/fediverse/delight
Feel free to follow either or both me, @n1vux@Mastodon.Radio aka BRicker@fosstodon.org
Q&A and more Demo