Mastodon (not heavy metal)

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Bird on a Fire
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Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Bird on a Fire » Wed Nov 02, 2022 12:16 am

I was just reading about Mastodon and it does actually sound like a very good idea behind the scenes. I kind of hope there's enough critical mass in at least one community I follow to make it worth signing up.

Eta https://fedi.tips/mastodon-and-the-fedi ... tart-here/
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Stephanie » Thu Nov 03, 2022 11:27 am

sTeamTraen wrote:
Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:17 pm
Woodchopper wrote:
Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:05 am
Seen people claim that Musk will kill off Twitter by allowing back banned people who in the name of free speech will go around being abusive.

What the f.ck? Maybe there's some corner of Twitter that's currently free of abusive and anti-social behaviour, but I haven't seen it. As far as I can see its still full of aggressive people flinging sh.t. Allowing Trump back probably won't make much difference to what people experience already.
Yeah, I see a lot of academics going "Right, I'm off to Mastodon" as if they are being personally oppressed by Elon, or unable to tolerate being on a site where people are sometimes nasty to each other; and this is the exact mirror of the RWNJs going off to Parler or Gab or Truth Social because Jack was mean to Trump.

This kind of network is a natural monopoly and I don't have time to follow multiple feeds (and don't get me started about DMs). I think most people will continue to put up with Twitter purely because of the critical mass of people. If Google couldn't get Google+ to work, I'd be amazed if Mastodon can. I know from another part of my online line that doing open-source operations is a lot harder than writing open-source software. I suspect they can only manage content moderation because (a) they are still small and (b) basically none of the people who have joined up so far are racists etc.
They can manage content moderation because mastodon isn't just one instance, it's multiple instances all with their own admin. Sure if you join .social (which I did back in 2018) that might be a bit busier, but a lot of my mutuals have their own instances.

ETA: I feel like the multiple feeds things throws people off a bit. I barely look at the federated or global feeds, they are useful if you want to find people to follow, but once you have, you can just stick to the home feed. And if you use one of the apps (like Tusky) then it basically looks the same as twitter or any other social network timeline).
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Re: tw.tter

Post by dyqik » Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:04 pm

There's a been a significant number of people moving to Mastodon over the weekend - journalists, David Allen Green, etc.

Remember, the only reason that Twitter is important is because journalists adopted it en masse.

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Re: tw.tter

Post by lpm » Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:35 pm

https://twitter.com/frankpallotta/statu ... 3994336256
Twitter: “You sign up for Twitter and start tweeting.”

Mastodon: “In order to use Mastodon, you must face three challenges. First, is the Path of God: Only the penitent man shall pass. Second, is the Word of God: Only in the footsteps of God, shall he proceed. Third, is the Brea
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Re: tw.tter

Post by lpm » Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:38 pm

I wonder what Masto debaters will end up being called.
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Re: tw.tter

Post by dyqik » Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:54 pm

lpm wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 3:35 pm
https://twitter.com/frankpallotta/statu ... 3994336256
Twitter: “You sign up for Twitter and start tweeting.”

Mastodon: “In order to use Mastodon, you must face three challenges. First, is the Path of God: Only the penitent man shall pass. Second, is the Word of God: Only in the footsteps of God, shall he proceed. Third, is the Brea
Weird, because I just went to a Mastodon instance, created an account, confirmed my email address, and I was in.

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Re: tw.tter

Post by Gfamily » Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:43 pm

dyqik wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:54 pm
Weird, because I just went to a Mastodon instance, created an account, confirmed my email address, and I was in.
I'm waiting for the confirmation email
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!

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Re: tw.tter

Post by dyqik » Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:46 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:43 pm
dyqik wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:54 pm
Weird, because I just went to a Mastodon instance, created an account, confirmed my email address, and I was in.
I'm waiting for the confirmation email
The servers are being hammered right now as people set up escape routes from Twitter. But it's not a difficult process.

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Re: tw.tter

Post by Brightonian » Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:58 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 5:43 pm
dyqik wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:54 pm
Weird, because I just went to a Mastodon instance, created an account, confirmed my email address, and I was in.
I'm waiting for the confirmation email
I created one account on toot.community and got the confirmation almost immediately. Chose toot.community because it was suggested by a random tweep, can't remember who.

I have a bunch of other accounts to create though (I have a vast number of personas on t'internet). Plus I might create duplicates of some of those personas just in case the servers I created them on go tits up for whatever reason.

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Re: tw.tter

Post by sTeamTraen » Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:38 pm

Mastodon servers seem to be getting set up by various tribes.I wonder what's going to happen when people start campaigning for such and such a server to be taken down because they claim that the server's entire political premise violates the ethos of the Fediverse?

For example, can I have a Tory party server or a GOP server, and if so, can I have a MAGA server or an AfD server or a Brothers of Italy server or a BNP server? Or an Israeli settler server, or a Hezbollah server? What about a "Russia and Ukraine should negotiate and the West should stop sending arms" server for tankies? Or a server that advocates for the use of currently illegal substances (bonus points for substances that are not controlled in all jurisdictions)? Or any number of culture war issues? Who gets to decide where the lines lie, including when a previously OK server is perceived to have started to go rogue? And how big is their legal defence fund?
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Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Woodchopper » Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:45 am

Here’s a new thread for your Mastodon discussions.

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by bjn » Mon Nov 07, 2022 7:01 am

@bjn@scrutable.mastodon ?

tempted to set one up on all my copious free time /s

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Woodchopper » Mon Nov 07, 2022 8:12 am

This is a useful tool that scans your twitter profile for all connected accounts that also have mastodon accounts. It then creates a CSV file that you can import into your mastodon account:
fedifinder.glitch.me
https://twitter.com/wblau/status/158882 ... ZUooSQf6JA

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Re: tw.tter

Post by dyqik » Mon Nov 07, 2022 10:53 am

sTeamTraen wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:38 pm
Mastodon servers seem to be getting set up by various tribes.I wonder what's going to happen when people start campaigning for such and such a server to be taken down because they claim that the server's entire political premise violates the ethos of the Fediverse?

For example, can I have a Tory party server or a GOP server, and if so, can I have a MAGA server or an AfD server or a Brothers of Italy server or a BNP server? Or an Israeli settler server, or a Hezbollah server? What about a "Russia and Ukraine should negotiate and the West should stop sending arms" server for tankies? Or a server that advocates for the use of currently illegal substances (bonus points for substances that are not controlled in all jurisdictions)? Or any number of culture war issues? Who gets to decide where the lines lie, including when a previously OK server is perceived to have started to go rogue? And how big is their legal defence fund?
A bit of basic research would tell you that this already happened with neo-Nazis. And most instances defederated from them.

Your home instance can choose to block any other instance. If you don't like who it blocks or doesn't block, you are free to go to another instance. There is no central block list.

Legally, these instances are all just websites. The legal answers are the same as for linking to other websites.
Last edited by dyqik on Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by lpm » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:01 am

dyqik: it's really straightforward

also dyqik: most instances defederated from them, your home instance can choose to block any other insurance, if you don't like who it blocks or doesn't block you are free to go to another instance
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by dyqik » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:07 am

lpm wrote:
Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:01 am
dyqik: signing up is really straightforward

also dyqik: most instances defederated from them, your home instance can choose to block any other insurance, if you don't like who it blocks or doesn't block you are free to go to another instance
FTFY

The second part is literally no more complicated than forums or websites that link to each other. It's just a network of similar websites that can read messages posted on each other.

If you find it complicated, you may have trouble with working at one company that interacts with others, and with email.

The only jargon up there is "defederate", which just means lots of servers blocking one server at the same time, and "instance" which just means server.

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Re: tw.tter

Post by Stephanie » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:28 am

sTeamTraen wrote:
Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:38 pm
Mastodon servers seem to be getting set up by various tribes.I wonder what's going to happen when people start campaigning for such and such a server to be taken down because they claim that the server's entire political premise violates the ethos of the Fediverse?

For example, can I have a Tory party server or a GOP server, and if so, can I have a MAGA server or an AfD server or a Brothers of Italy server or a BNP server? Or an Israeli settler server, or a Hezbollah server? What about a "Russia and Ukraine should negotiate and the West should stop sending arms" server for tankies? Or a server that advocates for the use of currently illegal substances (bonus points for substances that are not controlled in all jurisdictions)? Or any number of culture war issues? Who gets to decide where the lines lie, including when a previously OK server is perceived to have started to go rogue? And how big is their legal defence fund?
No one does that, they just defederate. You as a person can block an entire domain yourself, or your instance admin can.

Gab and several nazi instances already exist.

ETA: I've been there since 2018, seriously, all this stuff has already happened and been dealt with.
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by dyqik » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:33 am

Other Mastodon instances they aren't federated include Truth Social and Counter.Social.

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by jimbob » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:39 am

So what advantage does Mastodon have over Reddit?
Have you considered stupidity as an explanation

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by dyqik » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:40 am

jimbob wrote:
Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:39 am
So what advantage does Mastadon have over Reddit?
It's a micro-blogging thing like Twitter, not a forum type thing like Reddit. It's centered around people you follow, not topics.

And it's not a centralized service like Reddit, so it can't be bought by a billionaire who ruins it.

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Stephanie » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:44 am

dyqik wrote:
Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:33 am
Other Mastodon instances they aren't federated include Truth Social and Counter.Social.
Yeah, counter social does its own thing.

There are loads of weird instances that crop up - several free speech ones (that are just nazis), there were some kink/p.rn ones that were too full on and weren't content warning stuff that pissed people off. kiwi farms set up one once, so everyone defederated from them. A few pretended to be lgbt friendly, but were also just nazi instances. Usually the admins are pretty good at spotting them, and letting other admins know.
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Stephanie » Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:56 am

Interview with Eugen (the developer) https://time.com/6229230/mastodon-eugen ... interview/
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by lpm » Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:04 pm

The best social media site I know of is called Scrutable. If everyone on twitter joined that, it would be fab.
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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Brightonian » Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:05 pm

The word "just" being used a lot here. The term "you just simply" will appear soon no doubt.

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Re: Mastodon (not heavy metal)

Post by Stephanie » Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:06 pm

Brightonian wrote:
Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:05 pm
The word "just" being used a lot here. The term "you just simply" will appear soon no doubt.
No, I just happen to use just a lot as I type, ok?
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