QOTO Announcements & Polls @QOTO@qoto.org

QOTO's Funkwhale instance has now been upgraded to the latest version (1.1.2). Enjoy!

One small issue existing users will need to fix. The avatar's feature is new and existing users will have a broken avatar image shown in the upper left when logged in as a broken image link. To fix go into your settings and delete your avatar (do not upload a new one just yet). Then log out and back in. You should now see that the image is no longer broken but replaced with a generic avatar.

If anyone has any other issues please let @freemo know

#music #qoto #funkwhale #fediverse #decentralized @QOTO@groups.qoto.org

QOTO's instance of Peertube has just been upgraded, we are now on the latest version of v3.2.x. Everything appears to be working but if you have any problems please reach out to @freemo.

Our Peertube instance is open to everyone to use according to our rules, registration is open. However you must contact a qoto administrator to be given upload rights (which we generally grant). To register or use the service the link is as follows.

https://video.qoto.org

#peertube #mastoadmin #qoto #federation #decentralized #youtube #videos #video @QOTO@groups.qoto.org

We have now added a new service to supplement the QOTO Matrix chat server; a dedicated Element web client with a ton of features baked in the standard Element web client doesnt have.

Just go to https://element.qoto.org and you can register for, or sign into, a QOTO matrix account.

Please reach out to @freemo If you have any questions or problems.

#QOTO @QOTO@groups.qoto.org #mastoadmin #matrix #chat #federation #decentralized.

We are happy to announce a new QOTO service, our brand new matrix server!

Registration is open to everyone.

To either login or register a new account use any compatible Matrix/Riot client (like https://app.element.io/ ). When doing so you will have to set the home server to "matrix.qoto.org" (it is usually set to matrix.org). However keep in mind once logged in your username will be @user:qoto.org, as the matrix.* prefix is dropped. Similarly any rooms you create will be #room:qoto.org.

The best part is this service is decentralized and federated so you can join any matrix room on any other server. Even cooler you can join rooms on servers that arent federated at all like IRC or gitter.im. So you really can connect to almost any chat server out there all from one identity and server.

**NOTE**: We will also be bringing up a client, likely the same client run at app.element.io, for the added security. It wont change anything and you can switch clients once we have that up if you want. You can also download the client and use it as a desktop app.

#matrix #QOTO @QOTO@groups.qoto.org #Chat #ChatRooms #Mastoadmin

We are currently upgrading all of the #QOTO services. Our configuration allows for no-downtime upgrades, so most users shouldnt notice anything (except for their services suddenly upgrading). However be aware downtime is possible if things dont go well.

So far all database and Redis back-end services have been upgraded to the latest. Next we will be working on the front-end services. This may be over the course of several days. We will announce when upgrades are complete but in the meantime if anything goes down, don't panic, we will be back.

#mastoadmin @QOTO@groups.qoto.org

I have recently uncovered a user who seems to be opening temporary accounts at QOTO, blocking all the moderators so we dont see their posts and then posting high offensive material (nazi imagery, transphobic and hateful derogatory content, etc) and then proceeding to announce to block list moderators and possibly on the #Fediblock list in general in an attempt to get us banned.

The issue of users being able to block moderators and do **exactly** this is something I have brought up to @Gargron before probably over a year ago but he has never acted on fixing this issue and does not see it as needing fixing from what I could gather (he can interject here if he would like).

It is something we as moderators are powerless to detect or act against unless someone actually reports the content first, that is the only way we will even see it. Thankfully none of the block lists have actually acted on this and no damage to QOTO has been done. But seeing as this may continue I want to make others aware of the problem, press Gargron to fix the issue once more, and also encourage **anyone** who sees such content on QOTO to please report it so we can act on it.

I can not personally confirm this but according to the block-list operator they seem to have reason to think it is @snow behind the attacks. This would be in line with the behaviors from snow I have witnessed in the past.

For the attempt by snow to spam and falsely accuse instances see here:

https://likeable.space/notice/A21ux0IbhoDJIkNxzc

For more information see these attempted block requests on QOTO that were made in this fashion:

https://schlomp.space/FediBlock/data/pulls/255/files

https://schlomp.space/FediBlock/data/pulls/248

@arteteco @Sphinx @khird

(Note: originally posted from @freemo account. Repasted here to show up in QOTO announcements as well)

@QOTO@groups.qoto.org

Everyone please welcome QOTO's newest moderator to the team @khird

Please reach out to him or any of the other QOTO admins if you need help with anything. Remember most of the moderators aren't available all the time so best to tags ll the moderators if you need help and just see who responds first. But we are all here to help, so dont hesitate to reach out!

#QOTO #Mastoadmin

@QOTO@groups.qoto.org

After discussing with the QOTO moderators we would like to nominate @khird as a new moderator.

It isn't official yet though, we want to give all of our users a chance to consider our nomination and vote either for or against. Also users are welcome and encouraged to nominate their own suggestions as well.

After about a week if no objections are raised and the support is positive with no opposing nominations to consider we will make the nomination real.

Lets hear from you!

#QOTO #Mastoadmin

## Moderated Groups Walk-through

The following is a breakdown of how the new Moderated Group server works. If you want to start a group (becoming the owner and moderator for that group) **you can sign up here**: https://groups.qoto.org

This server is not intended for, nor does it support, regular user accounts. Its intended purpose is to host managed groups similar to https://gup.pe but adding the ability for a group to be owned and managed by an owner giving them the ability to mute, block, or silence misbehaving users as well as to make the group private so that only approved members can join.

The way it works is rather simple, similar to guppe anyone who makes a top-level post and tags the group's account name will have their post added to the group automatically presuming they have permission to post to the group. By default groups are open and anyone would have permission to post to a group. These posts can be done as either public or unlisted, however DMs will not work as they lack the permission for other users to see it. If you wish to get group posts in your home timeline you simply follow the group, that's all there is to it.

Keep in mind while all servers support groups, since it uses standard mechanisms to operate, not all servers will render groups in the same way. You will get the best group expiernce with an account on QOTO which has a unique feature whereby Groups are rendered and handled in a special way. There is a "Group directory" on QOTO, for example, that lists all groups discovered around the fediverse and lists them, ordered by how active they are. Also when you pull up the timeline for a group it renders in a way that makes group posts seem seamless. However if you are on vanilla Mastodon or some other server like Pleroma there isn't any special handling for groups; that means posts made to a group will still show up in your home timeline but it will appear as a boost made by the group account itself. So functionally it still works. This is no different than how guppe works so the expiernce with guppe based groups is no different.

After signing up please consider going to the new accounts profile setting and selecting "List this account on the directory". This will ensure that your group is discoverable and that other users around the fediverse can search for, find, and ultimately join, your group. Without this checked it will not show up in the Group Directory on other servers as well.

Moderation of the group by the account owner is not much different than a normal user account. You can mute, block, or silence users to limit their ability to see or post to the group as you see fit. Similarly a group can be made follower-only if you wish to restrict who can follow a group.

One important note, due to the special nature of a server devoted to groups a few features have been explicitly turned off to prevent abuse. A group account can not follow other user or groups, though it can be followed. As such there is also no home timeline. This prevents users from spam following to get followers to a group.

#Mastoadmin #fediverse #mastodon

## The fediverse's first public Managed Group Server is live!

* Sign up while all the good names are available *

You can go to https://groups.qoto.org and register for a group. But be sure to read the about/more page first to understand how it works! https://groups.qoto.org/about/more

Anyway, as far as I know this is the first time the fediverse has had an open, managed group server.

QOTO also has the group directory. Attached is what the group directory, and a group timeline looks like on QOTO, but we did some streamlining, your client may render groups differently and most wont have the directory, which is a federated list of active groups.

Anyway, anyone who wants a group, go sign up for one! Its open now!

@QOTO@groups.qoto.org

Here is an excellent explanation of QOTO's remote local timeline feature.