_foxaru @_foxaru@qoto.org

Bit of fun this weekend by looking at how Mastodon actually works under the hood. The "federation" part is really interesting, but also highlights how other servers may not be trusted.

Take for example this user (should be cached on infosec.exchange):

@fakexpn

If you click on the user via the web interface, you'll see that the account has insta-influencer status, without all the shit-posting and self-meme'ing..

This is of course is all by design, as part of ActivityPub. When we reference another account on another server, the "federation" part of the protocol kicks in and requests information on the account. This means that on the server we control, we can set as many followers as we want (as well as post count and basically anything else we want) by returning a "totalItems" value of 99999999 in the followers ActivitySteam JSON.

tl;dr, Factor in trust of servers when using Mastodon (and stop using follow count as a metric!)

So it seems joinmastodon removed QOTO from their directory without cause, without contacting us, and without any discussion or due diligence.

Since this is the only way to actually find QOTO for new users if it isnt reversed soon it could mean the end for our wonderful community.

If you care about this place remaining fair, respectful, and inclusive environment I highly suggest everyone reach out to them annd voice your objecttion and your disapointment and having no procedure to keep this fair and inclusive.

If you want to see QOTO stick around you can email your objecttion here:

hello@joinmastodon.org

Feel free to CC me here: jeffrey.freeman@qoto.org

Please be respectful, we want to show them we are the good guys and not give them any reason to object.

@Gargron @trinsec @khird

CBS News suspends use of Twitter due to Musk takeover - The Jerusalem Post https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/article-722806CBS News has halted its activity on Twitter in light of Elon Musk's turbulent and unpredictable takeover of the social media platform, the broadcasting company announced over the weekend.

CBS News national reporter Jonathan Vigliotti broke the news of the company's decision on Friday evening, saying that "in light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform."

I released a blog post on simplifying theory behind neural networks, this chapter is specifically on CNNs
https://merveenoyan.medium.com/complete-guide-on-deep-learning-architectures-chapter-1-on-convnets-1d3e8086978d

Reminder to new folks here, like my good friends @foxesafloat .

Write an introduction, use the introduction hashtag, plenty of people follow it, you'll get some nice boosts and engagement from it.

There is no computer feeding you what it thinks you'll like, you need to engage with people and people need to engage with you. So fill up your feed by following some folks.

Search doesn't work unless you use hashtags, people can't find you, so make sure you use hashtags all over the place.

Because there's no machine to boost posts, make sure you Boost(retweet from the old world) to share the tweets you like with others. A favourite over here will show the user who wrote the toot you liked it but do nothing for their engagement with others so help them out with a boost.

If you're posting stuff that others might not want to see, like my habit of terrible political hot takes, use the CW button to hide the post behind a content warning.

There's far better guides that this kicking around, but if you're new here, this is a good starter for 10.

Welcome to a more relaxed, better engaged environment.

Note to self about #online #diagrams and #charts:

1. [`excalidraw.com`](https://excalidraw.com/) for sleek hand-drawn diagrams (just a few shapes, but great UI)
1. [`app.diagrams.net`](https://app.diagrams.net/) for blocky, corporate-looking diagrams (plenty of clipart, bloated UI)
1. [`mermaid.live`](https://mermaid.live/) for auto generation of diagrams belonging to a handful of types (computing, engineering, business), similar to #Graphviz (very limited, but declarative and text-based)
1. [`asciiflow.com`](https://asciiflow.com/) for the lolz, basically

Honestly the kind of chaotic energy I aspire to. Hbomberguy is like some kind of trickster spirit.

24,798 accounts
+5 in the last hour
+255 in the last day
+1,164 in the last week

#Photo #tips for Mastodon.

Unlike other websites, here you can adjust what photo previews focus on.

All you have to do is click 'edit' after you select your photo for uploading. This is where you can add your #AltText as well. Drag the circle over the area you want to be the focus. Apply your changes, and voila. No more awkward crops on inappropriate areas!

Note, these screenshots were from the fancy web version, so things may be slightly different on the apps, but hopefully they help.