Reach for the Stars @antares@qoto.org

#people #silos #culture #PeoplePoll

Can you describe who these people are and what they are famous for?

(click each one that you know)

> While I appreciate what you are trying to do here, I think one of the beauties of the "fediverse" is that instances are self moderating.

UFoI doesn't take over moderation for instances.

> I think that small instances are the best way to go and keep mastodon safe and friendly organically.

Reality is that neither you or I can’t force all instances to be small instances. I can say that the value of UFoI is massive to small instances.

As a small instance operator, I can tell you that smaller instances are constantly at threat of being defederated by larger instances if we don't do what they say. If one of them labels us as anything; who do other instances trust more? The 10-person instance or the instance with 10,000 people?

If the larger instance says that an instance has some hugely offensive problem, and you choose to not block that instance, well now it looks like you're in support of that thing. That instance now says you're that thing too because you didn't defederate and they're going to defederate you too.

Now, perhaps some of these are true, and some of these are just personal gripes between people. What the UFoI helps us establish is a set of minimal standards to adhere to for federation that most of the Western world can at least work within (I would expect very restrictive regimes would have problems with it). It establishes evidence requirements so that instances can’t be just defederated over personal issues if they’re a UFoI member.

For larger instances, this sort of thing also helps against inter large-instance issues for similar reasons, but also having a clear process and standard to work within reduces the amount of headache trying to just maintain a service.

As far as I can tell, basically ChatGPT is what you get when you ask a supercomputer to get really good at mansplaining. High confidence, low accuracy. Good discussion here: https://stratechery.com/2022/ai-homework/

France, with half of its 56 nuclear reactors out for maintenance, is planning rolling blackouts this winter.

Texas faced blackouts because its gas plants froze.

California faced them. India does, too.

The common denominator: reliability takes investment, planning, and smart regulation.

Someone just said this and I think I'm going to tattoo it on my arm:

"Don't give up, but don't waste time. "

Everyone knew Ye would reoffend & shouldn't get his Twitter account back. But the Star of David/swastika image that got him resuspended isn't ILLEGAL "incitement to violence." It's not even close. Despite his free speech ambitions, Musk chose to remove lawful-but-awful content

If you're worried about unwarranted partisan blowback to Musk/Twitter's disclosures, reconsider your enthusiasm for forcing editorial transparency from Internet services. Those laws will routinely spur bogus partisan investigations & enforcements https://bit.ly/3fBYSA3

I'm really happy today! A bunch of my best math/physics friend on Twitter are now here on Mastodon!

In this thread I'll introduce you to some of them. If you like my stuff - explanations of math, physics, and related things - you may like my friends, too.

Let me start listing some... I don't know the best way to do this, so it may take a couple of tries.

(If I left you out, it could be just my forgetfulness.)

🧵

Didn't we train for this our entire childhood?

I'm broadly opposed to the use of "terrorism," including in compounds like "domestic terrorism," but I will say this:

"vandalism" is done with stuff like spray paint. When something is done with guns, it becomes something different from vandalism.

Have you tried following someone and it says "pending"?

In theory this is meant to only happen when someone has manual follower approval switched on. If they have it switched on, there will be a padlock 🔒 next to their name on their profile.

However, "pending" may also happen if servers are overwhelmed and your request is in a long queue, or there is some kind of technical fault.

Don't assume someone is rejecting your follow if you see "pending". They might not even know it is happening.

The “thank you wave” after letting someone merge their car in front of yours is the only thing holding this fragile society together.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/world/middleeast/iran-morality-police.html

Prayers that this is the beginning of a shift…

I couldn't help but feel that #XKCD 1269 was relevant to the #selfhosted #Mastodon #fediverse.

#ScreenReader #accessibility question: Is there a screenreader-friendly way to emphasize text on Mastodon? I recently learned that my usual capitalization of the entire word can be problematic because some programs will read out all-caps words letter by letter. Using bold text has been recommended, but bolding doesn't seem implemented consistently across Mastodon. What is the least disruptive way to call attention to a specific word in a post here?

Thank you in advance for any guidance!

When I came over to #mastodon and introduced myself a few weeks ago, a couple of people I didn’t know made me feel very welcome.

To anyone who has just arrived— it’s gonna be ok. We have blankets, hot chocolate, furry animals, and a crackling fire. Make yourself at home.