*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

@ravenclaw @rgx@muensterland.social Well, thank you - I really enjoyed the postings at the Discourse Forum, and am trying to keep an open channel there, there are two whole sub-forums which I personally requested and have been created, content added, etc.

I will be around there, just not much here in the mastodon instance. My address at Muensterland is a direct line to me, as well - I log in there always, first. And then more casually visit some of the other instances in my list.

So, send any messages there, and we can still chat, no problems. Thank you! 🙂

## To my friends and followers

...at my qoto account, **@design_RG** :

Good afternoon, I would like to inform you that, for personal reasons, I have submitted my resignation from my moderation position here at the mastodon instance, effective today.

I have been on a sabbatical for a period since late June from my work here at Qoto, but trust that my contribution has helped make it a better place.

I also use various other accounts and some of you might have seen posts originating from them, or blog announcements with my signature indicating my Publishing account at @rgx@muensterland.social .

That has been my main account since late June, 2020 -- as I felt I needed a smaller instance that allowed more time to focus and concentrate on Writing, which is currently my main personal interest and expression.

Since mastodon currently does not offer user data portability, my 7,200 posts at this instance will remain. And I might login occasionally, to check for personal messages or retrieve past posts. Anyone wishing to contact me can do so at the address referred above, which is likely to receive prompter attention.

### Thank you!

@gioypi @hansw Very well said, Achilleas. I just wrote a reply to a toot in another instance on exactly this point.

Their two party system is ideal for controlling the people, while offering an 'alternating' cycle between the two.

It's shameful and with all the other convoluted things like the archaic electoral college, a puzzle which people in other countries look at with disbelief.

@gioypi Their system is so flawed that it is shameful. And to see them going out and 'spreading democracy' (aka regime change campaigns) is annoying.

Serious problems, and hard to solve. Glad to be an outside observer. Now, I want a quieter executive and less noise so we can concentrate in much more important matters.

@freemo Oh, my bad -- really sorry.

I took a quick look at it, and remembered the Washington Times cover - which I had seen an article about yesterday.

That one was the opposite of true.

I remember the 2000 election and the never ending wrangling, ending with Al Gore gracefully accepting the SCOTUS decision just for the country's sake.

To avoid damage like trump is inflicting now - even months before the election, when he started this.

@hansw Saw this, nice news !!!

@blank71 Welcome, new friend. 😄

@lucifargundam

Thank you !! 😃

@hansw@mastodon.social @freemo

@hansw@mastodon.social @freemo
Thank you Hans. I am doing some preliminary research, before I can prepare a public post suggesting it, or contact them privately but with a well laid question or suggestion.

Have some reading to do before I reach either point. Thanks for the input, you two!

@freemo @hansw@mastodon.social

Wonderful, thanks Freemo. The Data Portability is key to ask for a personal backup. I had a feeling it might be the case, or Facebook and company wouldn't be offering it.

I really like the app, and they did wonderful work creating and developing it. In the future, if we could have it a bit open sourced, allowing third party clients, it would be great.

There's one unofficial client, which a Chinese young programmer developed on his own - simply by monitoring the API calls and responses between the official client and their servers.

The API i closed, no details ever published. Yet, he built a working client, web based, and added extra functions which the official, company provided app, does not include.

E.g. :

* Exporting of all of a user's letters with a certain penpal. This is exported in plain text format, when required.

* Statistics like total letters written, how many sent, how many received. Word count for each letter, average and total word count for all letters.

And more. There's some risk on using this rogue client, from an unknown person (who could be copying or saving access tokens, user data).

But it is a great result, specially considering it's done solo and without any inside API info or manual.

@hansw@mastodon.social

## A question for you, or anyone in the European Union, familiar with GDPR regulations.

I use an app that is based in Hong Kong, and is unique on what it offers (a pen pal application, nothing comparable out there that I know of).

Problem :

- they are a small team, and very responsive, creative and competent.
- but all of our data (the personal letters we write to penpals, in private and possibly with much personal info) is stored un-encrypted.
- PRC has some pretty strict legislation, and it's possible Intelligence agencies could demand a China based company to disclose any info in their systems.

And the question ;

- Does the GDPR regulation mandate that a user's data should be available for them to download on demand? (Facebook, and others offer this; I imagine it is probably mandated)

I would like to see if we could have a legal base, at least in some jurisdictions, to approach the team and ask them to offer the same personal data backup for download. Which currently, they don't offer.

If European legislation backs this, we would have a big start.

Ideal would be for all data to be end to end encrypted, like WhatsApp offers, for example. We don't have that yet; although it might be legitimate to ask.

Maybe @freemo might know something about this also?

@freemo Oooh, if you got under FDA regulations for prescription medicines it would be a nightmare.

Maybe operate as a process and sell the finished oil. Based in Canada or another jurisdiction that allows for this without much lawyering.

@freemo Maybe it's accepted as a common fact and a good thing, lol. 😆

@hansw@mastodon.social @freemo

Found [the nice toot and thread I mentioned. HERE.](https://qoto.org/@design_RG/103202145827544435)

@hansw@mastodon.social @freemo That's good, I hope things keep improving.

Usually we never appreciate being healthy and getting up and going everyday - until something is not right and it's not so easy to do it, or hard, or all around impossible.

Makes one slow down a bit and appreciate the small good things, moments. A sunny day, a nice song. A short walk or bike ride.

@freemo I think you forgot but we had a nice discussion about oil extraction a few months ago. SaladBarBreath from Todon was involved on it too.

@hansw@mastodon.social
Sorry to read that, Hans.

Hope things improve for you.

@freemo