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

@snow

Being a Mod can be stressful, at times there's problems that can be hard on people, and we all do it in a volunteer basis.

I haven't had these peak issues here at Qoto, but have been involved in some in earlier communities I participated in. Site Staff does need breaks and occasionally retire from active duty.

Back on this most recent issue you mentioned above, there was some clash and flash between a deranged moderator (you know who) and a sane one, dismayed at seeing what was going on since #1 got appointed to the position.

#1's actions were deranged and endangered their whole community; they are still trying to recover from it.

Admin positions are also similarly tricky and can be difficult as well. Someone pours time and dedication to build something, and eventually things might head in a way that they find unacceptable, etc.

@freemo @arteteco @mngrif

@snow That would leave it open to the Republican machine, ain't a good idea.

I like Senator Elizabeth Warren, think she would be a great president. But she's out of the competition now.

DNC can't stomach Bernie taking the nomination, which would lead to a nasty election and possible loss to T man. Argh.

I don't vote there, am not in the USA or a citizen, but the whole world gets affected by the outcome of this election.

@snow

That did cross my mind, as similar methods were being used in their doxxing campaign...

@freemo @arteteco @mngrif

Pretty sad to see people posting "jokes" about the likely candidate for the Democratic party in the US election.

And who is being served by those "jokes" and "memes"?

Yes, you bet, the opposition, lead by a despicable man, unqualified and unstable, widely perceived as a narcissist and worse by mental health professionals.

The "jokes" end up on some of the hash tags included in their posts, in company of assorted Twitter bot reposts here, all working for the same opposition team.

US pol is disgusting.

Don't be Played by these people.

@snow
It looks like an undercover attack on perceived enemies. More drama.

Just when one big one seems to be winding down.

@freemo @arteteco @mngrif

@snow The source material can be got for free or even at a Negative cost (ie, get paid to use it, since recycling plants are full of plastic bales with no buyers interested in them).

I think this is an interesting process, and a much needed solution to the sea of plastic left over from consumer waste collection.

A company video with more info, images from their pilot plant in Australia.

Watch “Licella” on #Vimeo https://vimeo.com/210531589

From : https://www.intelligentliving.co/australian-scientists-recycle-all-types-of-plastic/

* Australian Scientists Might Have Found a Way to Turn the World’s Plastic into Oil *

"A pair of Australian scientists claims to have come up with a circular solution to the world’s plastic waste problem: by developing a technology that effectively melts polymers down into reusable oil. For the past 12 years, Len Humphreys and Sydney University professor Thomas Maschmeyer have been working on the creation of the Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR), which uses a chemical process to recycle plastic by turning it back into the oil from which it originally came. It’s thought that such technology could be used to make all plastics recyclable."

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/gyzavw/australian-scientists-found-a-way-to-recycle-worlds-plastic-into-oil

@johnellison1 That is an amazing image, so much detail when you zoom in. Thank you for the post!

@freemo Sorry if the joke was a bit diluted by my comment, but I felt a bit uneasy about it.

Some people might see it in a less flattering way, as a meme putting down one region's art as opposed to other (with high art examples provided, and a less flattering one in the lower part of the image).

While the mastery of the Western art in the examples is undeniable, Eastern art has wonderful works as well.

This was the motive of my posting a comment with a good example - that gravure is superb, and culturally I think it has the added advantage of being reproduced and sold, unlike the one off oil paintings from the Western masters which will hang on a Museum at best, or in some rich person's collection, and have much less accessibility.

So Right.

Still Winter, fresh little snow powder overnight.

@freemo Compared to the splendor of light colour and shadows in the European images, the Japanese one does look poor.

Is it a gravure, a reproduction? (the other ones being oils, one of, very limited audiences art).

I would mention the "Great Wave off Kanagawa" as a counterpoint, as an artistically brilliant piece, which at the same time was reproduced in quantity and reached a lot more people. Slightly later than the examples above (maybe 40 or so years later).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa

Japanese printmakers were outstanding, the colour and details are superb.

@eldaking For the record, I am not using this feature, and see that some people have objections.

My point is that this is not technically hacking, breaking, scraping or forcing something in the open - as the posts in question already have been set to a Public privacy setting by their authors.

I do understand as well that people want to have Followers (to have readers and interactions), and to using Followers-Only does limit their acquiring new ones, as most won't see their content.

It's a decision each user has to make, how much exposure they can accept. Best if they understand the privacy controls well, which in some cases doesn't seem to be happening.

@snow LOL at the Bump. 😜

@freemo

A Nice read at the NY Times.

"Cambridge Mask Company, a British company that uses what it calls “particulate filtering layers and military-grade carbon,” has seen demand for its $30 masks spike 20 to 30 times normal levels, said Christopher Dobbing, its founder.

The rich are sparing no expense when it comes to minimizing their experience with the coronavirus."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/style/the-rich-are-preparing-for-coronavirus-differently.html

@eldaking I disagree with your statement, as the naiveté as I see it would be in assuming a Privacy when the posts are made in clearly Public manner, Elda.

I do understand and value etiquette and proper manners, though.

Maybe it's a good thing this is happening, and that people get to better understand the Privacy controls available in Mastodon and other Fediverse software. Posting Followers-Only would go a long way into giving them more control over who can see their content.

@snow Which means the intended Privacy (the setting for Direct Messages is mentioned user only) is working.

It doesn't leak posts to RSS, or to Misskey and Qoto's subscribe user feature either.

A public service announcement, to clarify once again that "Public" posts, are, as the name implies, "Public".

As in, people can see them. Anyone, from anywhere. Dooh, if you don't like that idea, Mastodon has a number of Privacy settings for posts that might offer more control if desired.

Noelle has an excellent Guide to Mastodon, and the image on this post is a screencap of the part of it which clarifies this.

RSS feeds are created by default for everyone's Public and Unlisted posts. The noise some people were making about the Misskey feature, now present here at Qoto.org, which allows easily subscribing to anyone's public and unlisted posts is just the same as using an RSS feed reader to subscribe to that user's RSS feed.

Disinformation, paranoia and rancour have caused some to de-federate with Qoto.

Maybe it's for the best, if they are that obtuse.

Noelle's Guide is at : https://github.com/joyeusenoelle/GuideToMastodon/#so-if-i-lock-my-account-only-approved-people-can-see-my-posts

@freemo @noelle

Thank you Noelle for coming out and defending our instance. I was surprised by some of the responses (for example, statements that Qoto qould be scrapping posts from other instances databases regardless of their Privacy settings.

There is some animosity and some ignorance all mixed together it seems.

Peopl suggesting anyone interested in observing one or more GAB accounts should go there and create a naccount ignore that this would increase the person's exposure to them greatly (as in, IP logged in that system, versus pulling a post from a remote instance without a Follow relationship.)

I agree that our About More pages could use a revision to avoid the impression of a "freezepeach", no rules, instance - which Qoto isn't (I am part of the moderation staff myself).

Thank you Noelle for your support. 👍

@arteteco @mngrif