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

@pschwede @missnatalie

Congrats, Miss Natalie.

pschwede, please explain. You algorithm revision? post has 1 reply, 1 Fave, etc. I can't fathom how algo selected it.

@realcaseyrollins FM is great, listening to great music here right now, via Airwaves.

But not Rush, ever. Talking people I already don't like, his kind of people, for me is torture.

On the Senate trial, what's the hold up? I am not even paying attention, as the outcome is pretty certain.

@realcaseyrollins That's priority one, so focus on it, and enjoy some relaxing time here when you can.

Specially wit hthe huge tuition costs in the US, can't risk distractions and a bad result even on one credit. Good luck with the studies, Casey. 👍

@Leftover @isolategab
Not being an American citizen or resident, I do have some qualms when the "free speech" flag is waved in discussions or to justify things.

I believe civility comes before anyone's right to speak whatever they want, this seems to be a common view in many international communities.

Personally, I have no interest in the gab and peripheral instances; indeed block them on my personal account, because I can't see any advantage or progress coming from confrontations with extreme views on the right.

I was disappointed to see a Tech themed instance act in this, for me arbitrary manner. Problems can be dealt with, and if needed, a whole instance could be blocked by an admin.

The M.T. action was not a result of any problem though - but as mentioned in a thread posted here earlier by Paul (who used to be a user there, questioned their ban on Qoto, left and joined us), the action there came at the request of one user, according to his own admission in the thread.

I can understand your desire to de-platform them (gab and company).

There was an interesting article I read about the impact of Gab appropriating Mastodon as a platform (to circumvent their proprietary client software being de-listed in the two major App Stores). Gargron wasn't particularly happy about it. Neither were the Bravo browser developers when Gab grabbed their code and 'forked' into their own version.

All of this will likely merge into another blog reflection for me, as I read and enjoyed these various pieces in the media.

@namark I recalled now -- that I found this photo and was impressed by it, it had just been posted at ms.social, and I copied it and the op link to bridge over here.

No replies to it at that time, and I got into many other things afterwards. Good that you brought this in. 👍

@namark Ah, thank you!!

@bukbak Yes, we can see their posts it seems -- I just read some posts from a thread that Paul started there and linked above - https://mastodon.technology/@pganssle/103199195138668923

...which shows in my search here no problems.

And liked the reply Wolfie posted on it.

https://pleroma.wolfie.pw/objects/fc9d1d3f-5c51-4849-b23e-63cb56c4444d

Snapshot below. I am still start and going thru the thread, looks like material for another, follow-up to my blog of today. 😃

@achso@mastodon.social Sadly, having this policy of not blocking any instance unless there's problems, and they cannot be solved by dialogue with their admins, is what caused us to be lumped with Gab, and a number of instances which are less notorious; but some of which I have reticence to, due to their borderline content, which I find offensive personally (lolicon).

We discussed that, as a staff, and unless there's trouble the policy is to leave connections open here.

@achso@mastodon.social Gab is widely perceived so, Achso. They are a group of Right wingers, there's a lot of content many of us find insulting, racist or worse. White supremacist groups use the place as well.

I personally do not have any interest in their instance and its peripheral ones -- have visited their front doors, incognito, to look an see what posts show in their public feed. Disgusted, I decided to implement a personal ban, blocking their whole instance from my own personal account.

This power, which any Mastodon user has, is wonderful.

I have seen a recent statistics shot that shows they are very, very Insular -- 99% of all posts made there are addressed to users who are in there as well.

@achso@mastodon.social A quick quote from their CofC page :

"Additionally, we will refuse to federate with instances that themselves choose to federate with fascist instances.”

And this is, like I expected, the reason we are black listed.

@namark Thank you for doing due diligence on the photo above, Namark. I took it as a real photo, not a collage of time lapsed data.

do you have any links to these resources you mentioned?

@Sphinx I imagine that automatic transmission vehicles probably have a sensor -- and won't start if transmission is not in Park. (I don't have an automatic, as I prefer manual for my vehicles. More fun, imo).

@pganssle Thank you Paul for your reply and the link, I will be checking it.

Since I had taken the time to prepare a very formal letter, and thought this is an important issue, I prepared a blog post too, with the full letter plus supporting reasoning and links.

When I finished and was just starting to announce the blog, I received a reply from Mr Furrow, very prompt and corteous too. It confirmed the reason for our black listing being exactly the fact we don't block ceartain instances that M.T. prefers no relations with.

Agreed, it's unlikely this will be lifted, as you mentioned.

@achso@mastodon.social LOL, I had a hunch, and it was the right one.

Mr Furrow responded to my letter with promptness, thanked me for mine, and confirmed it was because our instance allows Federation with one in particular that he objects to; and to protect their users, this ban was put in place.

His suggestion, which I will bring to our admin staff is that we dissociate from that particular domain, if we want to federate with his.

* When you discover your Instance is blocked. *

After creating a new blog post, I prepare text for announcing it. This is posted at my main instance, and later I visit other accounts, search for that Status URL, and boost it from there.

In one case, I could not find the status on that normal search. Odd. What is going on?

A search for my user profile at Qoto did not bring ANY results either. It dawned on me that something was amiss...

On today's web magazine, live at : https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/when-you-discover-your-instance-is-blocked

@Sphinx It looks like a Turn indicator light, no?

Check if the stalk is left in the On position. Although my car doesn't have this, it might stay on eve nif power is shut off and car locked.