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

@realcaseyrollins @freemo One good thing came out of this (which I felt at first really spoiled my day). We got a good conversation started here, which will be on record for others to find and read later too.

And I did some extensive reading -- finding again the The Verge article that I had enjoyed (being really well written and rich), plus other articles that I branched into from links and add to my understanding of the whole Mastodon project, it's history and how things are.

Got another really interesting one that I finished just now - and that touches on the important questions regarding the way the project is lead. This one: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mastodon-fediverse-eugen-rochko/

This article references two pieces I had read previously (and are important in the historical comprehension aspect), published on Medium.com. These were written by Allie Hart.

https://medium.com/@alliethehart/gameingers-are-dead-and-so-is-mastodon-705b535ed616

and a later one: https://medium.com/@alliethehart/mourning-what-now-10964cce22a8

@freemo Thanks, I enjoyed reading the post you just made in this thread, and will follow on to this other one. TY!

Went looking for some references, I recall reading a really good article describing the situation and the Mastodon developer dilema on what to do, when Gab approrpiated the open source code for Mastodon (which he couldn't oppose, with it being open source) and forked it into their own version.

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2019/07/statement-on-gabs-fork-of-mastodon/

And some commentary from a page I am still reading, seems a conservative voice but explained with reason : https://reclaimthenet.org/mastodon-blocks-gab/

AHHH -- found the article I wanted to link here, it's on The Verge : https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20691957/mastodon-decentralized-social-network-gab-migration-fediverse-app-blocking

@lnxist @snow

@lnxist Gab.com is a site that used to run their own social network, until their client apps started to be removed from the two major App Stores, Google and Apple.

Gab attracts a radicalized population, and is right wing, sometimes to the extreme. A lot of people on the Fediverse got really annoyed last year, when they saw and opportunity to avoid any more problems with their client apps being blacklisted -- by using Mastodon as their platform.

Lots of people here don't want contact with them, and are not happy to block the Gab instances (and their peripherals, there's a few other ones). They want their own instance and EVERYONE else to do that too.

I discovered recently that a large Technology based instance does block us here at Qoto; without any problem having existed, no conflict, no notice was sent, they simply blacklisted us along with Gab and some other less savoury characters.

@snow , I know, but it does bother me - there's enough sh1t going on in politics all over the world that I haven't been reading the newspapers as much as I used to. Annoyances galore, stupidity, outright biggotry, argh.

We got some twits here too, maybe I will have to write another blog post on Politics in the Fediverse. Would prefer some more positive theme, though...

@AlanSawyer Hello Alan, and welcome to Qoto and the Fediverse.

You might need a Guide to help you understand how things work here?

If you are new to using Mastodon, there's a good guide here: https://lifehacker.com/a-beginner-s-guide-to-mastodon-1828503235

We also have another new users guide, posted here : https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/suggestions-and-guidelines-for-new-users-written-by-mastodon-art-administrator

Casey Rollins made a video to explain the Fediverse, here :

"I made this video awhile back to help explain how the #Fediverse works."

https://www.bitchute.com/video/XOtRcgIdqihs/
https://invidio.us/yBRrqbRQ3tM
https://youtu.be/yBRrqbRQ3tM

Any question, just ask, and someone will try and help out.

Have a good day!

I came across a post by sheer serendipity a few minutes ago, while looking at a user profile in a different instance.

It mentioned a hashtag that was suggested for using on reporting and recommending blocking or banning other Fediverse instances. It uses the hash "fediblock" -- and I avoided using the # in this case to not have this post added to it, unintended.

Reading thru I found mentions to various instances, and reasons people had for suggesting their banishment. Was suprised by finding a mention to a Pleroma instance where I have joined, and also a mention that "Qoto people had alts there". 😎

The poster then proceeded to criticize the Pleroma admin and even his personal project called Husky, a fork of the popular "Tusky" android mastodon client.

Husky's goal is primarily to provided support for advanced Pleroma features like Rich Text Formatting -- which Pleroma users can use in their Toots, via html tags, MarkDown or even BBcode.

While I see this as a sign of progressive thinking, and the willingness to take on a project, the author of the critical post was adamant that Husky would or could allow Gab users to use it for their own needs; which Tusky has blocked on their own client.

I have informed the admin and developer of this, and he was aware and didn't mind.

It does bother me, the small mindedness I see in such petty fediverse politics.

@magvids I would like to see people reflect and step back from all this comsumption - so many things that are not needed, made poorly, and will be trashed soon.

Waste of resources and creates disposal problems.

I was happy to see the mention in the article of how second hand shops are doing well in the UK, I tend to use those myself. And have acquired most of my books that way.

"The solution to the plastic waste crisis? It isn’t recycling", byJohn Vidal.

Excellent article, right on point.

"The plastic makers and supermarkets are rightly held to account, but it is the voracious “take-make-dispose” industrial model identified by people such as Ellen MacArthur that has led directly to the state we are now in. The plastic waste crisis is just the symptom of a single-use culture."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/14/plastic-waste-crisis-recycling-consumption-environmentally-friendly

@snow It is not your client that is causing this, Snow -- but a problem with the instance itself. I have the same limitation if using Pinafore client in my laptop. shows also 500 max, when it should be Qoto's 65,000 characters true limit.

Freemo knows about the problem and plans to fix it soon - but it is going to take some work, will be part of his upgrading the instance to the newer mastodon 4.01 version.

See this for my latest plea for a fix : https://qoto.org/@design_RG/103386034370170964

@realcaseyrollins https://social.quodverum.com/ is a very insular instance -- to a quite extreme degree, as shown by this stats screen capture.

98.2% of all posts originated in the instance are for people in the same instance. Gab's number is just about 1% worse.

From : https://www.fediverse.space/instance/social.quodverum.com

@magvids Yes, I believe in all those points too. Just recently had a dialogue with an admin from another instance, which I discovered was blocking ours here.

Why, this surprised me, so I did read their Terms of Service and sent a letter inquiring. Turns out it's not because we are bad guys, but because we do not block some instances that they there see as bad actors and block themselves.

Pretty disappointing, but it's a true fact. I wrote a blog post about it, with my full letter included.

The reply confirmed this, and since we won't block this third party unless we had problems with them, we will remain in this particular instance's black list, along with some unsavoury characters.

And that is a Technology based instance too.

@aficientifico Hola, gracias por el enlace, y bienvenido a Qoto.org!

Si es nuevo en la red Mastodon, se puede veer un guia para nuevos usuarios ahi :

* "Guía básica de Mastodon para principiantes"

https://www.realdroid.es/2018/10/07/mastodon-guia-basica/

* tambien una FAQ (Questiones Frequentes) a este sitio :

https://github.com/tootsuite/documentation/blob/master/Using-Mastodon/FAQ_ESP.md

@magvids Glad to hear that, thank you.

@magvids Ah, a discerning customer! 😄

Yes, all of those are good things that we have here -- the Toot Size limit here is 65,000 characters, so I don't see a problem with running out of space on them. 😛

I do get annoyed to no end when I post in some other instances, and have to cope with their 500 characters limit. That really cramps my style, and I need to chop posts into more than one part.

We have a light moderation policy, and only exclude very, very few instances from federating with us; we leave the choice to the users, to decide what content they want to see, or not.

I m part of the moderation team, so if you need anything just ask. 👍

@magvids You can use the Web client that is built into every Mastodon instance, the same one I am using now.

Or use a couple of other clients, if they you prefer. Pinafore, Halcyon, WhaleBird are some of the most commonly used ones. For Mobile devices, cell phones, there are clients for both Android and iOS devices.

These guides will give you general information about the network, and I think they should mention clients as well.

If you are new to using Mastodon, there's a good guide here: https://lifehacker.com/a-beginner-s-guide-to-mastodon-1828503235

We also have another new users guide, posted here : https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/suggestions-and-guidelines-for-new-users-written-by-mastodon-art-administrator

Casey Rollins made a video to explain the Fediverse, here :

"I made this video awhile back to help explain how the #Fediverse works."

https://www.bitchute.com/video/XOtRcgIdqihs/
https://invidio.us/yBRrqbRQ3tM
https://youtu.be/yBRrqbRQ3tM

Any question, just ask, and someone will try and help out.

Have a good day!

Suprised no one has mentioned *ScrapeGate* in here yet.

Big hubbub in various instances atm. Fediverse is irked.

E.G. : https://docs.google.com/document/d/15jikK6wetE-H31VROgvF0a0ABqaNdbtH1JK16PMyrcY/edit#heading=h.qa9zsu3xkbxh

@arteteco

Russell Peters is great and quite funny. When he starts imitating his parent's Hindi accent, the house comes down.

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

He should be on Netflix, Bing has some video links : https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Russell+peters&FORM=HDRSC3

@botaflo@toot.aquilenet.fr

@freemo ...by Electoral College, lol... 😜

@kashi Doris Salcedo is the artist who created this.

https://www.whitecube.com/news/news_and_events/doris_salcedo_awarded_the_2017_rolf_schock_prize_for_visual_arts_stockholm

More photos of this instalation, giving a sense of how it feels in the streetscape : https://earthlymission.com/cool-street-art-made-of-chairs-a-lot-of-chairs/

Quite a lot of chairs, and a lot of work putting it together.

@kashi Thanks Kashi, an intriguing photo. Went look for info, it seemed to be in Turkey as per the sign on the left side of photo. Found this :

"Installation for the 8th International Istanbul Biennial, 2003.
1600 chairs stacked in the space between two buildings."

Looking for more info now.

@magvids Hello and welcome. I like it a lot, joined two months ago, and that what, about 4,000 posts now?

Yep, this is nice place and the #Fediverse is fascinating too.

Do you need some information and a guide to Mastodon by any chance? Can provide you with some links if desired.