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

@snow Oh, I wouldn't know, I am not that good at Psycology or these tests. I imagine some kind of E type (Extrovert) ?

Sorry for the delayed reply, haven't been online much.

@82wrangler @greylaw89

Kris's post was right on - I am glad you went to see for yourself, and realized the content there can be pretty nasty.

I have had contact with other instances admins, in regards of our own instance being blocked because we don't block certain instances (gab and its affiliates) which they are opposed to. So we get black listed (in a failry large Tech themed instance, no less) for simply not blocking anyone unless there is a problem and it cannot be solved.

There is this hard nosed attitude, which I can understand (I do block gab and company from my personal account, not wishing to have arguments with them). But it's disheartening to see the positioning some people take (guilty by association, even if we did not wrong).

Free online coding and other courses, check out Wolfram University -- they have many free courses and are a nice place to learn.

A good read and with a surprising Scientific analysis.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/01/letting-slower-passengers-board-airplane-first-really-is-faster-study-finds/

@freemo @realcaseyrollins Very cool indeed.

Looked up my own forecast, it's grey here today, blah.

Snow tomorrow, Blizzard forecast. oh my. 😔

@freemo That text based forecast is really neat. 😃

@masoud Hello Masoud, and welcome to Qoto!

njoy the network and all it has to offer. 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

@activenoisecontrol
It's a very interesting concept. The idea is that all systems are self-supporting, self-maintained and can choose who they would like to correspond with (or not)

The whole of this is called the Fediverse (from Federated Universe), and in fact it encompasses a number of projects - Mastodon being the one most people start on, and with the most nodes/instances.

The screenshot attached to this post is from https://the-federation.info/ and they do have detailed stats pages for each of the projects, their individual nodes, etc.

You can chose to install one of the software packages described in that page, for example, the Write.Freely blog posting software.

I do use WF for my blog, really like it's simplicity and how focused in the words, the content it is. I installed a local copy on my laptop to see how it was (the installation process), and chose to NOT federate it at all, since it's for a single user only, me. But I could have chosen to Federate, and it would show up in the stats pages if I did.

Similarly, the much more complicated install of a Mastodon node will have at some point the choice of Federating or not (most will).

And it federating, in principle it would be open to sending and receiving content from any other Fediverse instance using the same software.

It is pretty cool that even different projects can communicate between themselves. People can find a blog account (from Write.Freely, Plume or WordPress) and Follow it (which is the same as an email subscription).

And Friendica nodes, a less common and less known type of instance, they offer a different UI and experience, more similar to Facebook, including the option of Editing posts, plus supporting Rich Text format like Bold. Italicized text, ordered lists, etc.

I have a Friendica account, and it sees my posts here in Mastodon, can boost any of them or reply if so desired.

Now -- as the fediverse started to grow, new nodes started to pop up, and in some cases had users who clashed with some of the other instance's values.

At that point, people started adding Exceptions to their Federated status - Blocking those instances as a whole, if they felt it was appropriate.

Each system has full autonomy on doing this or not; and sometimes being Blacklisted for not blocking others who some have objections to.

Sorry for the long explanation, I hope it makes sense, it's a rich space and fascinating for me, even with the small political clashes we sometimes get involved in.

@snow

@greylaw89 Internet Explorer was never a good browser, and is despised by most techies.

The Edge browser was surprisingly capable, and I do regret seeing MS abandoning their EdgeHTML rendering engine and joining the crowd of options based on the Chromium project.

Google Chrome is not in use on any of my devices.

@greylaw89 I believe the digital alternatives have value, but limited durability compared to hard copy.

And it sh1t hits the fan, as might happen, a local book collection might become the core of a local library. I do not discount that possibility.

Besides, not everything gets into a digital format, one way or the other.

The main value I assign to a printed book is the actual content (words, images, ideas), versus it's value as a cultural artifact.

And it's official -- the Release version of Microsoft Edge browser, the new branch which uses the Chromium rendering engine, is ready for Downloads.

In Windows, iOS, Mac OSX, Android versions.

See it at : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

ES 🇪🇸

Y ahora es oficial - la nueva version del navegador Edge de Microsoft está pronta para quien quiserla.

En Windows, iOS y Android para los telemoviles, Mac OSX también.

Veer a : https://www.translatetheweb.com/?ref=TVert&from=&to=es&a= https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

@greylaw89 It's an interesting view point - but a lot of value is lost when you recycle certain materials.

For example, a book or a DVD.

The paper on the book has minimal value, while the words, the contents might make that particular copy precious, since there might be no other one around, or the price is high.

I enjoyed reading and seeing the reference that the Brits are more accepting of used goods and look for them. I think there's a lot less disposable income there too, compared to a more prosperous American urban area (along the Coasts, for example).

As things change and the costs, available materials, quality of goods change, people might be more accepting of used goods. Sometimes much higher quality than new articles made to be disposable and keep the retail space in profits.

@freemo Done the edit, Delete Redraft to the rescue. 😃

Thank you for the suggestion!

#QotoJournal is being launched.

We had a suggestion made and considered, and a discussion thread posted at our Discourse Forums - see : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/special-hashtag-to-highlight-serious-posting-at-qoto-org/180

The idea is to have a default hash tag that can identify more serious posting, articles, blog pages, etc being produced by members of our instance.

The discussion has been opened for two weeks, and I feel it's time to launch - so here it goes, we are adopting this as our tag.

* For the tag, the text case doesn't matter -- QOTOJournal, or QotoJournal will give the same results.

Will prepare a separate post later with suggestions and guidelines for posting content, to create a bit of a Style we can identify at a glance.

Thank you to my friend who sent this idea, and to all who supported it, participating in previous discussions here in the Local feed or at the forum post.

My thoughts on the matter were disclosed also on my blog at : https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/special-hashtag-to-highlight-serious-posting

** This post was edited via "Delete/ReDraft" to incorporate a suggestion of using QotoJournal -- without underscore, as it seems a good idea.

@freemo Fair enough, havign the most people using is really important., so we can switch to it.

There's only one post in the other tag (mine above), so not late to switch.

** I can delete/Redraft it even, although our whole sequence here would be orphaned, but I think it's worth changing.

Was worried about Readability, but it shows nicely on your post above. Screencap:

@activenoisecontrol
The problem Snow was mentioning is that there's materials of an Adult nature, not here in our own instance (qoto.org) but out there, and it shows in posts in the Federated timeline.

Besides nude bodies, there's escort services, sometimes quite aggressive images which might not even be covered by a CW, a Content Warning that will hide the text and image until a user selects to click to show it.

Goinf back to the question of using in a educational or even a business/professional situation:

- yes, each instance is free to create and maintain, enforce their own rules, Theme line (what they intend to focus on), etc.

- each instance needs an administrator, capable of dealing with server maintenance issues, upgrades, etc (unless you contract some hosting provider that can supply these services).

- and each instance needs a team of moderators. In most cases, volunteers, users who chose to support their instance and take on that job (my case here at Qoto).

- staff is in most cases not paid. If it was a professional or educational situation, the admin might be a local IT specialist, and the mods could be experienced users, doing that as part of their daily activities at work, and so compensated as part of their normal salaries.

@snow

@freemo Would you prefer using that one instead? It's early in the game and we could switch.

I though the two word (separated by underline) might be more readable, perhaps?

@greylaw89 No, not yet, unfortunately.

Twitter has an advantage on that front as they do offer an auto-translate that works on demand (for a single post, when you really want to know what it says).

Even Japanese is handled pretty well.

@snow Uhm, I gather you don't like it? 😛

I do, and have been with it since the Beta testing days, before the release. Never liked Windows 7, and personally loved the Server versions best of all.

Server 2003 was sadly missed when the support ended, I enjoyed it as a Workstation O.S. for years. Stable, fast, no eyecandy unless you cared for it. Perfect.

7 was always sluggish in comparison. 10 has a lighter design and runs beautifully on a big variety of machines, new and old. I am impressed.

Op systems are Tools, and whichever you prefer should be one that gives you a good stable environment to work in, and supports apps and features that you are productive and comfortable with.

All the tools I depend on for my work and project until now are Windows based, so I stayed with it; I do recognize advantages in Unix and the linux distributions. But being productive is #1 for me at this point.

Found on the #Windows7 hashtag traffic. 😜

"Your vehicle is now connected to Microsoft.

Upgrading to Windows 10. 38% done. Estimated remaining time: 150 years."

#humour #french #tech

@snow That is true, it's a valid concern. There is a lot of inappropriate images for younger or more sensitive viewers floating by in the Federated lines.

I have seen and read some articles mentioning the possibility of using Mastodon instances in education, but they would all be running in Whitelisted mode only -- selectively federating only with nodes included in the Whitelist maintained in each of those instances.

Smut for profit is not attractive, a shady side, I agree.