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

First Hand experience, posted on the Globe and Mail today.

"Tree planting has been the best (and the worst) time of my life "

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/first-person/article-tree-planting-has-been-the-best-and-the-worst-time-of-my-life/

"If We Ever Get to Mars, the Beer Might Not Be Bad"

"Here’s an interplanetary botany discovery that took college students and not NASA scientists to find: Hops — the flowers used to add a pleasant bitterness to beer — grow well in Martian soil.

“I don’t know if it’s a practical plant, but it’s doing fairly well,” said Edward F. Guinan, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/science/mars-plants-soil.html

Good article on the NY Times with data and insight on how the epidemic (and resulting travel slow down, cancelations, etc) is affecting Airbnb, its hosts and other large travel sites.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/technology/airbnb-hosts-coronavirus.html

@freemo
If any proposal can stop (or even reduce) the posturing and demands for "fediblocks" willy nilly that would already be an improvement.

@mngrif

@freemo
First impression is that that proposal would lead quickly to more insularity.

I think the Alliance / Guild concept could be more than that. That aspect could be part of it, besides other things.

@mngrif

@mngrif

At this point I would say that discussing and clarifying the idea is the best way ahead; it's early to write policy, which would need a solid idea already fleshed out, to be written in a more formal proposal way.

Thinking about what this could mean, how it could work and how it could help the participants could be a good start. If people get interested, the discussion can go deeper, more detailed.

Words and writing skills, listening skills, diplomacy all would be helpful in a process like this. Specially when it's a proposal to create some liaison between entities that are currently free and fond of their veto/back listing/blocking powers.

But the idea could lead to some good results and create some social links between like minded people and instances. I think it could even be a place for mentoring newer admin and mod staff in future instances which like a particular group's focus and direction.

@freemo

@freemo Thank you, that is a nice feature.

@freemo

I think the idea of some kind of grouping (Guild, Alliance) between instances that have some kind of affinity could have positive effects.

I mean this in a general way, as they could cooperate and associate themselves for any reason that was important.

@khird

@11112011 The energy sector here in Canada is taking a beating too. Oil Sands is capital intensive, we have problems with delivery, limited pipelines to one customer and a hard time getting the oil to a sea port so it could be on the open, international markets. China would buy it all if you can get it to a Pacific Coast port.

The economy all over the world is going to be hugely impacted byt all the consequences of work stoppage in China, lack of parts and supplies from their supply chains, etc.

@khird
The general idea is good, I would think about more general lines than the ones mentioned on Freemo's post (which refers to free speech instances cooperating).

I think alliances of this kind could work in many cases, as long as the participants had some affinity that creates an advantage in having such connections.

Either they might be complimentary or similarly themed, or maybe they have a similar political inclination, or an interest in some kind of activism, for example.

@freemo

@freemo I am happy with the sources I mentioned, although I do follow and read AP, and Reuters sometimes; they both have good reporting and detailed coverage.

I think the WP editorial room would be shocked in being equalled with Fox News as being equally distant from a neutral reporting perspective! 😛

Fox News is mostly pure propaganda and mass manipulation, at the service of their corporate overlord.

@khird
Ah, excellent - Thank you Kyle!!
@freemo

@freemo I believe all the logged incidents added to the counter are disclose on line, with the proper fact checking that justify it being a warped statement. So if anyone is curious, they can follow up and judge.

I do not see the Washington Post as a biased source, it's a world wide read news source, similar to the NY Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, etc.

Would say that about what goes on air in Fox News though.

There was a request on an earlier post for some quantifiable measure of quality or otherwise of the head of the current US administration. The Washington Post keeps a database, notice its last updated January 16th, so current numbers would be higher yet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/

@lordalveric You are welcome, that is a big life saver, avoids much aggravation. 😃

@snow It was meant as a little joke. You don't need to list these if you are uncomfortable, it was just curiosity after all.

@snow LOL, you know I am a polite operator.

@snow Curious about which news sources would these be. 😛

@mngrif And I recall seeing some discussion on a post somewhere just along these lines.

Can't recall where, as it was a month or two ago, but the idea has been suggested.

@lordalveric I imagine you are refering to posts showing in the Federated feed, as there's a lot there coming from these kinds of accounts.

A good solution is to block their whole instance - just select one of the posts, open the user profile and check the dots menu. Seleect "Hide evverything from domain.name" - see screenshot.

Done, no more posts from that instance on your timelines.