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

7 Signs someone is a Witch.

5 out of 7, here. 😝

Retoot with comment, with thanks to @pwrmnstr

Long Hair, Short Hair, take your pick. Both very pretty and well cared for. Thanks @Johannab

#xp #mastocats #CatsofTwitter #meow
---
RT @johannabee
A Fluffy Beastie, A Fuzzy Beastie. #mastocats
https://twitter.com/johannabee/status/1079751108812259330

Types of Cats.

OT : https://radical.town/@pwrmnstr/103037685954284304

#cats #mastocats #meow #felines

There are a number of Bot picking up posts from popular, important or not so quite from the birdsite and bridging over to the Fediverse. I do follow the awesome Cat bot, @catpostingbot of course, made my day when first found it.

There a large list of Bot put together by Commandlinekid. - commandlinekid@noagendasocial.com

The updated list is kept on this blog - newest additions are at *the bottom*.

A number of right wing pols, but also Hindu media and figures, some major international media as well.

https://mastlist.blogspot.com/

Cat Disapproves of You.

Ooops.

Selective Content. Got Gold?

#humour #gold #omg

To finalize, all of these points above are my personal opinions, I believe they allign with the QOTO mission statement and site policies.

I have been a moderator in various sites in the past, mostly Forums, starting the process as an interested user and acting the ways I suggested above, being recognized as a valued Contributor, and eventually being invited into Staff positions.

I have time and enjoy my activity in the Fediverse, have volunteered for the position now open in the December 2019 Moderator Nominations and would be grateful for your support if you feel I might be a good Staff member here.

The Discourse Forum for Nominations is at : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/nomination-for-moderator-december-2019/110

...or you can consider suggesting any names here or via Direct Message to our Administrator, Dr Freeman, @freemo

Thank you for reading this, please feel free to comment in this thread, your input is important.

RG.

Any user can contribute to the site, through their posts and added content, thru their interaction with others. I find the size of the community ideal, we don't have a huge crowd or overwhelming numbers of new posts.

We all can help:

- say hello to a new user, when they post that first toot. I remember it, mine was just a month ago, this masto thing totally new to me. And I also remember receiving a welcome message from the administrator, which is not something you see in many larger places.

- keep an eye out for unwanted posts (for example, as per site rules, porn, open advertising, any spamming, etc). Use the Report button at the bottom ony such post, and send in a report to Staff. This will result in that post being checked and removed asap if in fact it's improper.

- respond to other user threads, even a small comment is encouraging. It's sad to see someone put the effort to create a nice post, well written, with additional info link(s), maybe image(s) --- and see that post sit, ignored. It's disheartening but sadly common.

- make the place feel like a collegial, friendly place to be, which we enjoy spending our time in.

6. What kind of experience could be valuable? Someone with Forum, or Facebook User Group moderation experience, for example. Or people who have worked in leadership roles in team projects.

People with varied knowledge and backgrounds related to the instance's theme of STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math) are ideal, as this is the focus and pretty unique in the Fediverse.

7. This is interesting. I might like to help or be part of it in the future. What should I do?

QOTO is a work in progress, there has been a big influx of new users (more than 1,000, or 33% of the existing user base in the past month or so), and this growth is likely to continue.

We enjoy some great things here. Professionally hosted site (at OVH, one of the largest European Hosting providers), full daily backups, an administrator that is very present and open to suggestions and discussions. There's a lot of positives, and we can help in many ways.

3. Who can be nominated? the site rules expects a user to have been registered and active in the instance for at least one month. A good candidate would be someone who has shown balance and tact in their posts, ideally also being helpful and building community spirit.

There is currently a thread open for nominations, which can be seen here:

4. What makes a good Moderator? Ideally a stable and pondered person, capable of communicating clearly and actively present in the community.

The job of a Moderator is, in my personal view, more than simply keeping an eye out for un-acceptable behaviour or content. But any Staff member in a site should be interested in it and a community builder him/herself.

5. Previous experience, is it required, mandatory or what? It certainly would be helpful, and make the person's job easier, if they have experience in other communities, by producing content, helping other users, assisting site Staff. All of those can be characteristics of a valuable member, and sometimes they are recognized with a "Contributor" tag and status in the system, even if they are not in the moderation team itself yet. They might progress to that level in the future, or might prefer to stay in their current role.

QOTO Moderator Nomination Process - Notes

This month we have a process for nominating candidates for Moderator position here at QOTO.org. It is an important one, and I would like to post a few notes and thoughts about it.

1. First of all, it's surprising how open and transparent the process of Staff selection is here; In most cases, these discussions are hel In Camera, by existing site staff (moderators and administrators), sometimes subject to a vote between them, sometimes with Admins having the final decision, after accepting input.

Here, it's done in the public Feed, the posts are also federated with other instances. And the nomination process is open to participation by any current user in QOTO. (an election should ensue, if more than one person is nominated; otherwise, it's considered hors-concours, and the nominated person gets the job)

2. Nomination is currently done via a post in the QOTO Discourse forum (a less known and used feature of the community), you will need to register an account there as it's different software that Mastodon running here.

As an alternative, you could post a Mastodon post, and declare your support for any user here you see as a good candidate, include the person via their @ tag name, and include @freemo, our system admin so he won't miss it.

A word processor works great, has lots of formatting, etc.

But it also is more distracting. I find that sometimes the best is simple, down to Earth things and tools.

For writing, the words come first. Formatting is important, but can come later.

Long writing here in Mastodon-land, using the SMALL toot editor window, not seeing all your text, with distractions and notifications popping up all the time?

Not ideal. Get an Editor. Great free ones out there, many people have favourites.

I like, use and recommend EditPad Lite, it's Free for personal use.

https://www.editpadlite.com/download.html

Very nice article -- and a super handy feature to have.

Earlier today I wrote a sequence of posts (visit to Lisbon Museum series) in a plain Text editor (more space to write, font size control, NO distractions on sight).

When I had completed it, it was time to post here - in individual segments to keep size in control.

I did it via traditional Clipboard commands, hurrying and worried that someone would comment or reply before I had the full set posted.

Went looking for an enhanced Clipboard utility, they have been around. But -- discovered that Windows 10 now has that, Built-In, no added software needed.

The article in PC Mag linked explains it well, with illustration. It's simple and convenient to use.

Thank you PC Mag, Microsoft. 👍

https://www.pcmag.com/feature/364313/how-to-use-the-new-and-improved-windows-10-clipboard

Additional info and links, notes:

- Archeological Museum, Lisbon, Portugal is at : https://www.lisbon.net/archaeology-museum and wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Archaeology_Museum,_Portugal

- a beautiful ancient map of Iberia : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Atlas_Van_der_Hagen-KW1049B12_017-PORTUGALLIAE_et_ALGARBIAE_REGNA.jpeg

- the city of Loulé region on Bing maps : https://binged.it/2RqlQz2

- Amphorae page at Wiki with many examples : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphora

- Lusitania, Roman period Iberia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusitania

- Roman Empire map, 3rd Century : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Spain#/media/File:Prima_tetrarchia_Diocletianus.PNG

- Baetica information : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania_Baetica

- Al Andalus : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus

- Moorish Period : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portugal#Moorish_rule_and_the_Reconquista_(711%E2%80%931249)

- And finally, Wikipedia's full series on History of Portugal : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Portugal

The original thread mentioned as inspiring this writing was created by @anarchiv and can be found here : https://todon.nl/@anarchiv/103260707759534544

With my thanks for the inspiration for this! :smile:

I should point out that I am not a Historian, but a curious man, fascinated by glimpsing the past and being able to understand a bit of how they lived, by seeing such a nice exposition and the numerous Historical buildings, sites and ancient settlements commonly found in Europe. So, my writing probably has factual errors, which I apologize for, the intent being to jot down those and share with others who might find them intriguing, hopefully.

The collection on display was all dug on sites around the modern city of Loulé. Besides these wonderful Roman and pre-Roman era artifacts, they also had later, Moorish period ones, with beautiful ceramics and metal work.

After visiting Europe for the first time a few years ago, I was so impressed and pleased by all these cultural artifacts and History around everywhere that traveling here in my home region, in North America pales in comparison.

I hope you enjoyed this narrative, and welcome your comments and follow ups. Thank you.

Roman estates in the Andalucia region, then called Baetica, produced fine Olive Oil, another staple of the Mediterranean diet. They sold and exported this widely, quality bringing in demand and profits to traders, farmers and landholders. Baetica was 'next door' to the Algarvians, so trade flowed easily between them.

As documented by the various amphorae, either whole or in fragments, on display at this Museum exhibit. The notes pointed out how many Baetican amphorae had been found in the Algarve, testimony of vigorous trade. Algarvians had income and could purchase finer goods - their own region produces olive oil and wines to this day, but the Museum had fragments which had been manufactured in Baetica, and even in mainland Italy, Rome's homelands.

Algarvian amphorae fragments had cruder handles and rougher surface texture. The Baetican ones were finer and prettier ceramics. Past contents of these vessels could still be determined by analysis of residues in some of them.