Hilary Baumann 🧪 @hilarybaumann@qoto.org

welp not sure if Threads blocked Qoto or if Qoto blocked Threads but I'm also not seeing my bridged accounts here either....

@bykimbo @vollans @trinsec

so the way around that is I host x number of fake people or X number of real friends /family to get around those that block servers with only one user.

Any way it goes, that’s better IMO than being on someone’s naughty list for no obvious reason.

I’m also now set up on mastodon.world and if no one can figure out why Qoto has been put on the naughty list and get it back off I’m probably going to bounce over there for a minute then decide to stay or just set up usernames I don’t care about to lurk.

@bykimbo @vollans annnd if this is true this just gave me an extra kick to potentially set up my own server because I don’t want to be tied to /punished for the behavior of a community and I want a stable username / handle.

All metadata gone. Not even the original date.

Verifying authenticity of certain things may prove difficult.

One of the many photos I took at the Kentucky Derby this last year.

Sharing for two reasons:

1) it’s a lovely unique photo of cocktail prep

2) I want to test whether or not Exif location info is properly stripped on upload (and I would prefer copyright metadata not be stripped … I took this photo and it is NOT CC but from what I read all metadata is removed on Mastodon.)

@backlon
Metatext instead here. Because I’m logged into more than one instance & wanted notifications as if I had one.

Name / handle / account tied to an instance is the piece that doesn’t feel properly decentralized or sit quite right with me so I’m trying to learn as much as I can about it all.

@trinsec I already have multiple accounts across Matodon communities (the first one I signed up for finally got me the confirmation email) and got metatext to handle having more than one and the notifications but would prefer one main personal account.

I understand what's possible but I don't think it's ideal.

I'm still thinking like email, decentralized social media should let you have one main handle somehow.

And/or I'm deciding how I want to exist within this system.

That's a barrier to entry to the non-tech person. You know how many people I still have to visit with in Facebook because they can't comprehend something else? Or even think that other platforms are even worse (or think that tiktok is going to kidnap their child somehow.)

Know how many people I used to email in a nonprofit because they couldn't use any other project management tools? Email was about the extent of their tech skills. I do not live in Silicon Valley. I do have to deal with a number of people with minimal tech skills.

Mmmm Mastodon is not like a protocol but a platform that uses a protocol. I'm starting to understand.

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

But still ... the username / handle aspect of this is still bothering me. If each instance is just a community, I have a broad range of interests so picking one community for my handle to live in still feels ... odd to me.

Now to go understand the main protocol better... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActivityPub

#mastodon #decentralizedsocialmedia #activitypub

@ryanfb https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/

Note the "search blocked accounts." Granted it's still very limited in the sense that it doesn't list some people I know are on Mastodon BUT it might find some of them for you.

@trinsec part of my point still holds. It still feels kinda like having an aol.com email address. The handle is the "problem."

If you've ever set up g suite (google apps ... google Workspace ... whatever they are calling it at any given point) as the mx server for a domain's email you get the best of both worlds. The handle or domain name that's yours no matter what and the ecosystem of gmail with google drive and everything that comes with it.

All of the bits that come with gmail but if I leave google I'm not SOL about how people can contact me.

I actually literally did this with a domain name last February. I didn't want to pay (and they hadn't announced that they would let legacy personal accounts stay for free yet) so I ditched google for that domain name and went self hosted with that email account. It no longer has google drive etc with it but I didn't have to tell people that I had a change of email or anything to still get messages.

So maybe I didn't quite explain it to that level in my last post but that's sort of what I'm getting at.

A server / community shuts down and your handle, the way people contact you, is just gone and you get no say in the matter.

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? If #mastodon is like a protocol, why am I tied to a domain name I don't control?

To put it another way, with email servers I can have my own domain name & choose to self host OR use something like Google or Microsoft as my servers.

I have not looked at the code to try and understand it better but that's the one thing I'm really not liking about having to choose a server at the moment.

** It feels like having an aol or gmail or yahoo email address to me. **

And since I run businesses that have to make money I don't quite have time at the moment to self host even just for myself (but I am considering it. Thanksgiving week looks slow...)

#protocols #interwebs

@trinsec got it - the app I was thinking of using was MetaText but … extra features sounds better and mobile bookmark I’m good with.

I had actually signed up for a different server on I think Thursday but it never sent the confirmation email. I’m not certain how I ended up on qoto today when looking for an alternate option to my primary choice so I didn’t realize it had extra functionality.

But the others I was looking at were either too sketch or closed due to spam/influx in the last few days. I understood that server uptime and ssl was important and an established user base that wasn’t too small meant it wasn’t too new. Yada Yada.

So I dove in here.

@trinsec And themes - got that part too. And now I have the dark background on the computer I was hoping for. :)

@trinsec someone else said app … so … guess there’s more than one way here?

@wbic16 excellent - downloading 😎

@trinsec excellent - downloading 😎

1st post random thoughts:

1. who do you recommend following that I might enjoy reading / following / having conversations with?

2. is there a dark mode on this thing? Or is that a per instance thing and I’ve chosen the wrong one for wanting a dark screen?

3. I am sorry to anyone I have hit follow / unfollow / subscribe on since I don’t know what kind of notifications you got or what level of interaction I was committing to when I did those things.

I really am just diving in here to see what works and what doesn’t… and I hope I don’t end up regretting tagging with the following…

#firstpost #bourbon #wordpress #branding #logo #socialmedia #kentucky #graphicdesign #adobe #illustrator #indesign