Mike Capern @mikecsees@qoto.org

Alphonso Davies was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, after his parents fled the civil war in Liberia. He spent the first 5 years of his life there before his family moved to Canada. Today, he scored Canada's first World Cup goal. Refugees can do anything ❤️

#WorldCup #Canada #Refugees

I'm writing a short article on getting started with Mastodon for Computers in Libraries and have found @nikodemus guide invaluable. You might too. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D9gfeKg_-hlsU66R-dLEvUeyMsqEfyIx2pnfUeX0t_E/edit?usp=sharing

#RealNames

Let me be really clear about this. Any social media platform that is toying with the idea of requiring public "real names" use by users is playing with a ticking hydrogen bomb.

It should have been obvious enough how complicated this is given all the problems #Facebook caused when other sites started to require real names Facebook logins for access to comments and other features on those other sites.

I worked with some of these issues at Google, where originally Google Plus was using real names, though this was later wisely changed.

There is a long list of issues associated with forcing people to publicly use real names. Some people are just fine with using their real names on some sites, but on other sites dealing with other topics there's simply no good reason why they should be required to use their real names. An obvious example is someone being forced to use their real name to ask questions about a medical or other personal issue for which they could face discrimination in employment or elsewhere.

There is a controversial argument to be made, that I am frankly somewhat sympathetic toward (though I very much wish we had not come to this point), that in *some* situations where individuals are going to be posting to very large audiences, some way to identify those individuals in cases of extreme abuse may be necessary. I suspect that regulatory changes are headed in that direction.

BUT, and this is crucial, this should not mean that even those individuals would have to use their real names on posts, and their identities would need to be carefully protected, probably by a third party.

In practice, though it's easy to say all this in theory, I have doubts that it would work in the real world. Disadvantaged individuals and groups, whistleblowers, etc. are at special risk. Data leaks might reveal identity associations. It's all so very complicated. Perhaps -- even likely -- it's completely impossible to accomplish in a safe manner.

We're going to be seeing ever more calls for real names having some sort of role on the Internet. Some movement in this direction may be inevitable. But it is crucial that we don't fall hook, line, and sinker for social media firms trying to force individuals to use their real names publicly in the course of regular social media activities. That, is a trap. -L

These are the 10 largest countries in the world imagined at the equator for size comparison.

They look different because a traditional Mercator map distorts countries, making them appear larger toward the poles.

You can make comparisons at https://www.thetruesize.com #world

So this image is a great visual for teaching about trauma. None of the plates are broken and they’ll stay in tact as long as we don’t open the door. But they’re also not usable that way.

If we open the hutch, some of them will probably fall and break, but we can’t clean up and see what’s still salvageable until we do.

We can prepare before opening the door so that as little as possible gets broken - that’s skill building.

1/2

How it’s made: #Corgi

What's sort of interesting about this is that with all the talk of 'decentralization' and the affinity that right-libertarians have for it, Mastodon seems to be attracting a crowd that's fundamentally left-leaning and pro-democracy, with some left-libertarian anti-state sentiment too.

Right now the poll on Twitter is a bit more 'yay' than on here, but that's a function of my followers, too. Will be interested to see where it ends up.

For my part, I think Rand is ridiculous.

"To the extent that people remain active on #Twitter, they preserve the fragile viability of #Musk’s gambit. The illusory sense of community that still lingers on the platform is one of Musk’s most significant assets. No matter which side prevails, the true victor in any war is the person selling weapons to both sides."

New from @Jelaniya on why battles "are [not] worth fighting on terms set by those who win by having the conflict drag on endlessly."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-i-quit-elon-musks-twitter

“Mercy on me, was ever man before so be-pelted with a child’s talk as I am! It is his desire of sympathy that lies at the bottom of the great heap of his babblement.”

This is inexpressibly sweet https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/11/26/twenty-days-with-julian-and-little-bunny-by-papa-hawthorne/

“These ministers . . . strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs. It is not that ‘pure and undefiled religion’ which is from above.” -Frederick Douglass (such a smart, wise person) @bookstodon #Religion #ChristianNationalism #uspol https://www.mguhlin.org/2022/07/mynotes-christians-against-christanity.html via @oberyhendricks (author)

This week's highlightable delights: Storytelling and the art of tenderness, David Bowie on creativity and his advice to artists, the poetic science of the aurora borealis https://mailchi.mp/themarginalian/bowie-borealis

Good night, #fediverse
Wo kommt denn jetzt plötzlich der #schiffssamstag her? ⛴️

#photography #fotografie #novascotia #canada

@FediThing
Ask yourself this: What is the purpose of a block?

Is it to prevent me from seeing something, to hide it from me?

Or is it to protect me from having it shoved in my face, to harass me?

I’ve been on the net for 50 years now. I’ve seen a lot of crap. I’ve moderated large groups, dealt with a lot of attacks and ban evasions.

IMO, Qoto gets this exactly right. It empowers the potential victims. It doesn’t enable reaching potential recruits. These don’t appear on the federated feed, they’re just not inaccessible.

There’s nothing wrong with a full ban for those who choose to shelter from the threats. You should keep your policy and Qoto theirs. You are both protecting people in different ways.

Those of us who want to keep an eye out for danger, however, cannot if we’re blinded “for our protection”.

I won’t get the harmful content unless I look for it or it is being discussed. I can block it from my feed if I need to. Qoto supports blocking entire domains, and I have done so.

We’re on the same side of the real issue here. Can’t we recognize different people need different tactics for dealing with threats?

A group at Johns Hopkins has created a scrollable, interactive map of the entire universe, from here to the cosmic microwave background.
Extraordinary discoveries at your fingertips for free, unimaginable when I was a kid. https://mapoftheuniverse.net/ #astronomy #space #exploration

@arinbasu @freemo The reason this matters is that the joinmastodon list is not itself federated, but it is what people encounter when they wish to join.

I would not have found it if I had joined a few days later.

And I wouldn’t have been happy with any of the choices I was presented with. That’s not good for the #fediverse, and it’s not good for people fleeing Twitter. Often #qoto is exactly the right place for them.

The Fediverse is the most important revolution in communications -- probably since the Internet has been built.

It obliterates the status quo of how network effects are built.

This is possible due to the open protocols that the Fediverse is built upon.

Mastodon only scratches the surface.

Once people discover the potential for what can be built, it will be a tectonic shift for the Internet.

Who else is excited with me?

/END THREAD

@freemo
Honestly, I probably would have disengaged from the Fediverse/Mastoverse a long time ago - or at best had a mostly dormant account (like I do on the birdsite) - because of stuff like this, if not for #QOTO.

To my knowledge, this is the instance that comes closest to having the culture that Hacker News wants to have:

> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

(from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

So, thank you, for creating an environment for those of us that want to have genuine and curious conversations.

Fall aflame at #UVic

While following a lot of people can populate your Home feed significantly, sometimes people (like me) end up boosting a lot and that can unexpectedly hinder your own experience.

So if you like someone's specific posts and don't want to follow their boosts, you can go to their profile under the [...] button, and select the "Hide boosts from account" button.

There is no algorithm on Mastodon. You have ownership and control over every filtering decision instead of some robot.

#TwitterMigration

Explore 1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe: They’re Now Digitized and Free to View Online

https://www.openculture.com/2020/06/explore-1100-works-of-art-by-georgia-okeeffe.html