pklied @pklied@qoto.org
Norwegian developer working in EdTech.
He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius.
Now he talks about software. I happen to know a lot about software and Elon Musk is saying the stupidest shit anyone's ever said, so when people say he's a genius I figured I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets.
Good blog post in the privacy and national security (that's US national security) concerns of TikTok, by @malwaretech, who decided to have a look whether the app actually asks for location permissions https://malwaretech.com/opinions/tiktok-is-a-national-security-risk.html
What drove the internet in the 90s and 00s was that it was so cool to be doing good shit with it. Social media was like a giant manure dump all over that culture. We've never recovered.
The Fediverse and the death of Twitter promise a rebirth of that culture, if we don't let the cool kids and a lazy press bury the public in vapid bullshit again.
We wasted 16 goddamn years enduring Facebook and Twitter. In the end, they were both toxic and regressive. Can we please not go back there? Please?
Today I'm testing a new Node.js app that watches a set of feeds (RSS, Atom, RDF) and posts new items to a Mastodon account. This one works with any Mastodon server. Requires some technical competence, but not much. The idea is to get the example code out there, for reading feeds easily and posting to Mastodon, again easily. I want feeds to melt into the fediverse, forming sort of a feediverse, which is maybe just a little bit bigger. I am so on board with decentralizing everything we do.
Hugely enjoyed this blog post from the European Central Bank on Bitcoin. Basically, the ECB is absolutely Not Here for Bitcoin's bullshit. Absolutely delicious stuff. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/blog/date/2022/html/ecb.blog221130~5301eecd19.en.html
Do Not Use Services That Hate The Internet. #amen
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2022/11/psa-do-not-use-services-that-hate-the-internet/
I don't want your app.
Please stop judging me for preferring the web.
Please respect the choice that I always make and stop nagging me.
#nytimes (and many others)
If you’re new to Mastodon, you may at some point find that you’re being pressured to put your posts behind a content warning (CW). Although CWs make sense for things like images of violence or nudity, some people are bullying others to put CWs on discussions of politics, racism, etc.
Please know that you should not feel pressured to obey these individuals. They do not speak for all. If someone does not want to be exposed to these topics, Mastodon gives them all the tools they need to avoid them, such as keyword filters and the ability to block or mute people who are posting things they don’t like.
This is not enough to handle the 1 million new accounts that will be made this week.
Currently, only 4,720 patrons are donating to Mastodon.
However, if everyone chips in $2/month, this will ensure the continued survival of Mastodon!
Be a hero! Donate now! https://www.patreon.com/mastodon
"Try reading the following out loud:
Hashtag screenreaders for the hashtag blind and hashtag VisuallyImpaired read every hashtag HashTags out loud and so it's hard for people with hashtag VisualImpairment to get the sense of the post because it's being constantly interrupted by well-meaning hashtag accessibility hashtag allies.
Easier to read with a block of hashtags at the bottom:
#screenreaders #VisuallyImpaired #blind #allies #Hashtags #accessibility"
--original author unknown
Real long aggregation of Mastodon etiquette for birdsite expats
Some Mastodon thoughts, for bird-site expats (which include myself). I'm aggregating these from posts I've boosted before, so little of this is my own brain.
- There's no algorithm here. That means favoriting/liking doesn't do anything except communicate approval to the OP and others (which is still nice!).
- No algorithm means boosting ("retweeting") is the true method to increase a post's visibility. Do that more than you did on birdsite.
- There's no post-quoting here, and that's by design. Look at quote-tweets on the birdsite; it's a feature primarily used for toxicity.
- There's no direct word-search here either; that means you want to use hashtags to make posts more searchable. This is also intended, since word-searching posts was often used to harass/stalk on the birdsite and elsewhere, so that was left by the wayside here. This also means hashtags are much more a thing here than any of the algorithm-powered sites.
- It's encouraged to put in text descriptions when you post images; a lot of Mastodon users use screen-readers due to various disabilities, and getting an image description read out loud helps them immensely.
- Speaking of screen-readers: using capitalization in your hashtags allows the screen-readers to read them more easily, especially if you're smashing multiple words together. #rockmusic = unreadable. #RockMusic = readable.
- The best way to make threads is to make set your first post as public, but "unlist" all of your replies. This prevents your whole thread from clogging up feeds.
- Content Warnings should be used more liberally here. If you haven't gotten the impression yet, much of Mastodon was built and populated by marginalized groups who were harassed/bullied off of other platforms. This is the culture they built, to respect each other's mental health. It's not a rule, but it's well-appreciated.
- Consider chipping a few bucks towards whomever runs the server you're on; the strain is real, and most server admins were likely paying out of pocket before so don't have an existing donation base. The growth here has been extremely fast, and that means money's needed.
- DMs are just posts with privacy settings. So if you @ someone in a DM, you pull them into the thread. That could be embarrassing.
- Also, no, DMs aren't end-to-end encrypted, but they aren't on Twitter either. Don't use either if you want true privacy.
- Including your Mastodon handle in your birdsite profile will help people find you here; there's a tool (pruvisto.org/debirdify/ is one of them that's used) people can use to pull Mastodon handles from Twitter profile.
- Use the blocking and reporting features liberally, if needed. This should go without saying, but they work, and work well!
- If there's an entire Mastodon server you don't want to hear from, you can block the whole thing too.
- Preferences -> Appearance -> "Slow Mode": this can make larger "Local" feeds and any "Federated" feed much more readable.
I'll reply with some more as I see them, or reply here too. I've only been here 4 days but I'm loving it so far.
