Show newer
Phillip Winn

Mastodon's federated nature makes it highly-resistant to takeover by oligarchs, and even more highly-resistant to destruction, but it does have its downsides.

One is localized shutdowns. A very popular mastodon server (mastodon.lol, 17k active) is shutting down completely because the owner is tired of dealing with the messages he's been getting, and doesn't want to pass control to anyone else, since he pledged absolute privacy for existing members. Another popular server (mastodon.au, 6.5k active) announced a shutdown, but has apparently been rescued by someone who is operating it in what he calls "no-new-users mode." In both cases, three months notice was given, and mastodon allows people who move from one server to another to take their following/followers list with them, but not their post/comment history.

So that one is a negative with some positive aspects (90 days notice, partial migration options).

The other is defederation. Again, there are positives and negatives to this. More positives than negatives overall, but definitely negative for me personally. On the one hand, it's very easy to block bad actors at a high level so that individual users need not even be aware they exist. On the other hand, server owners can defederate from any other server at any time for any reason, and there is no recourse or appeal for anyone involved. I happen to be on a server with an admin who seems to rub people the wrong way. While some very active blockers acknowledge that my server shouldn't be blocked on that basis alone, others have decided that since this server's admin doesn't defederate as much as they would like, he should himself be defederated.

It's clear that this server is an edge case for some people. Strict policies against racism and hate speech and so on seem to be enforced, and nobody can seem to point to any examples of bad actors whose accounts haven't been suspended, but the owner insists on using the "academic free speech" label, which is one word longer than a label used by people fond of hate speech, and his attempts to get people to look closer and realize it's a well-moderated server sound suspiciously like the sea-lioning people fond of hate speech frequently engage in.

A more principled person might stand their ground and insist that right is right, and pressuring people into defederating is intolerant bullying, but honestly, if I had known it was going to be such an issue, I'd probably have switched servers before writing and boosting 850 posts, many of which are longer than the maximum length allowed by most mastodon servers.

Now I'm in this spot where, during Black History Month, I'm boosting @mekkaokereke's daily posts about white history, but he doesn't know that, because his server limits mine. I've recommended that people follow him, but I myself cannot, because he is set to approve all followers, and he'll never see my request because, again, his server limits mine. I've posted comments in response to his posts that have picked up some engagement, as people have starred and boosted my comment far and wide, but he'll never know that. In fact, although qoto.org does not actually appear on the hachyderm.io list of *blocked* (defederated) servers, it's clear that server has *limited* mine. That means that I can see his content when others boost it, but he can't see mine unless he follows me, which he won't because he doesn't know I exist.

I noticed just today that one of his recent posts has five responses I can see on my server, including my own, and also has five responses on his server, including one I can't see on my server. His server doesn't list my popular comment, but does list a comment from another server that completely blocks mine.

And that's weird! It's confusing if you don't understand what's happening, and a definite downside that people who probably agree on everything are blocked from seeing each other because of disagreements at some other level out of their control. I do have some recourse: I could switch servers. I probably will someday. But that recourse is not without downsides itself.

I could switch to a single-user instance, and then I would be nobody's mercy. But I would also have to work hard to build up the view I have now, since my local feed would be only me, and my federated feed would reach no farther than the servers I already know about. I could switch to another big instance, but even they don't seem to be immune to shutdowns or defederation, as mastodon.art (8k active) blocking mastodon.social (146k active) demonstrates.

I could have picked a different starting server, but I was told over and over that "it doesn't really matter," and this one has a lot of upsides along with this downside.

Ultimately, the federated web is messy, and I don't think there's a solution that doesn't make things worse for those on the receiving end of targeted harassment. I'd rather deal with this than be subject to the whims of a single owner, but at least I'm aware -- and now you are aware -- that there are some downsides.

1
Phillip Winn

I think my predilection for reading books the last few years might be the result of how easy it is to track reading books. I spent many hours listening to the History of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan, but at the end of it, it was only the fact that I then went on to read his book based on all of those hours that was recorded for posterity.

I finished an audiobook recently, and marked it as completed at Bookrastinating. Then I started a podcast that has been recommended to me repeatedly. If it were a podcast with an unknown number of episodes that went on and on, I might not even think of the two activities as similar, despite both involving spoken audio I listen to in the same personal contexts (mostly during exercise). But this podcast is ten episodes long, with each episode about an hour long, so it is very, very much like starting a ten-hour audiobook.

At the end of these ten hours, I might know more, or be more entertained, or both, but I won't have anything to record the event and look back at later, no trigger for memories in years to come, like I will with the audiobook that preceded it in that personal time slot.

Although I had not actively considered it before starting this post, both the podcast season and the novel are the first entries in a trilogy. At least for now. It might be more likely that the podcast produces a fourth season than the author writes another book in that series, but there are a number of series of audiobooks that go on for many volumes. I count 48 "seasons" of Ed McBain's *87th Precinct* available for me to listen to, for example.

So why is is a seven-hour audiobook a "book," while a ten-hour podcast season is not?

So now it is.

bookrastinating.com/book/42881

It turns out to already be a book on GoodReads, but BookWyrm relies on user-generated content, and I might be the first BookWyrm user to listen to Blowback Season 1, making it my job to add it to the database. If, as I suspect I will, I decide to listen to season 2 later, I'll add that then.

0
Phillip Winn

We are already in the second half of Black History Month, since February is short.

Today, let's visit some more Black people worth following here on mastodon.

@rosanita Rosanita
@airadam Air Adam
@Atmvn Atman
@eosfpodcast Rod Faulkner
@Diva2022 Diva2022

Some humor, some politics, some culture, and some nerdery, there's no consistent agenda here, just interesting people worth following.

1+
Phillip Winn

Today I saw two things online within the same 30 minutes, and I can't help but contrast them. First up was a screenshot of a tweet from someone who claimed that "major biblical" issues for Christians were firstly, defending the value and worth of white people against teaching that white people are by nature morally corrupt, and secondly, defending the unvaccinated.

Second was a paragraph in the middle of an essay on either skepticism or Ivermectin, depending on how you think about it, in which the author says, having not mentioned Christians up to this point: "I side with the Christians. There may be people so far gone into the outer darkness that they can't be saved, but you are forbidden from ever believing with certainty that any specific individual is in this category. Act as if everyone is one good deed away from falling to their knees and acknowledging the light of Jesus."

The first post was from someone with a Masters degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, right here in Dallas, Texas, where I *know* they teach original sin, which states that everyone is by nature morally corrupt, including white people. One might agree with that or not, but someone claiming to represent conservative Christianity definitely affirms that, so to reject it but only for white people is something, but it's not Christianity.

The second post was from an atheist, an avowed rationalist, who needed a way to state unequivocally in an essay why he spent so much time addressing arguments other rationalists said he should have ignored or even mocked. The example that came to his mind for that "never give up" approach was that of the Christian gospel: that nobody is ever beyond the grace of God, that there is limitless forgiveness for absolutely everyone.

How is that the atheist understands Christianity so much better than the SBTS grad?

Is it possible that these are issues with diversity initiatives crowding out the message of "Christ. crucified" in the church? Of course. There are definitely issues with "white supremacy" and right-wing political extremism pushing any consideration of Jesus to the back, so I'm sure it's possible that somewhere the reverse is probably also true. The former is clearly a larger problem than the latter, however, and more than anything, I'd say the issue is that churches ought to focus more on their founder and less on political power. The church is repeatedly reminded throughout the bible to focus on helping the defenseless, and those who can't take care of themselves, usually described as "widows and orphans" in that cultural context. The unvaccinated are hardly defenseless, and are more often the aggressors in any situation. Also, the best way to help them, ironically, is to provide vaccinations.

0
Phillip Winn

Here's a wypipo confession for you: when I first bookmarked today's playlist for Black History Month, I thought: this one will be interesting, Black history from one of the whitest sources around. But then I had more thoughts, and began to unpack some nonsense that had lurked in my head for years.

Is TED "white?" Well, yes. Right? Founded by a white person, run by a white person, I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but I think the numbers of lectures delivered by white people is probably outsized relative to the population. But why? TED claims to be devoted to "ideas worth spreading," and it's hard to imagine ideas more relevant and more interesting than Black history. As already discussed this month, most Black people know more than most wypipo about large swathes of history, and often think differently about societal issues in exactly the way TED claims to be focused on. I follow many Black people I'm pretty sure could give better 18-minute-max lectures than the average TED lecture.

TED-Ed, specifically, is about "lessons worth spreading," and again, it's hard to imagine better lessons than those about Black History. Which brings me to:

Hidden Figures: Black History, from TED-Ed
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJi

These 23 videos, including two added just this month, match up with what I think TED-Ed ought to be. And they help to bring my mental image of TED closer to my mental image of education in general.

Anecdotally, my most well-educated friends are Black. As already discussed this month, many Black parents do a better job educating their children about life as it really is than most wypipo do, in part to make up for failings in the school system to do so. Even today, I've already boosted @mekkaokereke providing the basis of what would be an amazing TED lecture about Black cowboys.

If TED is "white," then that's a failing of TED. If it's not, then my perception is off.

Since I fear I've libeled TED with baseless speculation, here are some bonus links:

11 Powerful Black TED Talks to Watch
itstheblock.com/11-powerful-bl

50 TED Talks by 50 Talented Black Women
twentytentalent.com/50-ted-tal

0
Phillip Winn

Fellow wypipo, if you think supplying or consuming a seemingly-endless series of links for one month is exhausting, try living in a country whose entire existence claims to be predicated on a lofty ideal but has in fact spent its entire existence acting as if that lofty ideal didn't apply to you, but instead required your blood, sweat, and tears to make that ideal happen for other.

To a small degree, most of us have! But this isn't a month of posts about how wealthy Capitalist exploit the working class, it's Black History Month!

youtu.be/H0RaJDqZKqI

Black History Matters, from the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjV

In addition to the intro video above, the Abolition Museum provides 25 videos of interviews and education about why Black history matters, and even how much voting rights are being restricted today.

Yesterday we were all able to see Rihanna deliver a stunning performance, an absolutely celebration of excellence, and it amazes me how this country can celebrate Black people with one hand, while expanding its oppression with the other. Joy and sorrow together.

0
Phillip Winn

Mastodon isn't going to push people or posts at you or try to guess what you might like to see, so it's up to you to follow many different people and boost many different posts. One thing that helps with that is !

During Black History Month, I'm suggesting Black people, whether they post mostly about Black History Month or not. Some post mostly about music, or nerd stuff.

@seanalan Sean Gonsalves
@venitamathias Venita
@Shells@mastodon.world Michele
@Deglassco D. Elisabeth Glassco
@Maggie Maggie

I think I missed a post earlier this week, so instead of a Friday Five to Follow, I'll give you ten accounts:

@TlanetteRoget BovaryCee
@JMadFour@blacktwitter.io Jay Madison
@KFuentesGeorge Prof Kemi FG
@I_Choose_Exile@mstdn.social Exile
@anxiousrage Abeni

If you're wypipo like me, a more diverse timeline is a Good Thing™, and having control of your Home feed is also a Good Thing™, so take advantage of it!

1+
Phillip Winn

It's Friday! An R. Kelly song comes to mind, but we won't talk about that. Instead, let's celebrate Black History Month at the Tiny Desk!

There's an official playlist I'll link below, but it's short, so I'll start with some of my favorite Tiny Desk concerts. Like most people eight years ago, I mostly knew T-Pain as one of the first to really push Auto-Tune to the limit. So this Tiny Desk concert was a revelation.

youtu.be/CIjXUg1s5gc

He demonstrates clearly that he never needed Auto-Tune, not even a little bit. It was always all about style.

Another favorite of mine from six years ago was Anderson .Paak. How he manages to play the drums perfectly while singing is amazing to me.

youtu.be/ferZnZ0_rSM

Both of those videos start with an "explicit language" warning, so listen at your own risk.

The official NPR playlist seems to include only concerts released during February, and it's growing this month! Lady Wray and Lee Fields have both been added for 2023, and the playlist should keep growing.

Celebrating Black History Month At The Tiny Desk
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2

Lee Fields is a very worthy addition, in my opinion. Great stuff!

1+
Phillip Winn

I started this Black History Month with a plan to posting something every day about Black History, and boost Black people doing the same. After all, I went through what I once called an "awakening" as an adult, but since "woke" is now a word that means "anything Republicans don't like," I guess I'd say my eyes were opened, instead. If I can help other wypipo open their eyes, that's good, right? And most of us could use a reminder of things we already know, which is why we have annual events like birthdays and Black History Month.

Boosting is easy. Mastodon depends on people boosting posts, and I follow a lot of Black people already, and I've started following more this month. My list of follows has a lot of nerdy people, since I'm heavily into myself, but also writers and teachers and just people living their lives.

I'm not sure how well the "Black History for wypipo" approach is going, to be honest. Every day I post things I think are interesting or educational, and shortly before or after that, I witness a masterclass in How to Do It from @mekkaokereke, who was previously on my list as a nerd, but it turns out is so, so much more.

I don't want to center this on myself, which is why I'm avoiding talking much about my own history of learning Black History. I took an embarrassingly long time to learn what I should have learned in elementary school, and I think many other wypipo could say the same. I've read a lot of books, and I have some *very* patient and well-educated Black friends who haven't pointed and laughed like they had every right to do, but have instead patiently recommended more books and pointed out areas of my staggering ignorance. In our modern age, it's amazing what you can learn for free online, and there are books on almost everything that can be delivered right to your door!

So maybe I'll recommend some books I've enjoyed, but I'm just a wypipo who has read some books. I hope others might chime in with books they recommend, and then I won't have to talk too much about many times I've bought Michelle Alexander's *The New Jim Crow*, because I keep loaning it out and not getting it back!

1
Phillip Winn

Crash Course: Black American History, with Clint Smith
youtu.be/xPx5aRuWCtc

This is a series I like so much, I linked it in my bio for Black History Month. Clint Smith takes us through 51 videos, each in the neighborhood of ten minutes, all in Crash Course style.

The six-minute video above is an introduction and overview, with the other 51 episodes in a playlist.

youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8d

The presenter also wrote a book, which you can order in your choice of formats here: bookshop.org/p/books/how-the-w

On a recommendation from a friend, I've ordered another book, *Slavery's Constitution* by David Waldstreicher. I expect to have something to say about that one when I've finished it.

0
Phillip Winn

In 1923, the New York Times Magazine published an article about one exception to the then-current prohibition against alcohol sales: foreign embassies.

Charge of the Little Embassies at Washington
sundaymagazine.org/2023/02/05/

Of course, the location of most of these foreign embassies (Washington D.C.) means that the politicians responsible for prohibition were not themselves without access to alcohol. Some things don't seem to change.

1
Phillip Winn

If you have only a few minutes each day, read whatever @mekkaokereke has posted for the day. But if you have more time, much more time, perhaps you'll enjoy some:

Black History Audiobooks
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnk

The 21 videos in this playlist include some very short speeches by Lincoln and Wilberforce, but also some multi-hour audiobooks.

After reading Mekka all this month, I find myself wondering about the selection of authors and subjects. A "Black History Audiobooks" playlist that includes multiple speeches by Abraham Lincoln and one by William Wilberforce? Whether you accept the description of Lincoln as a white supremacist or not, it's a little weird to have three out of 21 videos be speeches by white people, right? And then the story of young (white) Abraham Lincoln? I could go on, but there are some good books on the list, so I'll stop. It's not my place.

Enjoy writings from Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass, and books about the Underground Railroad, the American Revolution, and exploration of the North Pole.

1
Phillip Winn

On this Tuesday in Black History Month, I present Black History for White People:

youtu.be/ljVZ4BAGFeU

There are 63 episodes, plus some additional related videos:

youtube.com/@blackhistoryforwh

It is my general working theory that most of us wypipo are essentially ignorant about either huge categories of events and people in American history, or missing a huge amount of important details about events and people we think we know about from American history, or both. This series of videos aims to assume nothing, and fill in the gaps.

Honestly, it can be embarrassing sometimes to realize just how ignorant the listener stand-in character can be, but that's how we learn: put away the pride, listen by yourself if it helps, and take in the new information. And fellow wypipo, if you find that you know almost everything you hear in these videos, that's good, but it's not as if it's a huge measure of success to be proud of. It's more like you're no longer asleep (but "woke" has been turned into something like a slur), or you've opened your eyes. A good thing, but not something to brag about, in my opinion.

0
Phillip Winn

This is a hard thread for me, and I suspect a hard one for most wypipo like me.

hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109

I have long considered myself someone who resists hero worship, but I also know I have a hard time letting go of positive images formed when I was young.

I don't want to let perfection stand in the way of progress, so I think it's worthwhile to celebrate the progress made by Lincoln while also being honest about his failures. Even in the whitewashed history I was taught, he bent over backwards to accommodate the enslaving southern states, and all for naught. It didn't help, and you'd think the suffering of so many people would have made it clear it never could.

But maybe that's still me, not wanting to go as far as I should in my criticism. I honestly don't know.

I appreciate the effort @mekkaokereke is going to attempting to educate people like me.

mekka okereke :verified:  
Happy #BlackHistoryMonth ! Still not talking about Black history. Still talking about white US history. Q: Why do so many Black folk call Abraham ...
1+
Phillip Winn

Is it crazy how saying sentences backwards creates backwards sentences saying how crazy it is?

1+
Phillip Winn

For this Monday during Black History Month, I'll provide more than one video link, but we'll start with:

Moments in Black History, from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD-

These are 53 very short videos, or rather 52 very short videos with a single two-hour "A Day of Impact" presentation about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr which has more than a few moments of cringe for anybody not a an alumnus of that school.

The 52 short videos cover many common well-known events and people, as well as some I didn't know about, so my fellow wypipo might learn something new, like I have.

These aren't well-polished presentation. To be honest, most sound like school reports. But since most of us didn't learn most of this in school, that seems apt. It won't take long to catch up on a series of Black luminaries such as "Stagecoach Mary" and more recently, Smokie Norful.

For something Much More Modern, there's MKBHD, the YouTube channel of Marques Brownlee, who mostly reviews tech.

youtube.com/@mkbhd

He has been my go-to guy for a couple of years now, and I bought a car less than two months ago based entirely on his video reviewing it. I mean, I also test drove it, but that's the level of trust I have in Mr. Brownlee.

0
Phillip Winn

The unrelenting pervasive nature of white history as the default leads to most people forming unconscious ideas about roles we can each play. It is incredibly and sadly common for people to believe that white European society is the pinnacle of civilization, as evidenced by... [waves all around] Never mind that Steve Jobs' father was Syrian, clearly white people invented technology, right? Never mind that mathematics was developed far from western lands, to the point that we now study algebra, or الجبر al-jabr, developed while Europe was mired in tribal warfare.

It's a vicious cycle: if you believe that everything you see was invented by white people, then you believe that white people invented everything, because each set of false information reinforces the other.

Wypipo, open your eyes! Here's a popular meme image of just a few things invented by Black people, and the full list is so much longer. This list is so long mastodon won't let me put the entire text description in the alt tag, so I'll add it as a reply to this post.

1
Phillip Winn

Mekka is schooling us daily, and today's thread answers "Why do Black people see racism in everything?"

hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109

Any of of the posts in this thread could be a book or two, and many of them are.

mekka okereke :verified:  
Happy #BlackHistoryMonth ! I'm still not ready to talk about Black history. I still want to talk about white US history. Q: Why do Black people se...
0
Phillip Winn

It's the First Friday of February, a Fantastic time For Following Fine Folks. The mastodon experience is better when you Follow more people, and these are some people who are worth Following:

@nataliedavisgdread@newsie.social Natalie Davis
@kyra_davis Kyra Davis
@dtgeek Anthony Dean
@funcrunch Pax Ahimsa Gethen
@midnightcommander@linuxrocks.online midnightcommander

I've interacted with Natalie Davis for many years on several different platforms, so I can promise you: she's the real deal!

1+
Phillip Winn

Happy Black Friday!

I try to spend some time every Friday boosting posts of music videos by Black artists. I'm not Black myself, so I'm taking a chance today by posting my own. I hope it's okay to participate in the hashtag!

Summertime, by Lena Horne
youtu.be/EIHPHMUZoq0

Lena Horne was an amazing woman. Not just a singer, she was a very popular actress who wouldn't take roles she thought typecast her. She was a civil rights activist, and participated in protests and marches. She also sued clubs that wouldn't let her perform, and ended up blacklisted during the McCarthyism of the 1940s because of her leftist progressive views.

This song makes me wistful for relief from the ice currently blanketing my city. This video is from:

Black History Music Playlist
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMG

The playlist starts with 85 great videos in alphabetical order by first name, adds 9 more videos in no particular order, and ends on a 15-minute tech product review for reasons unclear to me.

More on Lena Horne: biography.com/musicians/lena-h

0
Show older

blog

125

nerdery

43

aiart

21

photography

13

books

7
Qoto Mastodon

QOTO: Question Others to Teach Ourselves
An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance
All cultures welcome.
Hate speech and harassment strictly forbidden.

Trending now

Resources

Developers

What is Mastodon?

qoto.org

More…

v3.5.19-qoto · Privacy policy