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@unix_discussions

LIke the way it works and displays the processing.

Today is King Charles' birthday. He is 74, making him 4 days older than me. Fortunately, I didn't take 73 years to get a job.

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@Geothinker @freemo

I am not very active. I used to do public service for bike rides, marathons, etc. Was Montgomery County ARES Emergency Coordinator for a year a decade or so ago. Never got into HF despite my Extra license.

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If you see this toot (yeah this one right here), can you boost it for me? It will help my new server federate with the wider Mastodon network. 🚀 🙏

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There is a suggestion that young people in particular may not be inclined to post in case they say something stupid. As someone who has long retired there is nothing that I miss more than interacting with young people. I am many others would really benefit from your contributions. I have said many stupid things in my career, and it often led to better understanding on my part.

@War_Kittens Generic M is 500. Other servers may be larger. qoto.org is 65k!

Large image of multi-column Mastodon 

You can have many columns pinned, so I had to try this across two monitors. (There is a 3rd above these 2!)

@palankar with so interesting lay people wandering in.

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Some thoughts on Mastodon culture, server rules, diversity and inclusiveness 

@kristinmbranson

Compuserve was a social network before the term existed. It was organized by forums by topic. A forum had several rooms for more specific areas in the topic. It worked well until bought by AOL where it withered and died. It was easy to check out other public forums. (Some were private.) This was before diversity became a factor, so I don't know how diverse the system was. I suspect not very diverse.

The forum I visited most would have welcomed anyone, I believe. Our moderator prided himself on never banning anyone except for a few guys who were known to disrupt discussions and one woman who would post absolute gibberish when off her meds.

My guess is for Mastodon, it would depend on the administrators of the servers and those in the community. The larger issue would be the responses from the federated feed.

@PartialGestalt When you follow someone, they are notified and can follow you back. With subscribe, there is no notification. Subscribe is a stealth follow.

This distinction may be unique to QOTO. I saw it mentioned someplace as one of its features.

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Guide to Content Warnings

On qoto, the only toots that require a content warning (CW) are:

- Spoilers
- NSFW (Not Safe For Work) – this is up for interpretation, but I assume refers to tits and dicks
- Using a derogatory epithet or racially charged language in a toot that itself is not racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise hateful speech (such as quoting a passage from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for critical purposes)*

Other reasons someone may want to use CW’s here on qoto:

- Strobe effects (to avoid triggering an epileptic seizure in people who are susceptible)
- Violence, accidents, rape, suicide, self-harm, death, etc., including to non-human animals (PTSD, etc.)
- Food (pics of food can prompt people with metabolic syndrome, eating disorders, which are relatively common)
- Pics of drugs (may trigger use by people who are addicted)
- Very long posts (so uninterested readers don’t have to scroll through them)

It’s better if the CW description is more specific (without itself containing CW-eligible content). Instead of just “Spoiler”, say “Spoiler – The Wizard of Oz”. Also, it’s generally a good idea to repeat the CW description within the toot itself at the top of the toot for those who may have the auto-open feature enabled.

What doesn’t need a CW:

- swear words
- content that might hurt someone’s feelings
- unpopular opinions
- political content
- pictures of animals (that are alive and well)
- content from those with autism or who are otherwise neuro-atypical
- using the CW as a title or heading for your toot or trying to place actually content into the CW description is irritating for others

Overuse of the CW feature ultimately undermines it’s usefulness because it forces people to have to click on each toot or just enable the auto-open feature. However, someone with a condition like epilepsy or PTSD, the auto-open feature is not really an option so CW overuse effectively forces people with disabilities to click each toot while everyone else can just enable the auto-open feature, which doesn’t seem fair.

Other Mastodon instances have varying rules and views on CW use.

Note: I’m not an admin or moderator here, this is just my opinion. I don’t always adhere to these guidelines and you can do what you want.

- - - -

* This epithet restriction isn’t listed in the rules, but it was adopted as a compromise in response to some specific events. Of course hate-based speech such as sexist, racist, homophobic or anti-trans speech will not be tolerated. (Note: I personally block anyone who uses epithets in any context because the intent is often ambiguous and you can communicate the same info without explicitly using the epithet.)

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Does anyone know how to limit the items on your timeline to a specific language? I tried doing this under settings (see attached) but it does not appear to be working. I'd prefer to only get post that I can read :)

@gdinwiddie That account appears to be fake so the announcement is bogus. No mention of it on news sites.

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This should be my last introduction toot! I mentioned my professional focus ( signal analysis) in my last toot. Now, for my other non-research engagements...

I am a who uses tools like and to prototype fun projects. I have my own fleet of 3d printers and support equipment.

As a signal processing engineer, I'm also very interested in (software-defined radio). I'm working on two pet projects right now employing SDR and my maker tools for backyard and satellite signal reception. While not entirely novel end-goals, the work is very engaging and rewarding! I hope to package the results for science outreach in in the near future.

Everyone should expect neuroimaging research toots from me as well as updates on my projects and resources for and engagement in the classroom. I hope to contribute to by sharing my demos, resources, and projects for bringing innovative thinking, science, and engineering into the classroom.

I love and outdoor activities. I'm a novice in (microscope as well as DSLR) and am looking for hints and suggestions for my entry into . Any advice? Let me know! I have a strong love of and , so expect my gushing about fish on occasion. I also have a pet parakeet, so expect some bird antics along the way! It can't all be work and seriousness, after all!

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Qoto Mastodon

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