volkris @volkris@qoto.org
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
@david @6al@misskey.social @tedcurran
Oh but there IS a controlling authority to issue a cert: each instance is a controlling authority issuing or presenting certs through the following process.
Fediverse is all based around centralized instances handling all of that for their users, and as such they have latitude to go about their processes as they see fit.
For better or worse.
I don't follow.
Just because I can have an identity that multiple platforms recognize doesn't mean I can't have more than one.
Heck, I have multiple email accounts for work and personal stuff, and both of them are recognized in multiple places around the web.
Same thing. Some people will have one identity that they use in one place, some people will have multiple identities that they use in multiple places, and people will also choose the other perturbations, just like they do with email accounts today.
Aaah, I only use these systems through their native websites, not through any apps, even on mobile devices, so I figured that's what @teledyn meant by apps originally.
In other words, my reader IS my server software, and yes, that's where I suspect the holdup is.
But that's in contrast to the holdup being in the language that the servers/instances/apps use to speak to each other.
That the language seems capable of it means it's less of a hurdle to have the other links in the chain implement it.
@6al@misskey.social @tedcurran @david
Good point, and that would also help with some of the revocation issues brought up in a thread I came across.
Maybe it's a bit complicated because Fediverse IS centralized, just centralized to each of the federated instances.
(We should reconsider calling it decentralized. Maybe federated instead of decentralized.)
I don't know how nicely the centralized instances would play with differently centralized CAs.
Although with https already in the mix, I suppose they already are.
What a mess :)
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
You DON'T know the identity of the *person* you're dealing with anyway. You only know the identity that you're dealing with.
This is all expression, to some level artistic. I don't want anybody trolling, the same way I don't want anybody making bad music, but when you empower people to express themselves, well ::shrug::
If a person wants two identities, one friendly and the other trolling, that's their expression and their choice.
Hope it works out for them.
Like I said, someone with a professional identity and a hobby identity seems pretty reasonable, right? Makes sense?
Well, once you empower users like that some are going to do things you or I might not approve of. That's how a user-centric platform goes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
Oh no, and it's really worth understanding what Facebook offers that other platforms kind of don't.
You know the idea of technical problems with technical solutions vs social problems with social solutions?
By emphasizing connections through friends of friends and other strongly personal indicators, Facebook offers social solutions to social problems of gauging trust for people, punishing misbehavior, etc.
You don't have to rely so much on bots or moderator whims if you can see that Bob is a friend of my best friend Mary, so Bob is likely a good guy.
It's the functionality other platforms, including Mastodon, would do well to consider if they aren't focused on growth growth growth.
There's no reason the two couldn't coexist.
Have multiple disjointed accounts if you want. Register the same identity to multiple instances if you want.
You do you.
They don't know that they do, but they do :)
Users DO know what a cert is, they just don't know that they do. Every time they hear about a website being secure or see the little padlock in their web browser they're hearing about certs and SSL.
Every time they enter a password or see the "Authenticate with Google!" button they're looking at confirming an identity.
No, you should absolutely not use the technical terms for nontechnical users. You make it userfriendly for them, but it's not a problem at all to do it.
Ha, I and people I know are quite annoyed at having multiple identities on those platforms! :)
Waddaya mean I have to have different usernames on different platforms because mine was taken?! It's bad enough to remember different passwords and post the same content multiple times to reach everyone; but I can't even have the same name with the same friends?
We kind of grumble and accept that because we know those are different companies who don't play well with each other, so we're caught in their corporate drama.
#Fediverse should be different, though, a grand paradise where different platforms work together to build something beautiful! Well, one can dream.
With #PixelFed and #Friendica working together to share content cooperatively over #ActivityPub, it sure would be nice if they'd also cooperate to recognize single identity handles to put users (or identities) finally at the center of the story.
To clarify, it's completely up to the user as to how to use/project identities.
For example, a single human might choose to at least have one professional identity and one hobby identity. Or heaven forbid a trolling identity.
Heck, they could choose to start a new identity for each season of the year.
As it stands technological limitations require an identity to be split between different services. It sure would be nice if those barriers could come down, leaving it up to the user to decide how to represent each identity they wish to be.
I imagine it's all based on different people implementing the same standard, the same set of instructions for how it's supposed to work.
IF it really is a bug, you could imagine the different readers all misreading some ineffective standard phrasing in the same way.
I think there's a good chance it's either an interoperability problem (that might be described as a bug) or simply a missing feature they had intended to have.
Thanks for the pointer.
I wish I had free time to participate, but since it sounds like you are engaged with them, Can you say anything about how active Mastodon devs are in SocialHub discussions?
There are the occasional complaints that Mastodon is off doing its own thing, and I wonder how founded those accusations are.
On the topic of #Fediverse identity, I dipped my toe in for a second and came across an interesting thread.
#ActivityPub is the tip of a huge (and I'd say convoluted) iceberg, so it's hard for me to remember much of it at once.
Oversimplifying, identities are merely URIs, so a person could be credited for content across platforms by specifying the same URI on each post. Except...
I refreshed my memory on the protections against simply forging someone else's id by specifying their URI.
When a person is followed, their server/instance issues a certificate on their behalf, which causes other problems should the server lose the cert.
I suppose the next hoop to jump through, that I don't have time to dive into, is wondering whether the user could simply provide their person cert as they register on a new instance.
Ah! Makes perfect sense to use RSS.
Here's a great thread with screenshots and two second overviews of some different #Fediverse projects! (#QT below)
You might have heard that the #fediverse is more than just #mastodon odon. There are cool other projects such as 📺#owncast for livestreaming video ...
@KatM@mastodon.social
Keep in mind that appointing a special council is specifically about letting go of control in the face of potential conflicts of interest.
So far Garland has tied special councils to ongoing presidential matters, whether serving as president or campaigning for it, as #Trump had already announced his candidacy before the appointment.
So far #Pence has not announced a run for the office, so the DoJ is handling the investigation directly.
Frankly, I suspect Garland is happy to have this out so he has an excuse not to make that decision.
FWIW, I hate to see people having to create multiple identities as a bit of a hurdle to engage with #Fediverse in those different ways.
If I want my Fediverse identity to post both a microblogging message and Pixelfed type content, it stinks to have to wrangle between split identities instead of having it all tied to one.
I BELIEVE #ActivityPub has the capability to support single identities across services, though I don't know if it's ever really been implemented.
But I really hope development of programs like #Mastodon go in that direction so that someday, sooner rather than later, a person can present a single identity that crosses between services.
Bingo.
This move would mean fewer employees will need to be paid to patrol the lots and bring carts back in, for better or worse.
@NCACTorontoKate@mstdn.ca
Often when you see claims like these they aren't taking into account differences in governmental structure across countries, and in particular the state by state and city by city operations that provide the social safety net.
They don't actually cite their source so we can't be sure. We can only see that their unsupported claim matches the conclusion the article wants us to take away.
Why only Mastodon at this time?
Which is to say, I would have thought that the program would just listen to ActivityPub and therefore might not even know whether it was listening to a post from Mastodon or anything else.
Does it use some Mastodon API on an instance by instance basis instead of listening to ActivityPub?
I think the most pressing and fundamental problem of the day is that people lack a practically effective means of sorting out questions of fact in the larger world. We can hardly begin to discuss ways of addressing reality if we can't agree what reality even is, after all.
The institutions that have served this role in the past have dropped the ball, so the next best solution is talking to each other, particularly to those who disagree, to sort out conflicting claims.
Unfortunately, far too many actively oppose this, leaving all opposing claims untested. It's very regressive.
So that's my hobby, striving to understanding the arguments of all sides at least because it's interesting to see how mythologies are formed but also because maybe through that process we can all have our beliefs tested.
But if nothing else, social media platforms like this are chances to vent frustrations that on so many issues both sides are obviously wrong ;)
Joined Dec 2022
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