The Nexus of Privacy

https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy

A newsletter about #privacy, #technology, #policy, #strategy, and #justice.

Posts by Jon (npub19q4…kzch).

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Last Notes

2025-11-28 17:40:11 UTC

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More positively, thought, very nice to see the coverage of the work that @npub142g…kmy5 is doing with The Bristol Cable. The earlier coverage I had seen hadn't made it clear that they're using local-only posts for the in-community discussion!
@npub1l2k…6m2l

2025-11-28 17:39:50 UTC

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On the Threads numbers, your theory that they're counting people on Instagram and get shown a Threads post is certainly plausible.
Details aside though the most likely explanation seems to me that Meta is lying (as they have about numnbers in the past -- remember the "pivot to video" lolsob).
@npub1l2k…6m2l
#meta #FediPact #threads

2025-10-07 02:03:34 UTC

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Probably. Somebody ran a full-network appview for a while at $200/month; the biggest expense was 12TB for storage. Blacksky runs their Relay on a $66/month instance and PDS is $260 or so, and both are very overpowered for currrent usage -- Rudy estimated that the PDS could get to a few hundred thousand users before upgrading.
In any case the architecture's optimized for large all-public networks. Those costs aren't bad at all for 100,000 active users -- it wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be much cheaper than running a simlarly-sized fedi instance. Then again those costs are likely to be unsustainable for a community of a few hundred people let alone anything smaller. It's still an open question if and how things will evolve on the lower end; Blacksky's architecture (with a single AppView supporting multiple communities) gets part of the way there, and there's experimentation with partial AppViews, but we'll see how it works out.
And @npub15z3…0xrp fedi is still generally at the prototype level too, so at this point the only options are something experimental or a fascist corporate social network. Today, AT Protocol is much better than ActivityPub for large flat public social networks, and that's something a lot of people are interested in. Also, the migration story there is also a lot better there than here, at least for now there are a lot fewer compatibility issues (although it's hard to know whether that will be the case); and the architecture lets new projects get up and going quickly by tapping into existing account base and initially reusing a lot of Bluesky infrastructure (which creates longer-term challenges but can still be a very sensible engineering tradeoff). As a result there's a sense that things are moving much more quickly over there than here.
Which isn't meant to diss fedi, there are exciting things happening here too -- including Bonfire, GtS, Fedify, Ghost, NodeBB etc etc etc. But it's not like any of these are polished products yet, the onboarding is still very very challenging, and fedi's existing userbase is very much a two-edged sword. The best situation would be if the two ecosystems learn from and complement each other, and that's happening to some extent -- wafrn is a great example, and Blacksky's approach to community-only posts is very much inspired by fedi's local-only posts. But doing that will require open-mindedness (in both directions) as opposed to a superiority complex, and also progress on anti-Blackness, so we'll see how widely this happens.
@npub1uhk…w03u @npub1mlk…nu5a @npub16d5…u6mu

2025-10-06 20:19:34 UTC

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It's not at all for naught -- any more than the early NodeBB fedi integrations not having all the functionality you wanted means that it was for naught. It just takes a while to implement stuff, especially on a shoestring ... and people who aren't tracking things closely had a misimpression of where the value is for being on a non-Bluesky PDS.
@npub1mlk…nu5a @npub16d5…u6mu

2025-10-06 20:11:33 UTC

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It was a appview-level takedown, so the posts aren't visible to other apps using the Bluesky appview. Blacksky is working on their own appview but their app at blacksky.community is still using the Bluesky appview, so the posts aren't visible there either (although they're still on the PDS).
@npub16d5…u6mu

2025-08-17 20:01:51 UTC

@npub13za…8j89 (or anybody else ...)
Somebody working with a non-profit that is considering starting up a Mastodon instance to use as part of an activism campaign asked me for a rough estimate of how time consuming it is to administer a mastodon instance. Good question! Is there a good wrteeup of this I can point them to?
#MastoAdmin

2025-08-13 16:49:35 UTC

LinkedIn Joins Meta and YouTube in Abandoning Policies Designed to Counter Anti-Trans Hate
https://www.techpolicy.press/linkedin-joins-meta-and-youtube-in-abandoning-policies-designed-to-counter-antitrans-hate/
A good post by @npub1006…h4k7 on Tech Policy Press.
#LGBTQIA2S #lgbtqia #lgbtq

2025-07-09 18:05:26 UTC

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aha, here's the info about how to enable it - https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/config/#fetch-all-replies

2025-07-09 18:00:08 UTC

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There's a flag to enable #FetchAllReplies in 4.4 -- see @npub1zu5…pytj's comment at https://oisaur.com/@renchap/114818480871495421
@npub1pnw…qhcz @npub1zaj…576y

2025-06-05 15:31:14 UTC

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It's a few years old, but I've got a lot of links in https://medium.com/a-change-is-coming/gender-hci-feminist-hci-and-post-colonial-computing-f955a4054c89

2025-05-10 18:23:05 UTC

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dld:plc's still a big issue. It's resolvable but that doesn't mean it's resolved yet!
There are a couple of approaches to non-public messages. Doing it within an AppvVew (the pathy Cypher is going) is the equivalent of local-only posts on a fedi instance. DMs are part of the Bluesky lexicon, but other AppViews can get them.
What people really want is the equivalent of private groups on FB. That said, these don't generally exist on fedi either (Friendica/Hubzilla have them but that's not useful for anybody else), although Bonfire is flexible enough that it could support them.
Fedi does have followers-only posts (although the reply semantics aren't great). Then again from a safety perspective an increidbly important feature on this front is the ability to take your account private when you're being attacked, and neither Bluesky nor fedi has that. Disappointing!
@npub1afm…5gp4 [@Dame_](https://mastodon.social/@Dame_ )

2025-05-07 01:06:21 UTC

I’m seeing reports on other platforms of a lot of disinformation going around. [Here’s a good Bluesky thread with from Shreyan Sardarizadeh of the BBC with several examplescreenshots from Twitter](https://bsky.app/profile/shayan86.bsky.social/post/3lojtra5cq22l ) -- or example pictures of air strikes on Gaza or the 2020 Beirut explosion being mislabeled as air strikes on Pakistan.-- excellent work by. (The presentation here is excellent btw, a great example of how to clearly label disinfo as false)
Is anybody seeing anything related to this here on fedi?

2025-05-03 02:14:53 UTC

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Interesting to look back at this five months later ... here's what's currently happening today in terms of decentralization the ATmosphere. <li><a href="https://bsky.brid.gy/ap/did:plc:w4xbfzo7kqfes5zb7r6qv3rw" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@rudyfraser.com</a> announced today that Blacksy feeds and moderation service <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/rudyfraser.com/post/3lo7xk2szvs2b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">are now powered by our own atproto relay</a> -- and it's an independent implementation, not using Bluesky's reference code. It's really worth reading the thread, which has a great analogy for how a relay enables custom feeds.</li>
[@edavis.dev](https://bsky.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/edavis.dev ) has configured deer.social (a third-party app) to [to point to a self-hosted bsky appview which reads from a self-hosted relay which subscribes to a self-hosted PDS which is where this ](https://bsky.app/profile/edavis.dev/post/3lo7y4gwmhs26 ) -- as he says, "Bluesky independent from Bluesky".<li><a href="https://social.coop/@bnewbold" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@bnewbold</a> published <a href="https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/3lo7a2a4qxg2l" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">A Full-Network Relay for $34 a Month</a>, updating his post from last summer. The network size has increased by close to an order of magnitude since his first post; the cost of a realy </li><li><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/FreeOurFeeds" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#FreeOurFeeds</a> <a href="https://atprotocol.dev/indiesky-working-group-50k-donation-from-free-our-feeds/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">is donating a $50K to the AT Community Fund to support the #IndieSky working group</a>. The <a href="https://atprotocol.dev/notes-from-ahoy-indiesky-europe/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">notes from last week's Ahoy IndieSky Europe</a> give a sense of the energy here -- and also link to a bunch of other projects that sure look decentralized to me and discusses the prospects of Eurosky.</li>
Of course, like I said in the article,
> ""Decentralization" means different things to different people. As the links in the Appendix highlight, people who are focusing on the (very real) concentration of power in the ATmosphere today, or the potentially-centralizing architecture of AT, find it more useful to describe Bluesky as centralized."
And the power concentration -- or "operational centralization" as Bluesky folks were calling it at the ATmosphere Conference -- is still very real. Bluesky still runs almost all of the infrastructure for the ATmosphere, and it's by far the most popular app, and most other apps (as well as Bluesky) use the Bluesky AppView, Relay, and labeler.
Then again, that's clearly in the process of changing, and it'll be interesting to see how it looks six months or a year from now.
@npub17m8…rsw8 @npub1l2k…6m2l [@cyrus](https://wetdry.world/@cyrus ) @npub1urx…v0z4 @npub1afm…5gp4 @npub1ljm…w8tm @npub1mrh…6rd6 @npub1zgt…lpat @npub1jhf…35pm @npub1f6r…5a2x
#bluesky #ATmosphere

2025-05-02 05:45:52 UTC

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Yeah a wiki wouild be great.
[It Has Been N Days Since a Techbro Asshole Made a Fedi Scraper/Indexer](https://cathode.church/fedi-scraper-counter.html ) has some good summaries for scrapers.
[Here's the single best post about some of the 2023 Threads drama I know of](https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/110574102504926859 ).
[Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ!](https://privacy.thenexus.today/should-the-fediverse-welcome-surveillance-capitalism/ ) is a much deeper dive into the Threads brouhaha (ha ha) with a ton of quotes, and [Footnote 9](https://privacy.thenexus.today/should-the-fediverse-welcome-surveillance-capitalism/#nda-meeting ) goes into detail on the June/July Universeodon et al subplot (although alas the tweet from Freeze Ze Peach apparently got deleted at some point).
There's summaries and links to some the 2017 drama in [Dogpiling, weaponized content warning discourse, and a fig leaf for mundane white supremacy](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-a-partial-history/#dogpiling-weaponized-content-warning-discourse-and-a-fig-leaf-for-mundane-white-supremacy ) ... also there's some later stuff in the section "The Patterns Continue"
@npub1trl…vm7z @npub17pm…kws7

2025-04-27 02:08:39 UTC

For those of you on Fosstodon starting to think about alternatives ...
1) let your admins know that you're planning on moving -- and why, and what if anything they can do that might change your mind. In particular, if it's because your admin put somebody with racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ views in a position of power and then doubled down on th e decision, make sure they understand that -- and what they have to do to convince you they're not actually apologists for that viewpoint.
2) it really is hard to pick a compatible instance. Don't feel like your next choice is necessarily your permanent new home -- you can always move again if necessary. For anything more than an interim, you'll want to take the time to scope things out. Asking friends for recommendations is a great place to start but not bulletproof (would you have recommended fosstodon if somebody had asked you about it a month ago?) ...[Resources for choosing the right fediverse instances](https://privacy.thenexus.today/resources-for-choosing-instances/ ) has links to directories and instance catalogs that can help you find out more
3) If you're planning on "migrating" your account, make sure to read [Cutie City's guide to Migrating Servers](https://guide.cutie.city/the-fediverse/migrating-servers/?ref=privacy.thenexus.today ) and Erin Kissane's [Notes From a Mastodon Migration](https://erinkissane.com/notes-from-a-mastodon-migration?ref=privacy.thenexus.today ) first to avoid unpleaant surprises.
4) it really sucks that Mastodon migration doesn't let you move your posts, but things are getting better. Check out [Posty](https://writer.oliphant.social/oliphant/posty-this-is-how-you-take-your-posts-with-you ) and [Slurp](https://github.com/VyrCossont/slurp )
5) if you're up for having your own instance, it's really worth checking out GoToSocial. My experience with gotosocial.thenexus.today: setup and configuration were straightforward and well-documented, and upgrades have been smooth. There are also hosted options available. And, Slurp works really well with GoToSocial!
#fosstodon #fediverse

2025-04-09 22:50:09 UTC

[Effective moderation of social media to curb genocidal content](https://www.dair-institute.org/tigray-genocide/ )
"The 2020-2022 Tigray war is reported to be the deadliest armed conflict of the 21𝑠𝑡 century, with an estimated 600 to 800,000 documented deaths and more than 100 thousand victims of rape as a weapon of war. Social media platforms were instrumental in spreading genocidal content during the conflict, and failure to effectively moderate hateful content resulted in the murder of civilians. This work investigates the expertise and processes required to effectively moderate such genocidal content, and compares these findings to the expertise and processes prioritized by social media platforms."
@npub1mmf…2mx9's page has a 10-minute video and a link to the CHI paper, and a statement - which I'll include excerpts from in a reply.
#moderation #tigraygenocide #tigray #genocide

2025-04-03 04:30:33 UTC

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More notes on Organizing, Mutual Aid, and Activism on decentralized social networks
https://privacy.thenexus.today/more-notes-on-organizing/
This was originally going to be a #FediForum session ... oh well. But why let the FediForum organizers' screwups sabotage a worthwhile conversation? We decided to go ahead with the discussion anyhow. Here's the notes.
Feedback welcome! There are some specific questions in the reply, or here's [a CryptPad form](https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/d9Ag8SlOHFrBLdVG9+M00bAilHuQLjqQL27OdmuVD-s/ ) if you'd rather give feedback anonymously, but I'm also interested in reactions to topics we discussed in the meeting -- and thoughts in general!
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

2025-03-15 07:31:48 UTC

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As to whether Bluesky users have thought through the implications of "all your data is public" ... the outcry atter the datasets wound up on Hugging Face was loud enough that at least them clearly hadn't! And that's what led to Bluesky proposing these policies.
But then again there are also a lot of Mastodon users who don't understand that it's the same dynamic here with public and unlisted posts (and in general think it's more private than it is). And there are plenty of fediverse developers who ignore Mastodon's other consent mechanisms on public posts (indexable, discoverable), or complain about Bridgy Fed being opt-in. So while there's a huge *potential* advantage or the fediverse here, in practice it hasn't been leveraged.
@npub1kxu…9fca @npub1gvj…634x @npub1l2k…6m2l

2025-03-15 07:11:18 UTC

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Yes, you're misunderstanding what "public" means in this context. "Publically available data" (the GDPR term) gets significantly less protection under privacy laws than data that's not publically available -- but that has no affect on intellectual property protections (copyright etc).
Even for publically available data, that doesn't mean that people are "relinquishing all rights to the content they post." In fact, Bluesky's approach is very similar to other social media sites: whether or not the data is public, you keep ownership of the data, and grant them a limited, non-exclusive license to use the data you post for specific purposes -- Section 2 D of Bluesky's [Terms of Service (ToS)](https://bsky.social/about/support/tos ) has the details; it's pretty broad but no broader than pre-Musk Twitter, or Instagram, or Reddit. Mastodon instances generally have a narrower list of what they're going to do with the data. That's good! But publically available data can also be used by others in many situations, and these lists don't restrict those purposes.
Public and unlisted posts on most Mastodon instances are *probably* also considered publically available data under GDPR (although you can also make an argument that they're not -- see @npub1u32…xcf5's discussion in https://write.as/ulrikehahn/bridging-to-bluesky-the-open-social-web-consent-and-gdpr ). So to a first approximation, public posts on most Mastodon instances are probably treated similarly to public posts on Bluesky.
Of course, some Mastodon instances have additional clauses in their Terms of Service that relate to use for AI -- and courts have generally (although not always) found that ToS can limit use of public data. eupolicy.social for example has
> "Content on eupolicy.social must not be used for the purposes of machine learning or other research purposes without the explicit consent of the users concerned."
Which is good! But that doesn't help you or anybody else on mastodon.social or online, which don't hae a similar term. (And even for people on eupolicy.social, do their ToS apply to an AI scraper that's getting the data once it's federated to a site like mastodon.social or mastodon.online that *doesn't* have an equivalent clause in their ToS? Hmm, interesting question.)
@npub1kxu…9fca @npub1gvj…634x @npub1l2k…6m2l

2025-03-15 02:20:48 UTC

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Bluesky's been very explicit that everyting's public ... they tell you when you sign up, their FAQ goes into detail on it, Jay's encouraged AI companies to use the posts for datasets -- and they have! https://www.404media.co/bluesky-posts-machine-learning-ai-datasets-hugging-face/
> What does this mean for any content bridged from the fedi to Bluesky?
It means that it too will be scraped and put into datasets. Which is why it's such a good thing that Bridgy Fed decided to go the opt in route: the only fedi users whose posts wound up in those Hugging Face datasets were people who specifically opted in to Bridgy Fed!
> public domain
No, If you share an image on Bluesky, or a quote from a book or aritcle, that *doesn't* affect any copyright. That's a whole other can of worms for AI related stuff, currently being litigated in multiple cases.
@npub1kxu…9fca @npub1gvj…634x @npub1l2k…6m2l

2025-03-15 01:45:36 UTC

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I'm surprised to see you boosting this!
Bluesky data is public, and AI companies (and everybody else) can get access to it for free. Why do you think adding something robots.txt-y (that potentially creates legal liability for AI companies that ignore it) implies that they want to do deals with AI companies to scrape content?
@npub1kxu…9fca @npub1l2k…6m2l

2025-03-12 15:24:55 UTC

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[Notes (and thoughts) on organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere](https://thenexusofprivacy.net/notes-on-organizing-in-the-fediverses/ ) is a deep dive on the landscape today, based on multiple discussions with US-based organizers.
There's certainly room for progress!
#organizing #fediverses #ATmosphere

2025-03-12 15:21:32 UTC

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How to make progress? Here's some of the questions I have ... very interested in hearing people's thoughts! If you'd prefer to respond anonymously, [here's a CryptPad form](https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/d9Ag8SlOHFrBLdVG9+M00bAilHuQLjqQL27OdmuVD-s/ ) (it takes a few seconds to load, so don't panic).<li>What examples have you seen of successfully leveraging social networks for organizing and mutual aid? (It's fine to include examples from centralized commercial social networks as well as alternative and/or decentralized social networks) </li><li>How could social networks better support organizing and mutual aid?</li><li>What do you see as the most promising and/or urgent short-term opportunities?</li>
And if you'd like to get involved, you can leave your contact info in the form and we'll follow up with you once there are some concrete next steps in place. (Although you're also welcome to fill out the form anonymously!)
#organizing #fedviverse #ATmosphere

2025-03-12 15:18:06 UTC

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Easier said then done, but the opportunity is there. As Afsaneh Rigot says in [Can We Build Tech That Is Not Oppressive?](https://substack.com/@thedecenter/p-155550585 )
> "The details of how highly marginalized communities are criminalized are the key to how we can build robust and even scalable tech that is not oppressive. This is how Design From the Margins truly works....
> The experience of the most criminalized in the US and globally shows how power really works. This knowledge, the workarounds, can also be translated into stealthy tech design, build, and engineering choices that help navigate systems."
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

2025-03-12 15:14:30 UTC

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We need to accelerate work on a few things at once:<li>Find ways to leverage and improve the current prototypes for mutual aid, organizing, and counter propaganda, hate, and information overload </li><li>Help people move from corporate social networks - without losing their support networks, ties to communities, and connections with friends and family. </li><li>Build whatever comes next. Structurally, and in terms of applications, what will decentralized social networks, designed from the margins using design justice principles look like? </li>
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
#organizing #fediverse #ATmosphere

2025-03-12 15:11:34 UTC

if not now, when? Mutual aid and organizing in the fediverses and the ATmosphere
https://privacy.thenexus.today/if-not-now-when/
Mutual aid. Organizing. Sharing, contextualizing, and making meaning of news and health information to counter propaganda and information overload. The use cases for alternative social networks – not controlled by techbro white supremacist CEO's working with their cronies in authoritarian governments – practically write themselves in today's world. And with so many talented social scientists, designers, systems thinkers, and developers directly impacted by DOGE, MAGA, et al, there are a lot of people with the right skills for these new networks to make rapid progress.
The good news is there's a lot of promising work happening in the decentralized social media ecosystems known as the fediverses ("federated universes") and the ATmosphere (a fediverse built on Bluesky's AT protocol), including DAIR-tube, Blacksky, the #FreeFediverse, and more.
Still, as promising as these efforts are, there's still a long ways to go.
#organizing #fediverse #atmosphere #bluesky #blacksky

2025-02-16 02:59:44 UTC

Organizing on decentralized social networks (1 / N)
The Nexus of Privacy is planning a series of online discussions and video/phone calls focusing on organizing on decentralized social networks. There's a range of topics to cover, including looking at the tradeoffs between the different platforms for different use cases, brainstorming how organizers can leverage these platforms, easy ways to start exploring, and ways for groups to move as a whole.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/organizing-on-decentralized-social-networks/ has a CryptPad survey (as well as a link to a version using Google Forms if you prefer that)
Or if you prefer, here are a couple of polls along with open questions, that cover some of the key information
#organizing #fediverse #bluesky

2025-01-27 00:14:44 UTC

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https://fediversereport.com/a-conceptual-model-of-atproto-and-activitypub/ (by @npub17m8…rsw8) is a good overview of the AT Proto architecture Bluesky is built on (and briefly mentions Relays in a footnote).
https://whtwnd.com/alexia.bsky.cyrneko.eu/3l727v7zlis2i is also good but the site seems to be down right now

2025-01-25 00:07:47 UTC

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Hahaha from Cory's latest
> "The reason Bluesky is so centralized is that it's really expensive to run an alternative Bluesky server that provides a home for users who have left the main server (a "relay" in Bluesky-ese)."
No that's not even remotely what a relay is and no relays aren't the expensive thing to run.
@npub17m8…rsw8

2025-01-22 17:55:12 UTC

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disheartening indeed.
On a different subject, you mentioned Meta still isn't prioritizing account portability. Mosseri was actually quite candid about this back when Threads was announced -- perhaps more than he actually intended.
> "“I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and more savvy, if we are a place where you don’t have to > *feel like*> you have to trust us forever.”
From their perspective, the important thing is a *story* so people don't *feel* like they have to trust Meta. Of course if you actually *think* about it, they don't have any incentive to make the portability real any time soon; for chat applications, when portability is legally mandated, they're engaging in malicious compliance. But hey it's a story. From @npub1hs3…585k's latest
> "One of the Fediverse's largest servers (Threads) is owned by Meta. Threads users who feel the bite of Zuckerberg's decision to encourage homophobic, xenophobic and transphobic hate speech will find it easy to escape from Threads: they can set up on any Fediverse server that is federated with Threads and they'll be able to maintain their connections with everyone who stays behind."
Wait a second. 99% of Threads users haven't turned on federation so you can't maintain your connections with them. Threads blocks domains unless they have public feeds so if you want to turn a privacy-friendly platform like GoToSocial you won't be able to maintain your connections with your friends on Meta. You can't even export your followers lists!
But hey, it's a good story, and it *feels* like people have options. Mission accomplished, I guess!

2025-01-21 19:22:03 UTC

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A good report as always, and agreed about the importance of @npub1d43…jl5u's release.
With @npub1gq5…qcul , it's important to highlight that the moderation story is a disaster waiting to happen. @npub1xsv…q6he himself has said that he still needs to implement key functionality like moderation roles and a dashboard, and that he doesn't have a moderation team in place. Others have pointed out multiple unfixed bugs related to reporting.
A high-profile Pixelfed fiasco (or worse, blatantly illegal content) could not only destroy the reputation of Pixelfed, but the sharpnel could have an impact on fedi as a whole -- especially at a time when regulators in the UK are clarifying enforcement of the Online Safety Act, and anti-LGBTQIA2S+ fascist oligarch who run social networks that compete with fedi are in power in the US.
It would be great if Dan changes his stance -- turning off open registration on pixelfed.social until he has the moderation situation under control would be an easy first step that could make a big difference.
And also, we really need to think about what we can collectively do to limit the damage to fedi as a whole.
@npub1l2k…6m2l @npub1dkd…ra7u
#fediverse #pixelfed

2025-01-20 06:35:12 UTC

**What resources and/or suggestions do you have for newcomers?**
It's great to see so many newcomers ... and with campaigns like #HelloQuitteX and #vamonosjuntas (and other social networks getting worse and worse) it really feels like we're at the start of another wave. Welcome!
The fediverse is very different than corporate social networks, and can be confusing -- especially at first. Fortunately, there are a lot of good tips and resources to make it better. Long-timers, please share your insights! Newcomers, if there are resources or suggestions you've found helpful -- or quetions you have -- please join in!
I'll kick things off ...<li><a href="https://fedi.tips/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">fedi.tips</a> has a lot of great tips, beginning with their getting started guide.</li><li>If you use a screenreader, check out <a href="https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-accessibility-resources/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Accessibility resources for Mastodon and compatible software</a></li><li>How to find interesting people to follow? Check out hashtags, the local and explore feeds, directories like <a href="https://fedidevs.com/starter-packs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">FediDevs' starter packs</a>, and <a href="https://connect.iftas.org/news/connect/mastodon-discovery/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Mastodon’s Account Recommendations</a></li><li>Including "alt text" on pictures makes a huge difference for people who rely on screenreaders. Please do! Or, if you don't have the spoons (or are dealing with software that makes it hard to add alt text), use the <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/altText4Me" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#altText4Me</a> hashtag to ask for help. <a href="https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-make-posts-more-accessible-to-blind-people-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">FediTips has more details</a>, along with other suggestions about how to make posts more accessible to blind and low-vision people.</li><li>There are a lot of different apps out there, and many people prefer them to the "official" ones. Personally I like <a href="https://phanpy.social/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Phanpy</a>, both on my phone and laptop, but there are lots of other options too. If you've got a recommendation, please leave it in the replies!</li>
What else? Suggestion welcome!
#welcome #fediverse

2025-01-19 03:18:59 UTC

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Pixelfed's rapid growth is very exciting. Still, until you have a mod team -- and the underlying software supports mod dashboards and roles -- please consider switching to invite-only registration (and encourage or even require other instances listed on pixelfed.org to do the same).
The opportunity isn't going to go away: Meta and Instagram aren't going to get any less evil, so people who are interested now will still be interested one you've got the team and softrware in place. In fact many other social networks have successfully used invite-only phases to build pent-up demand.
But a moderation disaster (which is increasingly likely as things grow without the proper tools and teams in place) could permanently damage Pixelfed's reputation in a way that's very hard to recover from. And, until there's good moderation support in the software, you're putting both the people who sign up *and* the people who are hosting instances at risk.
@npub1xsv…q6he

2025-01-08 19:04:09 UTC

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Agreed that Meta's changes are troubling and concerning. So I would strongly urge you and any instance admin exposing their users to the harassment there to reconsider their alignment with Threads and defederate *now* .
That's expecially for you and mastodon.social. Think about the message that you're sending: "Instead of proactively protecting people on this instance, we'll wait for you to be harassed and then take action on individual harassers. And, we'll make that the default for new Mastodon users!"
There's a huge opportunity for Mastodon here if you take a courageous position. So please do!
@npub1vl7…f6g0

2024-12-24 17:07:48 UTC

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Whoops when I run the numbers it's more than my original estimate!
@npub1kqc…7wgd whoops case you want to check it:
~ 250K * $2 each = $500K ($1-5 category)
~ 200K * $5 = $1M
~ 100K * 10 = $1M
~ 20K * $50 = $1M
~ 20K * $100 = $2M
so that's $5.5K !
@npub1kqc…7wgd

2024-12-24 16:43:09 UTC

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interesting results, thanks for doing this! With roughly 1,000,000 active users in fedi today, if these numbers are representative (a big if of ourse but still interesting), then it projects to a total of $5,000,000 or more per month -- not counting labor or corporate funding.
EDIT: corrected original estimate, which was too low -- see the reply!

2024-12-13 19:22:04 UTC

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And here's Bluesky's laughably-bad announcement. On the one hand it's not surprising that they aren't banning Wormtongue -- it's consisistent with the "Protocols not Platforms" philosophy of not banning Alex Jones. But even so, it's pretty funny that the thread combines "We don't want to revealing to bad actors how to circumvent our system" with instructions for how bad actors can circumvent the system:
> "We do not currently take action on accounts that share Bluesky screenshots with commentary, unless that commentary violates our Guidelines. We will take action when someone's private information is shared without their consent, but only when it is personally identifiable and verifiable in-app."
Ah yes, like King Henry the Nth's famous "commentary" of "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Hey, he was just asking questions, right? Everything old is new again.
https://bsky.app/profile/safety.bsky.app/post/3ld7e2hrugc2r
#bluesky

2024-12-13 19:14:14 UTC

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Bluesky at a crossroads as users petition to ban Jesse Singal over anti-trans views, harassment
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/13/bluesky-is-at-a-crossroads-as-users-petition-to-ban-jesse-singal-over-anti-trans-views-harassment/
@npub19g4…6a0t has a very solid article out on the Battle of Wormtongue (although this was written before Bluesky's latest announcement, which I'll discuss in a reply)
> "People are demanding that Bluesky take a stand: It’s either a place that promises it won’t host bad actors like this, or it’s a place that promises not to inflate the reach of such bad actors thanks to its various moderation tools.
> It cannot be both."

2024-12-12 16:16:56 UTC

Bluesky and the Battle of Wormtongue
https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-and-the-battle-of-wormtongue/
Contents:<li>To suspend or not to suspend?</li><li>What's past is prologue</li><li>Frustration continues to mount</li><li>Appeasement never works</li><li>A golden opportunity</li>
Wormtongue thrives on attention so I'm not using his name in the text. Thanks to @npub1yf4…esj3 for permission to use their skeet and most excellent nickname. Thanks also to everybody else who gave me permission to quote them!
#bluesky

2024-12-08 20:04:38 UTC

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> Bluesky-social-network, Bluesky's Relay will > *never not be*> the only one.
It depends on how you define Bluesky-the-social-network. If it's just in terms of Bluesky-the-AppView, then you may well be right. If it's defined as "the people currently using Bluesky", I think it's very likely we'll see alternate Relays and AppViews within the next year. Time will tell!
> as in, this is significantly different from early Mastodon days when there was only one Mastodon instance.
Agreed. So we'll see how Bluesky and the ATmosphere evolve. My perspective is that Mastodon evolved in a way where Mastodon gGmbH had enough influence that aribtary decisions by Eugen led to innovation basically flatlining -- and Mastodon's dominance within the fediverse, combined with SWICG's inaction, has held everything back. So there's room for Bluesky and the ATmosphere to do better ... or to hit the wall in different ways. Once again, time will tell!
@npub1afm…5gp4 @npub13xy…g7xf

2024-12-08 18:41:14 UTC

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I totally agree about the large instance problem on fedi. One way to look at Bluesky is as a very large instance with internal structure attempting to avoid moderation and monoculture problems, tbd how well it succeeds on that front. And Bluesky PBC currently is far more dominant in the ATmosphere than Mastodon gGmbH is in the fediverse, so the consequences of somebody buying it are more significant than somebody buying Mastodon gGmbH (which could certainly happen although it doesn't strike me as particularly likely).
In terms of data portability, if somebody gets kicked off of .social they lose their posting history and social graph unless they've backed it up. If they have backed it up (or if they migrate before getting kicked off) they can largely recreate their social graph someplace else (although .social can still block them from communicating with anybody on .social, and there might be other instance-blocking issues, plus migraton often loses some followers). In principle the Bluesky situation is somewhat better: you can import your posting history into a new PDS, and if you're running your own PDS you don't need even the separate import/export step. In practice though right now there isn't a meaningful "someplace else" (and it's not clear if and when that will change) so the reality's not as good -- if you're blocked from the Bluesky AppView you basically can't communicate with anybody.
That said, Bluesky's *story* is much better story than fedi's "we didn't design for this and haven't made any progress in the last N years but since BLuesky started giving us a hard time about it there's now a SWICG working group that's got a draft spec that nobody's implementing!"
It's frustrating because this absolutely *could* be solved in an AP framework but nobody with resources has any incentive to solve it. In Cory's piece on Bluesky he said something like "Any system where users can leave without pain is a system whose owners have high switching costs and whose users have none", hmm I wonder why Mastodon gGmbH hasn't tried to reduce the pain of people being able to move?
@npub1afm…5gp4 @npub13xy…g7xf @npub10s0…wumq

2024-12-04 15:52:00 UTC

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Sorry to hear about warhammer.social's possible closure.
A couple more useful links on migration that complement [@FediTips](https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips ) excellent guide:
https://erinkissane.com/notes-from-a-mastodon-migration
https://guide.cutie.city/the-fediverse/migrating-servers/
@npub12nh…8j7q @npub17fn…dnvf

2024-12-03 19:04:12 UTC

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#GivingTuesday in the fediverse: instance admins, mutual aid, 501(c)(3)s, and more (5/3)
I talked about @npub1y2r…kvzk in https://privacy.thenexus.today/giving-tuesday-in-the-fediverse/ ... @npub1sac…kcpe (who like me is an IFTAS advisor) has a short thread with more at https://mas.to/@kissane/113590329106430421
Here's IFTAS' donation link once again!
https://about.iftas.org/donate
And as well as individual donations, over two dozen instances support IFTAS. If your instance has a bit of money to spare, please consider encouraging your admins to add your instance to the list!
https://about.iftas.org/our-supporters/

2024-12-03 18:58:41 UTC

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#GivingTuesday in the fediverse: instance admins, mutual aid, 501(c)(3)s, and more (4/3)
I just added one more 501(c)(3) that's aligned with the fediverse's values to my post at https://privacy.thenexus.today/giving-tuesday-in-the-fediverse/ ...
@npub1zcx…p5f0 is building the future of decentralized networking tech (social networks and otherwise)!
https://spritely.institute/donate/
Here's a great thread from @npub1zcx…p5f0 founder and Executive Director @npub1urx…v0z4 on what they're up to. https://social.coop/@cwebber/113590122851907042

2024-12-03 18:37:58 UTC

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I don't think decentralized is meaningless, I think it has different meanings and interpretations. <li>Does decentralized refer to network topology, power dynamics, or both? </li><li>If we're talking about network topology, does it matter if different nodes in the network are owned by different entities? </li><li>If an architecture is in principle decentralized, but the current implementation has one or ore single points of failure, is it in fact decentralized? </li><li>If one layer of the system is decentralized (web, PDSs) but power is heavily concentrated in another layer (search engines, relays) is it a decentralized network?</li><li>If we're talking about equitable distribution of power, what kinds of power are we talking about, and how equitable does it have to be to be considered decentralized?</li>
etc etc etc
@npub1afm…5gp4 @npub10s0…wumq

2024-12-03 07:50:15 UTC

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#GivingTuesday in the fediverse: instance admins, mutual aid, 501(c)(3)s, and more (3/3)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/giving-tuesday-in-the-fediverse/
And there's more to society than the fediverses and digital rights! Here are three other 501(c)(3)'s I'm supporting this year. If you've got the resources, please also consider supporting them – or similiar organizations in your area.<li><a href="https://palmettostateabortionfund.com/donate-now/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Palmetto State Abortion Fund</a> a 100% volunteer run nonprofit that serves South Carolinians seeking abortion care</li><li><a href="https://www.genderjusticeleague.org/give" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Gender Justice League</a>, a civil & human rights organization that focuses on elevating the rights of TwoSpirit, Trans, & Gender Diverse (2STGD) communities in Washington State & beyond</li><li><a href="https://givingtuesday.mightycause.com/story/Rebuild25" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">REBUILD</a>, a Darkness RISING program connecting formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted people of color with culturally competent therapists of color</li>
#GivingTuesday

2024-12-03 07:47:09 UTC

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#GivingTuesday in the fediverse: instance admins, mutual aid, 501(c)(3)s, and more (2/3)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/giving-tuesday-in-the-fediverse/
Non-profit 501(c)(3)s also focus on #GivingTuesday as a key part of their fundraising -- and many employers will match donations.
If you're looking to support a fediverse-related 501(c)(3) non-profit, @npub1y2r…kvzk (Independent Federated Trust & Safety) supports volunteer moderators, community managers, and administrators with a moderator community, a library of resources, DSA Guide for the Fediverse, and tools like FediCheck.
As well as individual donations, IFTAS also appreciates (and recognizes!) supporting instances, so if your instance has a bit of money to spare, please encourage your admins to help improve safety on the fediverse!
https://about.iftas.org/donate/
Two other 501(c)(3)'s who consistently do great work and align with fedi's values <li><a href="https://support.mediajustice.org/give/538942#!/donation/checkout" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">MediaJustice</a> challenges corporate media and big tech power in pursuit of racial justice </li><li><a href="https://www.fftfef.org/donate/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Fight for the Future Education Fund</a> is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists fight for a future where technology is a force for liberation— not oppression.</li>
#GivingTuesday #fediverse

2024-12-03 07:40:50 UTC

#GivingTuesday in the fediverse: instance admins, mutual aid, 501(c)(3)s, and more (1/3)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/giving-tuesday-in-the-fediverse/
Unlike corporate social networks, the fediverse is powered by people. So please keep the people here in mind a part of your giving, today and throughout the rest of the year. A few suggestions:<li>If you're on an instance run by an individual or a coop, that's a great place to start!</li><li>The <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/MutualAid" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#MutualAid</a> hashtag is filled with people who rely on giving from the fediverse – and giving money directly to people in need has a huge impact</li><li>Black-led instances like <a href="https://ko-fi.com/blackqueerlife" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">blackqueer.life</a>, <a href="https://opencollective.com/diasporaim" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">diaspora.im</a>, and <a href="https://www.patreon.com/andcomputers?ref=privacy.thenexus.today" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">blacktwitter.io</a> play an important role in the fediverse – and need support as well</li>
#GivingTuesday #fediverse

2024-12-03 06:32:40 UTC

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there are still Black-led networks of people and servers here -- and Bluesky has also pushed away a lot of Black people. And rapid growth here has in the past *diluted* the power of marginalized groups (trans and queer people most noticeably), so to the extent the growth on Bluesky is increasing Blacksky's relative power, that highlights a difference in how power is diffused there than here.
If you look at the specific dynanics of the decentralization here, it's always revolved around white dominance. Check out the pic of the invitation-only 2010 Fedierated Web Summit at the start of [Before Mastodon: GNU Social and other early fediverses](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-a-partial-history/#pre-history ). For the last 6-7 years, ever since Mastodon's embrace-and-extend of ActivityPub, Mastodon gGmbH and SWICG have the instititional power -- organizations which have in practice been unsupportive of Black-led projects and Black people as individuals (which in turn reinforces the dynamics that keep chasing Black people away).
My guess is that most if not all of the people I've seen commenting on the decentralization question would agree would this characterization. But it doesn't show up in their power analyses of decentralization -- like I say In the article, the power analyses of Bluesky's and ActivityPub's different approaches to decentralization I've seen from white people are deracialized.

2024-12-03 01:27:24 UTC

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Blacksy *is* super-interesting, so it's great that you're diving into it. Maybe I'll tweak the article to highlight that as the key takeaway earlier.
In terms of diffusion of power, is there any Black-led network of people and servers in the ActivityPub Fediverse that has as much current and potential power as Blacksky does within the ATmosphere -- or even within Bluesky? To me, that's an interesting aspect of how power is distributed.

2024-12-02 23:14:13 UTC

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I wouldn't say I'm insisting on it, I explicitly said your mileage may vary. (Also I noted that your cosplaying decentralization article was before Blacksky existed, so there was a very good reason for not mentioning it!.). To me, Blacksky is the most interesting thing about Bluesky, and them running some of their own servers today (and potentially more tomorrow) is a key part of it ... like I said, that sounds decentrailzed to me. But I also agreed that the critques of current power distribution and likely evolution are valid and important, so I understand why people who focus on that prefer to say things like "one layer is decentralized, others aren't and probably won't be, so it's not decentralized."
So If there's a different way to talk about Blacksky in those analyses without considering the inependent infrastructure they're building and their vision as an example of decentralization, great, But what I'm seeing instead is people *not* talking about it.
In terms of Blacksky providing an alternate relay, it sounds like you're assuming it would be a whole-network relay and that it would archive the data as Bluesky's Relay currently does. Neither of those are required. And in any case, 16TB isn't ridiculously expensive these days.

2024-12-02 22:13:54 UTC

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The Appendix of [Decentralization and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere](https://privacy.thenexus.today/decentralization-and-erasure-blacksky-bluesky-and-the-atmosphere-2/ ) is a roundup of various articles and posts on the question of whether or not Bluesky and the ATmosphere are decentralized and/or federated. There are lots of interesting perspectives here, including from @npub17m8…rsw8 on @npub1l2k…6m2l, [@cyrus](https://wetdry.world/@cyrus ), @npub1urx…v0z4 @npub1a6y…aeng, @npub1afm…5gp4, @npub1ljm…w8tm, @npub1mrh…6rd6, @npub1zgt…lpat, @npub1jhf…35pm, and @npub1f6r…5a2x. Every single one of those posts was worth reading, and I really appreciate the time everybody's put into it.
That said, it's still very strange to me that as far as I can tell none of you mentioned what seems to me an actually-existing example of decentralization on Bluesky today.

2024-12-02 22:07:51 UTC

Decentralization and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere
https://privacy.thenexus.today/decentralization-and-erasure-blacksky-bluesky-and-the-atmosphere-2/
There's been a lot of discussion about whether or not Bluesky and the ATmosphere (the ecosystem using the AT protocol) are decentralized. [Blacksky](https://hyfin.org/2024/11/29/could-blacksky-emerge-as-black-twitters-spiritual-successor-on-bluesky/ ) runs three feed generators, a moderation service, and a work-in-progress personal data store (PDS) as well as providing a starter pack. And the vision for Blacksky "extends beyond any single platform".
That sounds pretty decentralized to me!
But as far as I can tell, nobody else in the discussion is talking about Blacksky as an actually-existing example of decentralization. What's with that?
#bluesky #blacksky #decentralization

2024-12-02 00:52:12 UTC

Here's The Website League's Devember update ... lots of progress! It also includes instructions for how to join the Website League.
https://buttondown.com/websiteleague/archive/website-league-update-for-december/

2024-11-26 03:47:25 UTC

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Here's a print-and-fold version of Digital Defense Fund's Abortion Privacy Guide, along with instructions.
The parent post has individual images, which are easier to read online!
They also have a Canva version available at https://www.canva.com/design/DAGPRkKkw2o/UbUa9RHCaM5-FFPmbeA5qw/view
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/197/428/360/054/original/3633d91bcdeab8bf.jpeg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/202/183/203/051/original/9264362404f8ab57.jpeg

2024-11-26 03:41:49 UTC

Here;s Digital Defense Fund’s Abortion Privacy Guide, created with the input of abortion workers, legal experts, digisec experts, and patients.
DDF's materials are always extremely high quality and this is no exception!
#abortion #privacy
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/172/032/418/369/original/a4755d19504ce362.jpg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/174/402/938/000/original/6cdddaf555fe1913.jpeg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/176/776/435/031/original/567cd71c76705224.jpeg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/547/179/257/952/981/original/ffd12e9ebe933e33.jpeg

2024-11-20 03:28:45 UTC

@npub1dad…y568 very sorry for flooding your notifications, i had originally tagged you in https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113512328290399242 because I wanted to credit you for FediSky but I didn't stop to think that all the people who replied to me would also wind up tagging you as well!

2024-11-20 00:18:58 UTC

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Poll: How should people who don't want to be included in a fediverse starter pack be able to opt out? (6/7)
(See the first post in the thread for more background on starter packs)
You can pick more than one!<li>send a DM to the starter pack's creator</li><li>block the starter pack's creator (which is how it works on Bluesky)</li><li>turn off the existing profile discovery setting to opt out of all starter packs</li><li><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/NOBOT" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#NOBOT</a> tag in the profile to opt out of all starter packs</li><li>Some other way (please leave a comment)</li><li>Not sure</li>

2024-11-20 00:12:29 UTC

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Polls on starter packs (5/7)
Many accounnts filter unwanted mentions and DMs. If a fediverse starter pack creator notifies somebody with one of those mechanisms and there isn't any response, what should the creator assume?<li>it's okay to add the account</li><li>it's not okay to add the account</li>

2024-11-20 00:11:40 UTC

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Poll: How should people be notified when they're added to fediverse starter packs? (4/7)
(See the first post in the thread for more background on starter packs)
You can pick more than one!<li>An unlisted post mentioning them from the startup pack creator</li><li>A DM from the starter pack creator</li><li>Some other way (please leave a comment)</li><li>No notification needed</li><li>Not sure</li>

2024-11-20 00:05:07 UTC

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Poll: If somebody's opted-in to profile discovery, have they hoped in to fediverse started packs? (3/7)
Mastodon, Pixelfed, and some other fediverse software already have a setting about whether or not a profile should be suggested to users. On Mastodon, it's the "Feature profile and posts in discovery algorithms" seetting on the Privacy and Reach tab of your Public Profile settings. If somebody has already turned this on, does that mean they've opted-in to fediverse starter packs?<li>Yes, no further opt-in required</li><li>Not necessarily, there should be an additional opt in</li><li>Not sure</li>

2024-11-20 00:02:00 UTC

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Poll: how should fedvierse starter packs handle consent?
On Bluesky, adding somebody to a starter packs don't require consent, and it's not obvious how to remove yourself. But values are different here in the fediverse, and consent is important!
So how should people working on fedi starter packs (or the equivalent) handle consent?<li>opt-in: accounts should give permission before being added</li><li>opt-in for people, opt-out for organizational accounts</li><li>notification + opt-out: people should get notified when added, and can remove themselves</li><li>opt-out but no notification: people aren't told they're added (this is what Bluesky does)</li>

2024-11-19 23:57:53 UTC

A poll: how do you feel about the general idea of starter packs (or some equivalent) on fedi? (1/7)
Bluesky's "starter packs" make it easy to follow a bunch of accounts all at once. Anybody can create one or more starter packs, and they're used for a lot of different things; the Blacksky starter pack, for example, is great for newcomers from Black Twitter, and Newsmast's FediSky starter pack is helpful for finding folks you might know from the fedivere.
But Bluesky's implementation has some major problems: people can be added to starter packs without their consent, aren't even notified when it happens, and it's not obvious how to opt out. And any mechanism like this potentially creates "rich get richer" dyanamics and risks magnifying existing biases -- guys tend to mostly add guys to starter packs, white people tend to mostly add white people to starter packs, etc. Still, despite the problems, they're very helpful for onboarding.
I've had discussions with multiple people working on ideas for fediverse starter packs or the equivalents, and similar questions keep cropping up. So I figured I'd do a series of polls to get feedback on what people think.
To start with, the basic question, how do you feel about the general idea of starter packs (or some equivalent) on fedi?
*the Mastodon iOS app cuts off long text in the polls, so I'm including it here as well* <li>No, Bad idea for fedi, don't do it</li><li>Maybe, depending on how it's implemented</li><li>Yes, this is important functionality - get something out now, we can fix it later!</li><li>Not sure</li>
EDIT: untagged newsmast. Sorry about that!
#fediverse #bluesky #starterPacks

2024-11-18 03:33:48 UTC

The official Mastodon web user interface and mobile apps aren't great from an accessibility perspective. Fortunately there are some better alternatives – and many of them also work with Mastodon-compatible software like Glitch, Hometown, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and Friendica.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-accessibility-resources/
This is a draft, and I'm sure I missed a lot. Feedback welcome!
#mastodon #fediverse #accessibility

2024-11-17 19:43:12 UTC

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Yep. And also, magnifying existing racial and gender asymmetries. In general (not just here on fedi), white people tend to follow and recommend white people, and guys tend to follow and recommend guys. You can already see this happening on Bluesky. It's not at all obvious how to design something like this in ways that doesn't happen.
@npub1e5z…p90v @npub1xsv…q6he

2024-11-16 21:39:01 UTC

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it's not an issue with the protocol, or the software ... but Mastodon's got a well-deserved reputation for racism that's very widely known. https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/ has various links and quotes about the racism here. Also I can't remember if I talk about it there but the reason Mastodon's founder gave for not supporting quote boosts was racist, and it's language that. a lot of people have mirrored. https://privacy.thenexus.today/black-twitter-quoting-and-white-toxicity-on-mastodon/ dicusses that in detail.
You're right that it *is* an issue on Bluesky too, enough tht it drove a lot of Black people away in mid-2023. But, Bluesky at least pretends to act like they care about it. They've made some valuable software improvements in response to safety concerns Black people (and others) have brought up -- by contrast Mastodon *hasn't* made those improvements, even though thye've been requested since 2017 (by trans people as well as Black people and others). And Blacksky has had a huge impact there (I talk about it a bit the "welcome" post), enough that Black Twitter is in the process of shifting to Bluesky.

2024-11-16 21:25:04 UTC

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85% (maybe more) of the people who checked out Mastodon in 2022 didn't like it. Nothing significant has changed since. Maybe it'll improve, but what is gained by encouraging people to have a bad expereince now?
Unless things change significantly, Mastodon's very unlikely to be the destination a year or two from now.Fortunately it's not the only software in the fediverse, but oh wait you can't move your data from Mastodon to anything else. In fact you can't even move your data from one Mastodon instance to another!
And that's not even getting into. racism. Does telling Black people should move to a racist environment now -- and one that hasn't addressed its racism over the last 7 years -- because you think they'll have to in another year or two is going to persuade them?
@npub1nvx…45ma @npub1pnw…qhcz

2024-11-16 20:44:26 UTC

UPDATED: I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS ARMY, millions of Brazilians, Black Twitter, and sex worker Twitter to the fediverses!
https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmosphere-fediverse/
Yes, Bluesky's problematic in a lot of ways -- and I added a new section on that. But people leaving Xitter are looking for a Twitter alternative, and Mastodon (and other fediverse platforms) isn't a great option for that for most people. So while it's quite possible that a year or two from now everybody will be saying "oh shit time to move again", *right now* Bluesky is incredibly valuable.
Of course there's a lot more to social networking than Twitter alternatives, and [there's plenty of good stuff happening here too](https://privacy.thenexus.today/good-stuff-in-the-fediverses/ ). Still there are some problems we really need to address. So right now things are coplementary, and let's hope Mastodon and the rest of the ActivityPub fediverse takes advantage of this situation to finally make progress on its long term -- [starting with anti-Blackness](https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/ )
@npub1dkd…ra7u
#bluesky #fediverse

2024-11-16 20:36:07 UTC

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It depends. If the fedierse continues not to address its key problems, then yes, that what will happen again in a year or two. Time will tell.
In the short term, people are looking for a Twitter alternative, and for most people Bluesky's a lot better for that than Mastodon or any ActrivityPub based software. And what are the other options, Threads? Sure, Bluesky is likely to become exploitative and turn evil, but Meta's been doing that at scale for a decade already. So I generally see Bluesky -- despite all the very real problems -- as a very good thing in the short term. I just finished updating https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmosphere-fediverse/ , which goes into a lot more detail on my perspectives.
@npub1pnw…qhcz @npub1nvx…45ma

2024-11-15 20:02:53 UTC

Recommendations for accessible fediverse software?
I'm working on a blog post for people thinking of joining the fediverse and want to include this information!
Here's what I think I know so far (although might be wrong) ... other suggestions welcome
Mastodon's web UI is pretty good from accessibility perspective, but has some issues.
Pinafore used to be the most accessible web UI but isn't maintained anymore. Semaphpore is a fork doesn't seem to have had any updates in the last year, so I'm not sure of its status. Enafore is another fork but it's described as "somewhat unstable".
I haven't seen anything about what Mastodon mobile apps are better or worse from an accessibility perspective.
For Lemmy, OurBlind says that moderators have and continue to work with the developers to improve accessibility; Thunder, a Lemmy app for iOS and Android, performs well; and Mlem developers are implementing native accessibiity.
#accessibility #a11y #fediverse

2024-11-13 21:33:37 UTC

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Thanks for the thread. I agree with your recommendations: Bluesky needs to publish a clear and convincing "trust story"; and peopel should be very skeptical about the long-term possibilities of Bluesky.
Also, on the moderation front, Dorsey was replaced on #Bluesky board by Mike Masnick, who's also very libertarian. Masnick's a lot smarter than Dorsey, and does understand the importance of content moderation. Still, one of the examples Masnick's "Protocols not platforms" paper that inspired Bluesky (and Nostr) uses to discuss about why the protocol approach is better is that it allows Alex Jones fan to still reach his audience: "those who don’t wish to be bothered with his nonsense need not deal with it; those who do wish to see it still have access to it."
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech
I still see Bluesky as a useful short-term Twitter alternative (Meta and Threads are already doing all the things that Bluesky is likely do in the future, it's a lot easier to get up and going on Bluesky than Mastodon, and Blacksky is the only thing I know of in the decentralized world that's a good path for Black Twitter. Still, even without all the important points you make, and the "we don't have to ban Alex Jones" factor , they're a venture-funded startup, so once they need to monetize they're very likely to turn to an exploitative business model. So while it's situationally useful, it's not a promising long-term base.

2024-11-10 17:20:44 UTC

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From [Small Steps, Big Impact: Combating Hate Through Individual Actions](https://civilrights.org/blog/combating-hate-through-individual-actions/ ) -- it's phrased in terms of disinformation but applies to hate campaigns in general:<li>avoiding amplification</li><li>naming the motivations behind disinformation</li><li>avoiding posting the disinformation on other social media platforms</li><li>going on the offense and posting as much truthful information as possible</li><li>and using engaging content (graphics, memes, videos, etc.) that guarantees the spread of factual information.</li>
@npub1p2w…q8e9 @npub1sac…kcpe @npub1099…zgxr

2024-11-08 19:57:49 UTC

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As always, it's important to think before you engage or share. [5 ways to fight post-election disinformation on Bluesky and the Fediverse](https://about.iftas.org/2024/10/29/5-ways-to-fight-election-disinformation-on-bluesky-and-the-fediverse/ ), on the IFTAS blog, is a deep dive into tactics.
#disinfo #uspol #election2024
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/449/095/655/505/512/original/37b2bf44baf0109f.png

2024-11-08 19:43:09 UTC

DISINFORMATION ALERT: using weaponized inaccurate exit poll data to target marginalized communities
https://privacy.thenexus.today/disinfo-weaponized-exit-polls/
Well-crafted disinfo takes advantage of our emotions by getting us to amplify false and misleading messages. A specific example of post-election racialized disinfo that I’m seeing a lot of is weaponizing exit poll data to target Latinos, Black men, trans people, and other marginalized demographics.
Like a lot of disinfo, this combines a kernel of truth with misleading framing, misleading omissions, and misleading context ... it seems plausible, so even people who aren't intentionally trying to spread disinfo will amplify it. The kernel of truth here is the numbers that are being reported in the exit polls. But now lets look at the misleading omissions ...<li>The very framing of pointing to voting patterns of specific minority groups as responsible for the results omits the crucial fact that the overwhelming majority of people who voted for white supremacy are white</li><li>The exit poll data itself is almost certainly inaccurate. In 2016 and 2020, there were major flaws in the data – and these problems are especially acute when it comes to race and ethnicity.</li><li>The way the exit poll results are presented misleadingly gives the impression that communities are monolithic. In reality, "Latino voters" includes Black, Indigenous, white, and multi-racial people from many different countries living in many different places. White Cubans in Miami are very different from Afro-Latino Haitians in Springfield Ohio. By lumping them together in a single category, the exit polls obscure these critical distinctions.</li>
As @npub18x7…p6e7 says,
> "you can make it all up in more ways than one. who are those latinos? they wont break them down by country and race and that's by design."
@npub1z4k…g27u
#disinfo #uspol #election2024
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/448/991/135/056/731/original/6915fa5d534f8dab.png

2024-11-05 16:51:18 UTC

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Poll: when it comes to politics, what would you like to see in the Fediverse? (7/N)
Since it's election day in the US, another post in the What are you looking for in the Fediverse thread ...
Please check all that apply!
#fediverse #politics #uspol

2024-11-05 06:36:31 UTC

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it's something to be alert for here as well. https://about.iftas.org/2024/10/29/5-ways-to-fight-election-disinformation-on-bluesky-and-the-fediverse/ (on the @npub1y2r…kvzk blog) has a bunch of information about how to fight disinfo on the Fediverse (and Bluesky too)

2024-11-05 04:56:36 UTC

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A faux "Eternal September" turns into flatness
https://privacy.thenexus.today/flatness/
The next installment of [Mastodon, two years later](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-two-years-later/ )
Contents:<li>It's not "just like email"</li><li>Usability and gatekeeping weren't the only challenges newcomers faced</li><li>The first complicated high-stakes decision is even before you sign up</li><li>Why not help people choose an instance that's a good fit?</li><li>But no</li>
#mastodon #fediverse

2024-11-03 21:10:37 UTC

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oh blush, thanks! my frist try to include the thext int he posts was in markdown and it looked great in the but guess what, the official Mastodon app doesn't render Markdown correctly either so it was basically unreadable. Sigh. Plain text works ... but, the text body is now long enough that the poll itself isn't visible in feeds without people hitting "see more". Software, smh.

2024-11-03 20:28:38 UTC

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Poll: What are you looking for in the Fediverse? (6/N )
You can check more than one -- and if you've got other suggestions, please leave them in the comments. If you're using the official Mastodon app, you can't see longer response options in the poll; check the end of this post for a copy.
(Yet another poll in the last starting at https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383744966314976, because I keep getting good suggestions suggestions about things to include!)
Terminology note: LGBTQIA2S+ as a shorthand for lesbian, gay, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, bi, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, agender, two-sprit, and others who are not straight, cis, and heteronormative. Julia Serrano's trans, gender, sexuality, and activism glossary has definitions for most of terms, although resources like OACAS Library Guides' Two-spirit identities page go into more detial
https://www.juliaserano.com/terminology.html
https://oacas.libguides.com/sogie/two-spirit
* Cats
* Dogs
* News and current affairs from my own country
* Connecting with like-minded people
* Effective moderation where issues I report are taken seriously
* A pro-LGBTQIA2S+ environment
* A way to interact with people who know me but would prefer to stay anonymous
* Communicating with government agencies
* Not getting locked into a single platform
#fediverse #poll #lgbtqia #lgbtq

2024-11-03 06:25:32 UTC

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Here's how I'm showing it now, it looks okay on my iPhone in the official app. https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113417337885961288
Thanks again for the help on this!

2024-11-03 05:53:04 UTC

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Poll: What are you looking for in the Fediverse? (5/N )
You can check more than one -- and if you've got other suggestions, please leave them in the comments. If you're using the official Mastodon app, you can't see longer response options in the poll; check the end of this post for a copy.
(A followon to the parent polls starting with https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383744966314976, because I got several more great suggestions about things to include!)
* World news
* Sports news and discussions
* Privacy tips (inluding for elsewhere online and in the physical world, not just for here)
* Tarot, Astrology, Magic, Occult
* A place where people agree that trans rights are human rights
* An anti-racist environment
* A place where I can feel safe
* Interacting with people from different countries
* Learning and improving my skills at new languages
* Amusement and whimsy
#fediverse #poll

2024-11-03 05:31:54 UTC

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Poll: What are you looking for in the Fediverse? (4/N )
You can check more than one -- and if you've got other suggestions, please leave them in the comments. If you're using the official Mastodon app, you can't see longer response options in the poll; check the end of this post for a copy.
(A followon to the parent polls starting with https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383744966314976 , because I got several more great suggestions about things to include!)
* Bird and nature photography
* Gardening tips and discussion
* Astronomy, astrophysics, space
* Alt text on images
* Videos
* Weather and emergency alerts
* Recipes and cooking discussion
* Hashtag discussions during events and movies
* Gaming-related (onine and TTRPG)
* Something to replace #AcademicTwitter
#fediverse #poll

2024-11-03 05:20:34 UTC

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Poll: What are you looking for in the Fediverse? (3/N )
You can check more than one -- and if you've got other suggestions, please leave them in the comments. If you're using the official Mastodon app, you can't see longer response options in the poll; check the end of this post for a copy.
(A followon to the parent polls starting with https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383744966314976, because I got several more great suggestions about things to include!)
* Interesting posts about the natural world and great outdoors
* Science news
* Advice
* Alternative points of view that I wouldn't otherwise be exposed to
* Fandom-related news, discussions, events
* Arts and educational information
* Shitposting
* Something to make me think
* A place where I'm in control of what I do and don't see
#fediverse #poll

2024-10-31 05:49:06 UTC

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A tale of two prototypes
https://privacy.thenexus.today/a-tale-of-two-prototypes-2/
The next installment of [Mastodon, two years later](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-two-years-later/ )
Contents:<li>Mastodon 2017 and Glitch 2017</li><li>A BDFL gets to do what he wants</li><li>Flash forward seven years ...</li><li>Seven years later, is Mastodon significantly closer to being a good Twitter alternative?</li>
#fediverse #mastodon #GlitchSoc

2024-10-28 18:21:07 UTC

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thanks very much for the feedback. Can I ask what app you're using? I had checked it on my phone in the standard web interface and panphy and it looked okay ...
Unfortunately I can't edit the existing poll without resetting all the numbers ... drat. Maybe I'll put the text in the post or something. In any case I'll certianly keep it in mind next time, I really appreciate you letting me know and taking the time to screenshot it!

2024-10-28 07:40:13 UTC

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Poll: What else are you looking for in the fediverse?
You can check more than one -- and if you've got other suggestions, please leave them in the comments.
(A followon to [What are you looking for in the fediverse](https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383744966314976 ) because there were some otherthings I should have included!)

2024-10-28 06:57:27 UTC

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Poll: What are you looking for in the fediverse?
(You can check more than one response ... and if you've got other suggestions, leave them in a reply!)
Update: I got a bunch more suggestions, so [there's also a followon poll](https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113383913109099254 )!
#mastodon #fediverse

2024-10-28 05:43:37 UTC

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Poll: how would you describe Mastodon and the migration from Twitter that started in late 2022 after the acquisition?
(You can check more than one reponse. Or, if you've got other descriptions, please leave them in the comments)
For my take, see [Mastodon could have leaned into what it's good at](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-two-years-later/#oh-well )
@npub1dkd…ra7u
#mastodon #fediverse

2024-10-28 05:19:17 UTC

Mastodon, two years later
https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-two-years-later/
A continuation of [Mastodon: a partial history](https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-a-partial-history/ )
#mastodon #fediverse

2024-10-22 22:29:48 UTC

A lot of good stuff is happening in the fediverses!
https://privacy.thenexus.today/good-stuff-in-the-fediverses
Including:<li><a href="https://peertube.dair-institute.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">DAIR-tube</a>, the PeerTube page of Dr. Timnit Gebru's's Distributed AI ResearchCenter</li><li><a href="https://websiteleague.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Website League</a>, an <a href="https://writer.oliphant.social/oliphant/islands" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">island network</a> that's taking a very different approach</li><li>GoToSocial v 0.17, continuing their focus on safety and privacy with interaction controls.</li><li>Piefed and the <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Threadiverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#Threadiverse</a> </li><li>Bonfire's new Mosaic service along with their work on Open Science Network and prosocial design</li><li><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Letterbook" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#Letterbook</a> </li><li><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Bluesky" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#Bluesky</a> and the ATmosphere's continued momentum</li>
And that's not all! The last section of the article briefly touches on @npub1sac…kcpe's work on revealing the fediverse's gifts, Weird and the Leaf protocol, @npub1dad…y568's Channel.org and the Patchwork fork, @npub13fk…z5hw bringing [@19thnews](https://flipboard.com/@19thnews ) and hundreds of other publishers to the Fediverse, Bandwagon, a proof of concept integration of Faircamp into Hubzilla, Mastodon 4.3 ...
There really is a lot going on!
#fediverse @npub1dkd…ra7u

2024-10-15 06:17:19 UTC

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More questions than answers: another post about the Social Web Foundation and the fediverses
https://privacy.thenexus.today/swf-questions/
(Part 4 of "I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS Army, and millions of Brazilians to the fediverses!", but like other posts in the series it hopefully stands on its own)
#fediverse #ActivityPub #swf

2024-10-14 05:08:44 UTC

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The Social Web Foundation and the big elephant in the federated room
(Part 3 of the series)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/swf-and-the-meta-elephant/
Contents:<li>Intro</li><li>Let's talk about Meta</li><li>Meanwhile, back in reality ...</li><li>SWF could potentially be a useful counterweight to Meta (although I'm not holding my breath) </li><li>There are many different ways to engage</li><li>SWF and the Schism Within the Fediverses</li><li>To be continued!</li>
(originally publshed with a different title, but it didn't work well as a link preview so I changed it)
#fediverse #swf #SocialWeb

2024-09-10 05:19:45 UTC

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On second thought, an even better way to welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS Army, and millions of Brazilians to the fediverses is to write a *series* of posts about it ...
Here's part 2: Is Bluesky part of today's Fediverse?
Spoiler: it depends on your definition of "Fediverse"
https://privacy.thenexus.today/is-bluesky-part-of-todays-fediverse/
#fediverse #bluesky #activitypub

2024-09-09 21:27:02 UTC

I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS Army, and millions of Brazilians to the fediverses!
And what better way to do that than with a long post about it?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmosphere-fediverse/
#bluesky #fediverse #activitypub

2024-08-31 17:39:07 UTC

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https://bsky.social/about/bluesky-and-the-at-protocol-usable-decentralized-social-media-martin-kleppmann.pdf discusses Bluesky's approach to federation. A key difference is that their AT Protocol it's a protocol for *public* conversations. There isn't any direct analogy of a fediverse instance (although a AppView is instance-like). One key improvement over today's AP implementations are that the storage layer is separate so you can in principle host your own data (although it's still kind of janky, and only a few hundred people do) and perhaps at some point hosting services will emerge. https://berjon.com/ap-at/ looks at how AP could be implemented on top of AT
@npub18cr…ak0z

2024-08-28 17:55:56 UTC

Bluesky introduces anti-toxicity features -- including permission on quote posts
https://bsky.social/about/blog/08-28-2024-anti-toxicity-features
Some of the other highlights:<li>"hiding" replies, meaning they don't show up in the thread (aka conversation) view</li><li>timed word mutes</li><li>seeing where a post has been quoted, and the ability to "detach" a specific quote (so that you can't get to it from the original post)</li><li>notification filtering (somewhat similar to in Mastodon 4.3)</li><li>only showing replies from people you follow in the "following" feed (their equialent of the Home feed) if it's a reply to somebody you also follow (this matches Mastodon's behavior; previously, Bluesky showed all replies from people you follow in the home feed)</li>
All in all, it's serious progress, and builds on their previous work with reply permissions. It'll be interesting to see how #mastodon's upcoming quote boost feature compares.
#bluesky

2024-08-13 18:50:28 UTC

5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people
https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/<li>Listen more to more Black people – and amplify their voices</li><li>Think before you post</li><li>Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it</li><li>Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects</li><li>Approach it intersectionally</li>
The article also has links to anti-racism resources and appendices with a list of common mistkes to avoid and blocklist resources for moderators.
Thanks to everybody who gave feedback on earlier drafts!
EDIT, 8/19: I updated #2 (which previously started with "Post Less"), and also made some other changes in the underlying article - including a bit more discussion about how anti-Blackness isn't just a US problem.
Read on for some excerpts (1/N)
#fediverse #mastodon #antiracism