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Is there reliable search across #fediverse? I don’t mean built-in search on #mastodon, but a separate project, a true search engine, which crawls accounts and instances to map the whole thing and provide relevant search results to queries.

Something where I could search for non-automated Czech accounts with at least four recent posts, or just anything else I come up with, like accounts about Formula 1 or whatever.

I’m really struggling with discovery on this social network.

#fediverse #Mastodon
in reply to Honza Javorek

Štěpán Škorpil
mastodon - Link to source
Štěpán Škorpil
• •
I tried to build one, but fediverse people just blocked me and sever APIs limited me immediately, so in the end I could index just a tiny fraction of accounts. 🤷
fedisearch.skorpil.cz
in reply to Honza Javorek

Štěpán Škorpil
mastodon - Link to source
Štěpán Škorpil
• •
because they are oversensitive to any indexing. They often didn't even read what the project was about. They accused me of indexing their post and banned me. Or they accused me of no way of opting out and blocked me. Or they didn't like the opt-out way of indexing and blocked me. 🤷
With all these blocks the index lost its usefulness.
I would like to build an opt-in index, but who would sign to it in the beginning? Nobody would sign an empty index.
in reply to Štěpán Škorpil

Honza Javorek
mastodon - Link to source
Honza Javorek
• •

@stepan That’s nonsense. That’s like building an opt-in Google search, lol.

If this is how the wider fedi community behaves, I better understand why everyone is on Bluesky instead.

@Štěpán Škorpil
in reply to Honza Javorek

Štěpán Škorpil
mastodon - Link to source
Štěpán Škorpil
• •
Yep, exactly. These instances block google in robots.txt for the same reasons.
in reply to Štěpán Škorpil

Honza Javorek
mastodon - Link to source
Honza Javorek
• •
@stepan But is it widespread? I mean, do mastodon.social, hachyderm, and other big instances have this attitude, or is it something only niche instances do?
@Štěpán Škorpil
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