In the last few months, many people have called on the EU to start supporting open alternatives to US-owned social media sites. The thing is: The EU has been doing that for some time already. It has financed, among others, ActivityPub, Mastodon and PeerTube. For @netzpolitik_feed, we spoke to Michiel Leenaars, who professionally gives out buckets of EU cash to open source projects.
The EU is paying a fortune for broken commercial software, criticizes Michiel Leenaars of the Dutch NLnet Foundation in an interview with netzpolitik.org. Together with his team, he supports open-source, free solutions — funded by the EU.
Zprávobot.news 📰🤖 je veřejně prospěšný 🖥️⌨️, který🪞oblíbené a většinově 🇨🇿🇸🇰 X/🐦 účty přinášející na 🐘 jinak chybějící 📰, ⚽️ 🏒🏎️, informace o 📱⌚️💻📡, 🎞️🎶🎭, a někdy i 🤣🤪.
#MastoAdmin folks who weren't around the #Fediverse and #Mastodon back in 2018 may not know (or those who were, may have forgotten) how unpopular trending tags were when the project leader forced it despite extensive criticism about creating abuse vectors and clawing back promises of creating an algorithm-free network.
I think it would be cool to be able to see some of the most popular hashtags of the last 24 hours. It could fit nicely at the top of the "public" panel.
@Peter Vágner @Dieguito 🦝🧑🏻💻🍕 How conversations work is not unified all across the Fediverse. Even how connections work is not unified.
Mastodon has taken over the follower/followed principle from Twitter which is always illustrated with arrows with one point. A following B is illustrated with an arrow from A to B. A being followed by B is illustrated with an arrow from B to A. A and B following each other mutually is illustrated with one arrow from A to B and one arrow from B to A.
It appears to me that Friendica has adopted this to become more compatible with Mastodon. But its several descendants, created by Friendica's own creator, starting with Hubzilla, haven't.
Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte still have the bidirectional "connection" or "contact" as the default. It's illustrated with one arrow, but with one point on each end.
Also, all three understand a threaded conversation as an enclosed contruct entirely owned by the conversation starter. Everyone on these three who has the start post on their stream always actually has the whole thread on their stream.
In fact, all three have Conversation Containers implemented. This feature was originally created in the streams repository in 2022. Forte has had it from the get-go as it started out as a fork of (streams). It was eventually turned into FEP-171b and backported to Hubzilla last year.
All three make sure that everyone who has a post on their stream also always has all comments on that post, at least those that are made after they have received the post.
This works on two basic principles:
All comments go directly to the original poster because the original poster owns the thread.
Those who have the post automatically receive all comments from the original poster.
In a pure Hubzilla/(streams)/Forte system, your above example would look like this:
User 1 and User 2 are connected.
User 1 and User 3 are connected. (This doesn't even matter.)
User 2 and User 3 are connected.
User 2 and User 4 are connected.
Much simpler than explaining everything with "following" and "being followed", isn't it?
Now, the conversation works like this.
User 2 sends a public post, thus creating a Conversation Container of which they are the owner. User 1, User 3 and User 4 receive the post.
User 3 comments on User 2's post. The comment goes from User 3 to User 2, who is the owner of the conversation, and it is automatically forwarded to User 1 and User 4 who already have User 2's post on their streams.
User 4 comments on User 3's comment. The comment goes from User 4 past User 3 straight to User 2, who is the owner of the conversation, and it is automatically forwarded to User 1 and User 3 who already have User 2's post on their streams.
The only mentioning that occurs here, if any, is User 4 mentioning User 3. This is not necessary for User 4's post to reach anyone. This is only necessary to make sure on Hubzilla (which doesn't have a tree view) that User 4 is replying to User 3's comment and not to User 2's post.
On Mastodon, for comparison, everything depends on who follows whom, who mentions whom and whose instance knows whose instance.
Bringing this highly requested feature to #Mastodon and the fediverse is not as trivial as some might think, but quote posts are coming. Here is our latest write-up about our progress:
Unfortunately, this year I could not join nor organize any in-person celebration, BUT of course I want to share my gratitude to the many, countless #FreeSoftware services I don’t merely use, but actually depend on.
Last year, I decided to focus only on #YunoHost, because it would have been crazy to list all the projects I use and I love.
This time, even if I will most certainly forget someone, I am challenging myself to mention all the #LibreSoftware my life is powered by.
#Obtainium, for making me directly download apps on my phone, and @fdroidorg for distributing them
#AuroraStore, for proxying the download of apps I am doomed to get from Google Play
@element, for developing #Synapse, even though the new proprietary Synapse Pro is VERY PROBLEMATIC AND DISAPPOINTING
#Fractal, for being the most beautiful and awesome #Matrix client ever
@signalapp, for keeping me connected with the people I love
@Mastodon, for also maintaining a feature-packed experimental fork (#GlitchSoc), that is what Pan runs
#Tuba and #Moshidon, for being the most beautiful and awesome #Mastodon clients ever
#Firefox, for still remaining the best possible #browser choice, despite #Mozilla’s governance messiness
@openstreetmap, for allowing us to find the right path, both literally and metaphorically!
@organicmaps, for being the simplest, cleanest, yet feature-rich #OSM client and navigation app
@protonvpn, for making me browse safely from/to anywhere in the planet and @protonprivacy #ProtonMail, for hosting my email, despite the latest alarming political statements…
@libreoffice, for allowing me to draft documents with ease, the last of which was my #CV
#LanguageTool, for preventing me from making embarassing spelling mistakes
@photoprism, for safely storing and indexing all my photographic memories, on Aby, and for providing stellar and friendly support too!
#Actual, for moderating the very likely risk of ending up completely broke, since it forces me to manage my finances consciously and coherently
@readeck, for storing and sorting ALL my varied and overwhelming inputs
@nextcloud, for storing and synchronizing my data, for its #calendar, its #tasks, and all its awesome apps
#Rustdesk, for preventing my friends and family members from going crazy, by allowing me to remotely connect to their devices and directly address the issues they have
@forgejo, for giving us a chance to truly control and collectively develop the sources of our software, but most importantly @Codeberg, for RESISTING, RESISTING, RESISTING, despite the hatred and attacks nazi assholes throw at them
@musicbrainz for keeping music knowledge open and free, and @ListenBrainz for scrobbling the crazy music I listen to
The @fsfe, for promoting this celebration and fighting the good fight!
Lastly, but most importantly, the biggest thank you goes to all the free software libraries and dependencies the above mentioned #software are made of/built with, including #C, #JavaScript, #Python, #Rust, and all community-maintained programming languages.
With the latest update to #Mastodon's web app, we show you a little reminder when you're about to post a picture without adding alt text. Alt text is crucial for accessibility, but has other perks too, such as making it much easier to search for your post—or filter it. Of course, the reminder can be simply toggled off in preferences.
The government of the state of Tamil Nadu in India is offering an enormous cash prize to anyone who can crack the code of an ancient script used in the Indus Valley civilization.
I'm just posting this because I figure if there's some big brain who can decipher the script, and that person needs money right now, there's a decent chance they are posting cat pictures on #Mastodon.
The enigmatic Indus Valley civilization left behind a script that today's historians haven't yet deciphered. While amateur theories abound, scholars are increasingly relying on computer science to crack the code
It was my dad who first alerted me to this weird term, 'Synaesthesia' in the 90's. I forgot about it for a time, but recently rediscovered it. Turns out I have it and so do many other blind people. In this episode of my podcast, we discuss it, I explain my version of it and also read out comments from a thread I started on social media from others that also have it. Only after recording did we realise that our children both have it too, despite not being blind, so we'll talk about that in the next episode.
Welcome to episode 20 of StroongeCast with Andre and Kirsten Louis.In this episode we give you the answer to last episode's question, leave you with another,...
📣 Happy #GlobalSwitchDay to all the brave frontrunners out there!
For whom February 1st came a little too soon, don't worry! Just try again on March 1st and celebrate Zero Discrimination Day in the beautiful #fediverse. Alternatively, you can switch on April 1st, as only fools stay behind ;) or join your friends on May 1st and put your ideals to work.
Le sette meraviglie di Mastodon glitch-soc (e di poliversity.it)
Eh già, Mastodon sa andare spesso oltre i limiti conosciuti, e questo grazie al fatto di essere un software open source, cui chiunque può apportare personalizzazioni interessanti. Oggi parliamo del fork Mastodon Glitch-soc, quello utilizzato nella nostra istanza Poliversity!
Nice. How to leave #X / #Twitter and #Instagram? In the edition of tomorrow‘s newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine offers valuable tips and highlights alternatives in the #Fediverse, such as #Mastodon and #Pixelfed.
A must-read especially for @Gargron from @Mastodon and @dansup from @PixelFed and of course @helpers / @admins
Sie hadern mit Elon Musks Kurznachrichtendienst X und sind auch nicht mehr glücklich mit all dem, was Mark Zuckerbergs Meta-Konzern anbietet? Kein Problem. Es gibt Alternativen.
Sie hadern mit Elon Musks Kurznachrichtendienst X und sind auch nicht mehr glücklich mit all dem, was Mark Zuckerbergs Meta-Konzern anbietet? Kein Problem. Es gibt Alternativen.
and this is exactly why I use #mastodon It can’t be controlled to the same extent Facebook can What needs to happen is for people here to advocate for the usage of platforms like this, so we can slowly increase the user count here past 10 million and beyond Bc Facebook has advertising and we don’t
Tak se zdá, že se po cca. 2,5 letech běhu své solo instance Mastodonu dostávám na limit databáze. Zkusím zapnout automatické mazání příspěvků starších jak 2 roky, co to udělá. #Mastodon #mastohost
DJs.social is a friendly mastodon instance for DJs of any kind. Discuss your selections, techniques, equipment, and gigs. Share your mixes, videos and inspiration.
With today's update, we've improved the look of the alt text modal you see when composing new posts on #Mastodon, and added some information about the significance of alt text for accessibility and how to write it.
For those migrating to the #fediverse from #Facebook, the experience can be a bit overwhelming. Choosing an instance/server can be daunting, not to mention trying to match basic need with feature set. One thing I can recommend when inviting folks to the fedi is to gently get across that it's not exactly what they're used to. They have to be a bit more hands-on, since there is, for the most part, no algorithm.
From working in tech support for about 13 years, I learned that when introducing something new to the user, it's best to take one aspect and focus on teaching that to them. Get them a foundation, help them get comfortable, then move on to the next aspect. Education = empowerment.
Here's a list of the protocols I use/have used and my experience with them. I've done a little footwork, and made a list of servers by protocol for users to peruse. Courtesy of FediDB! I recommend going to each instance's about page and reading up on such info as character limit, location, instance focus, blocklists, and who they federate with.
One thing I can say for sure: My interactions in the fediverse - with a couple of exceptions - have been pleasant and rewarding. Fedi is truly a breath of fresh air when compared to the mainstream platforms.
Mastodonfedidb.org/software/mastodonOf course, the most widely known of the protocols. I've had more experience on it than any other. Mastodon instances usually have a 500 character limit. If one is particularly verbose, it may not be ideal, as you have to create a thread in order to have a longer post. There are other mastodon instances with larger character limits. Again, best to look at an instance's about page to get the lowdown.
Sharkeyfedidb.org/software/sharkeyProbably my favorite thus far. Sharkey is a fork of the MisKey protocol, and has a rich feature set. It has a selection of reaction emojis, so you can do more than just "like" a post. If you're versed in MFM formatting language, Sharkey also has you covered. Character limits are usually higher. Sharkey.world (the instance I'm on) has a 5000 character limit.
Friendicafedidb.org/software/friendicaFor a more Facebook-like experience, and a practically unlimited character limit, Friendica offers a bit more familiarity to a fediverse newcomer's experience. It has events, calendars, and you can create groups, though you actually create a new page to act as a group. In all honesty, I find Friendica a bit clunky, but that's just personal opinion.
And that's my offering. I hope this is useful, and as always, if what I presented needs correction anywhere, please feel free to let me know, just be constructive.
By popular demand, a single post to boost global switch day across multiple platforms on February 1st 2025.
For those who can no longer get behind Musk or Meta's new policies and feel like switching (e.g. from #Whatsapp to #Signal, from #Instagram to #Pixelfed or from #X to #Mastodon) I made you some graphics to use freely in communicating with your contacts.
In einer Welt, die von rechtspopulistischen Figuren und Tech-Giganten beherrscht wird, stellt das #Fediverse (#Mastodon) eine essentielle Alternative dar. Es bietet einen Raum für dezentrale Kommunikation, der frei von kommerziellen Interessen und der Manipulation durch zentrale Plattformen ist, und fördert eine digitale Kultur, die Unabhängigkeit, Vielfalt und respektvollen Austausch anstelle von Hass und Desinformation in den Mittelpunkt stellt. ✊
🌟 OSCLOUD: Od malého projektu k velké Open-source komunitě! 🌟
Začali jsme jako malý projekt na podporu Open-source aplikací, dnes máme: ✅ Dva Mastodon servery ✅ PixelFed s 1000+ uživateli ✅ PeerTube VHSKY pro videa ...a další! 💻 A teď s radostí představujeme nový web 👉 web.oscloud.cz/ Za jeho podobou stojí @cynik_obecny – díky za skvělou práci! 🙌 Připojte se a objevte svět Open-source – svoboda, soukromí a bezpečnost u nás vždy na prvním místě!
Je viens de faire mon #eXit! L’exode de X est massif. Ne perdez pas un seul de vos abonnés. Grâce à #HelloQuitX j’ai inscrit 1003 nouveaux passagers pour partir vers #BlueSky & #Mastodon. Retrouvez automatiquement vos communautés le #20Janvier via app.helloquitx.com !
Hello fellow people of #Mastodon. My name is Nick and I'm 25 years old. I'm currently looking for a full-time job and have been since the beginning of this year. I have years of experience with Microsoft Excel and data aggrigation, as well as other Microsoft products though I'm also willing to use other programs. I also have some experience with accounting and I'm willing to learn quickbooks through on the job training if necessary. My resume is available here for reference: 1drv.ms/w/s!AlLCVRViUqvZhp1TBf… I'm looking for a full-time position because I feel I am ready for it and I do have to start paying my student loans in 6 months so please, if you're able #Boost so I can #GetFediHired. If you're looking for someone who's willing to work hard and do quality work, I'm your guy. #Employment, #Jobs, #Blind
One of the most important things I consider when choosing a social media platform is whether people can read what I post without being nagged or forced to create an account. For many of my friends who don’t really care about #Mastodon, gultsch.social is just a website they can drop by occasionally to see what I’m up to.
This is NOT Twitter.
This is MUCH better 🐘
Take the time to familiarize yourself with this new way of life.
Interact with others genuinely,
let go of the numbers.
Discover new features,
let go of the old ways.
Read about the culture here.
Meta unveiling big changes to Threads, Instagram, and Facebook today. Zuckerberg is abandoning fact checkers in favor of an X inspired Community Notes system in a move to restore “free expression” and reduce moderation mistakes
Dass #Follower zahlen von Accounts auf kommerziellen, sog. #SocialMedia Plattformen keine Messgröße mehr für den #Erfolg/ #Reichweite sind, veranlasst Marketing-Agenturen seit Jahren die sog. Organic Reach Rate (#ORR) zu ermitteln. Also die Zahl der Accounts, in deren Timeline Posts ohne Bezahlung tatsächlich angezeigt werden, z.B. socialstatus.io/insights/socia… Was meint Ihr? Auf Mastodon müsste die doch 100% sein?
Wäre das nicht ein Punkt, an dem man die theoretische Reichweite z.B. mit #Facebook und #Instagram vergleichen könnte?
Ja, ja, ich weiß, #Statistik ist im FediVerse nicht soo populär. Aber für Institutionen und Organisationen ist es schon wichtig, ob es vergleichbare Kriterien gibt, z.B. für @OeRR_bewegen@chaos.social oder #HochschulenInsFediVerse und vielleicht hat @mho@social.heise.de als Experte für SoMe-Referer auf Webartikel dazu einen Gedanken?
Weather has always influenced our lives: from agriculture to outdoor activities, to extreme events that, thanks to modern technology, can now be predicted with greater reliability. Personally, weather plays a significant role in my daily decisions, which is why I decided to create a service tailored for the Fediverse.
FediMeteo uses Open-Meteo data to publish updates every 6 hours, including current weather conditions, forecasts for the next 12 hours, and predictions for the upcoming days. Each country is served by its own dedicated instance (e.g., it.fedimeteo.com for Italy), managed through snac to ensure simplicity and efficiency in publishing.
You can follow FediMeteo directly in the Fediverse (on Mastodon and compatible platforms), via RSS, or by visiting the dedicated page for your city (e.g., fr.fedimeteo.com/paris).
Currently supported countries include: Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands – with many more regions coming soon!
FediMeteo is hosted on a FreeBSD-based VPS, with each country isolated in its own jail to ensure security and scalability.
Visit the main site to explore the national instances and start following your local weather updates today: fedimeteo.com
Happy weather monitoring to all! 🌦️
FediMeteo is dedicated to my grandfather, who every evening would give me the weather forecast based on TV, radio, and his personal experience. He would convince me that the weather would be bad, so he had an excuse to accompany me to school instead of me going alone.
FediMeteo brings real-time weather updates to the Fediverse, covering cities across multiple countries. Explore country-specific weather forecasts and RSS feeds.
As 2024 comes to an end, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve built together during the first full year of life for BSD Cafe. Launched on 20 July 2023, this project has grown far beyond what I could have imagined. While I haven’t tracked full uptime data, I can confidently say that the downtime was less than 30 minutes overall - even though the main VM hosting our services moved multiple times (including a switch from a Proxmox hypervisor to bhyve on FreeBSD, for the sake of alignment with our mission). In a world filled with over-engineered HA systems, we’ve outperformed many “big-name” cloud providers. Not bad for a community project, right?
For me, this has been an incredible journey. The users here are not just participants - they’re collaborators, and their positivity has been inspiring. The content shared and created at BSD Cafe has been valuable not only to the BSD community but beyond. What truly sets BSD Cafe apart is the openness for dialogue and exchange. Whether it’s social media posts, Matrix discussions, repositories in our brew, or RSS feeds, people seem to genuinely appreciate what we create and the conversations we foster.
BSD Cafe is a journey - one that grows, evolves, and continues. Our goal isn’t endless growth (we’re a community, not a business) but rather to maintain a welcoming, inclusive space where everyone feels a sense of positivity and belonging. For me, opening any service with “bsd.cafe” in the domain brings joy and pride. That’s the spirit I’ve tried to convey, and I hope it resonates with all of you, whether you’re active BSD Cafe users or friends of the community.
Promoting self-hosting and #OwnYourData has, as a side effect, inspired some users to “go solo” with their own setups. But even then, they remain part of BSD Cafe - in spirit, in purpose, and in connection.
Here’s a look at what we’ve achieved together this year:
- mastodon.bsd.cafe: 370 total users Active in the past month: 207 Active in the past six months: 286 - snac.bsd.cafe: 14 total users Active in the past month: 7 - blendit.bsd.cafe: 61 registered users - matrix.bsd.cafe: 23 users - brew.bsd.cafe: 29 users - 80 repositories - freshrss.bsd.cafe: 25 users - miniflux.bsd.cafe: 11 users - press.bsd.cafe: 9 users - myip.bsd.cafe: Constantly used by various users - wiki.bsd.cafe: Could use a bit more love and content, but it fulfills its role as a functional homepage. - tube.bsd.cafe: Still in testing - Peertube 7.0 update is on the way.
For detailed stats from our reverse proxy and general router (excluding media services, which generate most traffic but are handled via caching reverse proxies), you can check here - updated hourly: netstats.bsd.cafe
The journey of BSD Cafe continues, and I look forward to seeing where 2025 will take us. Together, we’ve built something special - something driven by passion, shared purpose, and a little bit of the BSD magic that makes all of this possible.
Here’s to a new year full of joy, serenity, and connection. Thank you for being part of this adventure.
Wishing you all a fantastic 2025 - and THANK YOU! Stefano
🚀 Phanpy byl aktualizován! 🎉 Právě jsme nasadili novou verzi phanpy.cz ! 📢 Verze 2024.12.28.119d4b0 💬 Máte návrhy nebo jste našli chyby v překladu? Lokalizace stále není kompletní, takže uvítáme jakékoliv návrhy na zlepšení a pomoc s překladem. A big thank you to the developer @cheeaun for his amazing work on this project! 🙌 #Phanpy #Mastodon #Update #Localization #OpenSource
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