The #ContentNation situation is a dumpster fire for the #Fediverse. What would you do if you were building something, people misunderstood what it was, and things escalated to a point that someone loaded CSAM onto your server for the sake of reporting it?

https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/contentnation-mastodons-toxicity/

Content Nation Backlash Highlights Mastodon’s Toxicity

Yesterday, Mastodon was abuzz regarding a strange new scraper that seemed to be pulling people's profiles and content streams into a platform designed around monetization. Dubbed Content Nation, the s

^{Sean Tilley (We Distribute)}

I made a thing to help me find RSS feeds, and I really liked it. So I made it prettier so you can use it too, if RSS feeds are your thing.

As it turns out, in my corner of the fediverse there’s a ton of them…

https://rss-is-dead.lol

#rss #fediverse

Hey #Fediverse, and #MastoMods!

For my MA thesis, I am looking to research #moderation on Mastodon, and specifically moderators' experiences with it, how it is enacted on their instance, as well as what it entails.

Are you a moderator of an open registration, general interest instance? If you would be willing to participate in a one-off, 45-60 minute-long (online) interview, please reply to this toot or reach me at k.k.matusewicz@student.rug.nl. Thank you in advance!

Boosts are appreciated:)

Good morning #Fediverse!

Hope the day is well for everyone. Let’s start it off with our #KoffeeWithKyle chat and see what’s on the agenda.

For me, it’s just the usual day job stuff. I also am having to up the resources for the #AllThingsTech blog as it is currently down because we underestimated the interest we’d get.

Later today will be relaxing and working on week 3 of school.

#GoodMorning #HappyWednesday #AIArt

Just realized one of my favorite place is the perfect Fediverse IRL café

• Lofi hip hop music
• Multicultural
• Random mismatched furniture
• A copy of “Das Kapital” on display
• Library with free to take books
• Gender neutral bathroom
• "Barista antifascista" stickers

#Fediverse #Mastodon #Berlin

Friends of the #BSDCafe and the #Fediverse,
Good morning and have a great week!

#Photography #Photo #Sunrise #Picture #Pic #PhotoMonday #FotoMontag #Sea

Good morning and happy Sunday #Fediverse

How is everyone doing today and what do we all have planned for today?

It's very possible the wife and I might head to the mall today, but not sure. We definitely need to catch up on some TV shows that we are behind on, so maybe that too will happen today as we keep putting it off.

Other than, just a relaxing day hopefully.

#MorningMoments #GoodMorning #HappySunday

#PieFed adds audio posts:

https://piefed.social/post/44964

#fediverse

What do you think of when you hear the word "Fediverse'?

Please note that this is only a question about the meaning of the term, not wich protocol is better or if bridges between protcols are a good or bad thing.

Boost for more reach would be nice.

#fediverse #activitypub #Mastodon #bluesky

• Instances connected by using the ActivityPub protocol. (65%, 27 votes)
• Any network of connected Servers regardles the used protocol. (17%, 7 votes)
• Something else, I wrote in the comments. (12%, 5 votes)
• No opinion about that. (4%, 2 votes)
• I never heard the term Fediverse. (0%, 0 votes)

Regular Fediverse federation check.

According to @fedidb (https://fedidb.org) 22,37% of monthly active Fediverse users are currently on mastodon.social.

I very much welcome the upcoming Mastodon feature that closes registrations if the mods and admins abandon the server (no activity for a week), but when do we finally close servers automatically that have 10k active users?

I'll post about this somewhat regularly under #FederationCheck, but if someone wants to automate that with a bot feel free.

#Fediverse #FediverseMeta #federation #MastodonSocial #Mastodon

Are you seeing spam? A poll

The fediverse is dealing with a major spam attack -- Heise has some coverage (in German).

But not everybody is seeing spam. Are you? If so how much?

@fediversenews #fediverse #spam

PS: if you are seeing spam, there's also afollowon poll asking where

Mastodon: Spamwelle zeigt Schwächen auf und weckt Sorge vor schlimmerer Methode

Seit Tagen klagen einige User auf Mastodon über eine Spamwelle. Der liegen automatisierte Angriffe auf unzureichend geschützte Teile des Fediverse zugrunde.

^{Martin Holland (heise online)}

• No spam -- lucky me! (83%, 10 votes)
• Just a bit (16%, 2 votes)
• A lot (0%, 0 votes)
• So much that I'm almost ready to log off (0%, 0 votes)

Boost if you think groups like @NGIZero and others should band together and fund a hard fork of #Mastodon that prioritizes trust and safety, and the needs of #Fediverse admins to protect their users from abuse.

⭐ Favorite if you would support with a little money, too.

#MastoAdmin #FediAdmin #spam #ForkTogether

Alright, what is the #fediverse?

"Social networks that..."

• Natively support ActivityPub (72%, 43 votes)
• Support other common protocols (6%, 4 votes)
• May use a third party bridge (10%, 6 votes)
• Not sure (10%, 6 votes)

Internationalise The Fediverse
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/internationalise-the-fediverse/

We live in the future now. It is OK to use Unicode everywhere.

It seems bizarre to me that modern Internet services sometimes "forget" that there's a world outside the Anglosphere. Some people have the temerity to speak foreign languages! And some of those languages have accents on their letters!! Even worse, some don't use English letters at all!!!

A decade ago, I was miffed that GitHub only supported some ASCII characters in its project names. There's no technical reason why your repo can't be called "ഹലോ വേൾഡ്".

Similarly, I'm frustrated that Mastodon (the largest ActivityPub service) doesn't allow Unicode usernames and has resisted efforts to change.

So I built a small ActivityPub server which publishes content from an Actor called @你好@i18n.viii.fi - it is only a demo account, but it works!

Some ActivityPub clients report that they are able to follow it and receive messages from it. Others - like Mastodon - simply can't see anything from it. Take a look at the replies on Mastodon to see which services work. You can also see some of its posts on the Fediverse.

What Does The Fox Spec Say?

The ActivityPub specification says:

Building an international base of users is important in a federated network.
Internationalization

I can't find anything in the specifications which limits what languages a username can be written in. But there are a few clues scattered about.

The user's @ name is defined by preferredUsername which is:

A short username which may be used to refer to the actor, with no uniqueness guarantees.
4.1 Actor objects

There's nothing in there about what scripts it can contain. However, later on, the spec says:

Properties containing natural language values, such as name, preferredUsername, or summary, make use of natural language support defined in ActivityStreams.
4. Actors

So it is expected that a preferred username could be written in multiple scripts. Which implies that the default need not be limited to A-Z0-9.

The ActivityStreams specification talks about language mapping.

Finally, the ActivityPub specification has some examples on non-Latin text in names.

So, I think that it is acceptable for usernames to be written in a variety of non-Latin scripts.

But What About...?

There are usually a few objections to "Unicode Everywhere" zealots like me. I'd like to forestall any arguments.

What about homograph attacks?

Well, what about them? ASCII has plenty of similar looking characters. I doubt most people would notice when a capital i is replaced by a lower L - and vice-versa. Similarly the kerning issue of an r and n looking like an m is well known. Are mixed language homographs more dangerous? I don't think so.

What if people make names that can't be typed?

Well, what if they do? Maybe not being found by people who can't type your language is a feature, not a bug. But, anyway, clients can let users search for other people, or copy and paste their names.

What about weird "Zalgo" text?

It is up to a client to decide how they want to render text input. The "problems" of strange Unicode combinations are well known. This is not a hard computer-science problem.

What about bi-directional text?

The spec makes clear this is allowed.

Do people even want a username in their own script?

I have no evidence for this. But I bet you'd get pretty frustrated if you had to switch keyboard just to type your own name, wouldn't you? In any case, why can't I have a username of @😉

What's Next?

If you build ActivityPub software, give some thought to the billions of people who don't have names which easily fit into ASCII.

If your software can see @你好@i18n.viii.fi and its posts, please let me know.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/internationalise-the-fediverse/

#ActivityPub #fediverse #i18n #mastodon #unicode

I'd like to run an instance with non-ASCII usernames · Issue #8417 · mastodon/mastodon

Mastodon usernames are currently restricted to Latin characters. I'd like to have the option to run an instance which allows usernames like "莎士比亚". I'm not saying that it should be mandatory that e...

^GitHub

What is We Distribute, exactly? 🤔

We Distribute is a CC-licensed open media project. It serves as a people-focused tech publication, with the goal of informing and educating people about three things:

1. Decentralized Communications
2. User empowerment
3. The future of the Internet

Most of what we do involves reporting on the day-to-day developments of the #Fediverse. In fact, our articles are ActivityPub-enabled, and integrate directly into the network.

However, the Social Web / Decentralized Social movement involves far more efforts and technologies that we think are also worth reporting on: #Matrix, #XMPP, #Bluesky, #Nostr, #SecureScuttlebutt, and #Solid all bring interesting pieces to the puzzle.

Our ultimate goal is to showcase the ongoing efforts to change the shape and form of the Internet itself, at a grassroots level. Join us on this exciting journey. #WeDistribute

#ILoveFreeSoftware, you love #FreeSoftware. Let's get that down. Most of the time you don't even notice that you're using a device running a #Linux kernel, #GNUtils or services like #ApacheWebserver, #Matrix etc. as they just work and don't get in your way; don't bother you reading ancient 📜 #EULA; don't track you ...

But have you ever said thank you to all the contributors supporting the projects and sustaining #SoftwareFreedom?! If not, then today's your lucky day.

Create a sharepic via @fsfe's https://sharepic.fsfe.org/#ilovefs tool and use the #ILoveFS hashtag to show your appreciation. Additionally, spend some time looking up the #Fediverse handle of your favorite projects and mentioned them.

Happy I 🧡 Free Software Day!

I think everyone needs to be aware of this: https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://snarfed.org/2024-02-12_52106 and think about whether and how they want their #fediverse accounts to interact with #Bluesky.

Admins should probably discuss with their communities whether or not they want their instances opted-in by default. I think it's unfortunate that he built it to be opt-out rather than opt-in, but Ryan does, at least, seem open to working toward mutually agreeable solutions.

Rebuilding FourSquare for ActivityPub using OpenStreetMap
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/rebuilding-foursquare-for-activitypub-using-openstreetmap/

I used to like the original FourSquare. The "mayor" stuff was a bit silly, and my friends never left that many reviews, but I loved being able to signal to my friends "I am at this cool museum" or "We're at this pub if you want to meet" or "Spending the day at the park".

So, is there a way to recreate that early Web 2.0 experience with open data and ActivityPub? Let's find out!

This quest is divided into two parts.

1. Get nearby "Points of Interest" (POI) from OpenStreetMap.
2. Share a location on the Fediverse.

OpenStreetMap API

OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of maps. It is a freely available resource which anyone can edit (if they're skilled enough).

It also comes with a pretty decent API for querying things. For example, nw["amenity"]({{bbox}}); finds all "amenities" near a specific location.

As you can see, it has highlighted some useful areas - a pharmacy and a pub. But it has ignored other useful locations - the train station and the park. It has also included some things that we may not want - bike parking and a taxi rank.

What API call is needed to get useful locations of of OverPass?

It's possible to specify the type of thing to find using nw["amenity"="restaurant"]; - but adding every single type of thing would quickly end up with a very large query containing hundreds of types.

It is also possible to exclude specific types of places. This retrieves all amenities except for fast food joints:

nw["amenity"]({{bbox}});-nw["amenity"="fast_food"]({{bbox}});

Perhaps one solution is just to return everything and let the user decide if they want to check in to a telephone kiosk or a fire hydrant? That's a bit user-hostile.

Instead, this query returns everything which has a name nw["name"]({{bbox}});

That cuts out any unnamed things - like park benches and car-sharing spots. But it does add named roads and train lines.

It is possible to use filters to exclude results from OverPass. The best that I can come up with is: nw["name"][!"highway"][!"railway"][!"waterway"][!"power"]({{bbox}});

That gets everything which has a name, but isn't a highway or railway or waterway or powerline. It isn't perfect - but it will do!

This is the query which will retrieve the 25 nearest things within 100 metres of a specific latitude and longitude. It includes the name and any other tags, the location, and the OSM ID.

;nw%5B%22name%22%5D%5B%21%22highway%22%5D%5B%21%22railway%22%5D%5B%21%22waterway%22%5D%5B%21%22power%22%5D(around:100,51.5202,-0.1040);out%20center%20qt%2025;]overpass-api.de/api/interpreter?data=[out:json];nw["name"][!"highway"][!"railway"][!"waterway"][!"power"](around:100,51.5202,-0.1040);out center qt 25;

ActivityPub

There's good news and bad news here. Firstly, ActivityStreams (which are subscribed to in ActivityPub) supports the concept of "Place" and "Location".

Once the user has a latitude and longitude, the can share it - along with a message, photo, or anything else.

Something like:

{    "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",    "type": "Note",    "content": "Here in NYC! <a href=\"https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/958999496\">John Lennon's Imagine Mosaic</a>.",    "attachment": [        {            "type": "Image",            "mediaType": "image\/jpeg",            "url": "https:\/\/fastly.4sqi.net\/img\/general\/590x786\/56367_9pxuZJD7d1hgPdaMFcFq1pipvTTMynBJsYcpHH-b8mU.jpg",            "name": "A photo of a mosaic which says 'Imagine'."        }    ],    "location": {        "name": "John Lennon's Imagine",        "type": "Place",        "longitude": 40.77563,        "latitude": -73.97474    }}

It is worth noting that Mastodon doesn't (natively) support location - if you view my repost of that PixelFed post you'll see there's no location metadata attached. That's OK! It just means that the status needs to include human-readable data.

Similarly, Mastodon doesn't support the arrive vocabulary. So this will be limited to a message with a location attached.

Other ActivityPub services do support location.

Putting it all together

Well… that's a job for next week. Probably!

• Building a web site which gets the user's location is easy.
• Getting the data from OverPass should be straightforward.
• Creating an ActivityPub server which can post geotagged notes into the Fediverse might be a little beyond my skillset! Some testing with Darius Kazemi's AP Glitch suggests this should work.

If you'd like to help, please leave a comment.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/rebuilding-foursquare-for-activitypub-using-openstreetmap/

#ActivityPub #fediverse #FOURSQUARE #geolocation #OpenStreetMap

With inspiration from @jcrabapple let's do a quick poll...

DO YOU LIKE CHOCOLATE?

Please BOOST for maximum exposure to the #Fediverse

Comment below and let's discuss what you like or don't like.

#Poll #Polls #POTD #Question #Questions #QOTD #Chocolate #AllThingsTech

• Yes! Love me some chocolate! (92%, 39 votes)
• No! That stuff is eww! (2%, 1 vote)
• Other -> Comment below and let's discuss! (4%, 2 votes)

Good morning and happy Saturday to all of you here in the #Fediverse

Tell me about your #MorningMoments such as what you hope to accomplish today, what you've already accomplished today or just a funny story of sorts!

I'm not sure what today holds to be honest. Might stay home and relax, might get out of the house for a bit with the wife. We'll figure that out shortly.

#GoodMorning #HappySaturday #AI #Art

Hey #Fediverse! @Seirdy has a 'forever' article: A look at search engines with their own indexes

One thing this article should remind you all about: there are three dominant #search indexes - Google, Bing, and Yandex. And Yandex is dominant outside of English.

But there are real options, and many of them are open source, especially for outside the commercial internet. (I am partial to the MarginaliaSearch project.)

#dev #internet

GitHub - MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch: Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing the small, old and weird web.

Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing the small, old and weird web. - GitHub - MarginaliaSearch/MarginaliaSearch: Internet search engine for text-oriented websites. Indexing ...

^GitHub

@raroun Nein, nicht abstrus, sonderen dem Zweck angepasste Plattform auswählen.
#Friendica ist Micro- und Macroblogging
#Pixelfed ist fürs Teilen von Bildern.

Dea ist eben das #Fediverse. Es gibt nicht die ein und alle Plattform für ein und alles. Sondern es gibt verschiedene Dienste - sie sind alle über #ActivityPub verbunden.

@cantences @tux @helpers

Indonesian interest in social web or #fediverse seems practically nonexistent. Not aware of any more Mastodon instances left running, the Pleroma instance will shut down in April unless someone is willing to take over, and apparently misskey.id is the only one remaining, according to @redseraphim, and maybe some private or personal instances.

From: @t1
https://pleroma.id/objects/af8dffe2-b967-4d4f-a2a5-563225996f39

Have you heard the terms "Fediverse" or "Fedi" and wondered what they are?

I've done a little article that tries to explain what the Fediverse is, and how Mastodon is a part of it:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/what-is-mastodon-what-is-the-fediverse

TL:DR - The Fediverse is a network of thousands of independent social media servers that communicate seamlessly using a common standard. Even totally different kinds of Fediverse server allow users to follow each other.

#FediTips #Fediverse

What is Mastodon? What is the Fediverse? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

^fedi.tips

Why do you like Mastodon (or any open source Fediverse app of your choosing) the most? (You can choose multiple choices)

Boosts appreciated for reach.

#Fediverse #Mastodon #SocialWeb #SocialMedia

• It's free (43%, 381 votes)
• No ads (71%, 633 votes)
• No commercial algorithms (79%, 700 votes)
• It has many apps (20%, 181 votes)
• Features towards healthier social media (like content warnings) (53%, 473 votes)
• Most features in general (15%, 137 votes)
• Not owned by a single company and cannot be bought (79%, 706 votes)
• You own your data (49%, 434 votes)
• You can choose your privacy level even per-post (44%, 390 votes)
• Something else (10%, 97 votes)

We’ve been floored by everyone’s support for Project Tapestry! Three of the pledge tiers on Kickstarter are already sold out, but there are still several to choose from with rewards ranging from wallpapers to stickers, pins, and even a free year of Wallaroo. At this rate, we’re going to need to come up with some more stretch goals soon! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iconfactory/project-tapestry

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #RSS #iOSDev

@damtux @erAck @italovignoli

Already had some conversation in the past with #LibreOffice via #Fediverse.

I miss real versions numbers, that are useful on technical level.

That's why i asked, if there is somewhere one... hidden under the hood...

Advertising should maybe be separated from engineering...

But i don't wanted to start a heavy or intense discussion...

Online media can be overwhelming. It's fragmented between countless services, websites, social networks, and apps.

You need an app that weaves together an overview of nearly everything that’s happening across all the different services you follow.

That’s our vision for Project Tapestry, the new Kickstarter we're launching today.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iconfactory/project-tapestry

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #iOSDev

Project Tapestry is a universal chronological timeline of your favorite social media services, blogs, RSS feeds & more. All updates in one place, in the order they’re posted with no algorithm deciding what you see or when you see it.

But we need your help! Check out our Kickstarter campaign to learn more about the project and the backer rewards we have planned, then make a pledge to help us turn Project Tapestry into a reality.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iconfactory/project-tapestry

#ProjectTapestry #Fediverse #iOSDev

Content warning: I'm getting a little tired of the method I use to connect to the Fediverse. Click to open/close