Tag: mastodon
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It’s possible to talk about The Bad Space without being racist or anti-trans – but it’s not as easy as it sounds
The title applies to me as well, and I’ve probably said some things badly in this article. Apologies in advance. I’ll update the post as problems surface. Join the discussion in the fediverse “Following UI Integration”, from FSEP proposal This matters from a safety perspective because if somebody follows you they can see your followers-only…
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Blocklists in the fediverse
Join the discussion It would be great if Mastodon and other fediverse software had other good tools for dealing with harassment and abuse to complement instance-level blocking – and, ideally, reduce the need for blocklists. But it doesn’t, at least not yet. That needs to change, and in an upcoming installment I’ll talk about…
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Mastodon and today’s fediverse are unsafe by design and unsafe by default – and instance blocking is a blunt but powerful safety tool
Do you have thoughts? hoodieaidakitten, Mastodon’s Complicated Relationship with Queer Activism, July 2018 Others remain active – and forks like glitch-soc continue to provide additional tools for people to protect themselves – but Mastodon’s pace of innovation had slowed dramatically by 2018.8 Mastodon lacks basic safety functionality like Twitter’s ability to limit replies (…
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Six posts, a presentation, and a preview on privacy and prototyping: Fediverse update, July 3
As usual it’s interesting times in the ecosystem of decentralized social networks known as the “fediverse”. It’s always grown in waves, and now thanks to Reddit’s ongoing footgun and Twitter’s latest management brilliance, there are at least two in progress. And while the last several waves have focused primarily on Twitter competitor Mastodon, this…
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How to choose the right Mastodon instance?
Originaly written November 2022, updated July 1 2023 for the next wave. Feel free to skip to the resources for finding the right instance for you. Or, if you want some background, and reasons why the choice of an instance matters so much, read on! A lot of people are once again looking at the…
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We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re federated: How queer, trans, and non-binary people helped create Mastodon and are shaping today’s fediverse (REVISED DRAFT)
Draft! Work in Progress! Feedback welcome! Join the discussion on https://fedipact.online/, created by trans enby girl lesbian gender terrorist vantablack As always, it’s interesting times in the fediverse. As Rochko said, it grows in waves. Millions of people created Mastodon accounts late last year in the wake of Twitter’s acquisition by a transphobic, racist, techbro.…
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Don’t tell people “it’s easy”, and six more things Kbin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon (REVISED DRAFT)
Originally published June 9, revised June 10. DRAFT! Feedback welcome – Most of the suggestions below are targeted at developers, admins, moderators … but I decided to lead with one that everybody can help with. For many people, very much including me, the Fediverse isn’t easy. I’ve been on Mastodon since 2017 and I…
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#Privacy activism on Mastodon and in the fediverse
“Decentralized social networks could be a good match for (decentralized) grassroots organization” – me, in Grassroots activism is hard. Can open source help? at Open Source Bridge 2017 Mastodon’s grown rapidly over the last several months, and there are now probably a couple of million active accounts in the fediverse (the broader compatible ecosystem of…
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#Privacy activism in “the other Washington”: #waleg #MyHealthMyData #PeoplesPrivacyAct and more
Last updated February 1, with an example link to a “call your legislators” action. “Washington state privacy and tech justice advocates have continued to build our power over the last two years. The environment in 2023 is much more favorable than it’s ever been for strong privacy legislation – nationally, and in Olympia – so…
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Black Twitter, quoting, and white views of toxicity on Mastodon
Last updated: January 12, 2023. See the update log at the bottom. For a detailed look at design considerations of a “quote boost” implementation, see the followon post Social threat modeling and quote boosts on Mastodon “The platform is made up of people. Elon Musk bought Twitter, but he did not buy the communities that…
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Flocking to Mastodon? Here’s what you need to know!
Next Tuesday (December 13), at 9 am Pacific / noon Eastern: Are you heading to Mastodon as a Twitter alternative or curious about what it is and how it works? Or want to share your own experiences? Join RI Labs Leadership Circle Member & Founder of the Nexus of Privacy, Jon Pincus, in a conversation…
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Mastodon privacy: you can’t really opt out of search engine indexing
There are a lot of reasons people might not want their posts on a social network to be indexed by search engines. One of the most important is personal safety. Harassers often use search engines to find out information about the people they’re targeting – or to find new people to target. So Mastodon gives…
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Mastodon: a partial history (DRAFT)
Last major update: December 3. See the update log below for details. DRAFT! Feedback welcome!I’ve shared the draft on @inquiline@mastodon.social on Mastodon Then again, whiteness resists change. As Are0h says “It’s culture. And whiteness, as Du Bois identified years ago, is committed to fighting to assert itself in yet another new space.” Unfortunately a lot…
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Lessons (so far) from Mastodon for independent social networks
Update, November 2022: This post was originally written in May 2017. Since then I’ve updated by fixing typos and adding new links but haven’t changed the lessons. In 2018 I noted that Mastodon has continued to make progress, and that were new lessons to learn, so added “(so far)” to the title. Flash forward to…