NotesToday, I learned that PyScript exists. PyScript is, at its core, some rigging to make Pyodide, a WebAssembly port of the CPython Python interpreter, real easy to use as a proper client-side web scripting language. Just include one <script> tag and now <script type="py"> is a valid thing you can have in your website. Put Python code inside of it, interact with the DOM, the works. I think that rules and/or is kind of horrifying, depending. Obviously, for me, the immediate question was: Can this run Mastodon.py? And the answer is: Yes, very competently.FeedUnfurl
NotesSo the problem Bluesky is dealing with is not so much a problem with Bluesky itself or its architecture, but one thatās inherent to the web itself and the nature of building these training datasets based on publicly-available data. Van Strienās original act clearly showed the difference in culture between AI and open social web communities: on the former itās commonplace to grab data if it can be read publicly (or even sometimes if itās not), regardless of licensing or author consent, while on open social networks consent and authorsā rights are central community norms.FeedUnfurl
NotesSo what's it like to set up your own GotoSocial server? Well, I can walk you thru what I used for my setup. Yours might be different; that's OK! I made these up-front choices to simplify the operational overhead because I didn't want this to be a hassle and I don't need the extra engineering that comes from trying for nine nines of uptime:
NotesBluesky is built by good people who care, and it is providing something that people desperately want and need. If you are looking for a Twitter replacement, you can find it in Bluesky today.
However, I stand by my assertions that Bluesky is not meaningfully decentralized and that it is certainly not federated according to any technical definition of federation we have had in a decentralized social network context previously. To claim that Bluesky is decentralized or federated in its current form moves the goalposts of both of those terms, which I find unacceptable.
However, "credible exit" is a reasonable term to describe what Bluesky is aiming for. It is Bluesky's term, and I think Bluesky should embrace that term fully in all contexts and work that they can.FeedUnfurl
NotesI built Sill because I value the people in my social network, and I believe I can learn the most about the world by reading what they read and hearing what they have to say. Sill listens to them at scale and helps me understand the conversation. In the month or so Iāve been using it myself, Sill has completely changed my relationship to my social network.Unfurl
NotesFree software canāt solve the power imbalance between users and software makers alone by giving to the former the possibility to run, study, and distribute both original and modified copies. Such approach fails to acknowledge that the problems we face with proprietary software go beyond technological aspects, and that is possible to easily reproduce toxic patterns within open projects. Collaborative efforts take a lot more than just making the code available to anyone, being primarily based on human interactions and emotional labor.Unfurl
NotesBut I do know that the energy on Bluesky is exciting, that the app and website are very usable, and that, as a journalist, I appreciate a platform that does not and says it will not punish links in any algorithm and which mostly operates in reverse chronological order. I think that the āStarter Packsā that let you follow tons of people at once according to your interests have made the onboarding process really easy. Whatās happening on Bluesky right now feels organic and it feels real in a way no other Twitter replacement has felt so far, and it feels better than X.com has been ever since Elon Musk took over. If the masses are going to move off Twitter, we can do much better than Threads. And we could do much worse than Bluesky. FeedUnfurl
NotesAll this to say: the Bluesky team seems like theyāre earnestly working toward a decentralized platform, but they have a lot of work ahead of them. Years of effort, in my estimation. In the meantime, Bluesky is slightly more decentralized than, say, Facebook ā but not by much. Yes, you can host your own data. Yes, you can scrape all of the content on the network. But you canāt do anything with it unless youāre attached to the Bluesky service. I believe this will change with time, but it will be prohibitively expensive and weāre not there yet.FeedUnfurl
Notes If theyāre motivated, tooled up, and plugged into communities of support fediverse server teams can provide context-sensitive, high-touch local moderation for their membersāwhile also connecting to a broad landscape of other well-governed servers. But can new fediverse members find them? FeedUnfurl
NotesOn Saturday 8 July 2023, user accounts started disappearing from the Vivaldi Social Mastodon instance. What was going on, how did this happen, and what were the consequences?FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesRelay List is a site that indexes and tracks various ActivityPub relays that have been shared with the public or with the creator. Each relay is checked every 30 minutes, updating the number of participating servers, the registration status, and if the relay is online. This information is useful for server administrators when considering adding a relay to their instance.Unfurl
NotesThe tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook. But weāve been here before.FeedUnfurl
NotesThen I realized Home Assistant has all the parts I need. Specifically it has an RSS integration called Feedreader and a notification integration for Mastodon. All that I needed to do was configure them, per their docs, and create an automation to post new RSS items. Hereās the automation I initially came up with:Unfurl
NotesTootski is a browser extension that allows you to boost, follow, or favorite from outside your home Mastodon server, and instantly share any non-Mastodon page you might be reading.Unfurl
NotesI wrote recently about how you can use Mastodonās API to make bots that post random images and make data charts, but you donāt have to automate just bots. Let me show you a few fun things you can do with your own profile.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThe purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the infrastructure used to operate the Mastodon instance, and ancillary services, that make up vmst.io. Unfurl
halcy log - Mastodon.py in the browser!
Bridges & scruples
Bluesky, AI, and the battle for consent on the open web
How decentralized is Bluesky really? -- Dustycloud Brainstorms
Introducing Sill | Tyler Fisher
The Great Migration to Bluesky Gives Me Hope for the Future of the Internet
Maybe Bluesky has āwonā | anderegg.ca
revealing the fediverse's gifts
What happened to Vivaldi Social? | Thomas Pikeās other blog
Evolving Mastodonās Trust & Safety Features ā¢ Renaud Chaput
Relay List - Connecting the Fediverse/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24596746/236620_Activitypub_New_Social_Protocol_HHerrera.jpeg)
ActivityPub is the next big thing in social networks - The Verge
Don't mind me, just setting up my #tootski.
Automating your Mastodon profile with Pipedream.com | Stefan Bohacek
Infrastructure | docsĀ·vmstĀ·io
Carl Chenet / feed2toot Ā· GitLab