Joshua Casey 😷 @JoshuaACasey@social.cleverlibre.org

A few recommendations for life on Mastodon:

1) Follow anyone you think looks potentially interesting; you can always unfollow later, and they may lead you to new people via boosted posts.

2) Boost posts you think are worthy, so others can discover new content.

3) Don't obsess on replicating your Twitter follows on Mastodon; let it be its own experience, and grow it organically. Obvs follow anyone you miss from Twitter, but this isn't a 1:1 replacement; have fun, follow your instincts.

@darnell @pre You know what I think is crazy, but awesome? How individuals folks are like, "You know what? I want to build something so I'm just going to make it happen." And they do it. I've been talking to a whole lot of devs like @dansup, @thatonecalculator, and @Are0h and they're doing more than a billionaire with paid staff at his disposal.

A lot of us moved our blogging to places like Twitter, because it was convenient and easier to be seen.

If this meltdown leads people to going back to their blogs, or at least learning the essential downside of centralization, that will be a positive outcome.

If some rich dude can buy the public square, then it wasn't the public square.

Here's a comment for incoming Twitter users: I've found that some are really put off by the way Mastodon requires push and pull to get to information. Rather than Elmo telling you what to read (and steering you to most incendiary content), you have to go look for it and choose to consume it. Most notably, I've come to think of "Content Warnings" as instead subject lines, just like you'd use in an email, so readers can scan whether they want to read further.

Congress is, yet again, looking to sneak through a very dangerous bill that will do tremendous damage to the internet. All in the name of "children's safety." https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/17/bad-news-for-the-internet-congress-looking-to-sneak-in-dangerous-save-the-kids-internet-bill-into-year-end-omnibus/

Mastodon: Private & Secure? I take a deep dive here and explore the question.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/mastodon-private-and-secure-lets-take-look

No technology can save us from ourselves, but building a more interoperable social media environment could be our do-over on the current lock-in model. It could be awesome, if we don’t screw it up. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/11/fediverse-could-be-awesome-if-we-dont-screw-it

RED ALERT: hearing @SenSchumer is falsely claiming he has heard “no opposition” to #KOSA despite LGBTQ+ and digital rights advocates repeatedly explaining how this bill is a disaster with a lot of the same problems as the EARN IT act and similar bills.

He’s currently planning to attach it to the must pass omnibus. This would be a disaster. Please contact team (at) fightforthefuture (dot) org if you’re part of a civil society group that can help. We’re organizing a letter etc

Nice victory for the 1st Amendment, as a Florida court grants an injunction against Florida's censorious "Stop WOKE Act" https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/novoa-v-diaz-order-granting-motion-preliminary-injunction

Any agency still contracting with this company must immediately http://dumpID.me

The Congressional investigation of \@IDme showed what ❤️Fight, \@AJLUnited & \@EPICprivacy said months ago: http://ID.me lied about its facial recognition technology and the problem it claimed to be addressing
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-17/id-me-overstated-jobless-fraud-to-win-us-contracts-house-finds