Martin Ruskov @mapto@social.cleverlibre.org

Happy to share a preprint examining how well #BERT-based models can represent Early Modern English text. We used a previously-used bias-detection approach to compare the ability of models to predict phrases in language variants from the past
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.05034
@mapto
@histodons @linguistics

USI National Council unanimously passes motion against #Proctorio

“We would not want to associate with such a company that so viciously persecutes any and all opponents, contrary to public debate and freedom of expression that we hold so dear as an academic community.”

https://trinitynews.ie/2024/02/usi-national-council-unanimously-passes-motion-against-proctorio/

@danhon my point mainly is, regardless of what form these projects take, is that it's the effort of many people, trying to solve all variety of problems. It existed long before Mastodon, and there's a lot of amazing development going on in the background that's totally independent of it.

We try to write about as much of it as we can over at @wedistribute.

https://wedistribute.org

@danhon

"Right now, there is *only* the Mastodon application and Mastodon clients, and those clients speak the Mastodon API, not really ActivityPub. There is only a network of Mastodon servers, the amount of other-ActivityPub happening is negligble, which is super sad but understandable."

I'm sorry but i have to call that BS. The core problem isn't that there is no traffic outside the mastodon platform. The main problem is, that you mastodontists don't get to see that by default and by design.

That's why i included the #Fediverse #Service i use, #Friendica, explicitly in my fediverse name. Otherwise you wouldn't know.

Besides that, there is a lot of #fediverse communication happening right outside the ActivityPub Realm, namely in DFRN, Diaspora* and Zot federations.

It is mastodon who adopted this #Fediverse so poorly, that usually even rich text and formatting, like inline images within posts, are cropped down to the "mastodon default view". Totally crippling some content on the way.

And while we're talkin about content, mastodon and the mentioned other federations don't even make the majority of mastodon alternatives and alternative services..

There is #Peertube, #Pixelfed, #Lemmy, #Misskey, #Funkwhale, #Pleroma, #WriteFreely, #Wordpress(!), #Bookwyrm, #Mobilizon, #Castopod, #Sharkey, #GotoSocial, .. just to name some few.

Again, usually you only get to see mastodon compatible content.... Which means, things like groups don't work.

Instead of a nice video presentation like on peertube, you just get a link most of the time.

And so on...

There is even a weirdo mastodon user accounts bot around, which falsely counts _ALL_ known #fediverse accounts as mastodon users, which is totally bonkers.

If you would like some real stats, here are 2 bots providing a more neutral painted statistic:

@fediverseobserver with fediverse.one/display/fdc30534… (coincidentally friendica based ;))

and

@fediverse with mastodont.cat/@fediverse/11189…

And i will not deny, that sadly most traffic is happening between mastodon servers lately..

But saying that other traffic is negligible .. is just plain BS.

Since they need all the support and help they can get, I'll put this donation link here: https://archive.org/donate

We'll see what happens there but the point is the same: the Copyright Cartel and publishers want to kill libraries as we know it and this is the first major step into that goal.

It's time to archive the Archive turn it unto a decentralized platform before it's too late. I hope someone out there is working on that plus libraries need to do this too.

#library #libraries #books #reading #archive #decentralization #web

Activists rally to save Internet Archive as a lawsuit from publishers threaten to shut it down https://decrypt.co/31906/activists-rally-save-internet-archive-lawsuit-threatens

If people are smart, it's time to archive the Archive right now. In other words, fork it and turn it unto a decentralized platform. I hope someone out there is working on that.

Plus you have to think libraries need some decentralization as well as this lawsuit could kill libraries as we know them.

#library #libraries #books #reading #archive #decentralization #web

@freemo oh for sure — i’m not discontented at all. i just have an inkling of how much effort can be involved in this stuff and so wanted to express my appreciation 🙂

Born in 1885, Clara Belle Williams became the 1st Black graduate of New Mexico College of Agriculture & Mechanic Arts (now NMSU).

While a student, many professors did not allow her into lecture halls so she took notes from the hallway. When she graduated in 1937, commencement ceremonies were canceled bc a group of students refused to walk with her.

Williams persevered despite discrimination, earning recognition as a teacher & lifelong learner. https://libexhibits.nmsu.edu/onlinexhibits/cbwilliams/index.html #HistoryRemix #history