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@oblomov
> more nuanced forms of content flow restriction
Great point. No pre-agreement. Maybe some throttling based on the age of accounts triggering messages. Throttle less or more using various signals over time.
Trying to unfederate makes servers less useful as social tools. I saw this on the instance I was previously on.
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I'm not an admin so I obviously can't speak for them, but having just witnessed a couple of cases of users that couldn't communicate with each other because of an obvious excess of defederation (neither of the instances involved, AFAIK, deserved it) I can't but think that there may cases of excess in prudence.
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In fact, I'm possibly more perplexed by the excessive use of defederation/suspension over more nuanced forms of content flow restriction such as silencing/limiting.
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@erincandescent @dl
In some sense, the #Fediverse has already had its #EFNet moment with Gab. Still, with the massive growth it's experiencing now, and will probably experience in the future, the threat model associated with “too lax onboarding” (so to say) is real.
That being said, I'm more worried about instances getting too large to be properly moderated than by the “federate by default”.
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@dl there are simple options such as using follows as instance reputation signals, for example
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@dl I feel people who try to draw analogies to EFNet ignore the fact that IRC confers special privileges upon servers
Undoubtedly we'll need improved abuse tools, but I'd strongly like to resist allow list type systems; they're anaethematic to the intent of the Fediverse
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Mastodon has changed how I think. Twitter now seems like a server that doesn't want to federate with anyone else, and that everyone else has blacklisted. I'm in awe of how much sense that makes.
@qqmrichter yes, the Logtalk website and docs make a compelling case, I do have it in mind to try Ciao and/or Logtalk after getting some proficiency with SWI-Prolog.
I will get back later about your blog post - its long, but I see Ada *and* Prolog there 😃 hopefully, Zig too?
@CodingItWrong @danielittlewood
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@bhorst , that would have to be in the future. One step at a time.
BTW, did you know you could use RSS with a lot of sources? Fits well with more privacy as well.
@CodingItWrong as a long-time Lisp fan (and a long-time Emacs user), I feel #Prolog is more worth the force-multiplier and meta-programming buzz than Lisp. If you have the mental bandwidth, do try out Prologs like SWI or Ciao (or #Logtalk).
If you are dead set on Lisp, you could try it on a very capable platform using #LFE - Lisp Flavoured Erlang.
@danielittlewood
@tfardet i was just claiming that it is a demand-side problem. If land freed up from growing feed crops is used for growing edibles, you can avoid using fertilizer and still get enough food. Cyclic food systems have existed for millenia, but using them to grow feed crops isn't going to solve anything. If used to grow edibles, more and more land can be returned to forest.
@arianagf greetings, on the fediverse. If I recall right, I have watched you interview Vandana Shiva in a YT video.
@tfardet it is not a "supply-side" problem. A lot of crops are apparently grown to feed poultry and livestock. And a good portion of the edible crops are for sugar (and tobacco?). And the effect of it all gets twisted into "food scarcity for the poor", so as to justify increased fertilizer and #Biocide use and also #Deforestation. #VandanaShiva has been shouting hoarse on this for decades.
Avoiding meat and sugar consumption is bang-for-the-buck. For starters.
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@terokeskivalkama @rolle I don't know more about this, but apparently it is possible to run Pleroma (which should be interoperable with Mastodon) on a Raspberry Pi. Mastodon itself requires quite a lot of resources.
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> freedom and autonomy could also affect misinformation due to reduced moderation
This naivety is infuriating. As anyone here probably knows, federated social media has more moderation, not less, because every instance has at least one mods (the admin). Misinfo/disinfo flows are limited by instance level blocks of accounts posting it, and defederation of instances that routinely host that kind of posting activity. But no moderation can stop folks existing in their own...
> pockets of extremism
@Anniiii where your profile content at? And/or a post tagged "Introduction" ? People tend to also pin that intro post.
Good suggestions in this post, for starters https://mastodon.sdf.org/@EdS/107627771832495240
#CPP victim here, BTW.
@strypey sure. Just deriving from that, let me see how well Nomad is documented.
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One thing that's getting a little lost in this mix, is that some of the people desperately holding on at Twitter are because they are trapped by either healthcare or visas.
That there are systemic traps that trap worker in America so they feel unable to move freely to new employers who want them and would have better pay or conditions is *nuts* and deserves a lot more attention than it gets.
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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.
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The taboo on making a living has already resulted in exploitation on the Fediverse.
For example, all these press accounts on free instances fun by volunteers.
What's going to happen if they continue on those free instances and don't self-host? They'll start asking for support. And that support is going to take a lot of time and labour.
Are those press accounts going to pay voluntarily? Probably not -- but they'll feel entitled to service anyway.
What should they actually do? Start their own instance, pay someone to run it. That expectation should be *normalized*.
But if that's not normalized, people will again fall into the trap of "free". And that means becoming the product, much like they were the product on Big Social.
Yeah, not everyone can afford to pay for usage, and everyone should still be able to use the Fediverse for free as an option.
But if you're in a position of privilege, and have money to compensate workers -- pay them!
For example, all these press accounts on free instances fun by volunteers.
What's going to happen if they continue on those free instances and don't self-host? They'll start asking for support. And that support is going to take a lot of time and labour.
Are those press accounts going to pay voluntarily? Probably not -- but they'll feel entitled to service anyway.
What should they actually do? Start their own instance, pay someone to run it. That expectation should be *normalized*.
But if that's not normalized, people will again fall into the trap of "free". And that means becoming the product, much like they were the product on Big Social.
Yeah, not everyone can afford to pay for usage, and everyone should still be able to use the Fediverse for free as an option.
But if you're in a position of privilege, and have money to compensate workers -- pay them!
