I wrote a small script to open/close registrations on #Mastodon servers based on user count so that smaller servers can better cope with the current load.
You can find that script on @Codeberg :
https://codeberg.org/Windfluechter/check_mastodon.sh
You'll need to make some changes to the script (editing the limits) and most likely also want to use https://codeberg.org/Windfluechter/cleanup-mastodon-users.sh to automatically remove inactive accounts on your site to reduce the user count again
Did you know that the first scientist to show that changes in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could affect the Earth’s temperature was a woman?
In 1856!
Eunice Foote broke scientific ground that remains more relevant than ever but history overlooked her.
https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.6.4.20210823a/full/
Keep in mind that almost all of the fediverse (including almost all Mastodon instances) is run by volunteers!
You should adjust your expectations accordingly - nobody is trying to sell you anything here, but that also means that you cannot make the sort of demands that you might make of a corporation.
And don't forget to send a donation to your instance admin!
one thing I think that might be lost on newcomers is the fact that this past week has been BANANAS for everyone who's been on the site for years, and if you feel like people are being snippy or pushy about social norms, that's probably why.
on a normal week when people talk about "hey please CW that" or "please don't spam your tweets here with a crossposter" or whatever they're more likely to do so patiently and explain the reasoning behind why we do things that way but on a day like today things are more likely to get a little snippy or terse.
don't take it personally! the old timers are trying to maintain social norms in the face of a flood of change, and they're worn out. keep that in mind if you think to yourself "hm; this place doesn't seem that friendly". give it some time to get back to normal before you bounce.
This is a recreation of a Twitter thread of my response to someone who said re: scientists moving to Mastodon: "Leaving the global community to enter a silo makes no sense."
I think this represents a common misconception about Mastodon! The entire point of federated social media is that it isn't a silo. On Twitter you are in a Twitter silo. On a Mastodon instance you can interact with anyone on ANY instance.
[thread continues :) ]
solarpunk.moe now presents...
the glitch-soc cybre.space theme !
This theme is inspired on the late cybre.space instance that many of us remember fondly.
Is it 100% perfect? No. But I will continue to tweak it as necessary.
If you have a glitch-soc instance feel free to give it a try. The theme is hosted here.
Please remember to use content warnings generously! Including for political content - not everybody can deal with a constant stream of politics in their timeline. I promise, people will click through the CW if they're interested!
Het is de sfeer, niet de bubbel
COLUMN Floor Rusman
"Ik heb ze niet allemaal gesproken, maar ik vermoed dat de nieuwe Mastodon-leden niet op de vlucht zijn voor andersdenkenden, maar voor een omgeving die een oprechte discussie steeds minder goed mogelijk maakt. Met hun vertrek willen ze niet polariseren, maar juist staken tegen het grote polarisatiespel. Als Musk echt in de beschaving geïnteresseerd was, zou hij dat begrijpen."
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/11/04/het-is-de-sfeer-niet-de-bubbel-a4147353
Hacky folks, please resist finding ways to scrape the fediverse, build archives, automate tools and connect to people via bot without their consent.
Just resist the urge. Because you're not going to think to check for robots.txt, but you ought to, that's how we communicate we don't want to be involved. You're probably not going to bother to read the various terms of service for the instances you touch, many of which explicitly ask you not to do any scraping or automated activity beyond normal use of the service. You're not going to know to respect people using the NoBot hashtag that was meant to prevent automated follows. You're certainly not going to parse user profiles and pinned posts to learn how people like to be approached, what will get you blocked, or even think to heavily throttle your activity because instances are falling over in response to load.
Whatever your thing is, make it 100% opt-in. Make it appropriate for a significantly more at-risk user than you are. Make sure it forgets things, purges info about servers it can't contact, can't operate in any sort of logged-in mode where consent is an issue.
We will straight up help advertise your cool thing if it respects users properly and takes the time to consider the safety and preferences of every person involved. There are a lot of fun, thoughtfully-designed toys! And there are a lot of people really tired of having to come and tell you off when you wanted to help, honestly. Help yourself and ask around before you flip on your cool new thing, let folks point out what you're missing.
PSA to everyone who is thinking that: if we wanted things to work like they do on Twitter, we would be on Twitter. There's a reason it doesn't work that way
In the process of moving to @joepie91. This account will stay active for the foreseeable future! But please also follow the other one.
Technical debt collector and general hype-hater. Early 30s, non-binary, ND, poly, relationship anarchist, generally queer.
- No alt text (request) = no boost.
- Boosts OK for all boostable posts.
- DMs are open.
- Flirting welcome, but be explicit if you want something out of it!
- The devil doesn't need an advocate; no combative arguing in my mentions.
Sometimes horny on main (behind CW), very much into kink (bondage, freeuse, CNC, and other stuff), and believe it or not, very much a submissive bottom :p
My spoons are limited, so I may not always have the energy to respond to messages.
Strong views about abolishing oppression, hierarchy, agency, and self-governance - but I also trust people by default and give them room to grow, unless they give me reason not to. That all also applies to technology and how it's built.