Mastodon

Twitter as public square seems like a perfectly apt analogy to me. It’s noisy, good for people-watching, and the people who spend all day hanging around there are probably a little off. And, if you’re trying to have a conversation of substance, probably worth moving to a quieter location, away from the guy screaming about how the world is going to end.

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I too joined the dancing guy: @olafnowacki@mastodon.gamedev.place

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https://twitter.com/TinkerSec/status/1587040089057759235

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A company like Twitter will typically have strong privacy rules and internal controls about who can see non-public messages and when. For a Mastodon instance, the rules are up to the admins. Know your folks, ideally.

(I don’t know whether Twitter does have strong privacy rules. The Mudge whistleblower documents were not encouraging on that front. And I don’t know whether the people responsible for such rules still work at Twitter! So, um, a lot of uncertainty there.)

The point is, though, that for large public companies there is a general standard of privacy. Twitter as it is today, no bets. Volunteer-run projects, you have to pay attention.

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I checked Twitter just to see what was going on. I had four tweets from the new owner in my notifications, even though I don’t follow the guy. Psychopathic narcissist.

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I don’t recall, could you unfriend Tom from MySpace, or was he a permafriend?

Yeah, Musk kept showing up in my timeline, even though I said I wasn’t interested. Blocked him. Wonder if they’ll make him unblockable in the future. It’s an academic question to me, because I won’t be there. I may have a bot do scheduled posts about new content, but that will be a one-way trip.

My concern with Twitter isn’t privacy related. I would never have an expectation of privacy on any social media platform, even if they had strong policies. I think of my posts as little publications. Completely out of my control once I hit “send.” Mastodon isn’t any different for me in that respect.

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If you have a blog, you can Publish Once Syndacate Everywhere, no more takeover anxiety. I have a minimal blog myself and hosting it on a simple shared hosting space + domain was one of the better choice I have made in my digital life (search “static site generator” for more). I would just like RSS and similar syndacated technologies to be more popular.

Interesting profiles I suggest you to follow on mastodon: ratfactor, James Gurney, Wintermute.

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I’ve just set up a Mastodon account, mainly to nab the username, though I may use it more in future. Here is my handle: @vivdunstan@mastodon.scot

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A good first start with Mastodon. Debirdify helped me quickly find some of the people I follow on Twitter, though just a fraction of the 2000+. But it’s already a welcoming place. I don’t intend to leave Twitter - I don’t believe in letting bullies win. But I’m keeping my options open. Note it doesn’t seem to matter much which Mastodon server you pick at setup, though it can limit searches. I’m a general poster and chose the general Scottish server but if you tend to be more specific eg re coding or game development etc you may want to pick a more specific server initially.

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Ok, I’m at Mastodon now:

I will try to be more constructive there, with more narrative stuff, and less shitposting. (who knows)

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I’m on Mastodon too, for what it’s worth. Those who follow me on Twitter will know that I don’t post a lot. I really don’t have much to say.

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TBH I think Mastodon needs more shitposting, haha

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Me too.

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so, i threw together a mastodon instance that over the upcoming days will be customized, but is intended for interactive fiction froods called zork.social. right now, sign ups are open.

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So…how does one actually sign up for this Mastodon thing. I thought I was good at computers but apparently not. It wants a server, I can’t see where to search for one or just sign up on the default one…

I think I figured it out…ngrh technology.

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I see you’re on Zork Social! I just woke up and am doing a lot of maintenance to get it going, including making an announcement on the server about how to use and some things to follow.

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Alright, I’ve used this search engine from Mastodon, and I cannot find Zork.social. I’ve looked for Interactive Fiction, Zork, IF… No results.

What am I doing wrong?

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Their search engine is biased. Just visit https://zork.social

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I don’t know if it’s because your server is new, but I can’t see your zork.social account in the search from some other Mastodon places… only your mastodon.social “green tea mage” one.

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