Mastodon

How much of mastodon is customizable by the server/instance maintainer and how much is centralized?

I’m wondering, if it’s just an open source program you run on your laptop, could someone just alter the code to harvest info or install malware? Even something dumb like just adding a line for storing passwords in plaintext. Or is there something in the way it’s set up that prevents these kinds of abuses?

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I’m a little confused. End users aren’t downloading software at all. Mastodon is just a website.

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Oh, maybe I’m wrong then. I thought that mastodon was run by individuals by downloading open source code and compiling it and running it on a server themselves, and that the fediverse is just a bunch of those servers communicating. But it sounds like from what you’re saying that I’m wrong, and it’s a website hosted on some centralized servers somewhere, which would be a relief I guess since the code would be uniform.

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Things like “adding a line for storing passwords in plaintext” are discussed in the responses to this topic here. I found it via an internet search in response to your query and haven’t read it all!

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Yes and no. The servers are decentralized (federated) as you say, which comes with the caveats you mention. But at least it takes some bandwidth and computing power to host an instance, so not every joker with a “laptop” can do it. So hopefully @caranmegil is doing the necessary security stuff like applying patches to the web server software, etc.

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This was very useful. It was mostly people saying “yes, this is dangerous, you just have to trust the owner the same way you trust Reddit or Twitter”.

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Thank you. Just joined, @pinkunz@zork.social . Will share odds and ends not worth a forum topic and WIP updates if anyone is interested. Thank you, @caranmegil .

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“yes, this is dangerous, you just have to trust the owner…”

So, we’ve been talking about this on the IFTF planning slack.

I really like the idea of setting up an IFTF-managed Mastodon server. It seems like an obvious path for sorting out the trust question. The admins and moderators would be IF community folks, just like this forum, IFDB, IFWiki, and so on.

This is not meant to undercut William’s server! The whole point of Mastodon is that you can choose your home base as you like.

This project is in the planning stage but it will take a couple of weeks to get set up. Yes, we could throw up an instance overnight – clearly that’s possible! – but we want to make sure we have a solid foundation: self-hosted instance, scalable configuration, moderators lined up, code of conduct sorted out (in line with other IFTF CoC documents).

I’ve pencilled in the end of this week (the US Thanksgiving break) to get at least a test server running. It may be a few more days before it’s open to the public, though.

In the meantime, feel free to explore zork.social or any other server. People are using the #InteractiveFiction hashtag across servers to tag IF content. You can search on that to see what’s going on.

(I’ve seen some use of #IF but that gets tangled up with people talking about C/C++ source code.)

(It’s considered polite on Mastodon to use capitalized hashtags – #InteractiveFiction, not #interactivefiction. They both work, but capitalized is better for screen readers and so on.)

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Nice. Despite some really pleasant engagement I feel a bit niche for gamedev

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Yeah, it’s a nice group of people, but I’d quite like the idea of an IF instance especially as my interests are even more niche. :slight_smile:

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And I plan to do the same with my little one that is starting to grow up through careful feeding of a village (which apparently is what they say is needed).

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Growth is definitely a big concern and I know the main admin of mstdn.social, who has been facing that struggle fiercely. Also, yes feel free to or to not use mine. It’s the variety that helps spice up Mastodon, much like the entire Fediverse

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Servers don’t actually “see” a new server until they’ve been introduced to it. So when someone sets up a new server, there’s usually a period where it’s semi-invisible until its existence is propagated through the network. Boosting a post where others can see it usually enough to get the process going.

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I assume you were starting out by trying to sign up through the official app. It’s totally reasonable to think that’s the proper way to do it, but it’s actually better to sign up via the web interface of a specific server, and then connect to your account through one of the apps. They should really make that more clear in the instructions on the app.

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No, you had it right. Mastodon itself is server software, and it can be modified. There are several forks, in fact — Hometown, for example, which basically sets up a private space for accounts on that server. Darius Kazemi, who authored Hometown, emphasized that the admin–user relationship is always one of trust, however implicit.

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I can’t seem to receive the confirmation email. Is there something about periods inside of gmail addresses?

EDIT: And of course, now it works. Am I being hazed?

I am @HanonO@zork.social

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And fortunately, a few of the relays I am trying to federate with have responded. If you go to the “Federated” timeline, you should see a lot more now. Message me on Mastodon if there is a bad acting instance. I will investigate ASAHP and controversially de-federate that instance with zork.social.

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Is there a preferable way to share content from Mastodon? Twitter of course is accounted for here and does a neat one-box, but there seems to be no “copy link to post” feature inside of Mastodon that I’ve found to display and link to someone’s post.

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There is if you press the horizontal dots.

Am I missing it?

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