I wonder if I hit a setting. Let me fix that if it is the case.
It appears, they do not allow people to share their posts.
I imagine this is an anti-bullying strategy. Limit the arena in which something can be easily shared, the less likely there will be pile-on.
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This is what happens by copying the URL (does not link to actual post but instead to my account/profile):
Highlight and copy an entire post minus avatar: (It works, but kinda sloppy - I manually used Discourse to quote box it)
Space Hobo :verifiablebike:@spacehobo@teh.entar.net
@HanonO Speaking as the guy who’s held zork.net for over a quarter-century, I envy you folks for snapping up zork.social!
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Heh, it’s kind of fun that my toot is being used as an example here.
Part of the problem is that I posted it as a locked message. The 
icon in the datestamp area is a sign that I wasn’t trying to clutter my followers’ feeds with this message. (It’s slightly personally identifying; but I wouldn’t post anything I was worried about to Mastodon anyway, so please don’t worry that you may have broken any sacred trusts or anything.)
The URL for that message is https://teh.entar.net/@spacehobo/109383829631949879 which doesn’t exist or show for me in a private browser session. You’ll notice it also remains a “bare” URL when rendered from markdown to a message in this thread.
When I’m logged in, I can open it just fine in my mastodon window, and see the whole conversation again.
Space Hobo :verifiablebike:: "I've been working on a #PunyInform book that foll…" - teh.entar.net ← This is my only pinned message right now, and is publicly visible. I just right-clicked the timestamp link and pasted it in here, and you can see it’s already begun to try and summarise the message contents here. And yes, Mastodon’s deliberately-weakened search facilities (to cut down on bullying/doxxing) make hashtags extremely relevant on that platform.
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I am so sorry, I’m still learning this! I apologize for breaking sacred trust but I still refuse to use the term “toot” 
Mastodon has so many more controls I’m glad to learn about. So the idea was that post wasn’t supposed to be fruitful and multiply. Good to know!
And as I click the … in other posts, I do see the full spate of controls, including “copy link to post” that works as I’m expecting like so:
I just happened to try it on the wrong message!
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Regarding the message privacy settings, it’s basically down to four options:
-
Public: visible for all. This is where new posts usually default unless you’ve locked your account somehow. It will put your message on various public federated timelines. -
Unlisted: visible for all, but opted out of “discovery features.” This means anyone can see it, but they have to go looking for it. It’s common for threads to begin with a message, and replies are . I try to replies in general unless I feel like I’m having a Very Public Conversation anyway. -
Followers-only. This is the setting I used above. It just means anyone who wants to read this has to first follow me. It’s a nominal hurdle for my public account, but someone who has locked their account down will moderate followers anyway, allowing this to have more power.
- @ Mentioned people only. This is a sort of ersatz “DM” system. It’s not secure in the same way e-mail isn’t secure: admins on any server that receives the message could trivially read the message. But it’s enough for directed messages to specific tagged people. It’s probably more useful as a group chat feature than a “DM” system.
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On servers that use the Hometown fork, there’s also an option to post only to the server. That way, you can use the local feed as a private forum.
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I wanted to jump ship from mastodon.social before sharing my non-inform7tips account; having unlocked that achievement, my account for boosting pictures of cats and such is now:
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(does boosting cat pics somehow count against your local server?)
I’m enjoying Mastodon a lot - not just as an escape from Twitter, but as I hang in there it’s literally cultivating itself into a microblogging stream that is just exactly the stuff I want.
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heh, nope. It’s just that mastodon.social offers accounts to anyone with an email address and it’s so big and growing so fast that some servers have put some limits on interacting with it and even talked about blocking it, but I don’t know if any have gone that far. I wanted to be on a smaller server.
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Sorry if this is a bit late…
I’m @autumn@trilobite.space; I think I’m already following a lot of the people here. trilobite.space is a small personal-ish server for now.
Also, has anyone tried making an IF-playing bot for mastodon yet? Maybe a z-code interpreter that lets you interact via direct messages?
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Sandestin (https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@sandestin@sandestin.deckc.hair) is such a bot, but I’ve only tried it very briefly.
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I saw Sandestin go by too on the #InteractiveFiction hashtag, but was quite confused by it.
The author 'nandalism’s old posts from November suggested you interact with it in a Fedi sort of way, but the web version of the link given, sandestin.deckc.hair/u/sandestin , now seems broken. Unclear if you can still interact with the account @sandestin@sandestin.deckc.hair via Fedi messaging (have not tried).
(Also: “This concept is entirely inspired by Club Floyd. … it is based heavily on Honk (for the activitypub part) and uses Dumb Frotz for the Z-machine part.”)
This more recent post also talks about the name “Sandestin” and links to sandestin.deckc.hair , but says “(it is not fediverse in any way)”. Maybe you’re now supposed to interact with it as a website?
So I’m very confused. (It doesn’t help that I find the author’s “honk” instance software confusing to interact with as well)
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When I tried it, the idea was “Follow this Mastodon account and then say /help to it, and you will be playing the game.”
https://honk.deckc.hair/u/nandalism/h/4c919jPPsS2sW14fz1
I did this around Nov 29th and it worked. Played a couple of moves of Planetfall (not from the beginning).
However, it doesn’t seem to work the same way now? Not sure what the deal is.
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I have nothing to add to this conversation save self promotion:
@MiloM@mastodon.gamedev.place
Also thanks as well, I had no idea what a ‘place’ was till I read this thread XD
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I also joined: @agat@mastodon.gamedev.place
I never used Twitter much, but following IF folks was the best part of that, so I hope my Mastodon experience will be similar, minus all the negative parts of Twitter 
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I noticed that it was unavailable recently. I thought it was a glitch. But maybe not, if it’s still down.
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