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Been working on a new project the last couple of months and it's finally ready for beta release!

#Fedimeister is a #Java based #Mastodon client (available for #Linux, #Windows and #MacOS under the Apache #opensource license) with a focus on #writing and #journalism. Features:

* Break long texts into threads
* Scheduled posting
* Hashtag research
* #Twitter quote tweeting emulation

fedimeister.onyxbits.de

@fediversenews
@fediverse

reshared this

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

what is ‘hashtag research’?

As I’m teaching fam about migration from walled-gardens, I say ‘find good stuff by saved #hashtag searches’. But doing this is not obvious or easy in the apps I use.

in reply to D2

@cascheranno

I'm afraid, it is the other way around here: so far, the tools are not meant for discovering content, but helping you to make your content more discoverable.

@D2
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

does it help you curate tags so you consistently / easily add appropriate tags? Like, let me click a few from my usual-tag cloud? Could be snazzy.

The edit-long-toots example you screenshotted looks killer, btw.

in reply to D2

@cascheranno

Curating tags sounds like an excellent idea to implement! Will have to give it some thought.

And thanks for the Kudos :). That thread feature was also killer to implement 😂 . I have two example threads made with it in my timeline:

home.social/@raccoon/110141189…

home.social/@raccoon/110126394…


🧵 [1 / 12]

So, the new #Twitter logo is a #dog now. The Doge #crypto Coin logo to be more precise. What can we say about that just by looking at the technical details of how this was implemented? Let's make another #Mastodon thread with #Fedimeister!

(Sorry for the repost, had to make some amends).


@D2
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

My work computer blocked its installation so I might wait for the full version. Would love to schedule toots.
in reply to Jill Minor

@jillrhudy

If you have Java already installed, you can also just download the "Linux version". The Windows version is really just an .exe wrapper around that.

in reply to Jill Minor

@jillrhudy

I will have to work a bit on those installers 😅 .

Let me know how the composer works for you. I'm interested in improving its usability/documentation.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

I can't decipher the date and time thing for scheduling toots, so that's one thing. It says my toot will be scheduled for 2023-04-06T15:37:15.768-04:00 so that's April 6 but when and in what time zone?
in reply to Jill Minor

@jillrhudy

Yeah, I will have to give that some thought. For now:

When you toggle the radiobutton, Fedimeister will insert the current time as UTC with an offset to your local time (in your case: UTC - 4 hours). Instead of changing the String directly, use the spinners below to add days, hours or minutes.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

@jillrhudy It would be so great not needing to install Java Runtime on MacOS because the security risk from Java Runtime Environment is considerable.
in reply to Michael Mrak

@MichaelMrak if only my Integrated Library System were not Java-dependent because Innovative Interfaces is only interested in bells and whistles and never changes base products appreciably because then libraries would just buy the base products. I must have Java to do my job.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Worked on @fedora, installed openjdk and used the Main Menu application to create a app shortcut with the jar command line.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Do you have a link to your SCM? Would be cool to check out the source code.
in reply to samuel

@samuel

SCM is coming soon. I don't want to host on Github, so I'm currently evaluating my options.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

@Patrick, the Linux guy #Github is not the only git-based source code repository hoster out there, in case that's what you've believed until discovering this post.

Two other alternatives which are not owned and ruled over by #GAFAM or any other Silicon Valley megacorp would be:
#Codeberg (codeberg.org)
#NotABug (

)
in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

I am aware. To be more precise: I'm fed up with hosted solutions and would prefer to self host in order to avoid getting screwed over in the long run.

Just have to work out some technicalities first.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Thanks. If you find a good alternative to GitHub please let me know about.
in reply to samuel

@samuel

I'll likely just self host the bare repository without all of the usual bloat. Currently writing a blog post about it.

in reply to samuel

@samuel some are mentioned on a fork of this thread, but @raccoon is looking for self-hosted. Then maybe forgejo.org is worth point out. It runs #Codeberg too (or rather codeberg runs a patched version).
in reply to smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

@smallcircles Thanks for the hint. If I remember correctly Forgejo is the successor to Gittea which went into a private company‘s hands. I already host Gittea but Forgejo could be interesting if it offers more features.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Congratulations on the launch. Once you have the source available would be great to add to delightful.club/delightful-fed…

@samuel

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

quoting posts is mostly against the mastodon communities wishes, plus any emulation people might do isn't respecting the privacy of posts and toots. Quoting tweets is one of the major factors that made it a toxic shitshow, we don't want mastodon to become that, we don't want a new twitter. Can you make it so that quoting is opt-in, or at least opt-out? I'll check this app indeed, and if it's relatively easy to install on linux as well as accessible to screenreaders, I'll use it, at least for a while.
in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover Have any substantial polls been done to see what people want? I've seen loads of posts from people who want quote posts. A lot of new people have appeared over the past several months and what they want may differ from earlier users.
in reply to AskPippa🇨🇦

@AskPippa that's actually very valid. Personally, even if quote posts would be a thing, I wouldn't use them, but I just don't see any use for them besides telling your followers, or mobs, or whatever, hey, look at this moron, let's all trash them. I mean, that's what I've seen of twitter and how it's used there, but when the mastodon team will design a quotes system, it'll be opt-in for users and all that stuff, that's a much better alternative to this forced way of doing it.
in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover

On the other hand, there are also people who will cowardly delete their own posts, claiming they never made them, which is super annoying in discussions and a personal problem, I run in occasionally: Having to waste some of my characters to make clear, which part of a post I'm replying to

(the quote feature also supports text highlighting).

in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover @AskPippa
In my part of Twitter we used the quote function to put a retweet in context - to explain why we were sharing it. (Yes, it could be to criticise it, but not usually.) One of the joys of Twitter was being part of different communities, but then if you shared something you wanted to explain.
in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover @AskPippa
While this negative use is possible, to use it to quote interesting pieces of, say a post or an article, and then add your two cents is how I have been using it for years (with just one complaint, where mine asking permission got there too late).
I was on the #BorgSite (then #BirdSite) for years and had a pretty clear-cut political position.
Quoting was never an issue.
in reply to AskPippa🇨🇦

@AskPippa
To make such a poll you would need to somehow make sure it reaches everyone who uses Mastodon. That is (I think) a difficult task.
Honestly I have seen more or less equal amounts for and against QT, so it is likely the split is 50% - 50%. .

@bgtlover @raccoon @fediversenews @fediverse

in reply to estelle4565

@AskPippa
And then there are those like me who do not feel strongly about it either way, but prefer to support what the communities that are marginalised and feel threatened want, because they are at a disadvantage.
Do not harm and all that.

@bgtlover @raccoon @fediversenews @fediverse

in reply to AskPippa🇨🇦

@AskPippa @bgtlover
Me, too!

I hate having to scroll back to see what my contacts were talking about when commenting.

Why be on SM if you don't want interaction?

If you want it only for some, you can limit it to your followers.

And then, there is always #mute or #block as a last resort (spart from report).

I just had a discussion with LBTQIA+ admins and they DO want discoverability (search)...

in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover

I fully understand the concern about Quote Tweeting and personally, I don't like them either.

The way I implemented this is by rendering the post in question as a static image that can be attached as media+image description. So it is actually just a more convenient and cleaner way of screenshotting a post, which is something, people can already do.

Let me know if there are issues with screenreaders and I'll try to address them.

in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover
Posts are not private. This might surprise people but this is true.
in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland how can you do that? if you're not on mastodon, what are you using? matrix, perhaps? is matrix even a part of the fediverse, can it be considered as such?
in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover

Matrix is federated communication-Software with it's own protocol... It's a messenger.

The fediverse has an own protocol. Called ActivityPub.

And there is a plethiora of services, which understand this protocol.

Just have a look... this is stunning, how big the world beside mastodon is...

fediverse.party/
fediverse.info/
fediverse.observer/
@Jupiter Rowland

in reply to jakob 🇦🇹 ✅

Exactly the same three sites I always hand out to anyone who seems to have a Fedi-interest.

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover So I take it the #Fediverse equalled #Mastodon for you as well until about half an hour ago?

Okay, allow me to explain. I'm on #Hubzilla (official website), a "social content management system" established in 2012, forked from #Friendica which in turn is a Facebook-like social network project established in 2010, six years before Mastodon. Both can connect to Mastodon and other Fediverse.

Here are a few more non-Mastodon Fediverse projects which nonetheless connect to Mastodon:


Here is a somewhat limited list, here is a still somewhat limited wiki, here is a very long list.

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland no, not really. I know many fediverse platforms, including peertube, diaspora, pleroma, acoma, gnu social, that's about all I know. However, I didn't know which one you refered to.
in reply to bgt lover

@jupiter_rowland O yeah, friendica and pixelfed as well. There is lemi as a reddit clone, I dk which one was it for organising events and mobilising, but that exists too, the name escapes me at the moment
in reply to Simon Lucy

@simon_lucy they are not, true, but in the sense that you can't view posts if they weren't addressed to you, unless you're an instance administrator, they are still private. If we're arguing technicalities, then yes, private means end to end encrypted and mostly nothing else, but I think it's quite obvious what I ment by saying it.
in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover
Addressed to you?
They have public URLs, if they're boosted then whoever follows the booster can see it, whoever scans the instance local feed it was originally posted on can see it.

This is not email, those that use email as an analogy confuse people because of that.

If it's directed, confined to just those mentioned then it isn't published in the same way but that's fragile and a small case.

in reply to bgt lover

@bgtlover

I mean, that’s fine. Mastodon is free to hobble its users and keep this tool for communication away from them, even as the rest of us move forward and embrace more empowering interfaces that have it.

@raccoon @fediversenews @fediverse

in reply to volkris

@volkris @bgtlover Different experiences is literally the point of an open protocol with unlimited implementations. Not sure why you are so salty about someone actually doing that.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

So I installed the latest long term runtime of Java on my Mac and got your program running on MacOS Ventura right away. It's a great extension for using Mastodon for longer posts. Thanks a lot! 👍😀
Unknown parent

Freakinbox
@gaycookie MacOS only comes on Apple devices whereas Windows comes on things Microsoft doesn't make?
Unknown parent

Freakinbox

@gaycookie "Comes on" as in out of the box.

You can buy many devices not made by Microsoft that come with Windows preinstalled, this is not the case with MacOS.

Unknown parent

Freakinbox

@gaycookie Then why not have every main distro of Linux listed?

I offered you a possible reason and you seem more concerned with avoiding admitting that you misread what I said and focused more on arguing instead...

"And since it is STILL developed by Apple. And if you name "Microsoft", why not mention "Apple" xD" - See my original toot reply to you for a possible reason why :)

Even Wikipedia seems to name them as such

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsof…

in reply to MrClon

@MrClon

Pffft! What are you going to do, when you need to post a 100405 character essay, huh, huh, huh😜 ?

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

I think I have a 5 MB upload limit set in my nginx configuration. Does that count as a character limit? I should have some limit in the millions. It would be easy to increase.
Unknown parent

Patrick, the Linux guy

@gaycookie

I could be mistaken, but I think, those are the actual trademark names.

Unknown parent

Marquis Kurt :xcode:
@gaycookie @freakinbox I don't think that's how it was done in the past; I remember Windows being referred to as "Microsoft Windows", but never heard or seen MacOS referred to as "Apple MacOS".
Unknown parent

D2

@gaycookie after reading the semantic debate you’re pursuing, here’s my TL;dr: ya’ll are weird. English is weird. Apparently these two flavors of weird are mutually-incompatible.

Take care.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Looks pretty good! I don't really have a use for this kind of tool, but I can see how this would be helpful for a lot of folks in the fediverse.
in reply to Marquis Kurt :xcode:

@marquiskurt @gaycookie @freakinbox

I think, they had to actually name it "MICROSOFT Windows" because either "Windows" was too generic to be trademarked or to similar to the Unix X-Window, which was a marketing no-no.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Oooh, poked the quote-posting bear. You’re going to get the mastodon version of an internet stoning, in other words, we will shake our heads and say we’re disappointed
Unknown parent

Patrick, the Linux guy

@Cassandra

If you have java already installed on your system (you can get it from java.com ), just download the Linux version. The Windows version is just an .EXE wrapper around that.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Consider removing quoted tweet emulation. The fact that quoted posts don't exist on Mastodon is highly intentional. The feature is exclusively used for abuse. Also, 99.99 percent of Mastodon clients won't display them correctly. You should avoid adding features that will make the experience worse for users of other apps.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

@fastfinge

Quote tweets are emulated by rendering a post as a static image that can be attached as media (plus original post as image description). This is basically a streamlined version of screenshotting a post, something, people always had the option of doing.

Removing this feature would do nothing to prevent malice, but kill legitimate use cases. One of them being being able to highlight the portion of a post, you are replying to.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

There is no legitimate use for quoting a post. Either boost without comment, or engage in discussion by replying directly.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

@fastfinge

There is! And this reply is actually an example for it.

As a visually impaired user, you will probably not be able to (fully) see it, but the rendered post in the attached image has the first sentence "There is not legitimate use for quoting a post" highlighted. Thus telling you exactly what I am replying to.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

So it's OK to completely break accessibility, and fail to comply with dozens of other Mastodon features, just to make your personal life a tiny bit easier?
in reply to Samuel Proulx

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

I am aware that the Fediverse is bigger than Mastodon ;). I intent to eventually add features that go beyond it, but hey, you have to start somewhere...

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland @jdasher

Why are you so angry on #Mastodon?

The beauty of #fediverse is the possibility to use any and every platform, even the one that lacks some features, but is the most popular of the bunch.

We should promote all of the fediverse options, but shouldn't be negative to those who have different preferences than our own.

in reply to Ivan Maljukanović 🏳️‍🌈

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

imo the problem is less with newbies than people who have been here a long time. I think what happened is that it was hard to keep interest alive when the fedi was smaller, and the strategy people evolved was tight instances (to foster strong communities people would feel they had to check in on regularly) and less concern about the larger network. that led to a very controlling culture. with all the new people/development, the fedi culture is changing and that's hard.

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

Thanks for the enlightenment, @jupiter_rowland — but, TBH, right now I feel more in the dark than I had realized before … so apparently #Hubzilla offers the most/best features and Fediverse interconnectivity? (while #Stream is not quite ready yet?)

But you’re not here to be my personal coach 😅 so I’ll just watch your posts while digging my way through to a (hopefully) “unified” Hubzilla account.

Feels like I’m getting too old for this stuff though … why can’t I tell #Siri to do it all for me?

in reply to Bonobo

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

This person blocked me for providing a link to post exploring research on this topic.

You aren't going to convince them

in reply to Ada

@ada

Well, me too... thus ironically giving an example for a legitimate use case for the feature.

(and one of the reasons, I implemented it this way in the first place).

@Ada
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Also, what happens if I delete my post? Or it's set to private? Do you check for that to make sure you're not distributing posts in violation of the user's privacy settings? I super doubt it. All you've done is create a way to work around the various blocking settings of instances, and the privacy preferences of users.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

And what about posts with images? Does your alt-text include the alt-text from the image of the post you're "quoting"? And what about posts that the user edits later? This is an extremely bad idea.
in reply to Samuel Proulx

The feature is exclusively used for abuse.


That's not supported by the research.

absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/…
It's one thing to not want the feature, but they're simply not the tool for evil that it's portrayed to be.

The majority of fediverse platforms already support the feature without incident.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

First, congrats on the effort you’ve obviously out into your project. But for those of us who have been following the #twitterexodus at arms’ length, what is it about a “Quote Boost” feature that is somehow an improvement? At my current (admittedly low) level of interest in the feature, it just seems like a way to recenter a conversation around the person replying, rather than where the conversation started?
in reply to James

@jdasher

Quote Tweeting is a controversial feature that causes a lot of harm on Twitter. In a nutshell, QT allows you to "steal" a discussion over to your timeline and potentially make the original poster look like a fool to your followers.

And yes, you are correct, "recentering" the conversation is one of the ideas behind how Fedimeister implements quoting.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

ok, kinda what I thought, but that’s a really concise explanation. Thank you!
in reply to James

@jdasher
@raccoon @fediversenews @fediverse

I've often found it helpful in the context of re-sharing a news story or link that someone has shared, but adding my own commentary to it (as though I'd initially shared it), without losing the source context that I drew it from. I think of it less as "recentering" than "recontextualizing."

I understand that when QBing someone's original content, it can also be a tool for targeting (e.g. for harassment) but I never used them that way.

reshared this

in reply to Codex ☯️♈☮

I keep different personas for Dutch and English following/follower to post mostly in the language for the targeted group.

But sometimes I have a crossover, news being global and all.

Than I want to quote-boost an English post with summary or context in Dutch.

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

I'd love to run this. How can I persuade MacOS to launch the software ('not from a certified developer')?

@fediversenews @fediverse

in reply to mike_hales 💔*!?¿*

@mike_hales

My Mac knowledge is pretty limited, I'm afraid. Technically, it should start by clicking the JAR, unless apple has changed something.

Do you have the Java Runtime Environment installed?

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

@mike_hales ah no, the move is to right click the jar and pick open from the popup menu. Then it will give you the option to run it despite not being certified. It will then remember that in future and you can launch it normally with a double click.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

@sam
This is helpful thanks. I'm an un-tech user, however, so need more guidance please.

Dunno if I have the JAR. If I have, where will I find it? Is it a 'secret' file that I won't be able to see? Do I need to use the command line/terminal? That's beyond my untutored scope.

'Just a user' 😉

Unknown parent

bgt lover
@mathias @AskPippa I'm not blaming quote posts for the demise of twitter, I'm blaming the algorythm, and mostly, Musk. Still though, those played a role as well, an important one. I don't use twitter anymore, I deleted my account long before the current date, but there, whenever I saw someone doing that, even though the tool might have been implemented for something else, I could only imagine what follows, I mostly wasn't wrong either. Sure, implementing it the responsible way is fine, there *is* such a way, but these client side hacks aren't accomplishing what a native feature, designed well, would have, so before any more such implementations, I recommend we wait for these things to be available in mastodon, where they will hopefully be designed to follow post visibility rules and all that.
Unknown parent

Kevin Davidson
@mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa I use a client that supports quote boosting - a link to the original toot and mention the original author so they are notified. Doesn’t do the link back into the thread like a reply thing, which sounds like a good idea.
The app this thread is about appears to do the worst of all choices as it’s a renedered screen grab with alt text. No link to the original and no notifying the author.
in reply to Kevin Davidson

@mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa Assuming I’ve understood the description correctly. I won’t be testing it as I uninstalled JRE from all my machines a long time ago as Oracle’s licensing and laissez faire attitude to CVE warnings made my skin crawl. Also Java apps always look fugly. (I feel qualified to talk on this as I have been a Java developer)
in reply to Kevin Davidson

@MetalSamurai @mathias @AskPippa I hate java as well tbf, but if an app is really good, I can make exceptions. Also, about the jre, you don't have to install that bullcrap, install openjdk instead
Unknown parent

🐝Mr.Mark🐝

This:

“The Fediverse innovates better, faster and safer outside Mastodon. We're just hoping Mastodon will start catching up at some point.”

Now, my Q: i’m using third-party iOS apps for Mastodon on my phone. (Ivory, Metatext, & Ice Cubes)
What’s my option if I would like to set up on Frendica and use it in a somewhat similar fashion?

I’m definitely interested in setting up a group, which I understand I can do.

Fediverse News reshared this.

Unknown parent

bgt lover
any mastodon client should work on friendica as well, probably with some limitations though, since friendica only recently enough implemented the mastodon api, ahem, for... compatibility reasons. Sure, you won't be able to use all of friendica's features, but most will work. I heard toot! is a quite good mastodon client for ios, though I don't have any personal experience with it because I don't have ios.

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

@Patrick, the Linux guy Poah!!!

Breaking long text into masto-stuttering... i hate this.

just use better fedisoftware. There are many services out in the fediverse, which allow you much higher character-size or even unlimited characters...

why do you all put the fucking twittering of text here into fediverse too???

use friendica. it has unlimited chars.
use pleroma. it has 5000 default chars - configurable.
use akkoma. use misskey, use hubzilla...

they all are not that bad limited as mastodon is.

fucking masto-stuttering!

Unknown parent

🐝Mr.Mark🐝

OK, thanks, this really helps me understand things better.

Is there a way to log into frendica using my current address that I have here on Mastodon?

Fediverse News reshared this.

Unknown parent

AlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈
@LucyWildboots @AskPippa @bgtlover I've been wondering on whether two flags should be added to the account options.
Allow quote-toots?... Yes/No
Allow text search?... Yes/No
Unknown parent

System IV, Building K
@LucyWildboots @AlisonW @AskPippa @bgtlover I have more thinking to do on all this but it is nice to see a reasoned pov vs “omg why can’t I Twitter on Mastodon”
Unknown parent

thepoliticalcat
@LucyWildboots @AlisonW @AskPippa @bgtlover Whatever protects the MOST marginalized communities can only benefit all other communities.
Unknown parent

Jupiter Rowland
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to Jupiter Rowland

FYI, the quote feature you're talking about here isn't the QT feature most people are referring to.

Selectively quoting bits of text with quote formatting isn't something anyone is concerned about.

What they are referring to is the ability to make a brand new post on your own timeline (rather than a reply) with an inline display of the post you are quoting.

That being said, there has been research on QTs, and they're not particularly relevant factors in abuse. They play an element, but far less than replies themselves.

Even so, what would be great to see is the ability for users to have granular control over whether posts they make can be QT'd by others. Of course, bad faith instances could simply ignore that flag, but that's where defederation and moderation comes in.

Unknown parent

Jo (she/they)
Equally, there's plenty of queer trans folk like myself who are on trans-run instances that have QTs and have never seen them used for abuse across the instances we're federated with, despite all the panic from those who said it would bring just the same harassment against us as the other place had. @jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu
in reply to AlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈

@AlisonW

Disallow quoting and people will work around that limitation by screenshotting. Which is more or less how Fedimeister does it.

Unknown parent

Joël de Bruijn

@fediversenews
For one use case (using your Dutch student/teacher account also for Mastodon) this is done by @SURF using their SurfConext federation for identification/authentication.

Not precisely the same but as providing a federated log-in unique nonetheless.

By the way SurfConext is an OpenConext implementation.

Fediverse News reshared this.

Unknown parent

jakob 🇦🇹 ✅

@Mathias Hellquist (Friendica)

Many Fediservices are able to konfigure LDAP or OpenID.

But they still are different accounts.

I use OpenID-Connect with keycloak on Mobilizon, Peertube and Nextcloud and LDAP as base for keycloak.

But friendica does not support ldap correctly. The login-process is a bit weird for this usecase.
And i've never been successful with OenID-connect on friendica.

Maybe my next project in friendics ☺️

@bgtlover @Mark Metz ✅ @Patrick, the Linux guy @AskPippa🇨🇦

Unknown parent

Jupiter Rowland
in reply to Ada

@Ada
in reply to Ada

@ada @jupiter_rowland I’ve seen the proposal that users get to control who can reply to a post (anyone, followers, poster, nobody etc) and I think that should apply to QT as well. I like the way Akkoma(?) threads the QT in as a reply to the post it’s quoting.
To get all AP compatible services to agree on this behaviour probably needs the AP working group to reconvene and hammer out expected behaviours.
Unknown parent

Kevin Davidson
@LucyWildboots @jo @jupiter_rowland There are strong feelings on both sides of this, which is going to result in emotive language.
I’ve definitely seen celebrities dunking on small accounts and driving them off Twitter. But also, I use QT myself - mostly to add context or to refer back to my own previous posts.
in reply to Kevin Davidson

@LucyWildboots @jo @jupiter_rowland My confirmation bias means I believe all the studies saying it’s not the tool that causes harassment, as people intent on harassing will use any method available, including simple replies, to cause harm. The fix is cultural, not technical, although speed bumps and guide rails probably help to nudge behaviour away from unwanted and towards more positive community behaviour. Maybe.
Unknown parent

Jo (she/they)
Unknown parent

Helge

Thanks for sharing your experience!

I also want to point out the problem with a lot of these emotional charged discussions such as quote posts, people tend towards hyperbole. For example in the post above, "I now had enough data to make some critical conclusions. As with all forms of tweets, quote tweets are abused, and used to abuse others. But I now think that if the quote tweet function had made Twitter worse, it likely wasn’t by much." from Hilba Bastian in the linked article was turned into "37 studies dispel the myth that it's quote tweets that were the problem on Twitter."

So my understanding of this is: "Yes, quote tweets were the vector of abuse, but if quote tweets didn't exist people would have found another vector instead of stopping being abusive."

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Brennan Stehling
@LucyWildboots Fortunately Mastodon is not centralized so you can move to another server. Though I believe server admins could run multiple domains which could operate under different policies while sharing the server infra to host multiple domains. I once ran many websites with Apache Web Server on my co-located server and updating the software and server hardware upgraded every website. Admins definitely need all the support we can give them. Without ad revenue some may just burn out and shut down.
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Alan Martello

@BarrenPlanet @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @LucyWildboots Be patient with this old guy for a second who’s never been dogpiled.

This post of yours I’m responding to has an image of your post - took all of 1-2 seconds. If a malicious actor did this plus put your handle in text making it easy for their sub-human malicious sycophants to find you, is this any different from a native QT re: enabling dogpiling?

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Shoq

That's an odd take. Sometimes people just want to use a good tool they'd made use of everyday. That's human nature, not something unique to the Twitter population.

As for QPS, speaking only for me, I'm not going to stop using a hammer because now and then they can be used to crush my thumb or someone's head. That's what TOS and moderation is for.

Unknown parent

Ada

Most fediverse implementations of quote toots display a requote as a reply to the original comment, and thus so do any replies.

It still gets shown on the quoters main timeline, but it's on the original posters comment replies too, which means that the original poster gets a notification and can see replies to it

reshared this

Unknown parent

aRubes

yet there is a mountain of scientific evidence clearly pointing to the accessibility of guns as a major predictor of gun violence, while the same can not be said about the accessibility of QT Vs. Other forms of abuse, If I understand Jo's thorough review correctly

@MetalSamurai@mas.to@jo@blahaj.zone@jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

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Panos Damelos
And why not "Posts don't hurt people. People using posts hurt people."? I mean, why not say the same thing about posts in general? Quotes are just posts with a comment on something. Like you can comment with a reply. If either are abusive, it's a moderation issue and the user should be reported to their instance. Quotes are not abusive by nature, and not even proven to be more abusive than replies.
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Jupiter Rowland

@LucyWildboots 🏳️‍🌈

So the discussion isn’t really QT doesn’t already exist and must never be created. It’s more a discussion of “Why don’t we onboard people to the best tool for them be it Masto, Calkey, Frendica or Pixelfed” vs “we want easy QT on Masto because that’s where we’ve been for a whole four months and moving is hard.”


Exactly what I've been preaching for months.

People: "We need QT on Mastodon!1!!"

Me: "Go switch to Akkoma or CalcKey, and you've got Mastodon with QT right now and with enough other features on top to not make you demand any more features from Eugen or anyone else anytime soon!"

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aRubes
in reply to aRubes

@aRubes

2. Forking Mastodon to maintain a version that complicates the behaviour as in pre-2015 twitter


Why fork? To have #Mastodon with QTs?

No need for a fork. "Mastodon with QTs" already exists. #Pleroma, #Akkoma, #MissKey, #CalcKey, #FoundKey etc.

In fact, they're all Mastodon with QTs and with text formatting. Just not with the exact same UI/UX as Mastodon because they're independent projects.
@Jo (she/her) @LucyWildboots 🏳️‍🌈

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland Is it really actually hard to move to a different service? Never tried before.
in reply to Zach777

@Zach777 Well, obviously, Mastodon doesn't have a two-click solution for moving your entire Mastodon account to, say, Akkoma.

It isn't even as straight-forward as on older projects to move from one Mastodon instance to another Mastodon instance, and if you do that, you'll have to leave your followers, your toots, your uploaded media and your settings behind.

I myself have never tried moving an account from one micro-blogging project to another micro-blogging project.

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

The simple fact that the people complaining about quote-brokeness insist on using the term "quote tweets" tells us everything we need to know.

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to eshep

Fediverse News reshared this.

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eshep
All that as well as many are leaving twitter not because they don't like twitter, but because they want twitter from somewhere other than twitter; and mastadon seems to be doing a very good job of giving that crowd exactly that.

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to eshep

@eshep

Tells you they’re interested in effective, concise communication.

in reply to eshep

@eshep Which doesn't say that other Fediverse projects have to be worse at doing the same job.

Look at those thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Japanese who recently fled Twitter straight towards MissKey without the usual stopover on Mastodon.

Fediverse News reshared this.

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Jupiter Rowland
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David Fleetwood - RG Admin
@LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland People being quick to fediblock is not a problem that Eugen or anyone needs to 'solve'. People have a right to say what they wish but nobody owes them a platform.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Sounds fantastic:
"* Break long texts into threads"

HoW did you solve the problem of allocating (multiple) picture annexes, including #AltText?

I usually generate the pics and the alt-text while writing in one go and get exasperated when I need to insert a sentence in the beginning later on and don't have enough space, so there would need to be a different "page break".
@fediversenews @fediverse

in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@HistoPol

The alt text comes from a file with the same name as the picture file, just having the extension replaced by .txt

Currently, changing your thread will reset all image assignments, but I have plans to make that more stable.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Nifty. 😀

How do you place/tie-in the the pics?

Something like <pic1> etc in the text?

in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@HistoPol

Nope, select in the preview, attach your picture/cw there. NOTE: currently, changing the text will reset your attachments.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Ah, I know you must have invested tons of time in this, but having the automated page break function of Word is IMO the way to go, and I say this as an avid and long-time thread writer who was also into CMS creation a long time ago.

Reason: when you write threads you often come up with an idea that you might need to include in the beginning, causing a new page break that spoils your pic allocation.
Just my two xents.

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David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland Again, what problem are you trying to solve here? Each instance has a contract with it's users about what is acceptable conduct. That includes their chosen links with other instances. If you want a free for all, you join an instance that is a free for all. There are hundreds of options now. If you want a curated experience, you choose that sort of instance.

You don't get to inflict your preference on the rest of us.

Unknown parent

Amro has melted

@LucyWildboots @eshep @jupiter_rowland @jo
Ok, it was me... Never used Twitter.
But even I understood "quote-tweets" because you can do something similar on Facebook.
I like Mastodon thus far but using it a few months with the growing userbase and the imported "mores" from Twitter already makes it feel a bit different then last January.
And just yesterday I blocked someone for the first time. So, yay! Mastodon is growing up. I'm not missing QT very much. Boosting and engaging in the comments is different but enjoyable. So... 🤷‍♀️

[This unwanted opinion is brought to you by old persons farting about on the interwebs. Thank you, goodnight!]

Fediverse News reshared this.

Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@mathias

"I prefer the "give notification and keep the quoted post as part of the original thread", as I see that as the mature and thought-through way of doing it."

Yep!

@bgtlover @AskPippa @raccoon

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🐝Mr.Mark🐝
@mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa
I’m right there with you on that rant. I would love it if one handle and one instance address could be used across the various Fediverse platforms.
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David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland You have some serious issues with understanding boundaries. What happens on your server is the only boundary that anyone has to respect. They do NOT have any obligation to permit you or your member's behavior into their space. Ever.

Your 'home' is not threatened by defederation. It will still exist even if every other instance stops listening to it. You are conflating a loss of privilege with a personal assault. They are not the same.

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

(1/3)
I agree on all points.
I was very active last year analyzing alternatives to #Twitter after it became cleat that #Elmo would buy it after all.
I looked even at start-ups.
No-one ever talked about #Friendica, #Diaspora, #Akkoma. At present, I'd probably have picked the latter, though I do like the massive diversity and "large crowd" in my local TL on Mastodon.social.

Regarding your questions below, I'd leave ASAP, despite not being able to...

in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@jupiter_rowland

(2/3)

...migrate my posts and followers.

This said, a walled-in SM "internet", i.e. an "intranet"? No thanks, I've got this at work!

"Should everything that isn't Mastodon, including Friendica which has quotes six years before Mastodon was launched, be forced to remove the quote feature even for internal use once and for all? Should they be forced to defederate from Mastodon? Should Mastodon in turn deliberately be forced to become.."

in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@jupiter_rowland

(3/4)
"...incompatible with everything else (which will not work against multi-protocol platforms like Friendica and Hubzilla)?"

As my example from quoting @jupiter_rowland above shows, nobody can prevent me from quoting even on #Mastodon.
The technical inhibition is just wasting my time, time and again.

Everyone with at least a high school diploma has used quotes as they are the basis of any type of scientific paper.

Oh, and...

in reply to HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@jupiter_rowland

(4/4)
...standard human conversations. You know, "he said/she said thing"?

Not being able to quote is just inhumane in a literal sense.

You want something more "private"?--Use the settings (and maybe a "confidential"/"do-not-quote" category might make sens), but not prohibiting it for all.

IMO abuse of this cannot be prevented by tech means anyway, the problem were a) the #algorithm and b) insufficient moderation and banning, in particular of celebs.

Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@LucyWildboots @jupiter_rowland

"Perhaps it did not take me so long because I’m not as invested in my own posts as others appear to be."

Exactly.
I have threads, like articles, that are still relevant and that I still refer to.
Likewise, I am missing some of this work done on the #BirdSite.

Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@LucyWildboots @jo @jupiter_rowland

I can see your point, too.

The solution could then also be to make moving, including the toots, easier.
I do not mean that having to flee from an instance for being harrased should become the norm, quite the contrary.

(Lack of cultural understanding and the numbers of the #MetaHordes is also why I am against a card Blanche for #Facebook and co.
mastodon.social/@HistoPol/1100…)

in reply to Kevin Davidson

@MetalSamurai @LucyWildboots @jo @jupiter_rowland

Exactly 💯 %
"it’s not the tool that causes harassment, as people intent on harassing will use any method available, including simple replies, to cause harm. The fix is cultural, not technical,"

Unknown parent

David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland Um, I am the instance owner, and I never approached anyone about your behavior. I am responding to your repeated assertions that other instances somehow owe you and your instance a platform so long as you follow the rules of your instance. They do not, they never did, and they can block you for any reason and that's okay.

That's all I'm here to say. You can keep rephrasing your claim to privilege as many ways as you wish.

Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@BarrenPlanet @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @LucyWildboots

But I could easily do this on #mastodon, too!

Copy your text w/ or w/o quotation marks, put your handle, as well as a link to your too and, voilà!

What really is the difference?

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

Nope

My network and my posts!

Apart from that, panta re, all societies change, too.

I think this discussion has shown that QT is not the root of evil. The function can easily be mimicked.
The question is, if most of the present users want it, assuming that most people adhere to democratic principles. 😉

Protecting minorities is an important one, too.
I still fail to see more than an inconvenience for some, and most of the #LGBTQIA+ folks...

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

It seems despite trying to make a very informed choice, I did make a mistake in that. 😞

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Mitex Leo
@LucyWildboots @reflex @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland It's unprofessional to simply defederate with an instance. I agree ! I personally prefer to tell people to use Unfollow or Block option. We shouldn't punish everyone for one's behavior !
Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@BarrenPlanet @amart @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @LucyWildboots

I really wonder why it never was a major issue for me there despite over 20k of tweets, now that you put it in writing ✍️.

in reply to Mitex Leo

@mitexleo @LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland I don't think that is what is going on. For my instance we have rules and people can report violators. If the violator is on another instance I have a glance at the instance. If that is normalized behavior there, I block the instance. If it is not, I report the member to their admin and tell my member to block them as well if they wish.

It's really that simple.

Unknown parent

David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@LucyWildboots @aRubes @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland Why do you think you have a right to impose your words on others? All I am doing when I defederate is choosing to not listen to your group, which is apparently both a private conversation among friends and also a bullhorn we are all obligated to listen to, simultaneously.

BTW, there is a fedi solution to this by @darius
called "Hometown" which is a fork specifically designed for the situation you mention.
github.com/hometown-fork/homet…

in reply to 🐝Mr.Mark🐝

Unknown parent

Jo (she/they)
It's decentralisation and federation. Every instance is free to federate with and defederate from other servers as they wish. They get to set there own boundaries. @reflex@retrogaming.social@aRubes@sloth.run@MetalSamurai@mas.to@jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu
in reply to Jo (she/they)

@jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @aRubes @LucyWildboots Some people seem to take serious offense at others having boundaries, or having different ones than they believe they should have.
Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@BarrenPlanet @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @LucyWildboots

I get the screenshot part, ok, but copy and paste?--not that much effort +
/s: you can savor it longer that you are about to trash a person. /s

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland

I don't know if this is a client thing, but you quote from posts a fair bit, which is fine, but they don't show up as a reference or a quotation. Could you surround them with single quotes, backticks even?

in reply to Simon Lucy

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland Thanks for this background, it's helpful. I'd ask though, many of these projects support Oauth2 as a server, why not also as a client? Creating a local account based on a remote identity from another Oauth provider seems like it should be doable? And why be a server if no other apps based on the same protocol can take advantage?
in reply to David Fleetwood - RG Admin

@David Fleetwood - RG Admin I wasn't even talking about #OAuth. #OpenWebAuth is something entirely different, created by Friendica inventor Mike Macgirvin as an advancement for his next creation, Hubzilla, along with a new version of Hubzilla's Zot protocol.

That said, Hubzilla also supports both OAuth and OAuth2. But I don't have either token manager app activated on my channel because I don't see a use-case for them right now, so I can't say how or how well they work.

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Peter Butler
@mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa There’s no single reason Twitter failed, but to me, the biggest reason by far is the lack of moderation
in reply to Peter Butler

@peterbutler @mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa since most of the staff was axed moderation has been weaponized by the very people it is supposed to stop.... Which to be fair is typical capitalism. 😅🥴

It's honestly the same situation Facebook did a few years back when people all started migrating away from them.

Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@BarrenPlanet @amart @jo @MetalSamurai @jupiter_rowland @LucyWildboots

🤣 🤣

Quite apparently you never did see my #Resist tweets in the runup to the last two #US elections.

I would like to sign how you eloquently phrase it,but there is no quote function here. 😉

in reply to INPC

@mxtthxw @peterbutler @mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa it's so exhausting trying to have any discussion on any topic these days with such polarized comments aimed at rage farming. I wish it was only on Twitter or Facebook. This comment shows me it's here too. 🥱
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Jupiter Rowland

@𝗝𝗮𝗸𝗼𝗯 :𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮: 🇦🇹 ✅ @LucyWildboots 🏳️‍🌈 UI speed depends on the hub. My main hub isn't the fastest currently, also because it's the second-biggest.

And yes, the UI is clunky and complicated. It basically capitulates in front of Hubzilla's many features. But we have someone who, as we speak, is working on new UIs, at least some for special purposes, which he already test-drives on at least his own hub.

UI-wise, Hubzilla can be very flexible. The Hubzilla website itself is a Hubzilla channel, technically speaking, and it isn't as obvious as in the case of Socialhome which basically does the same.

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Peter Butler
@mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa Yes, to me, advertising is the line in the sand. I’ve been waiting for Mastodon to take off for years, so I’d generally be pretty happy that Musk took over Twitter … if I could ignore all the real world harm the site is doing now :(
Unknown parent

HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴

@expertmanofficial @trunksapp

Thanks, will take a look. 😀

However, I just saw that there are quote signs in the #Fedilab app...? Could it be...

Will try that now..

(Prefer #Tusky, as #Fedilab takes forever synching new posts.)

Unknown parent

Kevin Davidson (Friendica)

Fediverse News reshared this.

in reply to Jupiter Rowland

@jupiter_rowland I was just referring to the fact that many of these services can behave as oauth providers, seems like they should be able to function as clients which would solve the request to bring your identity from elsewhere. Unfortunately I don't know of any with oauth client support.
in reply to Peter Butler

@peterbutler @mathias @bgtlover @AskPippa Right now there is moderation, but it’s directed by a petty, petulant man child. The trolls, Nazis, transphobes and insurrectionists he’s reactivated get to behave as they want. Leftists, reporters, flight tracking bots, Ukraine supporters and a host of others that he personally disagrees with get silenced or banned. It’s a toxic hellhole.
Unknown parent

James
@HistoPol @expertmanofficial just tried @trunksapp — NICE!
Favorite attention to UC so far: the “tap-📌-to-follow-topics” feature.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

this looks interesting. I tried to set it up, but it seems to refuse my URL and Profile. It gives me error message that it can't parse the URL during setup. Is there a way to report bugs?
in reply to Uckermark MacGyver :nonazi:

@maxheadroom

Hi, right now, your only option to report bugs is to DM/mention me or use #fedimeister

I tried your URL and Profile ID, both parse fine. However, while testing, I noticed, that you can accidentally copy&paste additional whitespace before/after the address, which will result in the parse error.

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

the break into short chunks is a thing i've wanted for awhile, but want it as part of a blog app.

Then you could direct link the resulting short posts, and use replies to them like comments. It'd be great!

in reply to excited for the mastodon rise

@qkslvrwolf

I'm not sure how that would work. The 500 char limit is a Mastodon, not an ActivityPub thing. So, if you federate your blog, there's no need to break articles into chunks.

(I did plan on adding an export function, though that allows you to save the chunks as individual txt files for further processing).

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

not all mastodon instances set the char count limit at 500 either but it’s not obvious from their about page. I had to write a script to query their API to find out.
in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

I read a lot of full length blogs (like Doctorow) in threaded form. I like the idea of being able to go in either direction.

I also like the idea of each statement being broken up into their own piece that can individually be commented on and discussed.

in reply to excited for the mastodon rise

@qkslvrwolf

Hm, so what would the workflow be here? Write a blog article, then break it up with Fedimeister and republish on Mastodon? Write it in Fedimeister to begin with, then somehow export to your blog?

(do you have a sample of a Doctorow blog post, in article and thread style?)

in reply to Patrick, the Linux guy

Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you modify Fedimeister (I just was happy to see something similar from something I was daydreaming about, and did the random internet schmoe thing of sharing my own daydreams, uninvited)

I do appreciate your time and kindness, though. :-)

mastodon.social/@pluralistic@m…


If you want to know which industries have the most influence in DC, study the trade deals struck by the #USTradeRepresentative, whose activities are the most obvious manifestation of American corporate power over state. Take the #IndoPacificEconomicFramework (#IPEF). As @ddayen notes, this treaty is a kind of #BigTech wishlist:

prospect.org/power/2023-04-18-…

1/


in reply to excited for the mastodon rise

@qkslvrwolf

Feature requests are welcome ;).

Technically what, @pluralistic does can already be archived with #fedimeister (feel free to suggest it to him). The only thing different is that he posts his articles chunked and in reverse order, so they can be read raw, directly on the timeline instead of as a thread.

I was thinking about implementing this as an alternative style as well.

Unknown parent

James

@expertmanofficial 😆 right?!

Been trying out a slew of the new apps, and updated older apps. Lots of great work being done, but @trunksapp is one of the best.