Nostr notes by Jupiter Rowland

[url=https://metroholografix.ca/@sb]@sb the chippy-choppy[/url] ...

2026-09-06T08:51:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…tn9z
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[url=https://metroholografix.ca/@sb]@sb the chippy-choppy[/url] There won't be many left. Depending on how staunchly and extremely anti-AI you and (aspiring) server admins are, there won't be [i]any[/i] left. [b]Because it's technically impossible to set up a Fediverse server with absolutely no AI code underneath whatsoever.[/b]

[b]The Linux mainline kernel itself contains AI code now.[/b] It's officially allowed as long as it's disclosed as such. Thus, you [i]will[/i] have to avoid [i]literally all[/i] servers running on Linux.

[url=https://docs.kernel.org/process/coding-assistants.html]https://docs.kernel.org/process/coding-assistants.html[/url]

[url=https://www.neowin.net/news/linus-torvalds-declares-massive-ai-fueled-code-surges-as-the-new-normal-for-linux/]https://www.neowin.net/news/linus-torvalds-declares-massive-ai-fueled-code-surges-as-the-new-normal-for-linux/[/url]

[b]NetBSD has very strict rules regarding AI-generated code. But it doesn't rule AI-generated code out out of principle because it's AI-generated; it only wants to be safe that nothing that's actually GPL-licensed is slipped in.[/b] So, if you're an 100%, ultra-hardcode anti-AI extremist, avoid what few servers run on NetBSD.

[url=https://www.netbsd.org/developers/commit-guidelines.html]https://www.netbsd.org/developers/commit-guidelines.html[/url]

[b]OpenBSD contains AI-generated code, too.[/b] And it has no official stance regarding it. So servers running on OpenBSD are taboo, too.

[url=https://www.osnews.com/story/144935/openbsd-and-slopcode-raindrop-to-a-torrent/]https://www.osnews.com/story/144935/openbsd-and-slopcode-raindrop-to-a-torrent/[/url]

[b]FreeBSD has no stance on AI whatsoever that I could find.[/b] However, apparently, the FreeBSD community loves to integrate Claude Code into their systems for automation purposes:

[url=https://aumont.fr/posts/claude-code-freebsd/]https://aumont.fr/posts/claude-code-freebsd/[/url]

[url=https://discoverbsd.com/p/8a7660c31b]https://discoverbsd.com/p/8a7660c31b[/url]

But you'll also have to look at the userland, the Web server, the database driver etc.

[b]MariaDB allows AI code.[/b] You can safely assume that all MySQL databases on Web servers out there are actually powered by MariaDB.

[url=https://mariadb.org/governance/governance-ai-policy/]https://mariadb.org/governance/governance-ai-policy/[/url]

[b]Oracle MySQL can integrate AI, so it's safe to assume it contains AI-generated code.[/b]

[url=https://blogs.oracle.com/mysql/announcing-mysql-ai]https://blogs.oracle.com/mysql/announcing-mysql-ai[/url]

[b]PostgreSQL probably allows AI code, too.[/b] There are even tools for it.

[url=https://github.com/timescale/pg-aiguide]https://github.com/timescale/pg-aiguide[/url]

[b]SQLite is very popular amongst AI users while not having any rules on AI-generated code.[/b] Assume it to be tainted.

This leaves you with only one choice: Self-hosting a personal, single-user snac2 server because snac2 doesn't need any database whatsoever. In fact, [b]snac2 is staunchly against AI.[/b] And it runs on NetBSD.

[url=https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2]https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2[/url]

But then there's the Web server. [b]Apache may allow AI-generated code if it has been reviewed and made sure that it does not contain anything that's incompatible with the Apache-2.0 license.[/b]

[url=https://www.apache.org/legal/generative-tooling.html]https://www.apache.org/legal/generative-tooling.html[/url]

[b]nginx welcomes AI and advertises itself as ready for AI, and it takes no anti-AI-code stance. It's most likely already tainted.[/b]

[url=https://www.f5.com/de_de/products/nginx]https://www.f5.com/de_de/products/nginx[/url].

This basically leaves you with no Web server guaranteed to be 100% free from AI-generated code to run snac2 on. But that doesn't matter because it's impossible to build a Web server devoid of any AI code to install snac2 on.

By the way: [b]Mastodon itself explicitly allows AI code if it's disclosed as such, and if its contributor understands it.[/b]

[url=https://github.com/mastodon/.github/blob/main/AI_POLICY.md]https://github.com/mastodon/.github/blob/main/AI_POLICY.md[/url]

In other words, next to all Mastodon servers are running
[list][*]AI-generated Mastodon code
[*]on an AI-generated Web server
[*]with an AI-generated database driver
[*]on an AI-generated operating system kernel[/list]

[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]#Long[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]#LongPost[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]#CWLong[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]#CWLongPost[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]#FediMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]#FediverseMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]#CWFediMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]#CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Linux]#Linux[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FreeBSD]#FreeBSD[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=OpenBSD]#OpenBSD[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NetBSD]#NetBSD[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Apache]#Apache[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=nginx]#nginx[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MySQL]#MySQL[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MariaDB]#MariaDB[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=PostgreSQL]#PostgreSQL[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=SQLite]#SQLite[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]#Mastodon[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=snac2]#snac2[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AI]#AI[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LLM]#LLM[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LLMs]#LLMs[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=GenAI]#GenAI[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NoAI]#NoAI[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AntiAI]#AntiAI[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AntiLLM]#AntiLLM[/zrl]

[url=https://archaeo.social/@mrundkvist]@Martin Rundkvist[/url] ...

2026-08-22T07:07:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…lx3k
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[url=https://archaeo.social/@mrundkvist]@Martin Rundkvist[/url] I've written an article with several feature comparison tables between
[list][*]Mastodon
[*]Friendica
[*]Hubzilla (rebuilt from a fork of a fork of Friendica by Friendica's creator)
[*](streams) (fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork?) of Hubzilla by the same creator)
[*]Forte (fork of the streams repository by still the same creator[/list]

[url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392]https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392[/url]

A few goodies:

[list][*][b]Mastodon:[/b]
500 characters; requires source code modifications to get more
[b]Friendica:[/b]
16,777,215 characters
[*][b]Friendica:[/b]
Can render and create the full gamut of HTML text formatting
[b]Mastodon:[/b]
Can only create plain text; can only render a small subset of HTML text formatting
[*][b]Friendica:[/b]
Have as many images pro post as you want
Embed them within the text
[b]Mastodon:[/b]
Limited to 4 images
Images can only be file attachments
[*][b]Friendica:[/b]
Shows you all content in the Fediverse just like the author intended it
[b]Mastodon:[/b]
"Sanitises" away half the formatting, all embedded images and all images except for the first four, just for the sake of purist microblogging
[*][b]Mastodon:[/b]
Timeline consists of single messages with no context
[b]Friendica:[/b]
Timeline consists of complete conversations, all the way back to the start post, with all branches (ignores and blocks notwithstanding)
[*][b]Mastodon:[/b]
Conversations consist of toots and more toots, loosely strung together with mentions
Replies only reach those who are visibly mentioned
[b]Friendica:[/b]
Conversations consist of exactly one post and otherwise comments
Replies go from the replier to the thread starter and from there to all participants in the conversation without having to mention anyone
[*][b]Friendica:[/b]
Has groups built in (groups are accounts with special settings)
[b]Mastodon:[/b]
Has no support for groups whatsoever, much less its own groups
Most Mastodon users don't even know that the Fediverse has groups
[*][b]Friendica:[/b]
Lets you federate with the whole Fediverse
Lets you federate with diaspora*
Lets you include and remote-control a Bluesky account
At least used to be able to do the same with a Tumblr account or a Twitter account
Lets you crosspost to Dreamwidth, Libertree, LiveJournal and XML-RPC-based blogs like WordPress
[b]Mastodon:[/b]
Just barely so federates with the Fediverse
Tries to make everything that isn't Mastodon look broken
Would love for the Fediverse to be only Mastodon
[*][b]Mastodon:[/b]
Makes the whole Fediverse look like Mastodon
[b]Friendica:[/b]
Shows you which server software a message came from[/list]

[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]#Long[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]#LongPost[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]#CWLong[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]#CWLongPost[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]#FediMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]#FediverseMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]#CWFediMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]#CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimit]#CharacterLimit[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimits]#CharacterLimits[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimitMeta]#CharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWCharacterLimitMeta]#CWCharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]#Mastodon[/zrl] [zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Friendica]#Friendica[/zrl]

@[url=https://mastodon.social/@collective_truth]Truth & ...

2026-07-26T08:12:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…5wsv
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@[url=https://mastodon.social/@collective_truth]Truth & Answers[/url] Let me be honest: Mastodon isn't the right thing to rely on for this.

There are two common misconceptions on Mastodon about Mastodon. The first one is that Mastodon is the only free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social [i]anything[/i]. Once Mastodon users are over this, they still think Mastodon is the [i]best[/i] free, non-commercial, non-corporate, decentralised social anything.

I've seen Mastodon being advertised by users as a Fediverse alternative to literally everything, including Reddit (because, like, you can communicate, right?) and even YouTube (because, like, you can upload videos, right?).

But again, let me be honest: The only thing that Mastodon can hope to be an alternative to is 𝕏. Because it's a Twitter clone. A purist Twitter clone whose developers intentionally reject feature requests because the requested features don't fit into their image of purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging. They want to keep Mastodon a slightly more glorified SMS than 𝕏.

Mastodon isn't even the only microblogging server application in the Fediverse. It isn't even the best at that. 80-90% of Mastodon's users don't and probably will never realise that Mastodon is an intentionally crippled resource hog. Many believe that Mastodon is the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking.

By the way, even the Mastodon developers claim that Mastodon is fully featured. I've had a Mastodon dev try [i]hard[/i] to convince me that Mastodon is fully featured although I've told him that I'm on Hubzilla. He essentially tried to tell me that [i]Mastodon has every last feature that Hubzilla has plus even more on top[/i].

In reality, Mastodon isn't the fully-featured be-all, end-all of social networking. It isn't even a social network. It's social [i]media[/i], just like 𝕏 is social media. It's designed for pumping out content and being followed because it's designed as a Twitter-like microblogging application. And it isn't even the best at microblogging.

Almost everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Mastodon has to be the best. After all, it's the biggest. It's what everyone chose.

No.

Mastodon is the biggest because everyone who wants to leave 𝕏 or Threads or Bluesky is railroaded to Mastodon. It's the biggest because all the newbies are only told about Mastodon. It's the biggest because none of the newbies even learn upon on-boarding that other 𝕏 alternatives exist in the Fediverse, that [i]anything[/i] else exists in the Fediverse other than Mastodon. It's the biggest because mainstream media, tech media and even Fediverse activists only ever talk about Mastodon, Mastodon, Mastodon. (Granted, it's also the biggest because it's the only one with an official phone app in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Even though that app sucks.)

All these Mastodon users who claim that Mastodon is the best choice don't realise that [i]they themselves did, in fact, not choose Mastodon[/i]. They didn't know they had a choice. All they were told about was Mastodon. Seriously, if they'd had a choice, they'd probably be on Sharkey now and not on Mastodon.

I've read what people had to say who moved from Friendica to Misskey. Or to now defunct Calckey/Firefish. Or to Sharkey. Or to Akkoma. All these are microblogging server applications in the Fediverse. But none of them are intentionally crippled to stay close to Twitter, at least not to such a degree as Mastodon.

It was nothing short of eye-opening to them. Only by daily-driving something else than Mastodon did they realise what the non-Mastodon Fediverse can be like. And how crippled Mastodon actually is. That Mastodon is [i]far[/i] from being the absolute pinnacle in decentralised social media.

They no longer had only 500 characters. They had [i]thousands[/i] of characters. They would have had thousands of characters [i]on every server running that software[/i] without having to ask around which one has more than 500 characters. It felt like a restraint being removed which they had never considered a restraint, at least not that much of it.

They saw text formatting which they considered technologically absolutely impossible in the Fediverse when they were on Mastodon. In fact, they had considered text formatting entirely impossible while on Mastodon until they had come across the first message from outside with text formatting. [i]Actual[/i] text formatting, not Unicode trickery. Now they suddenly saw a lot of the stuff that Mastodon's HTML sanitiser removes. [i]And they themselves could use it![/i]

If they were on one of the *keys, they no longer had a timeline of single-message piecemeal. For the first time ever, they experienced what it's like to have something else than single-message piecemeal. Namely [i]entire conversations right in front of them, right away.[/i] Without having to dig for them first.

They had features which they had always wished the Fediverse may introduce. They never knew that the Fediverse [i]does[/i] have these features, only Mastodon doesn't. They had features that were completely unimagiable to them in the Fediverse.

There are users who have moved from Mastodon to something "minimalist" and lightweight like snac or GoToSocial, often on self-hosted, single-user, private servers. Even they suddenly had features they didn't have on Mastodon. Mind you, while not missing a single Mastodon feature (except maybe for a built-in Web UI).

And that's just the microblogging side of the Fediverse. None of this is actual social networking. You know, what Facebook does.

First of all, if it's about following and being followed, it's social [i]media[/i]. A social [i]network[/i] doesn't have followers. In case you don't know, Facebook doesn't have followers. It has "friends". Bidirectional connections. Not 𝕏/Mastodon-like mutuals which are two connections, one in each direction, but [i]one[/i] connection that goes [i]both ways[/i].

Besides, there are even more important social networking features missing from the microblogging side of the Fediverse.

Where are the contact suggestions? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on how many contacts you have in common with them? Where does Mastodon suggest new contacts based on what profile information you have in common with them?

Oh, right, the latter is impossible because Mastodon doesn't have profile fields with defined purposes. In fact, where are these? Every good social network has them! But Mastodon only gives you four all-purpose profile fields (just like Mastodon only gives you four of everything, four file attachments, four options in polls...).

Where is the list of unread posts, unread comments and other unnoticed actions? How are you to make sure you [i]really[/i] catch everything your friends do? Because you can't do that if all you have is a timeline to scroll through until you no longer see new stuff. If you manage to scroll down that far. And only absolute newbies can do that on Mastodon because they hardly follow anyone.

Where are groups? Seriously, I've lost count of how many times Mastodon users said "the Fediverse" must introduce something like Facebook Groups. The huge majority of Mastodon users is fully convinced that the Fediverse does not have groups in any shape or form because Mastodon doesn't have them.

Where are all these things? In the Fediverse, no less? Where are they?

I'll tell you where they are.

Friendica. Hubzilla. (streams). Forte.

The actual social networking side of the Fediverse (although Hubzilla is more like a social CMS or a "social Swiss army knife" that you can also use as a Facebook-like social networking application). I mean, I've already explained that Friendica was created in 2010 as a Facebook alternative. Not a faithful Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook.

Mike Macgirvin took over from Facebook what social networks really need. And Farmville isn't that, and spying on your users and passing that data on to the NSA and selling it to the highest bidder isn't that, so he didn't take over that. He didn't want to build a clone that also adopts the bad sides just to be as close to the original as possible.

He took over the detailed profiles with profile fields with dedicated purposes. He took over profile privacy settings. In general, he took over a lot of privacy features. He took over advanced user discovery and connection suggestions. He took over bidirectional connections, only without that silly name "friends". He took over groups with moderation, only that a group on Friendica is just another account with a special automated reposter. He took over enclosed threaded conversations with one post at the top and otherwise only comments. He took over a "timeline" of full conversations as the default. He took over the event calendar. And so forth.

Instead, he added useful stuff on top. He gave Friendica all the posting features to make it fully capable of long-form blogging with all bells and whistles. No character limit (except for in the database, but I think that was over 65,000 back in the day already). All HTML text formatting features (only that Friendica only used BBcode back then; now it can optionally also use Markdown). A post/thread title. Summaries. Embedded images and other media with no limit in number. He even added a spoiler tag like in forums that can hide parts of a message.

He took care of privacy beyond what Facebook had to offer. He introduced a permissions system. Friendica got multiple profile per account, only one of which is public, so that you can show different sides of yourself to different connections.

Now, if you want to embed images or other media in your messages, you have to store them somewhere. And not everyone could be expected to set up a little file space somewhere. So he built a file space into Friendica, one that can even be used as a Dropbox alternative, all the way to restricted access to certain directories.

Mike also added a content warning system that automatically generates content warnings on the reader's side, based on a keyword list. If you need something behind content warnings, add the keywords to the list, and you'll have the respective content warnings, but the next user receiving the self-same post or comment does not have these content warnings if they don't need them.

One important part of what makes Friendica Friendica is being able to connect to a whole lot of stuff. For example, Friendica could federate with StatusNet via the OStatus protocol from the get-go; this is also how it immediately federated with Mastodon when the latter was launched. Mastodon generates an RSS feed, something that many users don't know. Friendica not only generates an Atom feed, but [i]it can subscribe to feeds[/i]. Friendica can "federate" with e-mail. Over time, more and more connection features were added, including Tumblr, Twitter (!), Facebook (only for a few years before [i]Facebook[/i] crippled it) and a WordPress cross-poster.

Lastly, he made it possible for third parties to add extra features by implementing an add-on system.

I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is the best Facebook alternative possible to use Friendica for a year. Not only dip one toe in to the water, but use it as their one and only daily driver for everything they've used Mastodon for. Not scratching the surface and using it like Twitter while ignoring any and all features the Twitter they remember didn't have, but going all in. In fact, I dare those who are fully convinced that Mastodon is perfect and fully-featured to do the same.

And then there's Hubzilla. It came to exist by Mike forking Friendica in 2011, then forking that fork the same year, then rewriting that fork of a fork in 2012, [i]then[/i] repurposing, rebranding, repositioning and greatly expanding it in 2015. Long story.

Hubzilla adds [i]even more[/i] stuff on top. Most importantly, it introduced nomadic identity ([url=https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity]https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity[/url]) in 2012.

Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, became the first decentralised social software that uncoupled the identity from the login. This was necessary for nomadic identity, but it also introduced the option to have multiple independent identities, basically what's an account elsewhere, on the same account, the same login. This makes sense, given the many different roles and purposes a Hubzilla channel can have. The big advantage over having multiple separate accounts is that you can switch between the channels on your account without logging out and back in.

Hubzilla, or its 2012 prototype form named Red, got an even more advanced and fine-grained permissions system. Hubzilla has 17 individual permissions on three levels, channel level, contact level, content level. At channel level, each one has seven or eight permission options to choose from, depending on whether or not it makes sense to give a permission to everyone on the Internet.

Mike added optional features to Hubzilla that were previously unseen on social [i]anything[/i], features that you'd rather expect from a CMS and maybe not even from that. Non-federating long-form articles. Planning cards that are based on these articles. Wikis that can be formatted with BBcode or Markdown. Webpages that can be formatted with BBcode, Markdown or HTML, that can include dynamic content from elsewhere on the channel, and that can add extra content to the channel pages.

Hubzilla can even act as groupware. It has a CalDAV calendar server; the event calendar can double as a crude UI for the CalDAV calendars. It has an optional CardDAV addressbook server. Its built-in file storage can be accessed via WebDAV, so you theoretically even have some cloud file space you can mount as a network drive. Rather recently, there was even a way found to tie Collabora Office into Hubzilla.

If you should ever read about Bonfire: Bonfire is Hubzilla ordered from Wish.com. Whatever Bonfire promises to have or to introduce has been available as a rock-solid stable feature on Hubzilla for over a decade. Bonfire only gets away with what it's trying to do because nobody knows Hubzilla.

I think it's safe to say that those who "chose" Mastodon didn't choose it over the rest of the Fediverse because it's better. They "chose" it because they didn't even know they have a choice.

As for your post, the technology for redeveloping socialising is there. And it certainly isn't Mastodon, and it never will be Mastodon. Mastodon can't be that due to its design philosophy, due to it being a Twitter clone, due to its own developers intentionally crippling it.

If you want to move on from 1-way interaction, you have to move on from 1-way connections. Move on from Twitter followers to Facebook friends.

You have to offer better options for the users than shouting into the void, attaching a bunch of hashtags and hoping that some of their followers or someone who is following one of the hashtags happens to be bothered to scroll down their timeline far enough.

You have to make sure that people don't miss content due to basic design and philosophy decisions. You have to make sure that people don't miss content because they simply never know that this content is there in the first place, because they can't scroll down far enough their timelines until they reach that content. You need something else than a timeline of single messages to scroll down with the user not having an idea just how far down that timeline goes. You have to tell the user how much unread content there is, what it is, where it is, and take the user directly to that unread content.

You have to stop presenting content to users as a long list of single posts and more single posts with only tiny details telling them that these posts are, in fact, part of a longer conversation which they don't see. Where they have to click or tap themselves through various UI pages to see that post in its context. Users must see the whole conversation Right. Off. The bat.

You need groups. Not kluged onto something that had no group support whatsoever two seconds earlier, not intentionally crippled, not crippled by the technology they're built upon, not intentionally re-invented to be incompatible with whatever already exists (and this is how Mastodon would do them). But fully functional, on an appropriate base, interoperable, user-moderated, optionally private, optionally hiding from directories.

If you want to go "social", you [i]really[/i] have to go social. You have to go Facebook, not Twitter.

Users must find other users based on common interests. Or users living close to them. Or users with lots of contacts in common with them. Not by being on the same local/regional server of the same server about a certain topic. Not by searching for hashtags in the main profile text. But by examining specialised profile fields and the contacts.

Users must have such users suggested to them as new connections. Users must have such users at the top of their directory. This is how Facebook does it. And this is one thing that Facebook has always done right.

Again, Mastodon will never offer any of this. But that doesn't mean that you'll have to compromise and lower your expectations. Because you don't have to. There are server applications in the Fediverse, fully federated with Mastodon, that offer literally all of that. They exist right now. And some of them have existed for longer than Mastodon.

If you need something better than today's Mastodon, stop wishing for a better Mastodon. Instead, use something that's better and more appropriate for the job than Mastodon [i]right now[/i]. For it exists [i]right now[/i].

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimit]CharacterLimit[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimits]CharacterLimits[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimitMeta]CharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWCharacterLimitMeta]CWCharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=500Characters]500Characters[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CW]CW[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWs]CWs[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWMeta]CWMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarning]ContentWarning[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarnings]ContentWarnings[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarningMeta]ContentWarningMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Fediverse]Fediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonFediverse]MastodonFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NotOnlyMastodon]NotOnlyMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseIsNotMastodon]FediverseIsNotMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonIsNotTheFediverse]MastodonIsNotTheFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Friendica]Friendica[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forte]Forte[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Privacy]Privacy[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Permission]Permission[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Permissions]Permissions[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Groups]Groups[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseGroups]FediverseGroups[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediGroups]FediGroups[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NomadicIdentity]NomadicIdentity[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCentricity]MastodonCentricity[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonNormativity]MastodonNormativity[/zrl]

@[url=https://mastodon.social/@collective_truth]Truth & ...

2026-07-25T13:46:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…xl8t
_________________________

@[url=https://mastodon.social/@collective_truth]Truth & Answers[/url] I've just come across a toot from a Mastodon user who demanded that everyone who posts, quote, "on Mastodon," end quote, limit their posts to 500 characters.

This was far from being the first time I've read this very demand or similar demands. It just was the most recent time.

Where this comes from? Well, it has two sides.

[h3]The Mastodon side[/h3]

One side are Mastodon users. Not all of them, but most of them. Literally all of them were on-boarded onto Mastodon with the notion that Mastodon is its own enclosed network with nothing else in it. Those who pull them on board either think it's easier for them to understand if they aren't told about the non-Mastodon Fediverse, or they don't know about the non-Mastodon Fediverse themselves.

Some of these newbies think Mastodon [i]is[/i] the network because they've never heard of the Fediverse. Others think the Fediverse [i]is[/i] Mastodon and nothing else.

My estimation, and not only mine, is that more than 50% of all Mastodon users think the Fediverse consists of nothing else than Mastodon. A great deal of the rest thinks the Fediverse doesn't extend beyond Mastodon, Pixelfed and PeerTube. Not much anyway.

It doesn't help that Mastodon, unlike other Fediverse server applications such as Misskey, the Forkeys, Friendica, (streams) or Forte, does not tell its users which server app a message came from. It doesn't help either that Mastodon "sanitises" away quite a few things that'd make non-Mastodon messages a dead giveaway. So the huge majority of Mastodon users believe that if they see it on Mastodon, it came from Mastodon.

So these people are dropped into a network which they think is nothing but a purist, minimalist microblogging service with no more than 500 characters, and whose only differences from Twitter are the name, that it isn't just one website, that it isn't owned by Elon Musk, and that it isn't overrun by fascists.

They get used to it. They get used to only having a maximum of 500 characters. They get used to the CW field being the CW field. They get used to Mastodon's entire culture which they see as the be-all, end-all of online culture.

And then they come across a message with a whole lot over 500 characters for the first time. Something which, to their best knowledge, shouldn't exist in the Mastodon Fediverse. Something which [i]mustn't[/i] exist in the Mastodon Fediverse.

Some don't have any idea how it could be possible to "toot" more than 500 characters "on Mastodon", and they ask how one can do that. Others believe that all these "long toots" come from hacked Mastodon servers. Either way, they often demand that these Mastodon users adhere to Mastodon's culture and Mastodon's unwritten rules and act like all good Mastodon users shall act. Including not "tooting" more than 500 characters "on Mastodon".

Both are being told that these "toots" aren't "toots" because they don't come from Mastodon. That the Fediverse is, in fact, not only Mastodon. That there's other server software in the Fediverse that has always been able to post way more than 500 characters.

That changes nothing for them. They still demand everyone in the Fediverse adhere to Mastodon's culture and Mastodon's unwritten rules and [i]only[/i] to these, and that everyone in the Fediverse use whatever they use exactly like vanilla, unmodified Mastodon.

And they feel absolutely justified. According to their gospel, Gargron invented the Fediverse when he created Mastodon. And everything in the Fediverse that isn't Mastodon (once they discover that there is such stuff) has either been designed as an add-on glued onto Mastodon (Pixelfed, PeerTube), or it's an evil, savage intruder (everything that's capable of largely doing the same thing as Mastodon without being Mastodon).

The Fediverse is to Mastodon users what the ancient world was to the Romans. Mastodon is the Roman Empire. Literally the only place that has got something like culture. A few places have voluntarily joined the Roman Mastodon Empire. All the rest consists of primitive, savage, culture-less barbarians whose lands need to be conquered by force to bring them culture.

[h3]The non-Mastodon side[/h3]

The other side are the non-Mastodon users. This sounds harsh, but while Mastodon users act by faith and belief, non-Mastodon users act by knowledge. It's them who know what the Fediverse really is. That there has never been a point in history at which the Fediverse has only been Mastodon. And that culture [i]does[/i] exist outside of Mastodon. Only that these cultures are different from Mastodon's culture, largely because they're geared towards the technical capabilities of the underlying software.

To non-Mastodon users, the Fediverse feels like the New World when the European conquerors and settlers arrived. They demanded the natives adopt European culture and convert to Catholic Christianty or face death. The natives actually already had cultures. Cultures that suited them and their surroundings much more than the culture lived in European cities. But the Europeans didn't acknowledge the natives' cultures as such, nor did they care.

From non-Mastodon users' point of view, Mastodon users act to them like the Europeans acted to the natives in their colonies-to-be.

A very good example, also because it's such an extreme example, has to be Friendica. In case you don't know, Friendica ([url=https://friendi.ca]https://friendi.ca[/url]; [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendica]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendica[/url]; [url=https://joinfediverse.wiki/Friendica]https://joinfediverse.wiki/Friendica[/url]) is a free, open-source, decentralised, federated Facebook alternative that first came out as early as May, 2010. Friendica developed a wholly different culture from Mastodon's because it's [i]vastly[/i] different from Mastodon.

Mastodon's culture was mostly coined in mid-2022 by those who escaped from Elon Musk's announcement to buy out Twitter in February/March, 2022.
Friendica's culture was coined by its early users in 2010 already.

Mastodon users are mostly used to living in a Mastodon-only network with no connection to anything that isn't Mastodon. They believe that Mastodon and the Fediverse were designed as such, and that Friendica is an illegitimate intruder.
Friendica users are used to being able to connect to everything that moves, including Mastodon, including the whole Fediverse, no matter which iteration of the Fediverse, including diaspora*, and the some. That's because Friendica was designed from the ground up to be able to connect to a whole lot of stuff. It's part of its concept.

Mastodon users believe that Mastodon was there before [i]anything[/i].
Friendica users know that Friendica was there long before Mastodon, even before diaspora*, and that Friendica still wasn't the first.

Mastodon users are used to only having 500 characters. They still consider that a lot in comparison with Twitter's 280 characters.
Friendica users are used to not having any character limit whatsoever. Friendica's actual technical character limit is imposed by the maximum size of the message text database field, and that's over 16.7 million characters.

Mastodon users are used to chopping long posts into threads. It's what they expect. Actual long posts irritate them.
Friendica users are used to posting long post in one piece. It's what they expect. One and the same post being chopped up into itty-bitty bits irritate them.

Mastodon users are used to putting CWs in a dedicated CW field.
Friendica users are used to the self-same text field actually being a summary field (Friendica calls it "abstract"). While Mastodon got that field in 2017 as a pull request from a user, Friendica had it from the get-go, i.e. since 2010. And Friendica actually adopted it from Evan Prodromou's decentralised Twitter alternative StatusNet from 2008 with which Friendica was able to federate with from the get-go as well.

Mastodon users "know" that Gargron invented the CW field.
Friendica users [i]actually do know for a fact[/i] that they've had the same field as a summary field since long before Mastodon was even made. There are still enough Friendica veterans around from before 2016.

This also means that Mastodon users are used to poster-side CWs which all readers get just the same.
Friendica users are used to CWs being automatically generated on the reader's side, individually for each reader, by an optional text filter.
In fact, Mastodon can do the same. But nobody knows, it came way too late to become part of Mastodon's culture (Mastodon 4.0 in October, 2022), it's too tedious to use, it probably isn't supported by that many phone apps, and next to nobody uses Mastodon's Web interface. In the meantime, Friendica has had this feature for some twelve years longer, and it's only an on-off switch and one editable keyword list.

Mastodon users are used to only having up to four images and to images always only being file attachments dangling below a post.
Friendica users are used to being able to embed a virtually unlimited number of images to a post. And to [i]actually embed[/i] them, as in, with text above the image and text below the image and another image below that text and more text below [i]that[/i] image. Theoretically, they could insert tiny images into lines of text. By the way, Mastodon refuses to display embedded images. It also rejects any file attachments beyond the first four. And up to version 4.0 from October, 2022, it didn't support any kind of text formatting and "sanitised" all message texts down to plain text.

This also means that Mastodon users are used to only having plain text or mucking around with Unicode characters for bold type and italics.
Friendica users are used to being able to not only see, but also post all sorts of text formatting that HTML is capable of.

Mastodon users are often deadly afraid of quote-posts because they only know quote-posts as a means of harassment and dogpiling on Twitter.
Friendica users, their entire culture being entirely unfazed by whatever has ever happened on Twitter, are absolutely used to always having had quote-posts at hand and to using quote-posts as a means of forwarding content. They had what Mastodon calls "quotes" [i]years[/i] before they had what Mastodon calls "boosts" (and what many Mastodon users refer to as "retoots").

Mastodon users are used to conversations being loosely tied together from toots and to having to visibly mention all those whom they want to receive a reply.
Friendica users are used to having enclosed threaded conversations with only one post and otherwise only comments. They're also used to everyone in the conversation, i.e. everyone who has received the original post, automatically receiving every single last comment. They're used to always seeing the entire thread immediately as opposed to single-message piecemeal.

Mastodon users are used to shouting into the void with hashtags attached if they want to talk about a certain topic. It's the only way for them to do so.
Friendica users are used to having [i]groups[/i]. Oh, and full-text search.

[h3]The conflict[/h3]

It should be obvious that these two types have a very high chance of not getting along, especially if the Mastodon user is fairly new and not used to there being stuff in the Fediverse that's nothing like Mastodon.

Mastodon users keep demanding that everyone else in the Fediverse live by Mastodon's culture and Mastodon's rules and [i]only[/i] by these.

Mastodon users who have joined in 2026 keep ordering Friendica veterans who have joined in the early 2010s (before there was any Mastodon) to act like they're on Mastodon.

They demand these Friendica veterans fully adopt Mastodon's culture (which isn't even geared towards Friendica's set of features).

They indirectly demand these Friendica veterans give up their own culture (because they cannot comprehend that there can be any other culture in the Fediverse than Mastodon's, as in, that what Friendica has [i]is[/i] a culture, even though it's different from Mastodon's).

They directly demand these Friendica veterans give up some 40% of the features they've been using for a decade and a half and indirectly demand they give up another 40% of these features.

They demand these Friendica veterans stop posting more than 500 characters at once.

They demand these Friendica veterans put CWs into their abstract field. (Again, they think that Gargron has invented this field from scratch as a CW field,)

They demand these Friendica veterans use their abstract field [i]only[/i] for CWs.

They demand these Friendica veterans stop "spamming" hashtags that clearly aren't there for content discovery. (They cannot comprehend that these hashtags are there to trigger automatic reader-side CWs because the entire concept is completely alien to them.)

And so forth.

These Friendica veterans have been in the Fediverse for about a decade and a half. And suddently, these Mastodon newbies appear and tell them how to use Friendica.

Of course, these Mastodon newbies don't know a thing about Friendica. They think the Friendica veterans are Mastodon users, and they're telling them how to use Mastodon.

So the Friendica users tell them, no, they aren't on Mastodon. They're on Friendica which has got absolutely nothing to do with Mastodon.

Then the Mastodon newbies will believe that someone has created this weird Friendica thing after Mastodon was made (it can't possibly be any other way, right?9 and illegally hacked this Friendica thing into the Mastodon Fediverse. And whoever made Friendica omitted to make Friendica just like Mastodon.

Okay, now the Friendica users tell them that Friendica was launched in 2010, how long before Mastodon that was, and that they themselves have been around for much longer than Mastodon, too.

Now, either the Mastodon newbies will fail to comprehend that there can be anything in the Fediverse made before Mastodon if Gargron has invented the very technology. Or they think that the Fediverse was still created with Mastodon, and that Friendica still illegally intruded into the Mastodon Fediverse.

Either way, the Friendica veterans will have to adapt and act entirely by Mastodon's standards. This is the Mastodon Fediverse, Mastodon is the biggest software (if only by monthly active users, by the way), Mastodon has defined "the Fediverse culture", and thus it's the Mastodon users and only the Mastodon users who get to say how people have to act and behave in the Fediverse.

And then the Mastodon users wonder how there's so much Mastodon hatred on Friendica (and there actually is). How Friendica users complain about Mastodon users trying to force them to use Friendica like Mastodon. How Friendica users complain about Mastodon users chopping long posts into small bits. As if they had a choice. How Friendica users complain about CWs in whatever that abstract field is supposed to be. And so forth.

How dare the Friendica users complain? The Mastodon users are the good guys! It's them and [i]only[/i] them who have a culture, who have rules, who know how to use the Fediverse!

By the way: It gets even worse between Mastodon and Lemmy.

Mastodon's culture is an idealised version of pre-Musk Twitter's culture with bits of Tumblr's SFW culture mixed in. That's because just about everyone on Mastodon originally came from Twitter, and most of them escaped from Elon Musk. They want Mastodon (and the Fediverse) be a better Twitter. It helps that Mastodon is still trying hard to be a Twitter clone.

Lemmy's culture, on the other hand, is a carbon copy of Reddit's culture. Lemmy [i]is[/i] a Reddit clone that shares next to no features at all with Mastodon except for ActivityPub support. Next to all Lemmy users are former Redditors who left Reddit when Reddit started charging $20,000,000 for its client API, effectively killing off all third-party Reddit apps. They saw no reason in changing their culture because it wasn't the culture that drove them away. Hardly any of them were on Twitter, and almost none of them have ever been on Mastodon. Many think the Fediverse is Lemmy. Of the rest, many think the Fediverse is Lemmy with a side of PieFed.

Mastodon lives on hashtags even more than Twitter. Lemmy has zero support for hashtags because Reddit doesn't have any either, and neither does Hacker News.

Mastodon requires mentions to get replies to their recipients. One visible mention per recipient. Lemmy doesn't need mentions for this at all. Mentions on Lemmy only serve to, well, mention someone. Just like on Reddit.

And so forth.

It's actually easy to spot threads on Lemmy that were started by Mastodon users: The title is in the post text, or there's no title at all because the Mastodon users did as they always do: mention in the first line, then a new line because that looks prettier. Of course, there's a mention in the post text. And there's a bunch of hashtags strewn across the post text even though they don't even work. If you're very lucky, the hashtags are at the bottom, but most Mastodon users don't waste any of their 500 characters on that.

I hope you get a rough idea how much headbutting there is between Mastodon users who think that the Mastodon users rule supreme over the whole Fediverse and Lemmy community owners who [i]do[/i] rule over the Lemmy communities which these Mastodon users have just posted into.

[h3]Countermeasures[/h3]

Both sides are actually taking countermeasures. The non-Mastodon side is more effective at it, though.

On Mastodon's side, there are very few single users who block every single non-Mastodon server they come across.

Countermeasures on the non-Mastodon side vary. They start with single users who block each Mastodon user who doesn't behave like [i]they[/i] want them to behave, e.g. they block everyone who chops a long post into a thread at first trike.

Then there's Hubzilla, reworked from a fork of a fork of Friendica by Friendica's own creator. Hubzilla has always been based on its own protocol, Zot6 (Friendica's creator calls it an older version of Nomad). ActivityPub support is optional, on by default on new servers and off by default on new channels. The current devs won't change anything about that. Not only doesn't Hubzilla's technology allow for moving it to ActivityPub as its base protocol, but ActivityPub being optional is seen as a last-resort "drawbridge" for those to whom Mastodon has become unbearable.

Nowadays, Friendica's creator is working on two other applications in the same family. (streams) is a fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork?) of Hubzilla, and Forte is a fork of (streams). Both have an admin-side user agent filter. It can block entire Fediverse applications without having to hassle around with a URL list. It was mainly created and advertised as a means to permanently lock Threads out, even if Threads should change URLs. But it's also being advertised as being capable of blocking all of Mastodon, all present and future servers. Mastodon being intentially made barely compatible with the rest of the Fediverse is only one reason for this.

(streams) and Forte also have another admin-side filter which, when turned on, locks everything out that doesn't support enclosed threaded conversations. That's because server applications like Mastodon mess with the way that (streams), Forte and their ancestors handle conversations. Granted, when this is activated only to get rid of Mastodon, it causes quite a bit of collateral damage.

Generally, (streams) and Forte are very similar. The main difference is that Forte is entirely based on ActivityPub whereas (streams) is based on the current version of Nomad with ActivityPub still being optional. The reason why (streams) is kept around is for there to still be one of these applications with the same protocol-level "drawbridge" as Hubzilla. And in fact, the most important (streams) group used to have ActivityPub off with the intention to keep Mastodon out.

I guess there are still Mastodon users who absolutely defend and support Mastodon's way being forced upon the non-Mastodon Fediverse, and who are irritated or upset about non-Mastodon users being very defensive of their own non-Mastodon ways and refusing to adopt Mastodon's (allegedly much superior) culture instead of embracing it.

And I guess there are Mastodon users who feel absolutely entitled to get to every last Hubzilla and (streams) and Forte user [i]unhindered[/i] and force them to use Hubzilla/(streams)/Forte exactly like Mastodon in every way possible.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimit]CharacterLimit[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimits]CharacterLimits[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CharacterLimitMeta]CharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWCharacterLimitMeta]CWCharacterLimitMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=500Characters]500Characters[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CW]CW[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWs]CWs[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWMeta]CWMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarning]ContentWarning[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarnings]ContentWarnings[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ContentWarningMeta]ContentWarningMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hashtag]Hashtag[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hashtags]Hashtags[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=HashtagMeta]HashtagMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWHashtagMeta]CWHashtagMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Fediverse]Fediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonFediverse]MastodonFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NotOnlyMastodon]NotOnlyMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseIsNotMastodon]FediverseIsNotMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonIsNotTheFediverse]MastodonIsNotTheFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Friendica]Friendica[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forte]Forte[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Lemmy]Lemmy[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCulture]MastodonCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseCulture]FediverseCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCentricity]MastodonCentricity[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonNormativity]MastodonNormativity[/zrl]

Yeah, I get it. Mastodon and its users rule supreme over the ...

2026-07-25T08:53:54Z

Yeah, I get it.

Mastodon and its users rule supreme over the Fediverse. After all, the Fediverse was invented by Gargron. It started when Mastodon started, and everything that isn't Mastodon just latched onto Mastodon and its Fediverse.

Mastodon users are the only civilised users in the Fediverse, the only ones with something like a culture. The Fediverse culture is Mastodon's culture as defined in the spring of 2022. All those who don't live by Mastodon's culture are uncivilised, uneducated, savage barbarians. And it isn't just the Mastodon users' right and privilege to educate them and shape them into good Mastodon users, it's their duty.

Even when it turns out that these barbarians aren't even on Mastodon, that they're on something that's [i]very much not[/i] Mastodon, they can't possibly have a culture of their own. After all, they don't live by Mastodon's culture, and if it isn't Mastodon's culture, it isn't culture at all. Not even if it predates Mastodon's current culture by over a decade like Friendica's culture does.

Of course, this also means that when non-Mastodon users come and give Mastodon users unsolicited "advice" or recommend them to use Mastodon in a certain way that goes against Mastodon's culture, the Mastodon users are fully justified to silence them by any means available.

[h3]What this means:[/h3]

When a Mastodon user uses "Fediverse" and "Mastodon" mutually synonymously, it's the right thing to do because that's part of Mastodon's culture. And it makes things easier to understand.

[i]When a non-Mastodon user explains that the Fediverse is not only Mastodon, and that "Fediverse" and "Mastodon" do not mean the same, it's evil and intrusive and deeply disturbing.[/i]

When a Mastodon user refers to any message in the Fediverse as a "toot", it's the right thing to do because that's part of Mastodon's culture.

[i]When a Misskey or Forkey user talks about "notes", it's irritating. When a Friendica or Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte user distinguishes between "posts" and "comments", it has even less of a place in the Mastodon Fediverse.[/i]

Features that only Mastodon has are actually mandatory for the whole Fediverse. Any Fediverse server software that hasn't got these features implemented in exactly the same way as Mastodon is broken.

[i]Features in non-Mastodon Fediverse server software that Mastodon doesn't have are wrong and evil and not allowed to be used.[/i]

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to tell non-Mastodon users to limit their posts to no more than 500 characters. It especially disturbs those who refuse to move away from the official Mastodon phone app.

[i]Non-Mastodon users are not allowed to tell Mastodon users to not cut their long posts into threads.[/i]

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to tell non-Mastodon users to put content warnings into their summary/abstract field.

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to tell non-Mastodon users to only use their summary/abstract field for content warnings. After all, that's what Gargron invented that field for.

[i]Non-Mastodon users are not allowed to tell non-Mastodon users that it was Evan Prodromou who invented that field as early as 2008. That he invented it as a summary field. That it was actually a Mastodon user who repurposed that field for CWs in 2017, the year after Mastodon was launched. Gargron only let it pass.[/i]

[i]Non-Mastodon users are not allowed to use that field for anything else than CWs.[/i]

[i]Non-Mastodon users are not allowed to add hashtags instead of CWs so that reader-side CWs can automatically be generated by filters. Even though Mastodon itself has literally introduced this very feature with version 4.0 in October, 2022.[/i]

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to tell non-Mastodon users to not only write alt-texts for all the images they post, but to write them nicely long and detailed. After all, they've got 1,500 characters for alt-texts.

[i]Misskey and Forkey users are not allowed to tell Mastodon users to limit their alt-texts to no more than 512 characters because that's the maximum that Misskey and the Forkeys accept, and on top of that, due to a bug, they [/i]delete[i] all alt-texts longer than that. From a Misskey/Forkey point of view, writing long alt-texts is like not writing any alt-texts at all. But the Misskey/Forkey point of view is invalid in Mastodon's culture.[/i]

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to toot to Lemmy any way they want, and that's the Mastodon way. If it doesn't work properly on Lemmy, then Lemmy is broken.

[i]Lemmy users, even Lemmy moderators, and other users of Fediverse software that supports groups are not allowed to tell Mastodon users how to post to Lemmy in a way that Lemmy understands.[/i]

Mastodon users are allowed, justified and expected to even tell Lemmy users to limit their "toots" to no more than 500 characters and use hashtags, but not too many of them.

[i]Lemmy users and even Lemmy moderators are not allowed to tell Mastodon users to stop spamming Lemmy with mentions and with hashtags that don't work on Lemmy anyway, also because both highly irritate the Lemmy users. Almost all of them came straight from Reddit after their third-party apps were killed, and almost none of them have ever been on Twitter or Mastodon.[/i]

Mastodon users and Mastodon admins are allowed and justified to block any and all non-Mastodon servers because they misbehave by Mastodon's standards.

[i](streams) and Forte admins are not allowed to block the entirety of Mastodon, all present and future servers, by user agent (which, by the way, they're totally capable of) because it misbehaves by [/i]their[i] standards. Mastodon doesn't misbehave, and the Hubzilla/(streams)/Forte standards are all wrong if they differ from Mastodon's standards.[/i]

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Fediverse]Fediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonFediverse]MastodonFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NotOnlyMastodon]NotOnlyMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseIsNotMastodon]FediverseIsNotMastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonIsNotTheFediverse]MastodonIsNotTheFediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Misskey]Misskey[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forkey]Forkey[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forkeys]Forkeys[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Iceshrimp]Iceshrimp[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Iceshrimp-JS]Iceshrimp-JS[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Sharkey]Sharkey[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CherryPick]CherryPick[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Friendica]Friendica[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forte]Forte[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Lemmy]Lemmy[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCulture]MastodonCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseCulture]FediverseCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCentricity]MastodonCentricity[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonNormativity]MastodonNormativity[/zrl]

Nostr event nevent1qqsrv5u7073kh9ygyyekjegxyuhwmw322w8pqcvug7ut09l24h5347qzyzrqs9t098608gvxf2z04s8tfew2zven93wev7cr4q6fucmzu76qgjqedqh

2026-06-19T18:05:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…y0e7
_________________________

@[url=https://social.trom.tf/profile/eshep]eshep[/url] [quote]I've not yet seen any posts, attacking or otherwise, taking this stance[/quote]
Not yet.

Right now, this feature is only available in a development version of Mastodon and only on mastodon.social. Next will be the daredevil servers that run development code to be ahead of release in features.

But eventually, a new stable release will be rolled out with this feature. More and more servers will be upgraded to this new version with this feature. Once typical activist servers like beige.party introduce it, my prediction will come true.

[quote]I have family who have varying levels of blindness who consume media from all over the internet. All of them have been quite thrilled about the state of these new robot assistants we all now have such easy access to.

Specifically assigned "alt-text" is never necessary.[/quote]
People who aren't sighted are usually happy about image-describing AI because it's better than nothing, and without image-describing AI, they've got [i]literally[/i] nothing.

In fact, however, image-describing AI is just barely better than nothing, if at all. It describes stuff that doesn't matter. It doesn't describe stuff that [i]does[/i] matter. Most importantly, it's unreliable and inaccurate. It hallucinates and describes stuff wrongly. However, people who aren't sufficiently sighted don't know. They can't verify whether what the AI says is true because they can't see the image well enough to be able to compare it with the description.

100% hand-written alt-text is [i]always[/i] more reliable, more accurate and more fit for the context than AI-generated alt-text will ever be.

I know from first-hand experience. I've tasked an image-describing AI with describing an image which I've described manually with no AI help first, and then I've analysed the AI description and compared it with both the actual image and my descriptions. I've even done that twice. The results were abysmal.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltText]AltText[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltTextMeta]AltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWAltTextMeta]CWAltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescription]ImageDescription[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptions]ImageDescriptions[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptionMeta]ImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWImageDescriptionMeta]CWImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Fediverse]Fediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl]

So there's a new attack vector for Mastodon users against ...

2026-06-19T08:38:57Z

So there's a new attack vector for Mastodon users against non-Mastodon users in the making.

Mastodon is rolling out alt-texts for what we on Hubzilla call the profile photo and the cover photo. It won't be long until it becomes mandatory in Mastodon's culture to have alt-texts for both these pictures. Regardless of how new this feature is and how many other features that were introduced between March, 2022 and now have not made it into Mastodon's culture and Mastodon's unwritten rules, by the way.

At this point, Mastodon's alt-text activists will start attacking [i]anyone and everyone[/i] whom they catch without alt-texts for these two pictures. At least they'll lecture them about the importance of alt-texts. Or they'll block them outright.

What they won't realise:
[list][*]Not everyone in the Fediverse is on Mastodon. Just because you see something on your Mastodon Web UI or in your Mastodon app, doesn't mean it's on or from Mastodon itself.
[*]In fact, that particular user might not be on Mastodon.
[*]Just because Mastodon rolls out a new feature, doesn't mean everything in the Fediverse rolls out the same feature at the same time. This means that there's a whole lot of Fediverse server software that does not offer alt-texts for profile pictures, and that probably won't offer them for quite a while or ever.
[*]Also, Mastodon's culture is not and will never be the culture of the whole Fediverse. Sorry, Mastodon fundamentalists, but some software has been here [i]before Mastodon[/i], its culture is older than Mastodon itself, and it's technologically incompatible with Mastodon's unwritten rules.[/list]

Here on Hubzilla, where I'm posting from right now (in case you really thought I'm on Mastodon just like you), there is no such thing as a dedicated field for alt-texts [i]anywhere[/i]. Even if you want to post pictures, there is no alt-text entry mask, and there is no alt-text database field for the images.

Instead, both images and alt-texts are handled like on a blog: You embed the image somewhere in the post text using markup code. In a sense, you [i]program the image[/i] into the post. And if you want the image to have alt-text, you have to [i]program the alt-text into the image-embedding code[/i]. If you're afraid of coding, Hubzilla is not for you.

But if there's no entry mask and no database field for alt-texts in posts, there won't be either for the profile images either. That is, unless Hubzilla adopts the alt-text field from (streams) and Forte where alt-texts can be added to uploaded images in the Photo app so that they're automatically inserted whenever you embed an image in a message. Using that alt-text field for profile images should be trivial then.

If you want or need the images in my profile described: I don't have a description for my profile photo. For my cover photo, I actually have [i]two[/i]. They're both in this post: [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/display/c796febd-8ce2-472b-a46b-23fdf6b16f18]https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/display/c796febd-8ce2-472b-a46b-23fdf6b16f18[/url]. One is in the alt-text which you probably can't open when you're on a phone; the alt-text is 1,500 characters long, a bit over 1,400 of which are visual description. The other one is in the post text itself. But you'd better have a lot of time at your hand because it's over 60,000 characters long, and it'll probably take you a few hours to read it.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltText]AltText[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltTextMeta]AltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWAltTextMeta]CWAltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescription]ImageDescription[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptions]ImageDescriptions[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptionMeta]ImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWImageDescriptionMeta]CWImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Fediverse]Fediverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCulture]MastodonCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseCulture]FediverseCulture[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonCentricity]MastodonCentricity[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MastodonNormativity]MastodonNormativity[/zrl]

@[url=https://c.im/@youronlyone]Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta ...

2026-01-21T10:03:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…de97
_________________________

@[url=https://c.im/@youronlyone]Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한🦣[/url] WisTex, that's @[zrl=https://loves.tech/channel/scott]Scott M. Stolz[/zrl] (@[zrl=https://codejournal.dev/channel/scott]Scott's Code Journal[/zrl]), founding member of the Hubzilla Association and the guy behind [url=https://neuhub.org/]NeuHub[/url]. So this is very legit.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NeuHub]NeuHub[/zrl]

Nostr event nevent1qqs8g2l6m5rpjtlwrxnv882xthznkvlmxqgnaelytlznkuqzz0nlxkczyzrqs9t098608gvxf2z04s8tfew2zven93wev7cr4q6fucmzu76qgtunt0q

2025-10-30T11:04:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…5zyd
_________________________

@[url=https://mastodon.iftas.org/@iftas]IFTAS[/url] @[url=https://mastodon.social/@fediversereport]Connected Places[/url] I don't think it's that easy to develop an external moderation tool that
[list][*]ties into Mastodon and the way Mastodon works
[*]ties into [url=https://hubzilla.org]Hubzilla[/url], [url=https://codeberg.org/streams/streams](streams)[/url] and [url=https://codeberg.org/fortified/forte]Forte[/url] and their highly advanced permissions systems ([i]everything[/i] on these three is permission-driven) and self-moderation capabilities all the same, also seeing as such a tool must be capable of [i]moderating groups/forums[/i][/list]

I mean, you could try. But be warned: These three work much, much more differently from Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse than their presence in the Fediverse may indicate. You'll have to work both [i]with[/i] permissions (use the permissions system to achieve what you need to achieve) and [i]past[/i] permissions (if you bluntly try to latch your tool onto these three from outside, chances are that their permissions systems won't even let you in).

You'll have to deal with enclosed conversations as per FEP-171b "Conversation Containers" in which the start post always forces its permissions on all comments and replies. You'll have to deal with nomadic identity, with channels simultaneously residing on multiple independent servers. On (streams) and Forte, you'll also have to deal with DIDs according to FEP-ef61 "Portable Objects".

On Hubzilla and (streams), you'll have to deal with servers that don't even use ActivityPub as their base protocol and with both servers and channels that have ActivityPub turned off entirely. And on Hubzilla, you'll have to deal with connections that use wholly different protocols yet again, e.g. [url=https://diasporafoundation.org/]diaspora*[/url] (remember the $200,000 crowdfunding run back in 2010?).

Also, you'll have to deal with three Fediverse server applications that do not have the Mastodon client API implemented, with feature sets that are completely incompatible with the Mastodon client API and with developers who staunchly refuse to implement it because they basically despise Mastodon with a hot, flaming passion.

And no, making server apps that are [i]nothing[/i] like Mastodon [i]at all[/i] become more like Mastodon, just so that they can be moderated with a tool that's made for Mastodon, is not a solution because it simply won't happen.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forte]Forte[/zrl]

@[url=https://c.im/@bbamok]Baranduin[/url] [quote]Oh does this ...

2025-06-30T10:50:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…3xex
_________________________

@[url=https://c.im/@bbamok]Baranduin[/url]
[quote]Oh does this feel like my inner monologue when I post a photo. It is a bummer that it, at times, prevents me from posting more photos, but I hope this make me a little more quality over quantity.[/quote]
I actually keep entire categories of things out of my images because I can't describe them up to my own standards. This includes realistic buildings. I would first have to look up loads of architectural terms to describe all details of a building, and then I would have to explain each and every one of these architectural buildings in a way that absolute laypeople understand my image description without ever having to ask me anything or look anything up themselves.

The last time I posted an image with a building was [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/f8ac991d-b64b-4290-be69-28feb51ba2a7]this post[/url]. I actually went around and looked for a nice motive for a new image post for quite a while. There was one harbour scene which I thought looked spectacular enough to show, but which was impossible to describe. So I fell back to this motive. I thought it's not too bland, not too simple and at the same time not too complex. Besides, the one building in the image is totally unrealistic and without all the tiny details that would make up a realistic building.

And then I ended up taking some 30 hours over two days to describe the image in over 60,000 characters. The building alone took up some 40,000 or so. This is still the longest image description in the whole Fediverse, I think. [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/02c3e128-0c9a-4800-87f2-780f31136947]Here is the image describing log thread.[/url]

My last image post before that was [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/136f021c-06cb-4e38-abe6-2bf37fd521d8]this one[/url] with still over 25,000 characters of description for one image, and I consider it outdated slop.

It was the last time that I described an image in my image with more details than visible in the original of that image itself. And that's where I got sloppy. I completely forgot to transcribe what's written on the license plate above the office door of the motel in that image in my image. And I couldn't be bothered to give detailed descriptions of the two 1957 Chevy Bel Airs parked in front of the motel because I really wanted to get that description done. In the actual image, all of this is sub-pixel-sized. You wouldn't know it's even there if I didn't mention it. I did describe the motel, but it's a fairly simple building, and I decided against describing what's visible through the windows with open blinds from the camera angle in the image in my image.

In the next image, the one with 60,000+ characters of description, I stopped describing images in the image beyond what I can see in the place where the image itself was taken. That was because one image is a destination preview image on a teleporter. The destination is a kind of teleport hub. The preview actually (if only barely so) shows over 300 single-destination teleporters, a few dozen of them with their own preview images.

So I teleported to that hub to describe it in detail. And I looked at the teleporters and their preview images. Turned out, not only do these preview images pretty much all have text in them and not necessarily few bits of text, but some of them actually have images within themselves again.

I would have had to describe that image in my image, dozens of images in that image in my image and a number of images in these images in that image in my image. For each of the latter, I would have had to teleport three times from the place that I originally wanted to describe. I would also have had a whole lot more text to transcribe. All on a sub-pixel scale several times over.

Not only would that have been a humongous task, but more importantly, it would have inflated my image description and my whole post to more than 100,000 characters. Mastodon would probably have rejected my post for being too long. And this would have rendered the whole effort futile. In the few places in the Fediverse that would still have accepted my post, nobody cares for image descriptions.

[quote]AI certainly can't get inside my brain well enough to write accurate descriptions. Even if it could would I? hmmm.[/quote]
I've only used AI to describe images twice. And in both cases, that was to show just how bad AI is at describing images about an extremely obscure and quickly changing niche topic at the level of accuracy and detail which I deem necessary for that topic.

I guess one problem that you're facing is that next to nobody in the Fediverse can even grasp what you're thinking about, what you're taking into consideration for your image descriptions. That's why you got next to no feedback upon your first comment in this thread.

I have one advantage here: What you're pondering, I have actually done. If I feel like people won't understand what I'm thinking about, I point them at one or several of my actual image posts, and/or I post a quote from one of my actual image descriptions. Still, almost nobody actually goes and reads through any of my image descriptions, but I guess they get the gist, especially when I post snippets from my actual descriptions.

CC: @[url=https://mastodon.social/users/nancywisser]Icarosity[/url]

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltText]AltText[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltTextMeta]AltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWAltTextMeta]CWAltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescription]ImageDescription[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptions]ImageDescriptions[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptionMeta]ImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWImageDescriptionMeta]CWImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl]

Nostr event nevent1qqsdrdql98xqcxvrg75nncm05c7vhnqhn7f6pqepl2a0l0hgqhp3zzszyzrqs9t098608gvxf2z04s8tfew2zven93wev7cr4q6fucmzu76qg2sfamy

2025-06-29T19:33:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…ge46
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@[url=https://mastodon.social/users/nancywisser]Icarosity[/url] It's similar for me, only that I always put a gigantic effort into describing my own images twice, once not exactly briefly in the alt-text and once with even more details in the post itself. Sometimes I find an interesting motive, but when I start thinking about how to describe it, I don't even render an image because it isn't worth doing so if I can't post it.

I haven't posted a new image in almost a year. In fact, I've got a series of fairly simple images for which I've started writing the descriptions late last year, and I'm still not done. So much about "it only takes a few seconds".

Before someone suggests I could use Altbot: I'm not even sure if it'll work with Hubzilla posts. And besides, no AI on this planet is fit for the task of properly, appropriately and [i]accurately[/i] describing the kind of images that I post.

@[url=https://c.im/@bbamok]Baranduin[/url] And then there's me who has managed to describe one image in a bit over ten thousand words last year. Good thing I have a post character limit of over 16.7 million. And I actually limited myself this time: I did not describe images within my image in detail, in stark contrast to about two years ago when I described a barely visible image in an image in well over 4,000 characters of its own, and that wasn't the only image within that image that I described.

CC: @[url=https://beige.party/@LoganFive]Logan 5 and 999 others[/url]

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltText]AltText[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=AltTextMeta]AltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWAltTextMeta]CWAltTextMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescription]ImageDescription[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptions]ImageDescriptions[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ImageDescriptionMeta]ImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWImageDescriptionMeta]CWImageDescriptionMeta[/zrl]

@[url=https://mitra.social/users/weekinfediverse]Week in ...

2025-05-17T18:46:22Z

@[url=https://fosstodon.org/@fabrice]Fabrice Desré[/url] ...

2025-04-30T08:03:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…dva7
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@[url=https://fosstodon.org/@fabrice]Fabrice Desré[/url] @[url=https://fosstodon.org/users/tuxdevices]TuxPhones :linux:[/url] Ackchually...

The AT protocol has yet to prove that its concept of portable identity works.

In the meantime, @[url=https://mitra.social/users/silverpill]silverpill[/url] (creator and maintainer of [url=https://codeberg.org/silverpill/mitra]Mitra[/url]) has been working with @[zrl=https://fediversity.site/channel/mikedev]Mike Macgirvin 🖥️[/zrl] (creator of a family tree of almost a dozen Fediverse server applications over a decade and a half, designer of two Fediverse protocols and inventor of [url=https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic_identity]nomadic identity[/url] as early as 2012) to implement nomadic identity in ActivityPub since 2023. Previously, nomadic identity required the Zot or Nomad protocol. (Oh, and yes, it actually works, and it's being daily-driven by many [url=https://joinfediverse.wiki/Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/url] and [url=https://joinfediverse.wiki/(streams)](streams)[/url] users right now.)

In August, 2024, Mike launched [url=https://codeberg.org/fortified/forte]Forte[/url], his most recent creation and [b]the first Fediverse server application to entirely rely upon ActivityPub for nomadic identity[/b]. Nomadic identity via ActivityPub has been reality ever since.

In March, 2025, Forte officially had its first stable release. So much about nomadic identity via ActivityPub being experimental. People are using it as their primary daily driver already.

Just because Mastodon doesn't have it, doesn't mean ActivityPub doesn't, or the Fediverse doesn't.

Unfortunately, I don't expect Mastodon to ever implement it. After all, the Mastodon devs have already practically rejected OpenWebAuth as well, another one of Mike's creations.

(This comment was brought to you by a nomadic Hubzilla channel with one clone.)

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=ActivityPub]ActivityPub[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Zot]Zot[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Nomad]Nomad[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mitra]Mitra[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Forte]Forte[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=NomadicIdentity]NomadicIdentity[/zrl]

@[url=https://social.hacktheplanet.be/@neo]Michael Smith ...

2025-04-04T06:33:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…zy9z
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@[url=https://social.hacktheplanet.be/@neo]Michael Smith (Neo)[/url] Convenience.

Just about everyone in the Fediverse is on a phone nowadays with the exception of some Friendica and Hubzilla veterans. And the easiest way of sharing e.g. social media content on a phone is by taking a screenshot and plastering it into an otherwise empty toot in their Mastodon app. Way easier and more convenient than copy-pasting the text itself plus a link to the original into the toot. Way easier and more convenient even than only copy-pasting the link. And a great deal easier and more convenient than re-writing the whole text and the link, especially since Bluetooth keyboards for phones are a thing of the past, as are apparently hardware input devices other than touch screens in general.

I guess 99% of all phone users don't even know they can copy-paste on a phone, and many have never heard of copy-paste in their lives. Even those who do know that they can copy-paste find marking text to copy on a tiny touch screen too fidgety.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl]

@[url=https://mitexleo.one/@ml]Mitex Leo[/url] Short answer: no. ...

2025-03-08T07:32:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…m5de
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@[url=https://mitexleo.one/@ml]Mitex Leo[/url] Short answer: no.

To my best knowledge, Hubzilla cannot import anything from Mastodon. No posts, no followed, especially no followers.

(streams) can import CSV-formatted follow lists; I don't know if Mastodon can export them, or if Mastodon has its own proprietary follow list format. But (streams) cannot make your followers on Mastodon your followers on (streams) because [i]it cannot make people follow you[/i]. Also, (streams) cannot import posts from Mastodon.

Mass-importing 5,000+ connections from Mastodon to Hubzilla or (streams) would be a stupid idea anyway. You'd have to go through all of them and configure them. Yes, whereas Mastodon only has "I follow you" and "I don't follow you", Hubzilla and (streams) have extensive configuration options for connection. And you will need them.

You'd have to edit 5,000+ connections, one by one, and
[list][*]assign them the appropriate contact role (Hubzilla)/permission role ((streams)) so that they have the right permissions (on Hubzilla and (streams), everything is permissions, and permissions are everything)
[*]add them to one or multiple privacy groups (Hubzilla)/access lists ((streams)) (think Mastodon lists, but on lots of coke and 'roids; optional on Hubzilla, but highly recommended)
[*]maybe also adjust the (optional) affinity (Hubzilla)/friend zoom ((streams)) slider
[*]maybe even add lines to the (optional, but recommended) per-contact filter lists (you'll need to do this on Hubzilla to keep contacts from spamming you with boosts)[/list]

Neither Hubzilla nor (streams) is something that you can join and use away on 100% bone-stock default settings just like that.

And truth be told: If you give 5,000+ Fediverse actors full permissions to send you all their stuff, your unread activities counter (this exists, yes) will be up to "99+" every few minutes. I myself don't even have 100 active connections that are allowed to send me [i]anything[/i]. On some of them, I filter boosts out. And yet, I get well over 100 unread activities per day that I have to catch up with.

In fact, Hubzilla and (streams) will suck even more content onto your stream than Mastodon. That's because they support threaded conversations. They don't show you single posts. They show you whole threads, including comments by people whom you don't follow and who didn't mention you.

I don't know if you follow Eugen Rochko. But if you do, imagine he posts something. 200 people reply. On Mastodon, you get Rochko's post. On Hubzilla and (streams), you get Rochko's post and 200 replies flooding onto your stream by and by.

Seriously, if you really want to move to Hubzilla (or (streams)), start over from scratch. And go slowly instead of following shit-tons of people right off the bat to have your stream abuzz like on Twitter or Facebook.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Mastodon]Mastodon[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl]

[url=https://osgrid.org]OSgrid[/url] is offline again. Not for a ...

2025-03-04T21:56:54Z

[url=https://osgrid.org]OSgrid[/url] is offline again. Not for a few hours or so like just about everyday for quite a while now. This time, [url=https://www.osgrid.online/news/maintenance-mode/]it was closed for maintenance for the foreseeable future[/url].

The asset server is in such a bad state now that each crash and restart caused more assets to break. Yesterday, OSgrid reached a state in which it was no longer even possible to save inventories as IARs as they all ended up corrupt. So instead of closing the grid on March 21st to [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/a3a2f38d-08e5-49aa-9a82-f461c8b6c4b2]wipe the asset server clean[/url], they had to pull the plug immediately.

One could say this means that lots of OSgrid users who wanted to wait until the last moment to save their stuff have lost lots of content. I say they've probably lost it already before the grid closure because chances are it was already broken at that point.

Seriously, the last time I've logged my OSgrid alt in, and that was last week, almost none of his attachments worked. No body. No hair. No glasses. Etc. I had to unpack replacements for some of the items from boxes which happened to still be intact, but for adjusted or modified items, I had to send in another "me" to deliver replacements right into OSgrid.

Now the OSgrid staff say they want to "completely rebuild the assets in a new format". At first glance, this reads like they no longer want to wipe the asset server and fix the assets themselves instead. But seriously, they've tried that for years. To less than no avail as we can see now. More assets are geb0rkt than not.

I myself rather think they've already started wiping it, and they simply want to change the way the assets are stored. And that's although OSgrid has switched to Avination-coined [i]fsasset[/i] after the RAID failure in 2014 and the eight-month data rescue timeout until 2015. But that was almost a decade ago, and you can only change so much on an asset server in a running grid with assets on it.

Basically, instead of just resetting the asset server, they're going to tear it down and rebuild it. After all, they're still hoping for most residents (those who were active recently anyway) to return and bring their stuff back (what parts of it aren't broken anyway).

Most other grids would have called it quits at this point. And seriously, OSgrid was the first public OpenSim grid, it's the oldest grid (launched in 2007), and it's one of only two remaining grids from the 2000s (the other one is AnSky from 2008). It's probably a question of honour for OSgrid to carry on against all odds.

On a more positive note on decentralised stuff, [url=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu]Netzgemeinde[/url] seems to work again.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Long]Long[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=LongPost]LongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLong]CWLong[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWLongPost]CWLongPost[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=OpenSim]OpenSim[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=OpenSimulator]OpenSimulator[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Metaverse]Metaverse[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=VirtualWorlds]VirtualWorlds[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=OSgrid]OSgrid[/zrl]

Today is one of those days on which simply too much happens in ...

2025-03-01T14:27:00Z

Caution, Hubzilla users: (streams) may cause irritation. First of ...

2025-02-20T11:29:31Z

Caution, Hubzilla users: (streams) may cause irritation.

First of all: When you open an unread message, (streams) counts down five seconds before removing the message from the unread list. You [i]will[/i] click it again.

Worse yet: On (streams), you'll look for the settings in the channel menu, but they're in the app menu. And when you've used (streams) for a while, and you return to Hubzilla, you'll look for the settings in the app menu until you remember that they're in the channel menu.

#[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediMeta]FediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=FediverseMeta]FediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediMeta]CWFediMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=CWFediverseMeta]CWFediverseMeta[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Hubzilla]Hubzilla[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=Streams]Streams[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=%28streams%29](streams)[/zrl] #[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/search?tag=MuscleMemory]MuscleMemory[/zrl]

@[zrl=https://hub.somaton.com/channel/mario]Mario Vavti[/zrl] Do ...

2025-02-18T15:41:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…qn9u
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@[zrl=https://hub.somaton.com/channel/mario]Mario Vavti[/zrl] Do we have any control over shares and repeats then?