Barry @Barry@itinidkwi.masto.host
Geek, wonk, professional amateur. I like to play with knives and fire, usually in a kitchen.
Friends, when you join this instance, please send me a follow request. You can click on my avatar icon and then click the Add icon. I’ll follow you back! Thanks.
(This works a lot like Twitter, much more so than like Facebook.)
This is the best brief introduction to Mastodon from a user's perspective I've seen, from @Researchbuzz .
https://researchbuzz.me/2018/04/04/getting-started-with-mastodon-some-tips-and-knowledge/
Have you considered organ donation?
17 years ago, my dad donated anything usable and his corneas gave sight back to two recipients. A dear friend recently received a corneal transplant so I get to witness indirectly the difference dad's gift made.
My brother has a ventricular assist device and is awaiting a heart transplant. It's a weird place to be and I'm definitely not seeking donations here, just reminding us all that we can transform lives when we no longer need our parts. ❤️
Help me overcome my impostor syndrome and reassure me you don't already have a Google Sheets tool that takes a topic you specify and generates several sets of Google queries ranging from simple (one topic) to deep dive (multiple keyword sets) using Wikipedia data.
Nothing says "weekend" like a quick stop at the grocery store on the way home for half-and-half and box wine.
Not a moment too soon, y'all. Whew.
“Twitter is urging all of its more than 330 million users to immediately change their passwords after a bug exposed them in plain text.”
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17316684/twitter-password-bug-security-flaw-exposed-change-now
Interesting article that re-frames the emerging debate about a federal job guarantee vs. universal basic income. Also gives love to a Socialist of note ...
"It was the socialist Robert Owen who championed the eight-hour workday, coining the slogan “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.”
Owen's ideas are also at the heart of the modern cooperative movement.
Due to exceptionally high demand, I have closed registrations on mastodon.social for now, and put a message directing people to mstdn.io as a very similar alternative (additionally to the generic link to the list of all servers, of course!) 😋
And the exploring spirit that I also recognize from BBS days is very much present in the user and admin community.
(3) Mastodon is not a functional replacement for Facebook and does not appear to structurally support the kind of involved, threaded conversations that can follow from a post. This is enormously frustrating in the midst of a bunch of people who are wonderful communicators and itching to interact.
(3 of 4)
Together, we are finding out what it's like to be a community together (at least a temporary one) on that platform. I couldn't ask for a better or fairer test.
So, opinions:
(1) This federated social network is extremely promising and I believe it will have a bright future. I intend to maintain an experimental instance and see how it develops.
(2) Setting up and administering a Mastodon instance is taking me back to BBS sysop days, which is not entirely unpleasant.
(2 of 4)
A few days in to the experiment with Mastodon and I am already forming some opinions. You're shocked, I know.
We have a *wonderful* community of roughly 60 test users who are helping us check the platform out, and they range from alpha geeks who make their living managing computers and networks to completely nontechnical folks and everything in between.
But every one of them is interested in the qualities that make for good conversations and good online communities.
(1 of 4)
OK, all you #Mastodon instance admins, this might be the beginning of a new wave of users coming onto the network.
Twitter sold data to Cambridge Analytica; data sales accounted for 13% of Twitter's revenue in 2017
https://9to5mac.com/2018/04/30/cambridge-analytica-twitter/
I have a bunch of friends from Twitter joining Mastodon tonight so I made a quick guide to how the site works. Making it public so anyone can see/boost it if it's helpful. If you have any questions feel free to ask!
“We ought to worry... about how our informational profiles harden into the invisible architecture of our everyday lives... that the availability of loans or jobs or romantic partners or upscale hotel rooms are already being silently and automatically withdrawn from “people like us”... Or, in the case of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it’s that our political affiliations are being arranged on the basis of our greatest vulnerabilities.”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/magazine/facebook-and-the-dead-body-problem.html
Testing the “Unlisted” post function.
"The restaurant Mo’ Bettahs is a ballad to beach life. Surfing movies play on TV screens in a continuous loop. Paddles and surfboards that have all touched Hawaiian waters adorn the walls. Reggae music by the Hawaiian band Natural Vibrations pulses through the speakers.
It’s nearly enough to make you forget you’re in a dry, landlocked city [Salt Lake City] where the sights include snow-capped mountains and the occasional blizzard."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/23/dining/hawaiian-restaurant-utah-mo-bettahs.html
"Press freedom is facing new threats in major democracies as well as in repressive states, where authorities are focusing their efforts on social media and other online platforms after subduing the independence of major print and broadcast outlets...
...media independence is under pressure in every region of the world, but... dedicated journalists are still playing a vital role in even the most hostile environments."
https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/attacks-record-state-global-press-freedom-2017-2018
“After a comprehensive search, firefighters identified the smell was not chemical gas, but gas generated from rotting durian, an extremely pungent fruit which had been left rotting in a cupboard,” the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said in a statement titled “Rotten afternoon on campus,” just to drive home the point."
As of this evening we have 60 invited users helping us test ITINIDKWI, and we're linked up (at least one member here follows at least one member at that instance, or vice-versa) with 17 different instances of Mastodon.
Remember: anything you post to the Public timelines here can potentially be read by anyone who takes an interest anywhere in the "fediverse" (all the federated Mastodon instances.)
Post Private (to your followers only) for the equivalent of posting to Friends on FB.
kthxbye
A successful Sunday morning of hunting and gathering, out and about on a bright clear day: a pound of freshly ground coffee for the week ahead, two dozen fresh eggs from a friend’s backyard chickens, and a dozen pumpernickel bagels, for our bellies and the freezer.
First load of laundry’s in.
Preheating the oven for the Sunday afternoon cooking frenzy (supporting planned leftovers for the week!) Puttering happily and getting stuff done.
How’s Sunday, Mastodon?
(Posting to Public timeline.)
“It’s 2018 and I’m a woman, so you cannot shut me up,” Wolf cracked, “unless you have Michael Cohen wire me $130,000.”
