Gregory's ServerNice thing about Mastodon: It's one of the extremely rare web pages I visit where my ad blocker doesn't need to do anything.
 81 comments
@mattblaze it is really important though to note that. You are visiting a social media site that isn’t monetizing you beyond the blatant. @mattblaze I feel this so hard. Ghostery & AdBlock are just completely idle. I wish much more of the internet were "Small fee, ad-free".  @amuse @mattblaze there are plenty of places online that are behind a paywall but have minimal or no ads. That’s not what’s going to attract a large crowd, though. Most people don’t want any paywall at all and aren’t that bothered by ads. Especially those of us who are in our 20s-30s. We do not care about ads as much. Don't forget to support your local instance, financially and otherwise, to the extent you're able.  @mattblaze I wonder if instances esp outside US are monitored by a certain 3-letter agency. Would assume even the Fediverse flows into Bluffdale, as it were. @mattblaze Still only half-sure I know what an “instance” is. Is that just Mastodon-speak, or is it a term used elsewhere? @mattblaze @LauraPhillips99 Not just Mastodon. It's #DevOps speak, since in this day and age we don't always run an OS by itself on "bare metal" hardware. We usually use virtual machines and containers. "Instance" is just a generalization of "Server". @mattblaze @LauraPhillips99 👍 The idea is straightforward: you can run Windows and Mac OS on your Linux box. Or any other combination. There's performance restrictions. Most of the internet works this way, now. @mattblaze @notroot @LauraPhillips99 Not gonna lie, this gave me a laugh. Sarcasm does render well on a site where messages are called toots. @notroot @mattblaze @LauraPhillips99 @mattblaze @LauraPhillips99 From a user experience perspective, does the instance you are on matter? @LauraPhillips99 @mattblaze common tech jargon - I use it at work too, but not for Mastodon - Confluence. @mattblaze I feel there should be a “support this instance” page and it should be an official part of mastodon. Have a dedicated api for that page so that even third party apps can show it.  @mattblaze Great idea! I'll go and wash the teeth of the owner! 😉 @mattblaze It comes at a cost. We have to defy Walter Lippmann and pay for it ourselves.. I for one think it is definitely worth it.  @mattblaze Never, ever, EVER underestimate a corps ability to slither in and undermine a social group. You know this. They're here, and they're searching for cracks. @mattblaze Surveillance Capitalism, in malignant form of targeted advertising, is highly aggressive. Heaven help Mastodon when for-profit corporations decide to federate.  @mattblaze the freedom of not being sold anything and not being tracked anywhere. Can't believe how hard it is to get some people to care about how special that is. @mattblaze For the record, #Dreamwidth (Livejournal fork) has been ad-free since its beginning years ago. @mattblaze And other instances in the Fediverse too. We need to stop equating "Mastodon = Fediverse" 🙂 @NorthEastOne I was describing my own personal experience. I wasn't attempting to make an exhaustive list of ad free web sites. @mattblaze I was coming from this. It kills the purpose of 'federation' if we're all again lumped under one 'brand' called Mastodon when there's Pleroma, SoapBox, GotoSocial and many new ones working on making the experience in the Fediverse better. @mattblaze ive realized how much healthier not having the infinite recommendations is as well. Just getting updates from people I follow (exactly what I opened the app for) and then going back to what I was meant to be doing after. No advertisments and algorithms keeping me scrolling for hours anymore.  @mattblaze this has to be advertised more, as not all new or potential users can figure out this by themselves. @mattblaze the second time I tried the #fediverse it was a #Mastodon server with its own styles. So I used a userstyle in my browser to avoid seeing cat ears with every user profile.  @mattblaze You are visitor number 100,000 on federate.social today! Click HERE for your free prize www2.www.notascam.faketld  @mattblaze I suggest installing AdNauseam, which blocks ads *and* clicks them so website owners still get ad revenue.    @mattblaze I'd not even thought of that, but you're right. Both UBlock Origin and Privacy Badger are silent on this site. Woo!  @mattblaze @georgetakei I disabled it for my instance because why even waste the CPU cycles. Wonderful ain't it? @mattblaze @mattblaze it's beautiful (ublock origin/privacy badger/firefox, really absurd that this is the number of things i need to dedicate to making the modern web usable, before i even get to site-specific extensions like sponsorblock for youtube) @mattblaze how do you find recommendations for people to follow? Do you have to search individually? @jubileigh Yeah, it's slow, especially at first. You have to manually bootstrap your initial follows by knowing where they are. Also look at who they boost as well as the local and federated timelines on your instance. Eventually I started easily seeing more and more accounts I wanted to follow, but it took a fair bit of work to get started. @jubileigh Also, there are lists various communities have put together of people (e.g., there's a law professor list).  |
@mattblaze Huh. That hadn't even occurred to me. You're right.