Friends of #BSDCafe and the entire #Fediverse, until now, I have taken an approach to moderation where I engage in dialogue with users to find suitable solutions. However, for some colleagues, this approach has not seemed sufficient, so I will be adopting a different strategy. From now on, as soon as an issue is reported to me, I will take immediate action and then discuss it with the user. Fortunately, these situations are very rare, but they do occur, and I want to ensure that no one feels attacked or harassed. For this reason, I am adding a new rule:

Promote Positivity:
BSD Cafe is a supportive environment. Pro, not against.Any kind of attacks are strictly prohibited.This is a place for relaxation and serenity. Violations may lead to immediate account suspension. Negative behavior risks our server being isolated by others, affecting all users

#Mastodon #Moderation

BSD Cafe friends connecting to the Mastodon instance from the American continent – as a test of the new routed setup, I’ve installed a reverse proxy in the Western United States, both in IPv4 and IPv6.
It routes traffic via Wireguard to the original server, so there’s no particular local caching, at least for now.
The original DNS TTL was set to 12 hours (while it'll be 5 minutes for this new ipv4 and ipv6, as it's a test), so some of you might still connect to the Finnish IP for a little while longer.
The DNS will return the American IP when the connection is closer to it, and I’d be curious to know if you notice any performance differences or if everything remains the same as before.

Thanks for the feedback!

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeServices #IT #SysAdmin

Email received a few days ago: "We need to know which version of SSH is installed on the server, as we want to ensure it is not vulnerable to external attacks." My response: "Don’t worry, SSH is accessible ONLY via VPN, and I am the only one with access to that VPN—activated only when needed—so there is no way for there to be any issues, regardless of the version used."

Email received this morning: "We’re not interested; you must provide the SSH version installed and, if it's not the latest, ensure us of the update date."
My response: "Sorry, could you explain the rationale? SSH is not exposed, it’s not listening on any public IP."
Their reply: "Provide the version."
My response: "OpenSSH_9.7, LibreSSL 3.9.0, on OpenBSD."
Their reply: "This is not considered secure. It must be OpenSSH_9.2p1 Debian-2+deb12u3."
My response: "It’s not Debian; it’s OpenBSD."
Their reply: "So the systems are insecure."

And they claim to be a cybersecurity company...

#CyberSecurity #SSH #VPN #ITSecurity #SysAdmin #TechSupport #OpenBSD #Debian

🎊 Happy Birthday, BSD Cafe! 🎂

It's been exactly one year since I decided to announce my idea to the world: the BSD Cafe.

The name was chosen in December 2022, but the project had been in my mind for quite some time. I envisioned a virtual space of serenity, well-being, constructiveness, and inclusivity.
A place where we are all FOR something (the BSDs, exchanging ideas, growth, community, mutual support), not AGAINST something – a sentiment far too common in today's polarized world.

And on 20 July 2023, almost impulsively, I launched the project, migrating my account from my previous private Mastodon instance and announcing it on Mastodon and Twitter.

I never imagined what would happen next.

The reception was incredible – many people joined, numerous registrations, and a lot of encouragement. The BSD Cafe has become a wonderful virtual place. Every time I open Mastodon (I use the PWA on my phone, not an app), or Element, or one of the BSD Cafe tools, I think of something good, constructive, and beautiful.

The BSD community is fantastic – people who are mentally and technologically mature and balanced, eager to exchange ideas and opinions, ready to teach and learn something new every day. Minds thirsty for knowledge.

I believe we have an extraordinary passion and that open source allows us to do everything without significant financial outlays. And this, in my opinion, is truly democratic and revolutionary in this stark world.

My contribution aims to be precisely this: a place where all patrons, BSD users or not, can feel relaxed and fulfilled. There's a table for everyone at the BSD Cafe, and many friends ready to spend quality time together.

After exactly one year, I can draw some conclusions.
Managing the BSD Cafe has not been complex. Users are always ready to advise and test, and their behaviour is generally very good. Occasionally, I receive some reports – some exaggerated, others I try to understand and resolve. In a year, I had to, reluctantly, remove only two users. One in the very early days: they had an exclusively negative attitude – even against me – and we risked being defederated by many instances I care about. Fortunately, the admin friends at BSD.network gave me an overview, and I understood the situation well. The second user I had to remove was...a bot. So I feel at peace with my conscience.

Throughout this year, many friends have joined, and now the BSD Cafe hosts many people and projects. The Mastodon instance, Matrix, Brew (git), the RSS readers and other services are fully active and used daily by hundreds of users. The BSD Pub Meeting, managed by @gyptazy and now part of the BSD Cafe menu, has also allowed us to talk and see each other in a relaxed context.
Like friends at the Pub.
Like friends in a Cafe.

So, happy birthday, BSD Cafe!

Happy birthday to users, friends, and supporters. I hope the BSD Cafe has brought even a fraction of the joy, well-being, and positivity to you all that it has brought to me in this past year. And all this is thanks to you all because a Cafe without people is a sad and lonely place.

Here is a link to the original project announcement, exactly one year ago: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano/110746126447161217

#BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #BSDCafeUpdates #BSDCafeAnnouncements #BSDCafeBirthday