This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky.
BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board:
The board member is a bitcoin researcher involved with NFT analytics.
BlueSky describe the tie-up with Blockchain Capital as a "natural partnership" and says the blockchain company has "a uniquely deep understanding of our decentralized foundation".
This is why I have been trying to warn about #BlueSky.
BlueSky has just been partially bought by a cryptocurrency company "Blockchain Capital" and appointed a blockchain / cryptocurrency expert to their board:
The official Mastodon app (and most other Fediverse apps) do not collect any data about you.
When you sign up on a Fediverse server, it asks for the minimum amount of information (an email address and a password) and none of this info goes to the app or app makers.
This is in stark contrast to other social networks which seem to collect lots of personal info. See the attached image for a comparison of the privacy policies of various official social network apps.
GTS has many safety features that Mastodon is still missing, for example GTS users can set who can reply, boost or like their posts. Admins can also optionally set a GTS server to use "allowlists", where only selected servers are allowed to federate with them.
GTS has many safety features that Mastodon is still missing, for example GTS users can set who can reply, boost or like their posts. Admins can also optionally set a GTS server to use "allowlists", where only selected servers are allowed to federate with them.
@FediTips@gotosocial does anyone know if you have to stand up your own server for GoToSocial or if you can join an existing instance? I read through the documentation and it seems focus on standing up your own server.
A Mastodon update (v4.3.0) was released yesterday with many new features:
-Click on "ALT" to see image descriptions
-Notifications now grouped
-Servers tell you if defederation affects your follows
-"System" theme added, dark or light based on your computer or phone settings
-Attached images can be reordered before posting
-Poll options much clearer
-Post language & visibility settings clearer
A Mastodon update (v4.3.0) was released yesterday with many new features:
-Click on "ALT" to see image descriptions
-Notifications now grouped
-Servers tell you if defederation affects your follows
-"System" theme added, dark or light based on your computer or phone settings
-Attached images can be reordered before posting
-Poll options much clearer
-Post language & visibility settings clearer
You also don't need to sign up through an app. You can sign up directly on the website of the server you want to join, and use your account on any Mastodon-compatible apps you want. You can even use your account on many different apps at once.
By default, you can only receive DMs from people you follow.
If you want to receive DMs from everyone, you need to switch this option on:
1. Log into Pixelfed
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Go to Privacy
4. Tick the box marked "Receive Direct Messages from anyone"
5. Click on the Submit button at the bottom of the screen
(NOTE: Blocked accounts will not be able to send you DMs even if you switch on receiving from anyone.)
By default, you can only receive DMs from people you follow.
If you want to receive DMs from everyone, you need to switch this option on:
1. Log into Pixelfed
2. Go to Account Settings
3. Go to Privacy
4. Tick the box marked "Receive Direct Messages from anyone"
5. Click on the Submit button at the bottom of the screen
If your Mastodon timeline is getting too crowded, you might want to split it into several themed mini-timelines using the Lists feature. More details here:
You can optionally set Lists to hide their posts from your main timeline, which makes it less crowded.
For example, you could create a sports-themed List for all the sports accounts you follow, and look at that List when you want to see the latest sports-related posts.
If your Mastodon timeline is getting too crowded, you might want to split it into several themed mini-timelines using the Lists feature. More details here:
If you're posting a link to YouTube and there isn't any embedded video appearing in the post, it's possibly because YouTube has started automatically putting a shortener (youtu.be) on its sharing links.
To have a link that will embed properly in a Mastodon etc post, use the full version of the YouTube video's address which begins youtube.com (instead of youtu.be). You can get this full version from the address bar of your web browser when you're watching the video.
If you edit a post on Mastodon to add a mention of someone's account, they won't get a notification about it. If you want someone to notice your post, either mention them in the very first version of the post, or mention them in a reply and tell them to read the post you're replying to.
They also probably won't be able to see a mentions-only post if you edit their mention in afterwards (but do not rely on this as a method of hiding them from discussions of their account).
If you've been tagged in a Mastodon thread you don't want to take part in any more, you can mute the conversation:
1. Log in through your server’s website or web app (and some app store apps also include this feature)
2. Go to the 🔔 Notifications section and scroll to a notification you’ve received from the thread you want to mute
3. Click ⋯ on the notification and select "Mute Conversation"
It will stop all notifications from the thread. No one will know you've done this.
If you've been tagged in a Mastodon thread you don't want to take part in any more, you can mute the conversation:
1. Log in through your server’s website or web app (and some app store apps also include this feature)
2. Go to the 🔔 Notifications section and scroll to a notification you’ve received from the thread you want to mute
3. Click ⋯ on the notification and select "Mute Conversation"
You don't need to use link shorteners on Mastodon. All links count as 23 characters towards your posts's maximum size, no matter how long the link really is.
By avoiding link shorteners, you are also protecting people's privacy and reducing the risk of link rot.
(There is a bug on the official iPhone/iPad app that means links are counted as their true length instead of 23, which is yet another reason to switch to a third party app such as Ice Cubes or Mona or Ivory.)
p.s. People asking "Why 23 characters?", it's because a long time ago on Twitter links were counted as 23 characters by Twitter replacing all posted links with their own link shorteners (which meant Twitter could track what people clicked). These shorteners were always 23 characters long.
Mastodon provided a more privacy-friendly alternative to this by leaving the links intact without a shortener, but still only counted them as 23 characters.
Substitoot is a free open source add-on for web browsers which automatically fetches complete Mastodon threads from the original server. This is useful if you think some replies are missing due to federation issues.
Substitoot is a free open source add-on for web browsers which automatically fetches complete Mastodon threads from the original server. This is useful if you think some replies are missing due to federation issues.
@FediTips i've been using this since i saw this toot and it works great!
«however», it seems to basically disable user blocking. looking at the notes, this is a known issue. i was very confused that i was seeing multiple accounts i thought i'd blocked some time ago in replies and shrugged it off until I thought of disabling the extension and saw a return to expected behavior.
this makes it unusable for me and, i suspect, others.
once this is fixed, i'd love to reinstall the extension as well as fund it. this fixes many of the significant problems with the fedi.
thank you Fedi.Tips for mentioning it and the dev for making it, even if it never gets any further development, i really enjoyed my time with it.
@FediTips i've been using this since i saw this toot and it works great!
«however», it seems to basically disable user blocking. looking at the notes, this is a known issue. i was very confused that i was seeing multiple accounts i thought i'd blocked some time ago in replies and shrugged it off until I thought of disabling the extension and saw a return to expected behavior.
Do you want to block or mute someone on Mastodon? Do you want to mute someone temporarily? Do you want to mute DMs from strangers? Want to mute just someone's boosts? Want to hide posts with certain words or phrases?
These and other questions are answered in this guide to blocking and muting on Mastodon:
Do you want to block or mute someone on Mastodon? Do you want to mute someone temporarily? Do you want to mute DMs from strangers? Want to mute just someone's boosts? Want to hide posts with certain words or phrases?
These and other questions are answered in this guide to blocking and muting on Mastodon:
Are there any instance lists that include the maximum post character count for each instance. It was very important to me last time I migrated and I suspect it might be for a good many others.
The only reason I don't use mastodon.ie (which blocks threads) as main account is the standard 500 character limit. Pity. I do bung them a few Euro from time to time as c.im doesn't need donations.
@FediTips Is there a straightforward way to determine what accounts that I follow wouldn't be accessible from a given server? I'd like to have an idea of what might go away before I start the transfer process.
There's a setting called "content cache retention period" that you should leave blank. If you put any numbers in there, it can start permanently breaking threads on your server.
This feature is NOT intended for general use on normal servers.
There's a setting called "content cache retention period" that you should leave blank. If you put any numbers in there, it can start permanently breaking threads on your server.
This feature is NOT intended for general use on normal servers.
If you like following someone but they boost too much stuff, you can mute just their boosts without hiding their ordinary posts:
1. Log into Mastodon
2. Go to profile of the person whose boosts you want to hide
3. Click on ︙or ⋯ at the top and select "Hide boosts from…" (or "Hide reblogs" on some apps)
If you change your mind, go back to their profile and select "Show boosts from…" (or "Show reblogs").
If you like following someone but they boost too much stuff, you can mute just their boosts without hiding their ordinary posts:
1. Log into Mastodon
2. Go to profile of the person whose boosts you want to hide
3. Click on ︙or ⋯ at the top and select "Hide boosts from…" (or "Hide reblogs" on some apps)
Gregory's Server
