finished reading Legends & Lattes 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 A lovely little story about an ex-adventurer who turns her orcish hand to opening a coffee shop. Everyone is nice except for the odd dickhead who provides narrative tension. Imagine the Discworld with hygge instead of satire.
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first e
Making people aware is the most useful driving force.
Which is where stuff like Threads comes in. But at that point people are just going to use one service and the "decentralization" aspect doesn't truly exist anymore if one provider can control the majority of traffic.
We already see this to a much smaller extent on most mainstream Mastodon instances where they have gargantuan blocklists and if your friend happens to be on a banned server they're just S.O.L.
So finding a way to make fedi marketable without getting profit-motivated large companies involved is an important challenge.
@Chris Trottier UIs are perhaps first and foremost a matter of taste and habit. If more people use Friendica now, more themes will certainly be developed. A new one has already been designed (I can provide a link later). In my opinion, however, more is needed to create new #Friendica instances. The existing ones will not be able to accommodate the "masses".
Credits go to @Kristi H. for creating this style. It comes in both a light and dark version (check the links for usage instructions).
If you don't want to fiddle with code and stuff, loma.ml has already installed it server-wide*, and should be available straight away for new accounts (If not, go to Settings>Display>General Theme Settings and change it from there. Or follow the guide in any of the links above).
Edit: loma seems to require invites. But, while in german, joinfriendica.de allows you to join without an invite. It also has quite a bunch of add-ons too like bluesky, tumblr, ifttt, markdown, langfilter (filters the languages in posts/comments) and curweather (shows the current weather).
Seeking help! Does anyone know where I can buy Iota-Carrageenan nasal spray (that doesn’t have saline in it) to be delivered in the U.S.? Looking for same ingredients as Betadine, which has been discontinued.
Do not send any other non Iota-Carrageenan nasal spray, that is not what I need. Iota-Carrageenan only 🙏
EXPECTED BACK IN STOCK FEB 2025 Betadine Cold Defence Nasal Spray use at the first sign of respiratory infections. Medicinal Ingredients (per mL) :Iota-Carrageenan.......1.2mg Sodium Chloride........0.5%Non-Medicinal Ingredients: Carrageenan, water.
January 21, 2025- “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Has Surged Since The Pandemic, Study Reveals” “ Scientists are growing concerned that infections of the SARS-CoV-2 virus may be triggering more cases of chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS).
A new study has found that six months or longer after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, participants were 7.5 times more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS than those who had not been infected. “ - sciencealert.com/chronic-fatig…
I cannot get over the incredibly stupid ways in which ActivityPub / fediverse is being mismanaged.
The UX sucks & bad. No web developer in their right mind is going to say "Hey, lets add Share With Mastodon buttons on our pages". I saw one site that did and it prompts users to enter the URL of their home instance before the share can go through.
If fedi is like Email, then why doesn't activitypub have a protocol prefix (like Email) to avoid this problem?!
Sounds like you really have a handle on what needs to be fixed. I'm not a programmer and only understand what you are saying at the most basic level. Since you know what needs to be done, why not do something about it?
@LilPecan A random programmer cannot jump in and fix issue 1.
The core fedi developers do have some pull with standard bodies, having gotten activitypub ratified as a W3C standard. The protocol prefix has to be defined as a standard before it can be effective. @atomicpoet
The other two are outside my area of expertise, although with some study I'm sure I could define what is required architecturally.
@atomicpoet I must admit that, in addition to just defining issues, this is also a fit of exasperation that the issues aren't a priority or even recognized.
We have just been shown without a doubt that fedi has the 'Desktop Linux' disease. We cannot even give it away for free to most people, and throngs of scared liberals would rather run into the arms of Russian crypto bros than camp here.
Well, I think there’s many ways to look at the “desktop Linux” disease: yes, we’re all still using Windows on desktops—but Linux has won out everywhere else, and desktops are no longer the major computing form factor it once was.
I’ve personally been of the belief that Mastodon was never going to win against Twitter. Too geeky. But the most important aspect about it is that it validates a concept.
Like Linux, ActivityPub will eventually power a lot of things. A lot of it might not even be what we consider “social media”. And that’s fine.
One other point, though, about development on the Fediverse—but also everywhere else: it’s like herding cats. Everyone thinks they have a good idea. Few people follow through with that good idea. And even fewer can convince others it is a good idea.
But eventually some of those ideas come to fruition now that ActivityPub is validated as a concept, and we’re seeing the fruits of that this month.
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Well, I think there’s many ways to look at the “desktop Linux” disease: yes, we’re all still using Windows on desktops—but Linux has won out everywhere else, and desktops are no longer the major computing form factor it once was.
I’ve personally been of the belief that Mastodon was never going to win against Twitter. Too geeky. But the most important aspect about it is that it validates a concept.
Like Linux, ActivityPub will eventually power a lot of things. A lot of it might not even be what we consider “social media”. And that’s fine.
One other point, though, about development on the Fediverse—but also everywhere else: it’s like herding cats. Everyone thinks they have a good idea. Few people follow through with that good idea. And even fewer can convince others it is a good idea.
But eventually some of those ideas come to fruition now that ActivityPub is validated as a concept, and we’re seeing the fruits of that this month.
@atomicpoet Regular consumers are mostly using Android, otherwise there is no commonality in the GUIs they use (and they don't even know its Linux, even when its Android). That's not very empowering for them.
If you train an English or Law major on Linux in college, they're not going to feel their skills are transferable when they sit down at another Linux machine in a different institution. All the online help will be CLI based for the same reason: UI was deprecated as window dressing.
Well, Android is the Linux most people are familiar with. Gamers nowadays know about SteamOS. Linux is in a variety of embedded systems, and even powers stuff like Smart TVs. And of course, we know all about servers.
That’s where I think ActivityPub is going. Once it has a big enough network effect, devs will simply think, “Why am I building so much of social connectivity from scratch when there’s this library that makes things easier for me?”
Building the network effect is the hardest part of social media development, so if you don’t have to do this, that’s great.
Other thing is, do users need to know about ActivityPub to find it useful? Most of the people using Pixelfed are absolutely oblivious to decentralization, they’re just enjoying the vibe.
I’d like to see ActivityPub with recipe sharing, games, financial analysis, documentation—something as simple as commenting on documents.
@atomicpoet I guess my point is that FOSS people may or may not understand ecosystems that empower regular users (and so will foster power users)... but the ones that do all exist outside that Linux distro culture.
Fedi fell into it.
If you want to do something different on fedi, having a plugin isn't feasible... switching to a fork is the thing. With Linux, the app isn't enough, to run it well you'll be encouraged constantly to distro-hop.
Yeah, I see both sides of the coin. Perhaps if your goal is to get rid of Windows, desktop Linux’s lack of universality is frustrating.
But as a gamer, I love it.
I have SteamOS which frankly runs old Windows games better than modern Windows. It “consolizes” those Windows games too, making them workable on a *handheld*—which is not achievable on an app.
Then I have an arcade cabinet that runs on Batocera. Can I run this thing with Windows? Not on your life. But someone made a Linux distro that’s entirely controllable with an arcade joystick.
And again, this is where I think ActivityPub is headed. People will look at use cases they want, which cannot fit with Big Social, and ActivityPub will fit that specific use case.
@atomicpoet I believe in accessible technology, and the personal computer. Keeping things geeky can mean keeping most people out.
When people can't identify what something is, its utility diminishes and it becomes less accessible. AP can reduce the cost of integrating social media into a clothes dryer or pogo stick, but the power of that protocol will be in the hands of the intermediaries who are updating the firmwares.
@atomicpoet Users could conceivably prevent that control if they also use the protocol on their PCs and phones, but there is no protocol handler that will encourage AP use from various apps, and no user recognition where they would even think to try. More likely, you would get an array of isolated, OEM controlled instances and consumers would develop a distaste of anything with that whiff of Mastodon in it.
So I have a personal experience that I think is somewhat relevant to this discussion.
In the late 90s/early ‘00s, I was an early adopter of desktop Linux. My first distro was Slackware. I got on board with it because I was super into the FLOSS ideology, and was willing to eschew creature comforts in favour of the cause. If I had to compile from source, so be it. I definitely did, and learned a lot about *nix in the process. But nevertheless, I was suffering – Linux was terrible for gaming.
But around 2013, I finally had enough. I said, “You know what? All I want to do is play computer games again, and if I have to deal with the dreaded Windows, I’ll do that.”
And Windows was especially attractive at the time because of all the neat things Valve was doing with Steam – which made the platform more appealing than a console.
For almost a decade, I was happy with Windows and didn’t want to go back to Linux.
Then in 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck. It runs on Linux. I thought, “You know what? This game wil
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So I have a personal experience that I think is somewhat relevant to this discussion.
In the late 90s/early ‘00s, I was an early adopter of desktop Linux. My first distro was Slackware. I got on board with it because I was super into the FLOSS ideology, and was willing to eschew creature comforts in favour of the cause. If I had to compile from source, so be it. I definitely did, and learned a lot about *nix in the process. But nevertheless, I was suffering – Linux was terrible for gaming.
But around 2013, I finally had enough. I said, “You know what? All I want to do is play computer games again, and if I have to deal with the dreaded Windows, I’ll do that.”
And Windows was especially attractive at the time because of all the neat things Valve was doing with Steam – which made the platform more appealing than a console.
For almost a decade, I was happy with Windows and didn’t want to go back to Linux.
Then in 2022, Valve released the Steam Deck. It runs on Linux. I thought, “You know what? This game will probably only play 10% of my library, but if that means those games are now on a handheld, I can do that.”
So I bought one.
Well, as it turns out, the Steam Deck plays 98% of all my games. And I own more than 7,000 games. I didn’t intend to return to Linux, but here I am.
And not just me. People who don’t give a damn about Linux are using the Steam Deck. It is probably the most influential innovation in PCs of the current decade.
It took desktop Linux nearly 30 years to get good enough at gaming to appeal to non-geeks who just want to play a game. And now, one of the most desirable PCs at the most recent CES was the handheld Lenovo Legion Go S – which runs desktop Linux.
The thing about FLOSS is that, almost always, it appeals to the geeks first – and geeks tend to prize features over UI/UX.
For example, recently I was talking about Pixelfed, and I got a reply from someone who said, “Why do we need that when I can do image sharing on Mastodon?” That fellow clearly doesn’t understand the appeal of UI/UX because all he sees are features.
But people who aren’t geeks? They’re using Pixelfed, and they’re absolutely oblivious that the service has any connection to Mastodon. All they know is, “Here’s something that looks pretty and is easy to use – and hey, people with email-like addresses are liking and commenting on my stuff.”
However, even those people coming to Pixelfed right now, I don’t think they’ll trigger a movement away from Instagram. They’re just people who are willing to eschew creature comforts to give Meta the middle finger – and they may return because of those creature comforts.
But at some point, the Fediverse will serve a need that Big Social can’t. That’s because, as big as Big Social is, they can’t serve every need. And when they try, they typically take the Microsoft-like approach of generalists.
Elon Musk is unlikely to make, “Twitter but for e-sports.” Some small video game studio probably can, and they’ll want to make it in the easiest way possible.
This ain’t the vision of replacing Twitter with something that’s exactly like Twitter, but not run by Musk. But it is a vision that grows social media beyond Twitter and Meta.
Why am I being asked to login when I'm already logged in to mas.to _and_ infosec.exchange? Do you have any idea how confusing and off-putting this is for non-techie users??
When I first heard of #Solid, I thought it was a pipe dream.
But this looking more and more real as time goes on, and if so, it will solve one of my biggest complaints about the Internet: how to manage digital identity.
And I particularly like the @activitypods and Mastopods concept (basically a reimplementation of Mastodon that uses pods for user accounts). Very cool.
At first glance, it looks similar to what BlueSky is trying to do with the PDSes (personal data servers) in ATProto.
And then the file storage component looks a bit like Nextcloud, without the internal apps.
Some early thoughts: It would be interesting to see an implementation of this that can interface with both ATProto apps and ActivityPod apps.
It would also be great to have an implementation of this for Nextcloud.
That definitely looks very interesting, and I'll look into it further.
I think Solid/Pods plus Nextcloud on the surface makes a lot of sense. NC already is a mature platform with a relatively strong self hosted app ecosystem.
Looking at it in the Nextcloud app store, it says that it requires NC v27 or lower and it hasn't been tested on more recent versions.
It also says it was last updated last year (see thd screenshot below).
I hope that doesn't mean development has been abandoned?
@julia No worries. These things get confusing nowadays. For example, it bugs me that Google’s AI is known as Gemini when there was already a Gemini protocol.
During the service, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, appealed directly to the president to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards #immigrants and #transgender people.
Here’s what she said:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr president. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have #mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now
During the service, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, appealed directly to the president to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards #immigrants and #transgender people.
Here’s what she said:
“Let me make one final plea, Mr president. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have #mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are #gay, #lesbian and #transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.
And the people, the people, who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of #immigrants are not criminals.
They pay taxes and are good neighbors. “I ask you to have mercy, Mr President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and #persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here,” Budde said.
Neither Trump nor Vance showed much obvious reaction to her words.
Neurologist: "before the pandemic, his whole team of 3 people, who deal with the ME/CFS cases here, treated 10 patients PER YEAR. Now, after Covid19, he alone sees 5 patients PER WEEK to determine and/or treat patients for ME/CFS"
A queer romance set in a space-faring future where humans have developed telepathic abilities. Two telepaths are thrown together by political expediency, and despite initial incompatibility (they are both very different sorts of neurodiverse) they build a strong partnership, and eventually love. The two protagonists are well portrayed, and very likeable despite their foibles.
Welcome aboard, Mastodon is the best platform available... Don't be shy about asking people to boost you... Follow everyone and you will build your community fast...
I too am new to this space. Would love to connect. I read all kinds of books but lean towards science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. Currently reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.
What sort of books do you like? I'm on a major folklore and classic kick (like most of the books here: imgur.com/a/books-AFUr1MJ) and I'm also a fan of games of all sorts, currently working (slowly and painfully) through some books on Chinese folk games for purposes of translation.
Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.
booksns.com/109463/ Apps for keeping track of book collection #books I’ve been using Libib for the last couple of years, but the app is clunky, laggy, and has annoying glitches and lacks what feel like basic features like being able to search by tag without scrolling through a list of literally every single tag you’ve created, being able to see the total number of books …
I’ve been using Libib for the last couple of years, but the app is clunky, laggy, and has annoying glitches and lacks what feel like basic features like being able to search by tag without scrolling through a list of literally every single tag you’ve…
Leona
in reply to Garth Coghlan • • •