I just finished my hour-long interview with Oxford University concerning their study of Mastodon and decentralized social media.
They were especially interested in what we’ve done here at Veganism Social, as we have our own fork with custom features that address common complaints such as content discoverability.
Veganism Social’s use case was exemplary of the benefits of decentralizion. Our moderation is uniquely anti-speciesist, and the community has a clear purpose beyond ‘general’.
My analyses of the technological and sociological benefits of decentralization are extensive. I (currently) have a deep understanding of Mastodon’s code-base, and how to use it. I also worked as a software developer for centralized social media, and now moderate a subreddit with 100k members.
I could not possibly exhaust myself of exhilarating insights to share.
Surely, the Oxford study will broaden awareness of how decentralized social media will benefit society.
Next time my wife asks me to stop info-dumping, I’ll banter that Oxford might think it’s worth listening to. 🤭
They’re sending me an Amazon gift card as compensation, and of course I’m spending it all on candy.
@cstross
I think the biggest difference is that spaceships in movies (like Star Trek) are built in a space dock, rather than on earth. (Although the last movies show the ship being made on earth)
Having the parts beamed to a space dock (or through an orbital lift) could allow for larger, more spacious and comfortable ships...
They could comply with the DMA by opening up Facebook Messenger to everyone (for example by reintroducing XMPP), so no this is not because of the DMA (besides the “look at what you made me do” abuser’s mantra), it’s because Facebook will stop at nothing to trap users in their platforms.
Mastodon has the responsibility to promote diversity in the Fediverse
I love the Threadiverse. Compared to the microblogging Fediverse’s sea of random thoughts, Lemmy and kbin are so much easier to navigate with the options to sort posts by subscribed, from local instances or everything federated. You can also sort by individual community, and then there are the countless ways to order the posts and comments (which are stored neatly under the main post, by the way). That people can more easily find the right discussions and see where they can contribute also means that the discussions tend to be more focused and productive than elsewhere. Decentralisation also makes a lot of sense, since it is built around different communities. All that’s needed is users.
Things were going quite well for a while when Reddit killed third-party apps, prompting many to leave and find the Threadiverse. However, it is quite difficult to entertain a crowd that has grown accustomed to a constant bombardment of dopamine-inducing or interesting content by tens of millions of users, if you only have a couple hundred thousand people. This is causing some to leave, which of course increases this effect. The active users have more than halved since July, according to FediDB. The mood is also becoming more tense. Maybe the lack of engagement drives some to cause it through hostility, I’m not quite sure. Either way, the Threadiverse becoming a less enjoyable place to be, which is quite sad considering how promising it is.
But what is really frustrating is that we could easily have that userbase. The entire Fediverse has over ten million users, and many Mastodonians clearly want to engage in group-based discussion, looking at Guppe groups. The focused discussions should also be quite attractive. Technically we are federated, so why do Mastodonians interact so little with the Threadiverse? The main reason is that Mastodon simply doesn’t federate post content. I really can’t see why the platform that federates entire Wordpress blogs refuses to federate thread content just because it has a title, and instead just replaces the body with a link to the post. Very unhelpful.
The same goes with PeerTube. There are plenty of videos on there that I am quite sure a lot of Mastodonians would appreciate, yet both views and likes there stay consistently in the tens. Yes, Mastodon’s web interface has a local video player, but in most clients it is the same link shenanigans, may may partly explain the small amount of engagement. This is also quite sad, because Google’s YouTube is one of the worst social network monopolies out there, if not the worst.
And I know some might say that Mastodon is a microblogging platform and that it makes sense only to have microblogging content, but the problem is that Mastodon is the dominant platform on the Fediverse, its users making up close to 80% of all Fedizens. It has gone so far that several Friendica and Hubzilla users have been complaining about complaints from Mastodonians that their posts do not live up to Mastodon customs, and of course, that people frequently use “Mastodon” to refer to the entire Fediverse. This, of course, goes entirely against the idea of the Fediverse, that many diverse platforms live in harmony with and awareness of each other.
The very least that Mastodon could do is to support the content of other platforms. Then I’d wish that they’d improve discoverability, by for instance adding a videos tab in the explore section, improving federation of favourites since it is the dominant sorting mechanism on many other platforms, and making a clear distinction between people (@person) and groups (!group), but I know that that is quite much to ask.
P.S. @feditips , @FediFollows , I know that you are reluctant to promote Lemmy and its communities because of the ideology of its founders, but the fact is firstly that it’s open source and there aren't any individual people who control the entire project, and that the software itself is very apolitical. In fact, most Lemmy users both oppose and are on instances that have rules against such beliefs, so I highly encourage you to at least help raise awareness on the communities. Then, of course, there’s kbin, which isn’t associated with any extremism at all. As a bonus, it has much better integration with the microblogging Fediverse, but it is a lot smaller and younger, and still very much under development.
Anyways, that was a ramble. Thanks for hearing me out.
@ttmrichter
Well it's not an actual issue; it's just my ideas of what would be better. If only I think it, why should they do anything? What I'm really trying to do is to see what people think and spark some thoughts.
@neilhimself@globcoco@I_am_elena@mark I’d heard some of this, but hadn’t seen Wil’s more detailed post—thanks to Neil for the link. This is heartbreaking, and all the more so due to the sheer cruelty of it… and for being absolutely undeserved. :/
@neilhimself@globcoco@I_am_elena@mark@dianeduane This makes me so sad. I've been following Wil on various platforms and media for I don't even know how long -- decades, I guess. I've never seen him to be anything other than a kind, generous, funny, good-hearted individual. Shame on the fedizens responsible for driving him away. We can and must be better than this.
I just wish I'd known he was on Mastodon at some point so I could give him some encouragement.
Overshooting 1.5°C is fast becoming inevitable. Minimising the magnitude and duration of overshoot is essential. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that, due to insufficient mitigation of greenhouse gases (GHGs), no pathway remains that avoids exceeding 1.5°C global warming for at least some decades, except for truly radical transformations. Minimising the magnitude and duration of the overshoot period is critical for reducing loss and damage and the risk of irreversible changes.
A rapid and managed fossil fuel phase-out is required to stay within the Paris Agreement target range. The fast-shrinking carbon budget means that governments and the private sector must stop enabling new fossil fuel projects, accelerate the early retirement of existing infrastructure, and rapidly increase the pace of renewable energy deployment. High-income countries must lead the transition and provide support for low-income countries. All countries should pursue an equitable and just transition, minimising socio-economic impacts on the most vulnerable segments of the population.
Robust policies are critical to attain the scale needed for effective carbon dioxide removal (CDR). While not a replacement for rapid and deep emissions reductions, CDR will be necessary to deal with hard-to-eliminate emissions and eventually to reduce the global temperature. Current CDR is predominantly forest-based, but rapid acceleration and deployment at scale of other CDR methods with permanent CO2 removal is required, supported by stronger governance and better monitoring.
Over-reliance on natural carbon sinks is a risky strategy: their future contribution is uncertain. Until now, land and ocean carbon sinks have grown in tandem with increasing CO2 emissions, but research is revealing uncertainty over how they will respond to additional climate change. Carbon sinks may well absorb less carbon in the future than has been presumed from existing assessments. Therefore, emission reduction efforts have immediate priority, with nature-based solutions serving to increase carbon sinks in a complementary role to offset hard-to-abate emissions.
Joint governance is necessary to address the interlinked climate and biodiversity emergencies. The international conventions on climate change and biodiversity (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, respectively) must find better alignment. Ensuring that the allocation of climate finance has nature-positive safeguards, and strengthening concrete cross-convention collaboration, are examples of key actions in the right direction.
Compound events amplify climate risks and increase their uncertainty. “Compound events” refer to a combination of multiple drivers and/or hazards (simultaneously or sequentially), and their impacts can be greater than the sum of individual events. Identifying and preparing for specific compound events is crucial for robust risk management and providing support in emergency situations.
Mountain glacier loss is accelerating. Deglaciation in response to climate change is even quicker in high mountain areas, including the Hindu Kush Himalayas and polar regions. This threatens populations downstream with water shortages in the longer term (including approximately 2 billion for the Himalayas), and exposes mountain dwellers to increased hazards, such as flash flooding.
Human immobility in areas exposed to climate risks is increasing. People facing climate risks may be unable or unwilling to relocate, and existing institutional frameworks do not account for immobility and are insufficient to anticipate or support the needs of these populations.
New tools to operationalise justice enable more effective climate adaptation. Monitoring the distinct dimensions of justice and incorporating them as part of strategic climate adaptation planning and evaluation can build resilience to climate change and decrease the risk of maladaptation.
Reforming food systems can contribute to just climate action. Food systems have a key role to play in climate action, with viable mitigation options spanning from production to consumption. However, interventions should be designed with and for equity and justice as linked outcomes, and implementation of mitigation measures should be done inclusively with diverse stakeholders across multiple scales.
I noticed the difference in my xbox controller vs playstation. My woman had to keep hers plugged in because the battery was at end-of-life, I kept a set of rechargeable AA's and used them in my mouse, xbox paddle, razor...I forget what all else.
Nope just greedy fuckers being greedy. In devices like phones it kinda makes sense from a space efficiency standpoint but most devices its simply so they can take ur money when u need a replacement.
I #read via #audiobook When She’s Ready by Ruby Dixon. The audiobook is both When She’s Ready and When She’s Lonely. Both are very pro-consent post-slavery human-alien #romance. I find these Risdaverse #books entertaining & mostly safe, more so than her other series. (I ❤️Ruby even when it’s scary.) #reading#book#romancelandia@romancebooks
WSReady: https://amzn.to/416lwHF
WSLonely: https://amzn.to/47Dz4g6
I want to add something to this post about the 2nd #book in this #audiobook compilation: When She’s Lonely by Ruby Dixon. The FMC in this story has significant hearing loss that impacts her daily quality of life. If you look for stories of MCs with disabilities, and like or at least accept human-alien #romance & sex, I recommend this. I recommend it anyway, but especially if this is in your areas of interest. #sciencefiction#disability@romancebooks@romancelandia
@info A while ago I wrote about the Insta-famous blue door in Venice, and this is where I found the first clues.
The "Curiosità Veneziane" by Giuseppe Tassini is a treasure trove of information about Venice before the 1900s. The first editions, from 1863 and 1872, are digitised and online.
The Italian is a bit archaic but perfectly understandable.
Picard and SNW: Best SF TV Series
LD: Best Animated TV Series/Special
Anson Mount, Patrick Stewart: Best Actor in a TV Series
Jonathan Frakes, Ethan Peck, Ed Speleers, Todd Stashwick: Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series
Jess Bush, Celia Rose Gooding, Jeri Ryan: Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series
Paul Wesley, Amanda Plummer: Best Guest Star in a TV Series
What are some of your favorite pieces of writing about #climatechange? Any genre, directly or indirectly related content, but a piece where the writing really stands out to you.
The End of Eden
Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown
An exquisitely written and deeply researched exploration of wild species reacting to climate breakdown, The End of Eden offers a radical new kind of environmental journalism that connects humans to nature in a more empathetic way than ever before and galvanizes us to act in defense of the natural world before it's too late.