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Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

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Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#161

Post by S-E-P »

kabacha wrote: post #126
M2Ys4U wrote: post #78

From the Mastodon creator: >For once am not happy about Mastodon being on the HN frontpage. Someone submitted a work-in-progress pull request there. Half the comments are circlejerking about free speech as always, the other half gives opinions without understanding the context of the feature (which is not surprising given that it's a work-in-progress pull request on GitHub and not a goddamn press release). https://ma…

Funny to see this thread to be complete opposite with a lot of praises, e2e discussions and mastodon onboarding. I feel that Mr. Gargron has been his own worst enemy at times. Mastodon.social instance is notoriously bad, overmoderated and often down-right abusive. While Mastodon itself in many ways a brilliant project with great dev team and direction it's that just they seem somewhat socially inept/extreme at times.

I agree, Pleroma is better though. Just use that.

Gargron has shown that they do not care much for the community or the greater fediverse at large.

Pleroma also is cleaner code-wise so there's that, more active dev and lightweight relative to mastadon.

not paid by Pleroma btw, i just use it daily and I love it wayyy more then Mastadon

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#162

Post by mewmewblobcat »

_8j50 wrote: post #117

Is there a mastodon server that doesn't require email for signup? Throw away providers did not work for me, free email providers require a phone number. It's like signal, the benefits are contrasted against metadata exposure.

I run the server busshi.moe, if you sign up there I can manually confirm your account if you use a fake email. Mastodon has no option to disable requiring an email, but Pleroma does.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#163

Post by joelbluminator »

arcturus17 wrote: post #160
joelbluminator wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pretty much obscure, I don't think a couple of major startups is gonna cut it. Elixir never got the kind of adoption that will last for years and years after the hype is gone. Instead it had a nice spike a couple of years ago and i's declining already. Ruby can live for another 20 years based on the 10 good years it had, Elixir never had those years it seems. Yes, it got tremendous attention on hackernews and b…

Some examples of companies using Elixir / Erlang in production: Discord, WhatsApp, WeChat, Bet365, Pinterest (notification system). This is hardly "obscure" - these are applications used by billions of users all over the world. Potential developer market for your business or OS project is a factor in engineering, sure. But it's certainly not the only one, and there's a utility threshold for how useful a large develop…

We'll have to agree to disagree. I think the numbers clearly show Elixir is obscure and declining fast and that in general that can't be good for OSS projects, you seem to think otherwise and that's OK.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#164

Post by robobro »

gargron wrote: post #119
_8j50 wrote: post #117

Is there a mastodon server that doesn't require email for signup? Throw away providers did not work for me, free email providers require a phone number. It's like signal, the benefits are contrasted against metadata exposure.

I'm not aware of one. Unfortunately any server not requiring e-mail confirmation for sign-up would be overrun by spammers (we don't want to add CAPTCHAs because 1) they are unpleasant for real humans and 2) they require loading external resources which is minus points for the user's privacy).

You are lying. I have ran many Pleroma servers that do not require email to sign up, and have used Pleroma servers that do not require email to signup. None of them are overran by spammers.

You have forgotten your origins, James, and it bums me out. Email sucks. Requiring email to join a site sucks. Let's cite a popular essay from our old community:

http://wakaba.c3.cx/shii/

* Registration keeps out good posters. Imagine someone with an involving job related to your forum comes across it. This person is an expert in her field, and therefore would be a great source of knowledge for your forum; but if a registration, complete with e-mail and password, is necessary before posting, she might just give up on posting and do something more important. People with lives will tend to ignore forums with a registration process.

* Registration lets in bad posters. On the other hand, people with no lives will thrive on your forum. Children and Internet addicts tend to have free time to go register an account and check their e-mail for the confirmation message. They will generally make your forum a waste of bandwidth.

* Registration attracts trolls. If someone is interested in destroying a forum, a registration process only adds to the excitement of a challenge. One might argue that a lack of registration will just let "anyone" post, but in reality anyone can post on old-type forum software; registration is merely a useless hassle.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#165

Post by _8j50 »

Grumbledour wrote: post #152
_8j50 wrote: post #117

Is there a mastodon server that doesn't require email for signup? Throw away providers did not work for me, free email providers require a phone number. It's like signal, the benefits are contrasted against metadata exposure.

I used Tutanota just a few weeks ago for this and they didn't require a phone number. I also found that trying a few providers, sooner or later a throwaway address would work. But I also think asking for at least an email is not that unreasonable. Sure, I value my privacy, but I also value a good community and keeping the worst spammers out often helps. Talking smaller instances here, obviously, but I think that's wh…

Perhaps they do that when I used a VPN. You can police your community without spying on them or collecting sensitive information. Reddit and HN did it since the start!

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#166

Post by robobro »

novok wrote: post #44
jack1243star wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole blocking situation turns me away from Mastodon. Short of maintaining my own instance, there's no way to be sure I can follow anyone I'd like to, or communicate with them. There's no way to find out from the outside if an instance is defederated.

It is too bad that mastodon is less RSS / Email and more IRC chatroom networks, but that's what it is.

Yeah, gnusocial and family felt like glorified RSS readers + feeds to me. That's what attracted me to the network initially. My own Mastodon/Pleroma client is built entirely around the concept of "feeds" (whether it be user, hashtag, conversation thread) and simple combinations of feeds (eg grouping together multiple hashtags to form a "topic" or multiple users to form a "group").

Mastodon should be the exact opposite of IRC imo. Hashtags or message threads can act as a simulated chatroom but generally speaking, the power of feed-based social networks is that they invert the traditional power structure, thus yielding more interesting content.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#167

Post by robobro »

S-E-P wrote: post #161
kabacha wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny to see this thread to be complete opposite with a lot of praises, e2e discussions and mastodon onboarding. I feel that Mr. Gargron has been his own worst enemy at times. Mastodon.social instance is notoriously bad, overmoderated and often down-right abusive. While Mastodon itself in many ways a brilliant project with great dev team and direction it's that just they seem somewhat socially inept/extreme at times.

I agree, Pleroma is better though. Just use that. Gargron has shown that they do not care much for the community or the greater fediverse at large. Pleroma also is cleaner code-wise so there's that, more active dev and lightweight relative to mastadon. not paid by Pleroma btw, i just use it daily and I love it wayyy more then Mastadon

Agree entirely, I've managed several Pleroma servers in the past. Incredibly easy to set up and configure.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#168

Post by young_unixer »

simias wrote: post #61
young_unixer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left Mastodon because the big "traditional"/sanctioned instances started banning other instances they didn't like, specifically Gab (instance full of right-wing people that allows basically anything that isn't illegal). I had high hopes for Mastodon but whatever, this whole social network thing isn't worth the trouble. Now HN and Youtube are the only websites I visit for entertainment.

I don't understand this mindset at all. It's not so much "I want to be able to say whatever I want", it's "I want everybody to listen to whatever I say". Go post edgy xenophobic stuff in your dedicated online community if you like it so much but stop acting surprised when other communities want nothing to do with you.

The mindset is "I want to choose who I listen to. I don't want the Mastodon instance to decide for me"

If you don't like listening to some people, that's fine, don't follow them, block them, whatever, but I won't join an instance where I can't listen to other people because the moderator doesn't like their message.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#169

Post by Grumbledour »

_8j50 wrote: post #165
Grumbledour wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Tutanota just a few weeks ago for this and they didn't require a phone number. I also found that trying a few providers, sooner or later a throwaway address would work. But I also think asking for at least an email is not that unreasonable. Sure, I value my privacy, but I also value a good community and keeping the worst spammers out often helps. Talking smaller instances here, obviously, but I think that's wh…

Perhaps they do that when I used a VPN. You can police your community without spying on them or collecting sensitive information. Reddit and HN did it since the start!

This seems a bit harsh to me in response to asking for a valid email address for proof of realness and to be contacted when necessary. Reddit surely requires one. Can't remember if hn did, but don't know how they keep out spam.

I also like the idea of using BTC you mentioned in another post to state good intentions, but acquiring BTC to use in the first place seems like much more hassle, registrations and sharing of data is required.

Re: Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

#170

Post by egypturnash »

dependenttypes wrote: post #147
egypturnash wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanna note that there is a strong comorbidity between "being a Pleroma" and "being blocked by a lot of Masto instances because you're run by someone with an anime girl icon who thinks the whole internet should be an acceptable place to behave like a denizen of the bowels of 4chan".

Is being an anime fan a bad thing now? Or do you feel that putting a political label on someone just because they find a specific piece of software comfortable for them is a nice thing to do? Anyway, in the same spirit one could say that "there is a strong comorbidity between being a harasser who jumps on random threads just to insult people as well as subscribing to racist and authoritarian idelologies and using mas…

“Wanting the Internet to be 4chan forever” is a political label? Watching anime is fine by me, I’ve enjoyed the hell out of a lot of the stuff in my time.

I run a Masto instance and I am just speaking from my experience in what shows up in the tags where us admins share block recommendations; there are bad actors using Masto too! I defederated from a Masto instance just this morning after seeing its admin aggressively escalate a conflict with well-practiced speed. One of those pops up about every six months. Pleromae where the admin encourages escalating conflicts and wears an anime girl icon are a constant feature of the block suggestion tags.

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