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From GNU social to Mastodon

thomask.sdf.org

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Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#121

Post by chuckgreenman »

throw2016 wrote: post #112
ad_hominem wrote: post #69

I tried Mastodon early on and it was pretty slow, which I assume is due to it being a Ruby on Rails app that probably wasn't heavily optimized. Probably also partly due to there only being a handful of popular instances so the inrush of users weren't being spread out very much. Anyone still encountering that? A fairly popular instance also crashed and lost all accounts, toots etc.: https://web.archive.org/web/2018032…

The choice of Ruby for a platform that is supposed to enable decentralization does not make sense. Most Ruby apps have tens to hundreds of dependencies and require a build environment which immediately limits access to a smaller group of developers familiar with Ruby build environments and debugging their way out of any dependency hell. Customization also becomes a problem. There is also no particular design in Masto…

Have you ever written a Rails app? Currently working on an enterprise app with about 15 gem dependencies. If I we we're rewrite it in say Go, it would likely require more dependencies.

Rails is performant, but like all languages and frameworks, if you aren't writing good code, it's going to be slow.

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#122

Post by ok-repl »

panic wrote: post #50
skybrian wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it too, but having used it casually for about a week, I'm wondering how you visit different communities without creating multiple accounts? It should be as easy as visiting a different subreddit. (I do know that you can subscribe to individuals in other instances, but haven't done that yet.)

There's a tension here between different views of what Mastodon should be. Is an instance more like an email server (where it just acts as a gateway) or a web forum (with a community of people on each instance)? It seems like the ActivityPub protocol itself is designed from the "email server" perspective, but as different instances try to differentiate themselves and attract users, I bet the platform will swing more…

I feel like the product signals a strange mix of the two, which has to at least be resolved in terms of what's user-facing (e.g. UX-wise)

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#123

Post by epeus »

oopsman89 wrote: post #115
epeus wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nazi ideology is explicitly about fucking with others. It is about separating people who they disapprove of and killing them. If you're trying to normalise Nazis, you are one of them, and the 88 dogwhistle doesn't look good.

I think all ideas should be discussed in an open forum. If you think some people may become nazis, communists or pastafarians because those ideas appeal to them, it's because you're afraid the ideas you're trying to push on aren't that good to begin with. (Posting from another account because that one has been banned for no reason I can discern.)

[flagged]

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#124

Post by AsyncAwait »

throw2016 wrote: post #119
AsyncAwait wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? There's official Docker images that I've been running sucesfully for a while, the deployment of Mastodon is really no different from any other self-hosted app these days.

This is even worse. Now you want the average user to know to now only know Ruby but also Docker? These are technologies for technical folks, the kind of troubleshooting required is not trivial. And just packaging something in Docker does not make the need to understand it go away, what happens when things needs to be configured, when database connections don't work, when things go wrong? You still need to understand…

> This is even worse. Now you want the average user to know to now only know Ruby but also Docker?

Docker is not a requirement, it's an additional deployment option. Sure, having a static binary might be easier, but with Docker is pretty much equivalent, you get one, static download.

Had Mastodon been written in Go, this would not solve the problem of having to know Go if things go seriously wrong and you need to debug the actual software. Do you need C knowledge to run Linux? No, but it is certainly helpful.

For what it's worth, I've never had to touch anything Ruby-related in my several months of running a Mastodon instance.

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#125

Post by lloeki »

ad_hominem wrote: post #66
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't help but notice that you, complaining about “free speech”, have “88” at the end of your name. Wonder what kind of speech (which you only defend by its supposed legality) you're concerned about being banned.

Maybe they were born in 1988? Maybe they play the piano (88 keys)? Maybe they're a ham radio operator ("love and kisses")? Maybe they're a big Kill Bill fan (Crazy 88s)? Maybe they think it's a lucky number (Chinese culture)? There's a million possibilities[1] besides this baseless ad hominem attack in which you're implying they're a neo-nazi. This moral panic over white supremacists supposedly hiding under every bed…

TIL "88" stands for a neo-nazi thing. Lucky 10000 I guess.

A little bit of trivia: turns out in France a "département" is a country subdivision which receives two-digit codes, and it's quite common for people to include that in their online identity pseudonyms as a suffix. 88 is the Vosges department[0].

EDIT: Given the ambiguity, I do not support the use of the "88" thing at all, yet one cannot detract from the fact that cultural context and localization is a tricky subject. Even as a location thing I was not supporting it anyway as it's a terrible practice, being leaky information-wise.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vosges_(department)

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#126

Post by znpy »

AsyncAwait wrote: post #117
throw2016 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice of Ruby for a platform that is supposed to enable decentralization does not make sense. Most Ruby apps have tens to hundreds of dependencies and require a build environment which immediately limits access to a smaller group of developers familiar with Ruby build environments and debugging their way out of any dependency hell. Customization also becomes a problem. There is also no particular design in Masto…

Really? There's official Docker images that I've been running sucesfully for a while, the deployment of Mastodon is really no different from any other self-hosted app these days.

Don't feed the troll. She/He's making up pointless points, and she/he also seems to be using a throwaway account.

Just don't feed the troll.

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#127

Post by znpy »

stesch wrote: post #25

What I don't understand: Why do they promote the software instead of the protocols? News and e-mail had different server software and clients and were both used around the world. Mastodon uses standard protocols, too.

Because protocols need implementations to be appreciated.

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#128

Post by malvosenior »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #87
dx87 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you seriously implying that someone is a nazi just because they have the number 88 in their name? I have the number 87 in my name, what does that tell you about me? You're a perfect example of what they're complaining about. They've said nothing even remotely offensive, just that they don't agree with shared block lists, and you've already decided that they're wrong and a nazi. I've seen people get added to share…

I don't think everyone I disagree is a Nazi. It's just… easy to lose patience with the “free speech” line of argument when so many people invoking it are doing so in bad faith.

> easy to lose patience with the “free speech” line of argument when so many people invoking it are doing so in bad faith.

Many, many people believe in unfettered free speech. You should assume anyone who supports free speech is doing so in good faith as it's historically been the norm.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it".

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#129

Post by Vinnl »

ifur wrote: post #107
Vinnl wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Edit: this gets downvoted? reasonable technical criticism or dialogue. I'm quite sure the reason is that it's for me impossible to parse your message, even though I know what AJAX, Javascript, XML and Stylesheets are. If there really is a point in your message, you might want to try to reformulate it - perhaps in terms of how you as a user are actually negatively affected? (e.g. does Mastodon deplete your mobile su…

Is it lack of adjectives and positive or negative extensions that throws you of? This is hacker news, I'm talking about technical things. And you want me to limit myself to user experiences rather than back and forth on nerdy technicality? Edit to reply to the the reply below, apparently speed is frowned upon in HN: > Maybe this analysis helps: This is hyperbole :) >> Generally don't like AJAX > Not quite sure what A…

Here's a reply to your edit, I guess.

Again: AJAX and XML have nothing to do with Mastodon. You keep going into those, claiming that people say that it's an improvement, but it's not even relevant. Your entire posts appear to build on that, but it's a premise that is faulty.

Re: From GNU social to Mastodon

#130

Post by nolanl »

bumholio wrote: post #88
callahad wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll see that error if the Service Worker failed to register. Check your browser console?

I think I've cracked it: it does not work in Firefox Private mode.

Author of Pinafore here. Yes, ironically for an app and userbase that is so focused on privacy, things like private browsing, Privacy Badger, adblockers, etc. can cause compat issues with Pinafore.

Interestingly, the reason is (as I discovered) that most of these tools consider cross-origin requests as a signal of a third-party tracker or ad, and therefore block it. Pinafore works by talking directly to the instance's API, and so the instance itself is suspected to be a third-party tracker. ‍️

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