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Mastodon: Add end-to-end encryption API

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

#121

Post by mdszy »

Hitton wrote: post #95
mdszy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about spam and legitimate abuse? Do you think these things should be allowed to run rampant just because you believe that an admin's decision to not communicate with you is that terrible?

> What about spam and legitimate abuse? You can block the spammer yourself. I'm not sure if the feature is about only private communication between two users or in channel, but if it's in channel, there can be bot logging messages. That way the bot's owner still knows who posted what and can ban/moderate as needed. > Do you think these things should be allowed to run rampant just because you believe that an admin's d…

>You can block the spammer yourself.

This is nonsense. Do you really think everyone should have to deal with spam themselves? Do you disable spam filters on your email and deal with all of that on your own? Do you think, on a site like HN, we should have to filter spam ourselves too?

The internet would be completely unusable if it was expected that everyone deal with spam themselves. This is ludicrous.

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

#122

Post by _8j50 »

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).

I prefer captchas or even arbitrary btc donations. Matrix.org Riot does this just fine. Since it is just for registration, it's easy for me to register in a privacy preserving conditon (vpn, private mode,noscript,etc...)

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

#123

Post by kabacha »

_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.

Surely there's an email provider that doesn't require a phone number? Protonmail, Tutanota?

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

#124

Post by [deleted] »

vertex-four wrote: post #92
jack1243star wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no idea account migration landed. Your description actually sounds quite reasonable. I guess I was too shocked and burnt by the instance blocking incident. Maybe I should give Mastodon another try. Just need to find an instance that doesn't block...

Finding an instance that doesn't block other instances, but also actually moderates its users and thus doesn't get blocked, is going to be pretty hard - and also a rather harassment-filled experience unless you fit in with the Gab crowd, I imagine. You could always run your own instance. Note that the majority of instances that are "blocked" are actually soft-blocked by most instances, meaning you can still talk to p…

[deleted]

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

#125

Post by numpad0 »

jack1243star wrote: post #60
numpad0 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was a feature added later, mostly to address instance operators' fear for police intervention for enabling access to Japanese content(they say loli but even Japanese in 30s to 40s are legit mistaken even in court as underage, so not much to do with age, IMO more of specific makeup style or lack thereof)

There's also pawoo.net, which was operated by Pixiv (switched hands). Pawoo is the go-to instance for (lolicon) artists banned from Twitter, and despite being the largest Mastodon instance is blocked by almost all instances. The fear came from some European laws forbidding under-aged illustrations (typing this makes me die inside), so instances serving pictures from Pawoo may get into trouble. https://mastodon.social…

I kind of don't like how "lolicon" is being used -- because pedophilistic orientation don't seem to correlate all that well to how likely people is banned from Twitter. There's a real pedo guy on it, who I've seen public about how arts don't substitute stuffs, who posts his... arts a bit jagged, and doing it for years, then on the other hands there are artists getting banned nth times this year posting an abstracted person with clean and continuous lines.

My theory is there's a set of curve parameters that evaluate to "legality" in a sigmoid response that has less to do with ages or even if it's depicting a human or an animal or not, like a picture of desert hills looks pornographic sometimes or how sumo wrestlers charging evoke no sexual emotion. That human curve scoring yet to be discovered is, to me, looks like how legality is determined worldwide on and off internet, so calling those drawings as loli or people doing those curves as lolicon is inaccurate in my opinion.

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

#126

Post by kabacha »

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.

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

#127

Post by cjslep »

jack1243star wrote: post #115
cjslep wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, didn't mean to put words in your mouth. However, it's very presumptuous to say: "I really wanted Mastodon to be where I can find everyone." That's Facebook and Twitter. And even then you can't find everyone. People go to the Fediverse to build the community they want, not be subjected to "everyone". It's this clash of collective rights vs individualism that seems to drive so many of these ridiculous arguments.…

Hmm, maybe I should see the fediverse as multiple loosely-connected Twitter clones, rather than one place maybe? I seemed to have a malformed expectation regarding Mastodon. Thanks for clarifying that for me. "Mastodon is a decentralized network! Remember, regardless of server choice you can talk to and follow anyone on Mastodon!" -- mastodon.social I was perhaps misreading the developer's intentions.

Mastodon is just one ActivityPub software. PeerTube and Pixelfed let your loosely-connected Twitter clones also be loosely connected to Instagram clones. It's a big world.

So I wouldn't get too hung up on one developer (me included).

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

#128

Post by dependenttypes »

_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 am not aware of any mastodon server like that but there are quite a few pleroma servers that accept fake emails.

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

#129

Post by _8j50 »

kabacha wrote: post #123
_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.

Surely there's an email provider that doesn't require a phone number? Protonmail, Tutanota?

Tried both. Proton let's you donate as an alternative, but only with a card. I haven't tried cash visa/mastercard giftcards with it.

It's a recent thing they're doing. I routinely create at least half a dozen free email addresses a year, phone number did not use to be an issue. They've locked down pretty tight.

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

#130

Post by dependenttypes »

cjslep wrote: post #107
sneak wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't contradictory or incompatible to say that people shouldn't be forced to do anything, and also simultaneously believe that censorship, especially the silent or invisible kind, is bad. Would a web host performing MITM on an HTTP connection to alter or redact your blog posts be bad? After all, it's their hardware...

Instance banning is neither silent nor invisible. Every Mastodon instance has an About page (no login required) listing all instance bans and reasons, anytime. I would be in agreement with you about silent/invisible censorship, but that's not what's going on here. This is a categorically different problem than MITM.

> Every Mastodon instance has an About page (no login required) listing all instance bans and reasons

There are instances which require an account in order to see the bans (cyber.space). There are instances which do not list bans at all. There are instances with made up reasons of banning made up instances (mastodon.art). Even that flagship instance lists incorrect reasons for removing instances (claims that certain instances shared illegal content when said instances do not allow any form of illegal content).

In addition most mastodon instances do not disclose their policies via AP. See for example https://fediverse.network/mastodon.art/federation

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