What happened last summer? (I couldn't find anything on it)
A thread with a user that devolved into name calling. Or the Twitter fight where he encouraged people to DOS the rival. Or the account takeover CVE and repercussions.
Do you mean dox?
I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
251–260 of 497 posts
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#252I would love to love Mastodon, but discoverability was so incredibly difficult that I just gave up. I can find people and topics so much more easily on Bluesky. The starter packs are nice too. Does Mastodon have starter packs (lists of people to follow posting on a particular subject area, which ideally you could just click once and follow everyone)?
There is an open proposal to implement it without some of Bluesky's downsides. https://github.com/mastodon/featured_collections
The main downside being the ability to opt out of starter packs (they can be a source of low quality interactions).
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
It indicates to the poster that someone (you) liked their post. Perhaps that encourages them to make other similar posts.
In which case either favorite or bookmark will do the trick, correct? Why worry whether you're clicking the "wrong" one? Boost will also do it, but it has more side effects.
Because I don’t want to boost or add the toot to a perma-list, I just want to give the person that posted something I like some acknowledgement.
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#254This is an indescribably devastating loss for a project that, whatever its imperfections, can fairly lay claim to the most intellectually consistent and sincere adherence to FOSS, privacy, and decentralization of any major social media project. Eugene has proven a spectacular and indispensable developer, and I don't know that Mastodon has the ability to move on without him. I want to praise Eugen but the uncomfortabl…
I think Mastodon will survive. Other fedi projects (eg. Pleroma-fe) have been through all nine circles of FOSS hell and somehow still ship usable builds to a sizable community.
Eugen's presence is felt and appreciated in the community, but I can also understand why he stepped down. It's hard to represent so many people who don't always agree with you. I think back to Jack Dorsey's final days at Twitter with the NFT profile pictures and crypto tickers - he truly did not understand that his leadership had passed it's prime. The honorable thing for him to do was pass on control to someone responsible, but instead he spent his final days polarizing Twitter and guaranteeing it's own critical insolvency.
Eugen took the honorable route - I hope he remains vocal and influential in the community. It sounds like he knows himself extremely well and I applaud his honesty about the temptation for ego to ruin big projects. Most of us can't imagine the pressure in his shoes.
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can claim the opposite of the fediverse. The fediverse became an ultra left-wing (in terms of anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism, not human rights). If you write one positive thing about AI/LLM based coding and you will be tarred and spring-loaded. People use Fediverse for venting, less for creating and sharing original content. Some creators on TikTok provide much more insightful content than most of the Fediv…
human rights and sustainability also
That would be great but wasn’t the case. I‘m a „green“ guy and cycling advocate but we failed to get traction on the Fediverse.
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even Stallman signed up. Let that sink in.
I met Stallman once when he was pamphleting outside a beloved book store because they were using meetup to organize a book signing. The guy is consistent.
I used to make so much fun of RMS in the late 90s. Then I met him and my entire view on that man changed. He absolutely is doing the world a favor and it would benefit everyone to think long and hard what a world would be like without GNU today
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
For real though. The moderation on this site is on point.
It's good that Hacker News has some form of human moderation, which is a lot more than what you can say about a lot of social media spaces. I wouldn't necessarily call it good, however. HN is absolutely teeming with bad-faith throwaway accounts, and too much faith is put in the user moderation side of things to police them. The user moderation itself is also given far too much leeway - I have lost track of the amount…
I would absolutely call it good given the volume of comments that flow through here. Not sure what other communities you’re referring to, but my experience over decades of forums and social media is that HN consistently somehow avoids the toxic fate of so many other sites and services like it.
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that usernames contain a domain name component, and the “bare” username likely isn’t globally unique, the UX is nearly the same as other microblogs. And as to that username bit, people are used to joe@gmail.com and joe@outlook.com being different people, and having to specify which one they’re trying to send an email to. Everyone who’s both email and Twitter already understands all the basic concepts.
> And as to that username bit, people are used to joe@gmail.com and joe@outlook.com being different people, and having to specify which one they’re trying to send an email to. User handles are unique in ATProto because of the domain, just like email. Not sure what the "except" part is about. Can you clarify? In ATProto, they are not "bare" ActivityPub is the same, except they are tied to the server you join. In ATPro…
Ah, to be clear, I was thinking of ActivityPub.
How’s ATProto work for the 99.9% of people who don’t own domains?
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honest question: Why is it important to like a toot? What benefit does liking one provide?
It indicates to the poster that someone (you) liked their post. Perhaps that encourages them to make other similar posts.
That sounds like exactly the kind of addiction-reinforcing Skinner box nonsense that leads to influencers, parasocial relationships and a content economy, and all of the dark patterns of social media that the fediverse is designed to avoid.
People shouldn't be posting to get the endorphine rush from clicks or to satisfy metrics. They should post whatever they want, whenever they want. If you like what someone posts, you can follow their account, or better yet the hashtags they use. That should be sufficient.
Not having a like button seems like a good design choice TBH.
Re: I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn, where is Mastodon getting €1M from? Also where do you get from that you can't retire with €1M. It seems very feasible as long as you keep a frugal lifestyle.
Generally charitable foundations figure that you can withdraw 3% per year from your savings and never run out. Remember you have to account for not only good years, but also really bad years, so even though you can average 10% over the long term in the stock market there will be decades that you are negative. There are also bond investments that are safer, but have worse return. And inflation is always eating into yo…
> You can make more than that working at McDonald's near me, and nobody would claim that is a living wage.
Or he could scrimp and put four hard years towards making manager at McDonald's. If he gets it, then he can demand they match 44k a year (his passive income at that point) or he walks.
He could then try the same at Wendy's, and walk to retire on 64k a year.
Compound interest is one helluva drug!