Adam @adam@librem.one

Bit of fun this weekend by looking at how Mastodon actually works under the hood. The "federation" part is really interesting, but also highlights how other servers may not be trusted.

Take for example this user (should be cached on infosec.exchange):

@fakexpn

If you click on the user via the web interface, you'll see that the account has insta-influencer status, without all the shit-posting and self-meme'ing..

This is of course is all by design, as part of ActivityPub. When we reference another account on another server, the "federation" part of the protocol kicks in and requests information on the account. This means that on the server we control, we can set as many followers as we want (as well as post count and basically anything else we want) by returning a "totalItems" value of 99999999 in the followers ActivitySteam JSON.

tl;dr, Factor in trust of servers when using Mastodon (and stop using follow count as a metric!)

A fav/like on Mastodon is like sending a personal "Thank you" note to the author. A Boost is like telling all your friends "Look at this!" #FediTips

Evolution doesn’t look how it’s depicted in pop culture. We often picture the famous “March of Progress” illustration where a series of apes stand in line leading to a modern human.

But evolution is not linear. It branches and branches. Divides in some places and recombines in others. #science
Image: @keesey

For those wondering, Mastodon contains no “web3” or crypto technology, and significantly predates any of that. The technology deployed here is primarily ActivityPub, which has roots in tech like RSS and PubSubHubbub.

It is noteworthy that “web3” designs are absent from the Twitter emigration discussion; that’s because it’s a scam and not fit for purpose.

The minute people start talking about adding crypto to the fediverse, run. That’s not what this is about and violates its spirit and design.

A JPG file dissection (new version)
https://github.com/corkami/pics

I don't want to just be posting about numbers like a clock, but the 2 million mark of monthly active users across the network is a pretty big deal. This is going big numbers! Shout out to all the server operators who are absorbing this wave.

Better sharing of #WordPress posts to #Mastodon

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2022/11/better-sharing-of-wordpress-posts-to-mastodon/

Exactly ten years ago today I wrote this blogpost, in which I advocated for making federated blogs:
https://rys.io/en/92.html

The only way to do that at the time was to use #Friendica or #Diaspora.

This was *before* the Fediverse, *before* Mastodon. Before ActivityPub.

Today, there are ActivityPub plugins for major CMSes; websites are starting to federate.

Both Diaspora and Friendica are still around; the latter is now part of the Fediverse, too.

Ideas behind fedi have been around for ages.

I don’t understand why people think Mastodon is difficult. It seems pretty straightforward, and the separate servers are no biggie. I’m enjoying this fresh start here, like moving to a new apartment!

What are people seeing as approximate server costs for Mastodon instances? Helping some folks think about starting org instances. Let's say a closed instance with around 100 users, with 1000 followers each? #mastodon #meta #fediverse