Matt Panhans @mpanhans@librem.one

I read this elsewhere: If trusted news outlets would start offering #Mastodon instances to their staff, that would bring some sort of verification and visibility. Think social.nytimes.com, social.heise.de etc. I'd love to read more from trusted journalists on the #fediverse and this could greatly help. (Again, not my idea but couldn't find the original author.) Boosts for visibility would be great. Reminder: Favorites don't help as on this other platform.

A tip for those who haven't seen this yet. #Mastodon has its own "#verification" system. Adding a link to your Mastodon profile from your website using the rel="me" attribute will #verify that the owner of both the site and profile are the same, and you get this nifty green highlight to show it.

New day, new #sociologists on Mastodon:

Say hi to:

@jonathanhorowi1 (Jonathan Horowitz)
@Misinfo (Martin Rooke)
@dmw (Dana Williams)
@praxishabitus (Gerardo Martí)
@jonwynn (Jon Wynn)
@heidenernst (Mic Ernst-Heidenreich)
@epopp (Beth Popp Berman)

For the complete list and an option to follow multiple accounts at once visit: https://trutzig89182.github.io/Mastodon-Sociologists/

If you want to be in the list or be removed, just let me know.

@sociology #Sociology

⚠️ We are working to restore pixelfed.social, the influx of new users across the fediverse overloaded the server.

We apologize for the inconvenience!

This latest growth spurt has highlighted some opportunities for performance improvements that will be rolling out later this week. #pixelfed

No news from me today - getting ready to teach and visit Barcelona. No need to visit Twitter to check!

Did you know that AppCenter is powered by Flatpak, a decentralized technology much like the Fediverse! That means that elementary OS natively supports side loading, and configuring alt stores like Flathub is a breeze. No walled gardens here 😉

I had never even heard of the Fediverse until I was researching social media for a piece I'm writing on the spread of misinformation. Then an entire world, previously hidden, suddenly appeared like an oasis on the horizon.

OK, I'll admit, oasis might be a tad optimistic--but I'm optimistic by nature. 😉

I'm an old, retired academic who has turned towards writing as a last ditch effort to stave off senility. Please forgive my floundering until I figure out this space.

#introduction

Really liked this text by @doctorow
h/t @allartmarkets

"How to Leave Dying Social Media Platforms (without ditching your friends)"

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

"a lot of us have been unhappy with our social media platforms for a long time, but we hang in there ... because ... we love the people who use the platform ... we don’t want to lose them ... Collective action problems are hard problems"

Reposting this map from @ErinInTheMorn on Twitter. If you are a trans refugee fleeing from Florida after this morning’s news these are the safest states to go to. California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have explicit refugee protections with no extradition. Be safe and good luck ❤️

The public square is not a billionaire

Want to work at Signal? Yes the same company as the end-to-end encrypted messaging app. Desktop Engineer position is open.

#signal #sql #css #flexbox #sass #javascript #career #job #employment #webpack #typescript #privacy #engineer

https://jobs.lever.co/signal/559d7829-e53d-4f73-88e9-c11a43b7bbad

so yeah they sorta hand-wave away how moderation works
https://atproto.com/guides/overview#speech-reach-and-moderation

wow #bluesky finally released something https://atproto.com

10,000 followers here on Mastodon/Fosstodon! Thanks to everyone who supports us 😊

@paoloredaelli
its called medium because the articles are neither rare or well done

Did you know the fediverse Instagram alternative Pixelfed supports Stories?

You can comment and react to Stories and they even federate with other Pixelfed instances!

The #pixelfedApp I'm building will support Stories with the option to disable them if you prefer! #pixelfed #stories

Statement on “Join The Fedi” jointhefedi.com is a website owned by known “gender critical” activist Alex Gleason. The domain name and SEO is clearly designed to appeal to individuals curious about the fediverse, and potentially take traffic from joinmastodon.org. Unfortunately, Gleason does not have the best intentions when it comes to helping the fediverse grow. Gleason formerly contributed to other fediverse projects, before being removed from doing so due both his behavior and poor code quality. This is a problematic individual, recommending problematic services.

Join The Fedi has an explicitly right-wing agenda and seems to only promote instances which either a) run the “Soapbox” front-end software created by Gleason himself or b) advertise themselves as “free speech” instances. As of right now, the site actively recommends the following instances:

poa.st (blocked by Howlr for harassment)
Spinster.xyz (blocked by Howlr for transphobia)
Shitposter.club (blocked by Howlr for harassment)
Gleasonator.com (blocked by Howlr for transphobia)
Freespeechextremist.com (blocked by Howlr for hate speech)

In other words, Gleason is using the site to promote his own agenda rather than simply gain more users into the fediverse. This is not a site that should be recommended to new users. I would recommend using https://joinfediverse.wiki/ instead!

Thank you!

> Try to listen to Captain Beefheart for 5 minutes
> Instant headache

The more I think about Instagram, the more I hate it. Every time I open that app, it feels like a hybrid of a brand shop, algorithm content from loads of people I don't follow, and a million selfies of old flames that make me feel creepy. I originally joined to share neat pictures from my travels, but Facebook has squeezed the life out of it.

I think I'm going to take a step and shut mine down for good, after pointing to #Pixelfed. Dansup's mobile apps cannot come fast enough.

My solo art show about #AlgorithmicBias and #SurveillanceCapitalism opened yesterday at the gallery Transformer in Washington, D.C. It's called, "The Algorithm Will See You Now" https://www.transformerdc.org/e19

Excited to be able to do something a little more advocacy-oriented. I'll follow up with some details about the artworks in the coming days.

Open through July 23, for those in the Washington, D.C., USA area!