@maegul@hachyderm.io
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

maegul

@[email protected]

A little bit of computing and a little bit of neuroscience.

he/him/they

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Bebo @masimatutu

Friendica definitely is one of the underrated fediverse platforms.

Many bounce off of it because it seems a bit slow and its UI is dated. But in terms of the general ideas about what the fediverse can be and the functionality it’s implemented, it’s very interesting and it would be awesome for it to seem more love.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@masimatutu

Yea. Generally a good demonstration of how the promise of the fediverse isn’t really there yet.

Lemmy does groups and mastodon does users with neither really understanding the other.

I think there’s more scope for lemmy to cover the user side of social media than mastodon the groups side. Kbin is an example of a continuing effort to do that.

If some keen devs got involved, I’d suspect lemmy could add some good user based functionality.The core devs have recognised it’d be good.

maegul, to random
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Went to dot social just to see how it’s going, having heard bad things a couple of weeks ago.

It was errors everywhere, nothing working at all. The server’s own numbers show a major fall in users since sept.

So I think I’ll call it a day for me and firefish … that little fedi-episode was sure interesting.

Sad part is it’s main effect seems to have fragmented the whole misskey fork subset of the Fedi, which could have really done with a solid English-lang *key against masto-dominance

Arataka, to random
@Arataka@esper.lol avatar

Is https://firefish.social usually so slow? Was looking to see how things changed since I last heard about it and man that instance is SUPER slow to load everything, is this an instance issue or a firefish issue?

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Arataka at the moment it seems to be a dead instance. Too many problems too often with an admin distracted by other things now and not actively maintaining the instance.

Unless there’s contrary information and I’m out of the loop I’d say stay away and consider firefish to be a bit more hype than it’s worth. Other Misskey forks are out there.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Arataka yep I’ve heard others talk about sharkey too.

Blahaj devs are moving to sharkey I think which is probably a good sign.

Don’t know where iceshrimp is up to but it’s still being worked on AFAIU.

TBH it would be nice if a major misskey fork for English/western-lang speakers could be settled on and provide a stable alternative on the Fedi. Hopefully the effect of firefish will be to have established awareness.

reiver, to random
@reiver@mastodon.social avatar

What topics about the Fediverse, social-media, or Tech are you most curious about?

What questions about the Fediverse, social-media, or Tech do you hav?

(The Fediverse includes all the Fediverse software.)

Reply with your topics and questions.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@reiver what’s the deal with decentralised social media protocols … like at a full comprehensive theoretical problem and solution space level.

More directly, what features are reasonably expected but unavailable on the Fedi and which are often expected but unreasonably difficult

stavvers, to random
@stavvers@masto.ai avatar

genuinely fascinated by the wework collapse because they genuinely could have dominated the covid hybrid working trend by simply offering to businesses that they could have an office for that one day a week lease and they just... didn't. and kept trying to sell individuals a hot desk.

literally everyone who has the money is spectacularly bad at reading the room on post 2020 working preferences

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@stavvers

What are the chances that no employer wanted to take up "hybrid" in any meaningful or long term fashion, or that wework guessed as much and not unreasonably so?

MediaActivist, to random
@MediaActivist@kolektiva.social avatar

Uh oh. My more recent experiences with #Lemmy and by proxy #Kbin are becoming increasingly like they were with Reddit (not good). What's the deal with that? Why is the discourse I find on #Mastodon so much more positive and productive than there? Is it an influx of ex-Reddit users bringing bad habits and negative energy with them? Is it the actual software; the format; the layout? What is it? #Fediverse

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@MediaActivist

I suspect it’s the people, largely because the migration event was sparked by convenience (3rd party apps dying) while the Twitter migration was cultural/political.

I’ve heard from a mod that runs both a lemmy and masto instance that they can see the differences in cultural heritage.

But also, an impersonal platform can maybe lead to impoliteness (if that’s the sort of thing you’re referring to)?

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Loukas @MediaActivist

Yea. On lemmy at least (I’m sure on kbin too) you can block users. But, that’s opt-out not in.

IMO a combination of true person-following and community-following into a single platform or feed manager with nice QoL features would be a great way to consume the Fedi. AFAIU, kbin isn’t there.

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

core devs running an AMA on Monday, 7 Aug, 1500 CEST

See post: lemmy.ml/post/2671212

Generally, I think it's valuable for people to be able to get to know their platform's devs and their admins better. So I think this is a pretty cool idea.

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@dave @fediversenews

Seems it does! Fixed.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@dave @fediversenews

Nice! I would have done the same except that mastodon doesn't render/format lemmy posts well at all so it kinda defeats the point, especially as you can't quote-boost to add additional information (honestly frustrating!)

Your link seems to take me straight to lemmy though (??)

Here's the link to the lemmy post on my masto instance: https://hachyderm.io/@[email protected]/110816650728232559 (if that's helpful for anyone ... you can reply and potentially read replies).

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Former reddit app Sync now available (in beta) for lemmy.

https://lemmy.world/post/2515668

See also the app's community if you're interested: https://lemmy.world/c/syncforlemmy

The story here, AFAIU, is that it's the same developer porting the app from a reddit to lemmy backend. I've never used it, but android users have been excited for it from what I've seen.

@fediversenews

alter_kaker, to random
@alter_kaker@hachyderm.io avatar

So I'm working on starting a #Fediverse instance and I have some very cool expressions of interest, but let me tell you, this outlandish, hyperbolic #FediDrama is very discouraging. I would not be able to handle getting caught up in this type of stuff without major support.

Anyway, I feel like the only thing approaching a solution is real #DemocraticGovernance for instances big, small, and medium-sized.

What are some (technical, social) frameworks that have been tried so far?

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@alter_kaker

The approach might be of interest to you.

They have documentation here: https://community.hachyderm.io/docs/

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

app mlem has been released.

See announcement post: https://lemmy.ml/post/2222531

I count now 3 iOS apps out of beta: mlem, memmy and liftoff

See this megathread on all apps (web, android, ios): https://alexandrite.app/c/[email protected]

@fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Just in case anyone missed it. Wikimedia has a masto instance.

https://wikimedia.social/@wikimediafoundation/110708950540815886

@fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

core devs have started work on a new front end using leptos (a frontend framework).

They're interested in getting "proper" front end UI devs to help out while they focus on the core backend focused parts

See https://lemmy.ml/post/2151005

Leptos: https://leptos.dev/

@fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So this is fun: https://old.endlesstalk.org/

There are now a few alternative front ends for lemmy and some instances are installing them at alternative endpoints. Check out new.endlesstalk.org too!

m.lemmy.world has also been set up for a mobile PWA (voyager/vger, formerly wefwef).

I think this is awesome!

How hard would it be for mastodon instances to do something similar?

@fediversenews

maegul, to random
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Oh man ... having been on / recently, which have proper threading of discussions (including options to sort by multiple metrics and collapse the tree at any point) ...

... and then trying to read through a long thread on ... 🤢

maegul, to random
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@dansup

I think fedidb is picking up two different endpoints of the same kbin instance as distinct instances?

https://fedidb.org/software/kbin

That is kbin.social and media.kbin.social

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

New 3rd party desktop UI for Lemmy!

by @sheodox / @sheodox

See latest announcement: https://lemmy.ml/post/1989135

It's killer feature IMO: a columnar layout, somewhat like an email app. I'll probably be using it from from here on out just for this.

Other nice features and designs too (incl a theme hue slider for quick theme customisation ... hadn't seen that before!)

See the dedicated community: https://lemmy.world/c/alexandrite

@fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Lemmy.world is current under some attack.

Seems an admin had their credentials hacked and the bad actor was defacing the webpage and posting as the admin.

There were attempts to clean it up that apparently didn’t entirely succeed as the hacker somehow resumed defacing things.

As of now, the site is down. Logging in may not be a good idea. Given the time, Ruud is probably still asleep and assistant admins are on it.

See lemmy.ml thread: https://lemmy.ml/post/1895271

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@fediversenews

Seems that there may be a vulnerability in the platform itself.

beehaw.org have taken the precaution of turning their server off until things get sorted.

See https://hachyderm.io/@beehaw/110687918465426082

@beehaw

Also ... kudos to beehaw admins ... having an admin account on a separate instance and platform for announcements ... "this is the way" and all!

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@fediversenews

So, lemmy.world is back up and running.

It seems (mostly?) sanitised from the hacker's defacement and is running (mostly) as though nothing has happened (which is perhaps alarming?).

Maybe avoid visiting if you have an account there (until things are verified) as it seems part of their hack was to scrape JWTs/cookies through a JS/scripting injection. (See, eg https://lemmy.sdf.org/comment/850269)

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@fediversenews
ruud (woke up and) has reported on the incident: https://lemmy.world/post/1290412

Seems that there was a vulnerability which has been patched and cleaned up. Patch is yet to be merged and pushed to all instances apparently.

Overall this incident has both positives and negatives. It’s not good that this could have happened. I’m not clear on the root cause so others can attest.
Positively, lemmy is an active platform, attracting attacks and devs/admins patching and maintaining the space.

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So ... having sucked up most the latest twitter wave, mastodon.social, the single instance, if you go by MAU, is now 22% of the fediverse and 25% of masto-verse!

See, https://fedidb.org/network and https://fedidb.org/

Not sure how many other mastodon instances picked up new users, but it seems mastodon.social got pretty literally the lion's share.

Anyone willing to put down a number at which point this becomes a problem? 30%, 40%, 50%?

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jamigibbs @fediversenews

I'm with you on the UX side of things.

I'm just more suspicious that mastodon.social, or any big central instance for that matter, is more sticky and gains more momentum as it grows than you give it credit.

Which is not necessarily a great evil, depending on your goals.

For me though, a single "BDFL" controlling the super dominant platform and instance starts to eat away at the notion we have of a diverse and pluralistic fediverse.

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So this poll by @stux is a pretty strong vote for blocking meta

63% - Block from the start
37% - Federate (maybe block later)
(8231 votes)

https://mstdn.social/@stux/110622583732793662

Perhaps surprisingly strong? I personally expected the ratio to be flipped.

Given the way Meta's federation is a "soon" promise ... I'm wondering if this federation thing might just fizzle out as, at best, a thing that maybe happens gradually between mostly incompatible user bases?

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@stux @fediversenews

And I'm sure this has been said somewhere, but I was just wondering what "hype" around Threads might look like on here. EG, BS was decentralisation "but better".

Threads might have a large enough and diverse user base (presuming IG peeps use it) that it's a qualitatively different and for some attractive place (?).

For anyone here who yearns for something a bit more pre-elon-twitter, this may be the first real substitute.

I'm now curious to see how that pans out here.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@stux @fediversenews

And @stux has publicly decided mstdn.social will block meta, for now: https://mstdn.social/@stux/110662586982485968

That's the second largest english speaking fediverse instance. And the availability of Threads in and its compliance with Europe seems to be a major issue on this, which is surely relevant for many other fediverse instances/users.

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

gets a (new) search engine

It already had search (with some rough edges), but people are already making their own to fill specific needs ... chiefly it seems to replace the Google site: reddit.com search facility.

See ...

https://lemmy.world/post/963301

https://www.search-lemmy.com/

Interesting to see a platform culture completely embrace being open and public.

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jeena @fediversenews

Yep. And here the average reaction seems to be “Awesome, how do we integrate this into my fav app?”

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@laurenshof @fediversenews

Yea and masto are, IMO, not really connected. The UI impedances aren’t matched at all really and so not much makes it over the protocol.

I would be interesting to see how friendica, kbin and hubzilla people integrate with and use compared to masto.

Very tempted to give my kbin or friendica accounts another spin. Except that I like hachyderm governance a lot.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jeena @fediversenews
Interesting!

I’ve def seen a couple of polls backing you up in the mastodon side. Masto is clearly X-Gen/Xennial and surprisingly Boomer/Jones gen too.

Lemmy/kbin don’t have polls unfortunately. But a post to asklemmy would definitely get responses.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jeena @fediversenews

I tried a poll on lemmy. Not sure it went well but there's a bit of a picture of the demographic: https://lemmy.ml/post/1774488

By my count ... median 30s with probably more younger people (10-30) than here.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jeena @fediversenews

But otherwise, it seems to be consistent with the generational profile on masto ... basically xennial centric.

maegul, to fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So most of the new growth was taken up by mastodon.social ... right?

See
https://fedidb.org/software/mastodon ... which doesn't provide recent numbers by time, but does if you go into individual instances, such as mastodon.world, where you can see user growth mainly occurred on mastodon.social.

I imagine some users have also returned, bumping MAU but perhaps a little more distributed.

Along with lemmy.world, it looks like "centralisation" is relatively natural.

@fediverse @fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Directing someone new to ?

A "New Users" community has been started ... could be helpful as a first port of call: https://lemmy.world/c/newusers

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@renwillis @fediversenews @ruud

Well, I don't think centralising everything on lemmy.world, especially communities, is a good idea.

Apart from the single point of failure issue, I would imagine that there's an infrastructural issue caused by putting too many communities on one instance not unlike the load caused by a user with a huge amount of followers.

As a community is the source of "truth" it has to sync all the data to all the subscribers. Distributing this probably makes sense (??)

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@ruud @renwillis @fediversenews

Ooohh ... interesting??

So... some process to reduce the load on the "home" instance of a community and allow data to sort of percolate through the network?

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

settles on its being central instance: lemmy.world () run by @ruud

Its numbers are now big enough to be counted amongst the top 5-10 masto instances! (https://fedidb.org/network/instance/lemmy.world) as become the “second platform” by size.

Apart from running it well and keeping up to date (recent update seems to have gone well, with a nice example of instances and admins helping each other!?), some redditers seek the big instances?? Curious how communities will adapt.

@fediversenews

maegul, to test
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Do hashtags work between lemmy and masto?

#mytesthashtag

@test

user8e8f87c, to fediversenews
@user8e8f87c@berlin.social avatar

🥳🎉 More then 100,000 monthly active users (MAU) on and 🎈🎊

according to https://fedidb.org/current-events/threadiverse.

@fediversenews @fediverse

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@user8e8f87c @fediversenews @fediverse

It’s worth noting that both of these platforms measure their MAU differently from other platforms.

Kbin basically don’t measure it. For that platform MAU = total users. They just don’t provide the data.

Conversely, lemmy are stricter than masto. An MAU is someone who has posted. Logging in a reading doesn’t count.

All together, they probably even out somewhat such that this number right now isn’t far off.

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@user8e8f87c @fediversenews @fediverse

Otherwise, yea, a bit of a shift on the fediverse.

Threadiverse is now roughly 10% of mastodon’s MAU. So it’s not unreasonable to say that the fediverse is mastodon, with some threadiverse, and, as sad as it is to say, the other platforms.

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Someone’s started a Python wrapper around the lemmy API

https://github.com/db0/pythorhead (@db0)

Could make writing bots and other tools easier and quicker.

@fediverse @fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Seems that there’s a lemmy bug to do with federation outside lemmy that has the devs somewhat stumped. It’s only in the latest version.

They’re hoping masto admins can check their logs to see what’s going on. The issue is that comments and posts aren’t federating to and can’t be found through search from non-lemmy instances.

See thread https://social.wake.st/@liaizon/110616309595225005 and get any admins to help if you can.

@fediversenews

maegul, to fediversenews
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

is starting to reverse the spam account problem. See users graph here https://fedidb.org/current-events/threadiverse

From what I’ve gathered, many of these accounts never actually materialised as they never went through email verification. How many I’m not sure. Nor did any spam problem eventuate (yet?). Either way, it seems the targeted instances are getting on top of the problem.

@fediverse
@fediversenews

maegul, to RSS
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Some people are using to build an aggregator

See https://lemmy.ml/post/1513552 and their instance:https://lemmy.link/

@fediversenews

maegul,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Neblib @fediversenews

Yes, as someone said in the thread ... "Wish I'd thought of this!"

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