On the subject of Connecting Federated Social Media Networks
The past few days on the Fediverse have served to remind me a few things:
- The internet is as smart and as ignorant (and everything in between) as the macrocosm known as "human civilization" reflects upon it.
- Sometimes the victims will become the victimizers in any given situation, usually without them being aware of it.
- Upon pointing it out to said type above, instead of working to acknowledge and understand, they will double-down under the guise of righteousness, again unwittingly using the exact playbook that they had been persecuted under at some point in the past.
- As usual, any attempt by a rational third party to diffuse whatever situation breaking out on the internet will lead to a wider conflict/argument/brigade session where everyone winds up digging their heels in and missing entirely the point.
- And finally, as usual, there's a 95% chance it was started by someone who was all to ready to be triggered by anything and everything so they could start some shit on the internet at that moment.
OK, with that preamble out the way, let's get into the latest drama related iconically to trying to bridge this patchwork, fledgling open social media landscape. As you may be aware, there are two federated decentralized social media protocols that are pretty big right now; ActivityPub and ATProto. Per my previous notes on both:
- ActivityPub is a federated social networking protocol that enables users to interact across different servers and platforms used by popular projects like Mastodon, Pleroma, and PeerTube. It's been around since 2017 and is born from previous projects like Statusnet and Ostatus. It's in full federation right now, mainly serving as the underpinning to Mastodon, a microblogging server.
- ATProto is a newer protocol developed by Bluesky, a public benefit company born from the ideas from former Twitter engineers. The protocol's main advantage is that it provides true account portability and can scale up with search and discovery. Since it was originally developed to be the successor to Twitter, it also has hooks for composable moderation and algorithms. It's not federated at the moment, but the only instance using it, the self-titular Bluesky (bsky.app) says "its immenent. Indeed, the company just took down the waitlist and opened up registration to everyone worldwide a few weeks ago.
So what the hell happened?
In short, someone built something that can connect both networks together in a sense and a bunch of people who likely don't really know the technology's underpinnings instead proceeded to blow up their victim status to trigger everyone else and brigade the developer who was asking for constructive dialoge and ideas before he got too far in the development process.
Now I must note, I've been using Ryan's Bridgy site and suite of crossposting tools ever since I got into the Indieweb movement as it ticks all my boxes for making my content go all over the web and whatever comments and discussions take place out there, I can track and archive them on my site without worrying if I'll get taken down, or the site goes dark. Bridgy already has bridges for Mastodon, Reddit, Facebook, and even supported Instagram and Twitter before they became… drunk with power. I am eagerly awaiting the day when I can sit on Bluesky and follow Mastodon folks or sit on Mastodon and comment on Bluesky posts… Or better yet, tag everyone in both places from this blog right here. ActivityPub and ATProto are open source and its pretty easy to make tools like this unlike feeling around in the dark with undocumented APIs that may get shut down at any second; That's why we can't do this with Instagram!
It's no secret the fediverse is the social media of choice for those who feel voiceless and vulnerable on the other "big" networks; you can gain a sense of community and comradery on an instance with others sharing the same experiences. However, it is still a social network.
- Social: relating to or involving activities in which people spend time talking to each other or doing enjoyable things with each other.
- Network: a system of devices, or entities including people and animals that are connected and can communicate with each other.
So in regard to having a bridge to connect the two together… Yeah, it's kind of a no-brainer and I thought everyone else was looking forward to having it like myself. Boy was I wrong:
You need to make this opt IN not opt OUT. It absolutely fucking sucks that you want to force the majority of decentralized posts here into content for Jack fucking Dorsey.
Cyrus (still a bit spooky tbh) (@Cyrus@zirk.us)
honestly fuck you. Do you really expect everybody to have enough space in their bios to opt-out of your fucking bs? How many opt-out bs am I supposed to put there?
Joshix 🦣 (@joshix@fosspri.de)
My Take:
I honestly don't get the vitrolic knee-jerk posts I saw coming left and right from some corners of the fediverse, then I started noticing the pattern: It's mostly people not understanding what the goals of both ActivityPub and ATProto are as a protocol and their equating it to Mastodon and Bluesky as "psudo-corporations" that have some level of control… And even perhaps Ryan's attempt to bridge both protocols with free and open source software that is literally already working to bridge other social networks as I type this, as some imaginary invasion mob coming to victimize them on the internet. 😓
Allow me to say this as a member of a marginalized group of people in real life who has had my share of internet trolls come at me: (I'm a Black man from the USA, and I have yet to lose my Black Card, am a refugee repping #BlackTwitter into the Fediverse on both Bsky and Masto so I think I can speak on some things.)
- Get out of your feelings. The animosity is unwarranted and uncalled for. This is the internet and it wasn't designed for you to have your entire-ass identity tied to it. This is truely the reason social media is some bullshit sometimes. The internet is supposed to be a communication tool, not some MMORPG for y'all to live your whole existence. If anything, your IRL personality should extend INTO it, not the other way around. Dude could've just cut the bridge on, posted Github links and lol'd all the way to the way to the next project and there wouldn't be much you or I could say; the fediverse has no Ts&Cs to violate!
- Attempt to learn the technology before you postulate whatever opinions around it. Don't come up with some off-the-cuff hot take on how you think the bridge is suddenly going to aim 3 million users of Network A at your posts on being a furry/inanimate-curious who happens to be in a cross-species relationship with a hubcap from a 1993 Chevy Corsica that happen to be publicly available on Network B. That's not how network bridges work. Understand that whatever you've posted publicly anywhere is subject to someone reading it and deciding to give you a like or give a hateful comment. They don't need a bridge to do it; they can already just make an account on the network you're already on and fuck with you. It's actually easier for them and less traceable!
- We already have bridges now. Consider this post is on my own personal blog powered by Wordpress. It's being cross-posted POSSE-style to wherever you're reading this or got referred from, whether it was through an automatic script, or I manually cut and pasted over. My blog is already acting as a bridge and there are many others like it. It's been that way in the past, and someone was bound to create this technology. If it's not @snarfed, then it'll be someone else. But mark my words, it's gonna happen.
- Learn the difference between protocols and applications. Bluesky is an application on the ATProto protocol. Mastodon is an application on the ActivityPub protocol. Both are facets of the wider fediverse. Don't conflate these things. This blog is an application on BOTH those protocols and also does webmentions and other cool things. Once ATProto is fully federated and opened, it's only a matter of time before I can snag an ATProto plugin in the same manner as the ActivityPub one and have it not even need to rely on a "translator" like Bridgy for that part. (If I just lost you with the technobabble, now you see why it's important to seek to understand this technology before reacting to some perceived threat.)
- You're not in a walled garden on the fediverse. You're in the open and as such you more than anyone should understand and respect the right to choose. The power here is in your hands and you have the ability to block, but your right to do so ends at the tip of your own nose and doesn't come anywhere near mine. Also realize both ActivityPub and ATProto were designed for openness first; if you seek privacy and isolation, then you need to grab Signal and create some rooms there with some buddies away from the open internet.
- Assholes exist everywhere. Don't conflate the tech of one place with the ability to keep bigots, fascists, bullys, and jackasses from your timeline. Moreover, don't shoo away people that are trying to do things that are inevitable anyway from doing it correctly! Understand federation is going to happen with or without your input if not by this project, by someone else. There's no hiding, there's no "safe place" except the one you create and control yourself within or without these places.
Letting you connect to other people you care about is not unethical or immoral. You have a lot of options for whether you want to participate in the BS bridge–either by managing your follows directly, by blocking users from that domain, or by blocking the whole domain. This is how federation works. You have absolute control over who you interact with.
Evan Prodromou (@evan@cosocial.ca)
I'm approaching this line of thinking from my longtime use, contribution and propagation of FOSS/open-source software and the use of my actual social media of choice, the indieweb which is best summed up here:
The #IndieWeb is for everyone, everyone who wants to be part of the world-wide-web of interconnected people. The social internet of people, a network of networks of people, connected peer-to-peer in human-scale groups, communities of locality and affinity.
tantek.com
Also, one more thing:
The most important lesson, I've ever learned about online privacy is this one: If you want something to be private online, don't put it online in the first place.
DavidB (@DavidBHimself)
Updates & Errata
Pardon the typos, grammar bombs and double negatives in my "stream of consciousness" manner of writing this particular post. My years of journalism prowess still requires fresh eyes and a fresher cup of coffee. Being that this is my blog and not a column in a major publication, I'm a bit lax so 🤷🏾♂️ ...fuhgeddaboudit!
🆕 Some other posts I've been reading that align with my opinions and have some additional references, and deeper information:
Bluesky takes the velvet rope down 🦋
Bluesky has opened up and requires no waitlist now, so if you were searching for a Twitter alternative, then here you go:
[simpleblogcard url="bsky.social/about/blo…"]
Once registered, find me here:
[simpleblogcard url="bsky.app/profile/s…"]
For reference:
Feature | Bluesky | ActivityPub/Mastodon | Other SNS |
---|---|---|---|
Decentralization | Yes | Yes | No |
Open-Source | Yes | Yes | No |
Account Portability | Yes (ATProto was designed with this in mind.) | Yes (but it varies with the app/site you're working with | No |
Moderation | community based | community based | Centralized |
Focus | Text, photo (video on roadmap) | Various | Varies |
Customization | High | Very high | None |
Access | Just made public | Most instances public but some are not. | Public |
[simpleblogcard url="[techcrunch.com/2024/02/0...](https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/06/bluesky-is-now-open-for-anyone-to-join/)"]
[simpleblogcard url="[www.engadget.com/bluesky-i...](https://www.engadget.com/bluesky-is-ditching-its-waitlist-and-opening-to-everyone-140026198.html)"]
[simpleblogcard url="mashable.com/article/b…"]
My take:
It's basically what Twitter was supposed to become before Elon Musk bought the place and turned it into a festering cesspool. And while I'm more of an ActivityPub/Mastodon/Indieweb enthusiast, there's no reason not to have a Bluesky account since the two will talk to each other in the very near future thanks to folks like @snarfed.org@snarfed.org and Brid.gy.
Besides all that, it's so new, you can still smell the wet paint and fresh drywall over there, so you can move in and create your own space quite easily now... and if it gets enshittified, then no love lost, right? Whatcha got to lose?
…Now they’re just grasping at straws. We asked for something like this back in 2018 complete with a framework to provide AirBNB style housing and helping with Japanese government services like hoken, and the like. I’m sure none of the support part is included here and we all know how hard that is for anyone new to Japan.
Hello COVID my old friend, I hoped we'd never meet again
Here we go again with the bullshit.
This time, my sense of smell is 90% gone. 😩
Paxlovid enroute and no real symptoms other than post-nasal drip from hell and sore back though, so hopefully this'll be over in a few days. 🤞🏾
Last Week Today! S2024E1&2
In the tradition of those of us who can't do the daily "my day be like" journaling posts, there's the tradition of the weekly post that sums up what happened the week before. In my nod to one of my favorite TV shows, Last Week Tonight, I'm swashbuckling (🏴☠️) the hell out their title and using it on this blog series. Shiver me timbers! And, I'm ripping off my buddy James with the formatting here. Walk the plank!) Also I'm late AF as two whole weeks of January already passed. GyattDayum 2024 is already faster than '23. OK, let's dive in.
🎄So Xmas came and went with little fanfare other than the usual merriment of a Japanese/Afro-American family with very little time and money can make on such occasions. We exchanged gifts with each other, everyone got generally what they wanted but most of all just was glad to be able to enjoy time off with each other, my mom and oldest brother.
🛣️ Big Ass Hank (our RV) got some time on the road -- we hustled down to Orlando for some R&R in a warmer place than metro Atlanta. We used our Boondockers Welcome privileges for a nice layover spot in Live Oak, FL when traffic got too much and continued on down the next day. Normally this is a 6 hour drive, but sometime between 2008 and now, about 5 million more people decided to move into the space between us and Central Florida, making I-75 look like a 320 mile urban expressway complete with crack-ups and speed traps every 20 miles. A train between ATL and ORL is needed.
👨👩👧👦 Once in Orlando, we kinda didn't do much except be in awe of our campsite on Lake Dora (a COUNTY park with cheap camping that blows some of the really expensive sites away) and Old Town Orlando's Eola Park area. Orlando is a nice town even if you're not visiting the theme parks; worth the visit just to hang out and chill for 2 days.
👨🏾💻 I actually only took a few days off for the holiday; my on-call shift usually has nothing going on this time of year and I work from home. But there were some bonkers edge cases coming into my queue and I really wish I could talk...vent about them here. I'm compiling them elsewhere, and someday dammit...someday I'm gonna sing like Dionne Warwick!
😷 Of course in the middle of all this, my entire household got sick! It wasn't COVID but, that didn't stop my doctor from probing my schnoz...
🎌 There's lots of Japanese related stores around our part of Atlanta, and we kinda never visit them... So since the kiddos had their Xmas/お年玉 money burning holes in their pockets, we decided to check out Tokyo Kuma (which seemingly got TikTok'd and Instagrammed to death in the last 4 months) and Kinokuniya Atlanta (which has been a 20 year pipe dream 'til now because I swear they were 6 months from opening a location in Buckhead in 1999, but it didn't happen. Were those just rumors?) Needless to say, I'm glad these are a little out of the way for me, else I'd be treating it like the Daiso or DonKi I so miss and desparately want over here.
🚊 I've decided to try my best to advocate officially for bringing a good transport solution to at least my part of Atlanta and Northern Georgia. The ATLTrains concept along with Beltline Lightrail and I-285 BRT concepts need to be combined somehow. Going down to central Florida and seeing Brightline along with SunRail, Lynx and the fledgling but strong grassroots changes in THAT area makes me think we still have a fighting chance up here. And Atlanta ain't doing nothing but getting bigger. It's high time we all started thinking regionally and collectively about solutions not just involving 2 ton machines on asphalt all the time.
And that kinda catches us up! If you read this far, you've got stamina. Or you're just really bored. Either way, thank you and see ya next week!
What happened to passenger rail (in Georgia)?
Last month I talked about how with Georgia's new federal funding for rail corridors, we could imagine a regional rail system that would make moving through the area so much better?
Turns out, I'm not the only one, and our new favorite ATL urbanist Youtuber Nathan Davenport is back with another video detailing a bit about Atlanta rebuilding its rails would also be recapturing its true identity.
A few fun facts I like to remind people:
- Atlanta is the only city in the US that was born from the rails, not the river. (no, Chicago started because of the Chicago River, the rails came much later!)
- It used to be called "Terminus" because 3 railroads terminated here. Before there was much of a town actually.
- In the 1920's, over 150 trains ran through Atlanta's busy railroad stations... Yes, that's an 's' on the end. We had THREE STATIONS.
- We will have close to 10 million living our state within the next 20 years. There's no way all of us can fit on I-20, 75 or 85 so we need a good plan!
Check out the video, then make sure to visit ATLTrains.com for a detailed "what if" look at what we could be using in just a decade's time with a few small changes to how things get done in Georgia.
I'm dreaming of a new website engine
Let me get right to the point:
I want a way to use my space on Craft.do as a blog. I love using Craft as my space to outline and organize and it ticks all the boxes Tantek raises about capturing all the thoughts surrounding a good post first, then publishing it later after refining. It literally is the place where it all happens, negating a whole bunch of extra steps.
I already have been using CraftDocs to host my “official/professional” website for a few years now because of the ease of use and don’t-have-to-do-a-damn-thing ability to just publish changes and add new content. I got this likely foolish goose-chase of an idea because whenever I need to throw something like a gist/code snippet on the web even if only for a few hours, it’s way quicker just to make my note public or even lock it behind a password… And it looks good to boot. But there’s more advantages as well:
- There’s already great mobile apps available. I think I might have created the majority of content on either my phone or the iPad.
- I like the responsive block content file. Wordpress really could learn some things and refactor Glutenberg in this manner.
- The ability to create sub-sites-- little self contained places with its own navigation structure and style–can be made. Here’s an example. These are good for knocking together a series of posts that have a theme to group them together. The best part is it’s easy to do this afterwards as it is with preplanning.
- Navigation and menu structure is like butter. It looks pretty and logical.
But there are a few major drawbacks to just going totally with the off-the-shelf version of how CraftDocs does web-share:
- While they finally support subdomain shares (YourHandle.craft.me), the ability to use a whole custom domain is a premium business plan feature. (but there’s a way around this I’ll explain in a bit.)
- There’s no RSS! I kinda need this to make it really easy for different services and people to consume content.
- Of course there’s no microformats and anyway to mark up content for that, so no change of using Brid.gy
- There’s a comment system, but it’s proprietary and there’s no way to connect it to something like Disqus even.
Here’s the thing though; I’ve seen some cool things done with Notion pages, using something like Simple Ink to transform it into a “flat” static website that would theoretically eliminate this, there’s nothing like that for CraftDocs (and I really don’t know why.) There’s kinda two ways to semi-sidestep around it:
The first one I use is a hacky Cloudflare WebWorker method to do this, authored by Zuolan It gets the job done, but all it really does is let Cloudflare do a bunch of DNS redirects internally by using a textfile to make a virtual directory and DNS table. It’s really nice and free and I haven’t had any issues with how it’s done over the last 2½ years. I still can’t do anything about markup, comments, or RSS though.
Now the second way is how Zuolan improved and developed a new way to do this using some client-side java script files to rewrite the server-side javascript and do client-side routing to do some extra tricks. I’m testing it out at the moment. Note the addition of a menu at the lower-left corner by clicking on the floating icon there.
This pops a menu open that also has an “Archive” section that seems to generate a static version of the navigation of the site. That’s interesting…
The “floaty” menu is interesting too… It all has me thinking:
- is there some way to make this “transcribe” a page, read the contents and generate a “sidecar” pagelet that allows for the following ideas?
- An RSS version would be generated
- A comments pagelet would be generated and can slide in or out at will
- webmentions and activitypub support.
These probably mean some sort of database and parsing engines would need to be running at set intervals to parse the CraftDocs, generate the data and feeds and deal with the commenting subsystem. We already know that this is possible thanks to commenting systems like Disqus and Commento that plug into dispirate websites.
…the real question is: Can I scrape my own CraftDocs and make a CMS from scratch on my own???
Me looking hella disheveled after getting a giant qtip up my snout. All I wanted was more powerful meds to dam up the waterfall in my sinuses.
👩🏾⚕️:“We gotta check you for flu and Covid”
🐺: “Y’all didn’t do that so the my wife when she was here a few days ago”
👩🏾⚕️: takes out big ass q-tip from quantum space “look up right quick…”
an entire eternity of poking all my childhood memories into mash later
👩🏾⚕️: “give it 15 minutes and we’ll know…”
🐺: achooooo!!! “I can’t stop sneezi—" aaaaachoooo!!!
Time to get the last of the 年賀状wannabe cards shipped off to Japan! 🏣
(Some of y’all may know you are based on 郵便番号)
The Week ending 12.24.2023
The week before Christmas — not much going on except the twice checking of lists and making sure of naughty or niceness.
The Tribe: celebrating one week since school holidays began, they mostly got into their Christmas shopping/making. I’m really glad Wifey and I made point of instilling making stuff rather than buying stuff for gifts. People should appreciate sweat and creativity more than good credit and next day delivery. I also taught them how to burn leaves. Here in GA, our trees don’t totally de-leaf until about now; no point in raking until then.
Me: still working and teaching myself NixOS and some tinkering with indieweb and fediverse stuff. Really now thinking I need to learn more web stuff. I am mostly a “this is what I want to do so let me learn how to do it” guy and I’m thinking the thing I want to do is gonna be really hard (for me) so I need to sit and really think which way to do it.
Next up: after Xmas we’re going to Florida in Big Hank, our RV. Just a few days. No Agenda. Just go and see what’s up down there. When we get back, there’s a big family gathering on New Year’s Day (which is why Xmas is just for the Tribe this year).
Feels: somewhat melancholic with peaks of satisfaction and optimism. I miss Japan around this time because O-Shogatsu is coming and the hustle into that calm period is a dopamine hit. There’s a similar vibe for Christmas but I don’t get to see the whole of humanity doing it like I did in Tokyo. But I’m extremely satisfied to see Wifey and Kiddos mixing what we did in Japan with what we do here. It’s really cool to see the excited expressions on their faces.
🔗[starrwulfe.xyz/b/1GVw](https://starrwulfe.xyz/b/1GVw)
Content Creators: Substack's dumpster fire should also be the one lit underneath your @$$
If 2010-2020 was the Great Social Media Consolidation, looks like 2022 and beyond are gonna be the Great Innanet Decentralization, and I’m 1oo% present for it. Thanks to our friends #indieweb and #fediverse, you already know how easy it is to plug into some great communities on the interwebs while keeping your content under your control and being able to keep a record of the dialog around it at your own site.
If you’re reading this on my website, then just look down where on a traditional blog there’d be a “leave a comment” doohickey there for you to fill out a form and say how you feel about what you read. But here you can just comment on any of the syndicated sites where this same content exists and it’ll find its way back here via “a series of tubes” I’ve arranged. And with some hacky tomfoolery, my comments here will flow back to wherever they need to go in most places. To me, this is what real social media is supposed to be like– Your media on in a space you control and interact with the right circle of people you want to see it. And if you want, you can network your site with others, forming a mesh network of sites. That’s the premise (and promise) of decentralized social networking I’ve stressed again and again here.
Today one of my “transit content” friends I’ve followed for years is finding out first had why this is a good idea, thanks to the whole Substack debacle. Reece Martin (@rm_transit@mstdn.social) who runs RMTransit on YouTube experienced this firsthand by having to make the hard decision to move his popular Substack newsblog to Wordpress, but to me that means he just upgraded. By switching he’s able to:
- Immediately take advantage of RSS feeds, newsletters, and the mobile app.
- A whole ass ecosystem of plugins to make your blog do everything except tuck him in at night.
- Implement the ActivityPub plugin and publish content into the fediverse
- Grab the Indieweb plugins and use Webmentions and syndicate comments and content with other blogs
- Use the above with Bridgy and crosspost, backfeed and more with more SNSs
- Use IFTTT, Zapier and more to automate external things like kicking off a job to auto post his video content on his new blog when he comes out with a new video on YouTube.
I’m happy he decided to go this route and I hope others out there do the same. If your message and voice are your livelihood, there’s no excuse for not using all the products available to make sure it stays that way.
What are post kinds?
I needed a way to have a decent taxonomy for my posts on this incarnation of the blog, especially given its social features. A few places I hang out in online were using a dead-simple method for categorizing their posts and making it easy to find the stuff they saved later on, called Post Kinds.
Post kinds are a way of categorizing different types of posts on the web, based on the IndieWeb standards1. Hang on, let me explain that too– The IndieWeb is a movement that advocates for people to own their own data and identity online, rather than relying on third-party platforms2. Post kinds can help users express themselves in various ways, such as replying, liking, bookmarking, reading, listening, watching, and more3. Post kinds also enable richer interactions between websites, by using webmentions and microformats to send and receive notifications and display contextual information4.
The tool I’m using to make this easier is David Shanske’s Post Kinds Plugin for WordPress5. This plugin adds a taxonomy called Kind to the WordPress editor and allows users to fill in the blanks for the relevant properties of each kind of post. It also automatically parses URLs to display rich context and integrates with the Webmention Plugin to send and receive webmentions5.
Post kinds are not the same as post formats, which are a WordPress feature that allows users to choose a format for their posts, such as standard, aside, image, video, etc. Post formats are more limited and less semantic than post kinds, and do not support the IndieWeb standards3.
While not implemented on my site, post kinds can be determined by an algorithm called Post Type Discovery, which looks at the content properties and values of a post, rather than an explicit post type property. This way, the post kind can be inferred from the combination of text, media, and other elements in the post, without requiring the user to specify what kind of post they are creating4.
Post kinds are a powerful and flexible way of creating and interacting with content on the web, following the IndieWeb principles of owning your data, expressing yourself, and connecting with others, which is definitely what I’m trying to achieve with this webiste.
Let’s take a look at the different kinds of post kinds that I’m actively using:
📰Article - traditional long form content: a post with an explicit title and body 🗒Note - a short quick thought, usually under 200 words and without a title ↩Reply - a reply to content typically on another site ♻Repost - a complete reposting of content from another site ♥Like - a way to pay compliments to the original post/poster of external content ⭐Favorite - special to the author 🔖Bookmark - storing a link/bookmark for personal use or sharing with others 🖼Photo - a post with an embedded image/photo as its primary focus 🎞Video - a post with an embedded video as its primary focus 🔊Audio - a post with an embedded audio file as its primary focus 🗓RSVP - a specific type of reply regarding attendance of an event 🎧Listen - listening to audio; sometimes called a scrobble 📺Watch - watching a movie, television show, online video, play or other visual-based event 📍Checkin - identifying you are at a particular geographic location 🎮Play - playing a game 🍖Eat - what you are eating, perhaps for a food diary ☕Drink - what you are drinking, perhaps for a food dairy 🎵Jam - a particularly personally meaningful song (a listen with added emphasis) 📚Read - reading a book, magazine, newspaper, other physical document, or online post 🗨Quote - quoted content ⚠Issue - Issue is a special kind of article post that is a reply to typically some source code, though potentially anything at a source control repository. 🤔Review - A review is a post evaluating a product or service, usually involving a written description, sometimes with summary numerical evaluations, also known as just a rating. 🛠Craft - Activities like knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, wood working, restoration, 3d printing...the activity of building something.
Have a look-see at the different posts above (some aren’t populated yet) and you’ll get a sense for what I’m trying to do here.
Also give me some advice– how do you/would you do it? Use the syndication links (next to the 📡🔀 icon) and let me know.
Rudolph's grades won't be having his parents shouting out with glee...
[embed]www.instagram.com/p/C09Rgbg…[/embed]
When Mastodon Met Threads 🐘➕🧵🟰❓
It has started:
I have been saying for a very long while now that ActivityPub as a protocol and within it Mastodon as the flagship app need to separate themselves from the fringe in order to gain more traction and usage.
Understand that ActivityPub itself is a protocol not unlike IMAP and HTTP under the W3C. Just like email doesn’t rely on any one server to transport mail traffic across the Internet, By using ActivityPub social media can enjoy the same freedom and transparency. I shouldn’t have to join every single social media and existence to get a complete picture of what everyone is up to… we actually had this about 20 something years ago when the then biggest part of the fledgling social media universe decided to use XMPP as a standard to federate their instant messenger networks. What that meant was my ICQ handle was able to contact all my friends on AOL instant messenger and MSN without having to do anything strange. Ironically it was Facebook that broke this paradigm when they took Facebook messenger behind closed doors in order to add all the functionality that it has now.
OK, but you know Meta ain't doin' this outta the kindness of their hearts, right? 😒
It should not be forgotten that the reason why this is probably happening is because of the very strict policies that the European Union has imposed on how companies operate on the open Internet. It’s far easier for Mattar, the company that owns Facebook to create this new net work and design it from the start with open standards and then slowly bring everything over to it, rather than having to bolt on the same functionality to Facebook or Instagram as it stands now. While it may be seen as a self-serving move on their behalf, I personally welcome it because it means suddenly it might be one less thing to have to join and maintain in order to still be a part of the social media landscape.
Imagine a world where people on TikTok can communicate with people on YouTube and people on twitch. It might sound kind of strange at first but the same is already happening here in the #fediverse with Mastodon , PeerTube, and WordPress.
(Obligatory "how it works" link here.)
This integration is happening methodically and with a lot of advice from all stakeholders it appears; Threads users are going to get a window into the fediverse soon; as I type this, some accounts are getting read-only access. Evan Prodromou, one of the founding architects of the very underpinnings of ActivityPub (@evan@cosocial.ca and @evanprodromou@threads.net) has been able to talk to the team over at Meta in charge of this undertaking along with a host of others in the #indieweb realm. Believe me when I say, these discussions got into the weeds and no stone was left untouched according to most of the attendees. This is the part that makes me feel Meta is acting in good faith.
Will everyone be OK with federation though?
It’s very easy to say “I’m not going to federate with Threads” or “I don’t want to associate with those Mastodon loons” (posts I won’t link to here, but use the appropriate search technique and you will find them in short order). The point is being missed insofar as the networks being interoperable if nothing else for the sake of creating a new standard and influencing the wider internet to “de-silo” all this content is a good thing and needs to be encouraged, not shunned.
As of this writing, there are no official timelines on when any of this will go into effect for us, but I have my educated guesses that it will coincide with the opening of Threads.net to EU signups and the move to be a federated network should keep regulators over there from breaking out the ban hammer. That’s supposed to be in a few days so we’ll see.
Stay tuned!
Good news everyone! Georgia has federal passenger train study funding!
In combination with some great news about funding a lot of sorely needed railroad projects and studies at the federal level, Georgia's U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock announced new grants to explore three new Georgia passenger rail corridors made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The new rail routes would connect major economic centers in Georgia and neighboring states, providing additional public transit options, increased mobility, and a sustainable, clean-energy future.
Proposed rail corridor studies that are being funded include one between Memphis and Savannah and a high-speed route from Charlotte with Atlanta in the center of it all.
Starting from Atlanta, the routes being studied are:
- A route heading northward with stops likely in Marietta, Cartersville, Dalton and points north into Tennessee that would connect with Chattanooga and efforts in that state to create a line from there to Nashville.
- Extending south and eastward, a route that would likely have intermediate stations in McDonough, Macon and end in Savannah with a connection to the Amtrak route linking Florida and DC on the east coast. There's also the potential to create a branch that would go due south out of Macon, through Valdosta and link with Tampa or Orlando. It would be nice to get some two-state talks going with Florida on doing something together since Brightline is already plying the rails down there and its now a known quantity.
- Perhaps the most interesting and likely first to get going is a high-speed line between Atlanta and Charlotte. The in-state routing on this one is not known, but it'd be very strange if Athens was missed. The growing South Carolina towns of Greenville/Spartanburg definitely and perhaps Anderson/Clemson would get stops depending on routing.
Another point of discussion is where exactly in Atlanta would these routes be emanating from; ATL's current train station for Amtrak service on the thrice weekly Crescent service from DC to New Orleans is basically a glorified waiting room with rails and stairs that lead to Peachtree Rd just north of Midtown. There were some efforts to build a new multimodal station Downtown right across from the Five Points MARTA station, right where a bunch of railroad tracks pass through a trench. While we do need a world-class rail terminal for a world-class city like Atlanta (especially to help get a commuter rail service off the ground -- more on that later,) let's not ignore our 900-pound gorilla lying 8 miles south: Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Remember, the reason Atlanta even exists is because of rail transportation.
Literally the World's Busiest Airport for 20+ years definitely needs to be tied into any long-distance (and commuter!) rail options here. The catchment area of passengers includes not just the entire state but anything that would beat a car ride from an area of about 200 miles in diameter around us. Every time I've been in one of Hartsfield's parking garages, I've seen cars with South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee tags that are definitely not rentals. With frequent enough service, it could be very possible to simply leave the car and take the train to the airport and catch a flight. Most Americans can't realize this convenience right now but take it from me after living in Japan for almost 20 years, being able to just hop a train even in the most remote parts of the area and get to Haneda, Narita, Kansai and Nagoya Centrair airports without worrying about long-term parking or begging for a ride from friends is a great thing.
According to Axios, how much of the $8.2 billion will wind up in Georgia for its rail project — or the timeline for the project's start and completion is a big question mark. One thing I'd like to know is does some of this money help look into a regional rail solution here around Atlanta that's desperately needed. Just like NYC, LA and Chicago, whatever helps the commuter rail network, would ultimately be good for the longer distance trains as well since they could share the tracks. That ATL Trains idea is still the best idea I've ever seen and really, REALLY needs to be formally studied with this money. Check out the 146-page prospectus and the ATL Trains website yourself, it's that good!
My take: Just like the Eisenhower Interstate Highway projects of the 1960s, the US really needs a rail renaissance in order to help face this brave new world of climate change, population and demographic shifts into sunbelt cities that didn't keep up infrastructure-wise (building another lane isn't cutting it Chief!) and the simple paradigm shift of decentralization in our metro areas in general-- How many people do you know BEFORE the pandemic that worked "downtown?" OK, now how many people actually even go to an office every day? Our transportation network needs to be more dynamic and flexible to account for these shifts and overlaying a decent rail network, both nationally and locally, is paramount. This is in addition to dealing with improving road and air travel; those need to be sorted as well.
Seriously? Elon was trying to get a tax break for X here in Atlanta?!
As the [AJC](https://www.ajc.com/news/fulton-board-to-consider-10m-tax-break-to-x-formerly-twitter/4V66VOJ73RCFPA5DI54FAFVLBA/) reported, X (formerly Twitter) appealed to the Development Agency of Fulton County to try and grab over $10 million in property tax breaks on their data center here in Atlanta to upgrade the server farm... But providing no additional jobs... which is why the tax breaks are there in the first place! 🥴
source: Atlanta Journal Constitution dated 3 Dec 2023
Everyone knows that these tax breaks should be going to fund any development that directly enhances the livelihood of Atlanta residents and for no other purpose. Job creation, educational, cultural and infrastructure enhancement are all good reasons to consider giving a company a tax break as an incentive to be here and will soon show up tangibly as residents have easier ways to get around, are better educated, healthier and of course prosperous. This equates to a win-win as it usually shows a bump in tax revenues a few years later.
However since X’s datacenter currently only has 24 full-time staff and no other staff are planned on being hired, there’s really no reason to give away $10 million + of our tax bucks that really need to be spent on the things I outlined above.
I agree with @threadatl@threads.net when he says:
Atlanta needs to reject this ingrained culture of giving away tax inducements to major developments that offer little or no benefit to neighborhood residents (or to neighborhood small businesses for that matter).
https://www.threads.net/@threadatl/post/C0cglEUPAo7
We have to shake this culture of “giveaway to play” when it comes to our civic monies and assets unless they directly, tangibly, OSTENSIBLY provide benefit to ALL within the boundaries of the city/county/state’s taxpayers.
Thankfully, it did not pass, likely due to a lot of councilmembers suddenly hearing about it from their constituents I’ll bet:
Post by @threadatlView on Threads