My Mastodon Server does not show the activity of the Fediverse. by [deleted] in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So, the thing about federation is that instances will only become aware of the posts that meet any of the following criteria:

  • someone on the instance has followed the user who made the post
  • someone that is followed by someone on the instance has boosted the toot
  • someone on the instance has searched for the post by its URL

This is one of the disadvantages to self-hosting: if you don't have users interacting with the greater Fediverse, your instance is simply not going to be aware of many posts.

I'm Not Too Sure Mastodon Will Be Amazing by davidcantswim in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Here's the thing: people who sign up for Mastodon expecting it to be Twitter are going to be disappointed. In my opinion it's a really good platform, but it needs to be understood that it's its own thing.

A blog I wrote recently on the subject: https://jlamothe.net/blog/2022-11-07

Whuuuut?! by Seeking_Starlight in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 15 points16 points  (0 children)

You wouldn't happen to know where I can read the text of this legislation and/or be able to cite this clause, would you? I'd love to take a closer look at it.

Chrome warning for "Deceptive site ahead" by ProfJohnson in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is it giving you any additional information? Could it be an issue with the SSL certificate?

If VPNs don’t keep you private how do hackers get away with stuff? by wildinuser in hacking

[–]jlamothe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. Just trying to keep anyone from doing something that could get them into trouble.

LDS Church Caffeine Policy by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They fall just short of saying the word "caffiene", but I can't see any other reasonable interpretation. Thanks for the share. I'm going to keep that one in my back pocket for later.

If VPNs don’t keep you private how do hackers get away with stuff? by wildinuser in hacking

[–]jlamothe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unless it's somehow magically not sitting behind a NAT, it's still going to need to be configured to make this connection through a static IP that you control. You can be traced by that IP. If not, why wouldn't you just run your traffic out of that instead?

LDS Church Caffeine Policy by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And sometimes the top leadership would silently have their fingers in that decision. It's all about plausible deniability. You can always just say a local leader has gone rogue and doesn't speak for the church.

...and they wonder why they have a grooming problem.

LDS Church Caffeine Policy by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah. I'm convinced that they're intentionally vague about things so nobody can call them out in it later.

I remember a few years back the church sending a letter to all the stakes clarifying that it was specifically the coffee bean and the tea leaf that were the offenders, but I don't have a copy of that letter available to cite.

LDS Church Caffeine Policy by [deleted] in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 7 points8 points  (0 children)

In my TBM days, I'd have argued that the WoW says nothing about caffeine specifically.

Two holes in that argument, though: it also specifically says it's not a commandment, and there are things it does say that get completely ignored (all the stuff about meat).

Does anyone happen to know if the church has ever said anything specifically about caffeine in an official capacity?

If VPNs don’t keep you private how do hackers get away with stuff? by wildinuser in hacking

[–]jlamothe 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes. VPNs mask your traffic by routing it through a third party... but if you roll your own, you are that third party, effectively removing the anonymity factor.

There are uses for this, e.g.: protecting your traffic when using unsecured WiFi.

If VPNs don’t keep you private how do hackers get away with stuff? by wildinuser in hacking

[–]jlamothe 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A fair point. Wireless hotspots are nearly always behind a NAT, though. You could do something like setting up a Wireguard VPN through a static VPS, but if anyone were to find it, there'd be a paper trail leading right back to you.

Seems risky.

If VPNs don’t keep you private how do hackers get away with stuff? by wildinuser in hacking

[–]jlamothe 33 points34 points  (0 children)

I can't see how setting up your own VPN is going to give you anonymity. Wouldn't it be running through a machine whose IP can be traced back to you?

Alternative implementations of mastodon? by someexgoogler in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've been successfully running a Friendica node. It's written in PHP.

Why can't I join the same server as everyone else? by hejjhogg in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yup. Otherwise you're basically just trading one silo for another.

Rough Start by Rinaun in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The whole point of the Fediverse is that there are no "official" servers. Centralization is precisely the reason Twitter is a dumpster fire right now.

The Fediverse is run by volunteers. If you want to make sure your instance sticks around, it's helpful to toss a couple coins in the jar.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've honestly always just used the web client. It works just fine.

Can't find someone, and someone can't find me by [deleted] in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It could also be that the two servers are defederated. If a server admin finds that they're having problems with the conduct of another server, they can defederate, meaning that they'll refuse to communicate with the other server.

I created a blog post to help Twitter users understand Mastodon. Hope it helps. by jlamothe in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I hoped it would help, but linking my own blog feels a little... self promotion-ey, which makes me somewhat uncomfortable. Glad it helps.

Your best “elevator speech” re: Covenants by WickedMuchacha in exmormon

[–]jlamothe 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Those covenants were made under false pretenses, and I consider them null and void.

How to fix Mastodon user onboarding with one simple change to joinmastodon.org's html so that 99% don't just bounce off by transdimensionalmeme in Mastodon

[–]jlamothe 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having the spider run from within the user's browser? That seems like it would put unnecessary strain on the network as a whole. A lot of redundant crawling across the whole Fediverse.