Mozilla Is Starting Its Own Mastodon Server:
When looking for an alternative to Twitter, Mastodon is probably one of the options that pops up more frequently. Yet, you're probably faced by a confusing choice on which server to join — Mozilla wants to be the answer.
[...] It will be available for public testing early next year, and whenever it's out, you'll be able to sign up for an account there on mozilla.social.
[...] Mozilla says it wants to contribute to the "healthy and sustainable growth of a federated social space that doesn't just operate but thrives on its own terms, independent of profit- and control-motivated tech firms." It should be a catch-all server just like most servers you can currently join on Mastodon, except this one will be backed by Mozilla.
We'll have to wait and see how Mozilla handles hosting a massive Mastodon server — the company has occasionally had issues with data privacy and partnerships with companies like Meta (Facebook).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Friday December 23, @09:17PM (6 children)
I don't have a Twitter account; I find broadcasting opinions into the void a bit strange (the irony of this post is not lost on me). But ultimately having a communication platform that isn't tied to a single vendor is good.
I doubt Mozilla will become the dominant player in Mastodon, but even if we go down a road like what Gmail has done to email the fundamental core features still function with any external group. Now, if a major player like Google does come to dominate Mastodon, there could be erosion of the federation - I would point to GTalk running on the XMPP protocol and eventually abandoning compatibility.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 23, @09:41PM
On SN, the void broadcasts back at you!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RedGreen on Saturday December 24, @12:18AM (4 children)
"I don't have a Twitter account; I find broadcasting opinions into the void a bit strange"
Indeed I set up an account on the fosstodon to check it out, nothing but cat, dog pictures and look at me too morons spouting foolishness into the ether, much like we do right now as you say too.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 3, Informative) by number11 on Saturday December 24, @01:08AM (3 children)
What you have to do is find people that you want to follow, and then watch what they "boost" (retweet) and add follows to those people, if appropriate. Otherwise all you'll see is maybe the local posts on the server you're on. Use the search box, that will often find who you're looking for.
E.g.
@mmasnick@mastodon.social
@briankrebs@infosec.exchange
@Raspberry_Pi@raspberrypi.social
@SoylentNews@sprocket.group
You've got to have a starting point, there's no algorithm that feeds you "you might be interested in..." and you don't see replies to a post unless you click on it.
Unfortunately, with the influx of former bird users, if your target has set up accounts on 5 different servers, you've either got to follow all 5, or figure out which one they really ended up using.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Saturday December 24, @01:41PM (2 children)
"You've got to have a starting point, there's no algorithm that feeds you "you might be interested in...""
I have got to the point where I find there is absolutely zero I am interested in on those places. There is a reason I have never joined any of this "social" garbage ever beside the giving all your data to the scumbag corporations. I gave it a try again yesterday after posting thinking well give it a chance again, I found the same thing once more a bunch of nonsense look at me posts, pictures of cats and dogs with a bunch of morons who had no clue posting bad information or asking question that if typed into google would give them the answer in the first hit. I will give them some credit it does not seem to be a toxic wasteland like the parasite corporations serve up but that is all I can see different.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by number11 on Sunday December 25, @09:42PM (1 child)
S'cool, there's no obligation to use those places. I prefer website forums like this myself. I only went on Twitter because it's close to a primary source for war news, and then got hooked on the Musk histronics and watching him fly it into the ground.
But on Mastodon, you're not gonna see squat if you just sit there waiting it to come to you. Cuz a lot of people post cat pictures, so that's what you'll probably see on your local server. Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. You've got to follow some people who seem promising, and grow your personal network from there. Since it doesn't do history, you'll only see what they do from that point forward.
Merry whatever your solstice holiday is, whether just passed, now, or soon to come!
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Monday December 26, @12:22AM
"Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. You've got to follow some people who seem promising, and grow your personal network from there. Since it doesn't do history, you'll only see what they do from that point forward.
Merry whatever your solstice holiday is, whether just passed, now, or soon to come!"
And merry whatever yours is personally I celebrate none of it. It is just another day for me, and that is why those places hold no appeal for me I could care less about wading through crap to get to anything supposedly good in them. A simple forum like you said is the type of site I will use, some place where you can clearly see all the new postings to read and reply too if you so desire.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23, @10:05PM (1 child)
Try making a good browser first.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23, @11:32PM
or try diversifying your revenue stream beyond the all seeing G
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 23, @11:15PM (2 children)
Well, this does not sound good with Mozilla's development strategy. Let's imagine they could get some voice in deciding about Mastodon:
When Mastodon evolves, it gets more and more useful features. With Mozilla's strategy, all features will be gone version by version. First, user will have to install an extension for a feature, and then it will be deprecated, and the extension will be removed to hide any evidence. All customization options will be lost except these that can be encoded and sold as profiling information in the future. And of course this would be so "open source" that forks will be not supported by other servers.
Better make Mozilla stick to their browser and do something with it except being Google's "controlled opposition".
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Saturday December 24, @12:23AM (1 child)
"Better make Mozilla stick to their browser and do something with it except being Google's "controlled opposition". "
And what do nothing but complaining idiots are responsible for that by using the scumbag parasite corporation's alternative. You want a better Firefox put up or shut up and use it for fucks sake then the message might get through to Google, it being told to go fuck itself, and we just might get some changes in the browser space.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 24, @08:50AM
And that's what I do. I use Firefox-based browser, because there is nothing except Chrome, Chrome in different package, Chrome with outdated spyware and Firefox with its forks fortunately.
However, when someone deprecates 90% of addons made by user base, and intentionally lies that they will run just in a moment because they will introduce "heuristics", and they lie only to keep community calm, making users not develop anymore, finally crippling down the API so much that the product cannot be customized the ergonomic way, this is not a development, this is sabotage.
When someone deletes these addons to hide the problem, this is acting against users.
When someone makes the interface so big that it is literally unusable on smaller screens, that slowly shows some external pressure, maybe from device manufacturers?
Sorry, while in modern Internet the choice is quite limited, and Chrome is totally out of question for many privacy-aware and power users, Firefox is just slowly becoming another Chrome.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday December 24, @02:25AM (7 children)
It will really help the fediverse if they could port mastadon from ruby to rust to get the hosting costs down. And if it can bring them some non-google revenues and serve as a free advertisement to firefox, all the better.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 24, @03:13AM (6 children)
Sorry for the naivety, but how/why does moving from ruby to rust cut costs? Is it CPU cycles? (interpreted vs. compiled)?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 24, @04:08AM (3 children)
Rust is web scale.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday December 24, @09:49AM (2 children)
I don't want scales on my webs!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday December 24, @12:33PM
Don't worry, you'll only get webs on your scale.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday December 24, @04:54PM
The scale is unsightly but they make scrapers for that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday December 24, @02:43PM (1 child)
It's a known issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/yuetpv/alternative_implementations_of_mastodon/ [reddit.com]
There's a number of alternatives already but compiled languages ones are scarce to none which makes it cumbersome and expensive for individuals and small groups to scale the servers: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/21/why-would-anyone-use-another-centralized-social-media-service-after-this/ [techdirt.com]
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Saturday December 24, @02:57PM
Btw, Mastodon themselves don't consider it a problem:
( https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/23/how-mastodon-is-scaling-amid-the-twitter-exodus/ [techcrunch.com] )
So, Mozilla can step in there.
compiling...
(Score: 1) by hellcat on Saturday December 24, @02:47AM (1 child)
I'm not a typical poster (anywhere) but joined mastadon out of curiosity and to spite Musk.
So far the system is a bit clunky, but has the potential to be robust. I'm especially impressed with the possibility of third party apps integrating with specific servers (instances).
If Mozilla does this right, it may be that being part of mastadon becomes seamless. Even to the point of hosting your own server.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 24, @04:14AM
Thanks for letting us know you're atypically retarded.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Sunday December 25, @10:15AM
Vivaldi has already set up its own Mastodon instance, Vivaldi Social [vivaldi.com].