ElinaOY
Eugen RochkoI don't think Mastodon or the fediverse has ever received this much attention before. It's a great opportunity for people to finally see that social media can be done differently, that it can be a protocol not under control of any single company.
healyn@Gargron not really comfortable when German guys get too ambitious, so maybe let's take it down a notch Eugen
Papa Shark 🦈 
Thomas
uzayran
Nic Dafis
Asta [AMP]
Gary Parker
Andrei Kucharavy
Voline
kaip 
@Gargron Any walled garden will disappear eventually.
Jeff Haluska@Gargron Most of us are here because we've seen what happens when it is under control of a single company. Keep up the good work.
Alan Wright
Mike Johnston@Gargron Is that code for "I already need more CPU horsepower" 😂 but seriously yes this is great!
St. Paul @Gargron this feels familiar but also much less grimy than other legacy social media.
Rob@Gargron some blind people I know on Twitter are freaked out by the Accessibility team being let go. I can still see, but I am a braille user. Twitter is one of the only usable sites on the internet with a braille terminal. I mostly have to go back to practicing on books. Facebook is ok too. Mouseless nav, and good text descriptions matter.
Hugo Slabbert ⚠️@robfielding @Gargron what has been your experience of Mastodon and fediverse apps in general? Accessible to braille terminals?
I literally got here a few hours ago. I will have a real opinion using my braille terminal from my iPhone.
But I am working on a 16-key keyboard that is based on computer-braille layout; and it can do EVERYTHING that a US qwerty keyboard can do. I can't figure out how to nav between Home/Notifications/LocalTimeline/Input yet.
On Twitter, I managed to figure it out without Googling, because I found a place to pop up the shortcuts. Mouseless navigation is everything.
@robfielding @Gargron I've only done tiny bits of text based nav when e.g. working on headless servers with text based browsers, in a pinch before mass availability of smart phones or when in poorly connected areas. I can only imagine.
I'm not personally familiar with the screen reader experience or if there are specific instances geared to the blind community. I did come across a guide geared towards screen reader users for Mastodon, with a focus on keyboard navigation. I'm not sure of that's a helpful starting resource? There are several chapters in the guide as a whole, but this one is geared towards interaction and timeline navigation specifically:
Changeling’s Guide to Mastodon for Screen Reader Users: Chapter Five. Timelines and Interacting
What is This? This is the fifth in a series of posts that explains how to use Mastodon if you are a screen reader user. It is an alternative form of documentation, and is not intended to relace the…
I think the whole problem with most Accessibility approaches is that... You have government people threatening you with fines if you don't follow the government guidelines. And you get people that need it, reminding people of such laws on Twitter; constantly.
Instead, think about use cases such as devices without good screens. Up/Down/Left/Right/Select and voice into your headphones. Tweeting while walking. Use cases for everyone.
I'm building a tiny keyboard with only 16 keys so that it fits onto the backside of an iPhone case (with thumbs on glass). I'm not even thinking about blind people. I'm deliberately ignoring them for now, because contracted (expert-level) braille is too hard for general use.
@robfielding that sounds like an awesome project. Do you have info on that somewhere?
Play around with learning Computer Braille by just typing side-by-side (kind of needs a desktop screen right now):
https://rfielding.github.io/editor.html
Random code in github for 3D printing iPhone cases, 8-dot computer braille styluses, translating ASCII to computer-braille, and turning a keybow2040 4x4 mechanical key keyboard into a braille keyboard, etc.
https://github.com/rfielding/teeny
With a more expert than me keyboard-building collaborator. @scarlettibach (twitter)
My first video post.
this link to starshipchangeling for instance. it says "g" and "N" to go to Notifications tab. I don't use JAWS on here, because the keyboard is braille layout to make it small... but it's not specifically for blind people; so it looks like a totally normal keyboard, in no specific Accessibility mode turned on. it's in Braille to make this mechanical keyboard with chonky keys fit in my pocket.
Strypey@robfielding
How are you and your visually challenged friends finding the accessibility here so far? Any improvements you can suggest right off the bat?
@robfielding @Gargron yeah, but mastodon's accessibility is stil 🗑️ 3rd party apps to rescue here.
@Gargron I worry mastodon.lol being down for so long might be bad press for the platform. I wonder if others can pitch in to help get that up and running again.
But yes, the publicity is good!
kaffando@Gargron thank you for all you're doing to keep things up and running. With so many people joining in the last few days, it can't have been easy. It'll get better though!
Laurie_SnyderI'll say it again, @Gargron. You're doing a GREAT job! Thank you!!
@Gargron yes so relaxed here
Seth Gossler@Gargron how do you sell mastodon as the protocol? Should I convince friends by explanation of activity pub, or more the mastodon feature set? It's been hard convincing others it's not just another "platform".
marcus@seth @Gargron The current standard explanantion being used seems to be 'like email': you chose your mail address, with it your mail provider, but you also have the choice which software/client you use with it. And whatever your personal choices are, as long as you know the address of someone, you can reach them.
@seth People seem to more impressed by taps and sinks than by the plumbing that makes them work. I suggest showing your friends that you can follow a PeerTube channel or a PixelFed account from your Mastodon account. Then ask them if they can follow a EweTube channel or an InstaGroan account from their Titter account. Just another platform is it?
ObtotheR@Gargron Honestly, I'm just excited to see where this platform and the technology behind it can go. It's awesome to me that it is open source and so free. Thank you for your hard work!
sanjayuvacha@Gargron Maybe, the first movement began here in #India
Scroll.in: Twitter has become toxic. Can Mastodon provide a saner, safer alternative?.
https://scroll.in/article/945163/twitter-has-become-toxic-can-mastodon-provide-a-saner-safer-alternative
Nakul Shenoy 🕴️@sanjayuvacha @Gargron Indeed! I would like to think that we were indeed at the (forced?) forefront of this exodus. But things have been rather quiet and hopefully in the new schema more and more people hop over.
Soumitra Pathare 🌻 সৌমিত্র@sanjayuvacha hi boss! Good to see you here!
Nadir@netshrink @sanjayuvacha i recall many of us moved here in 2019 precisely because Sanjay sir was blocked in Twitter or something
Adam Dalliance@Gargron It feels different this time. Like people are finally realizing that they can currently just be bought and sold.
Like when Murdoch bought Myspace for half a billion dollars and then everyone just left.
Epic Lemur@pre They left because it filled up with ads because he tried to make it profitable.
@Epiclemur I really hate adverts even before they came with tracking and profiling and pirvacy breaches.
But most of the world don't really seem to care about adverts much for some reason.
Adverts isn't the reason 200,000 people left Facebook this week.
But advertiser-skittishness is going to be hurting Twitter's bottom line.
Joseph Morris@Gargron good work keeping the lights on this week, cannot have been easy with such a big spike
SignalsAndSorcery@Gargron I'm so confused but I'm committed to not being bought by annoying rich people lol
@Gargron It also shows how important leadership is for social media companies.
okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin
Ole V. S. Mortense 🇩🇰🇪🇺@Gargron It'd be real fun seeing this suceed on "larger" scale. The headlines would be:" German guy did what US guy couldn't do." Create a social space on the web that wouldn't become toxic or corporate or just plain Advertising focused. Because a social space should not cause paranoia. Can 2020-2030 be the good era of Social interactions online? World is bad enough, I need a good place to be me. I can always Join Youtube If I need someone selling me something I don't really need.
@Gargron and this cure my illness of wanting to be in control of every aspect of my life. Ik I'm a control freaks that needs my meds.
pepi@Gargron letsgoooo
@Gargron I too believe in this platform. But please also listen to the suggestions made in github esp the server issues: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/9567#issuecomment-1301430293 Because of this, there are always comments about moving to Pleroma in the mastodon subreddit. Please understand that not everyone running an instance has the funds that you have. This is not taking away all the hard work that and other maintainers of Mastodon already do.
tootctl media remove does not include profile avatars and headers · Issue #9567 · mastodon/mastodon
Expected behaviour tootctl media remove should clean up media thats older than x days to clean up file space, including headers and profile pictures that haven't been accessed as these also go unde...
Richie Holland
Tara Under His Eyes@Gargron Mastodon is definitely my favorite social media platform! I can freely express my thoughts without worrying about censorship, which can't be done on Weibo or Wechat. I have met a lot of like-minded friends here. Even though I have to hide my real identity to avoid police, so I can't post any photos about my daily life, I still love this community.
Ukraine War Bulletins and News@Gargron now we just have to get the servers working so that publication failures and being offline don’t collapse Mastodon. I spent most of the day attempting to get content into the systems making 5 or 6 attempts with each imported News link.
Karl Sapp@SocraticEthics
I'd it possible that your instance is just overloaded due to many new user ?
I have no problems here.
If so - may be you can move to another instance.
@Gargron
I'd it possible that your instance is just overloaded due to many new user ?
I have no problems here.
If so - may be you can move to another instance.
@Gargron
@Gargron This is a prime opportunity for Federated social media to finally take off, and I hope more people come over here, id love to completely rid myself of Twitter