Anthony FosterNov 20, 2022
Pwnallthethings

Social networks need critical mass to sustain themselves.

Part of that is making sure this site has that critical mass by encouraging folks to come here.

Part of that is making sure bird site isn't a place where you provide free content anymore.

There's a good chance when you joined here, you cared more about the first of those as a hedge against bird site dying.

But if recent changes mean you want birdsite to affirmatively die, you'll need to do both.

#NoFreeContentForFascists

Nov 20, 2022 at 2:04amWeb
Show threadMashNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings Agreed. I'm moving all new posts here.
Show threadTrading Places ResearchNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings This is the reason I deleted my account the day before he took over. He is just about the last person I am going to give free content to.
Show threadBluey_9000 🐘Nov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings moderators are getting brave... Not only rules for mastodon activity but now rules for your activity on other unrelated sites beyond the fetiverse.... Strange place!!!!!
Show threadRobinBrenizerNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings hey pawn! I just joined. Does it matter what server a person is on?
Show threadPwnallthethingsNov 20, 2022

@RobinBrenizer For the most part, no. You can follow people on any server.

There's some edgecases where being in a neighborhood with people with similar interests is a good idea, but you can move later if and when you spot where all your friends are and if that becomes important to you later.

Your followers and who you follow copies over to the new site, although you'll lose your old posts (tho posts are relatively ephemeral anyway so a good chance you won't care much about that)

Show threadRobinBrenizerNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings you are correct sir. I would not care. I enjoy seeing you again. You are always so informative. Thank you for your help.
Show threadThomas GussNov 20, 2022

@RobinBrenizer @Pwnallthethings it is ideal to get on a medium-small server that shares your interests, because they have a local feed that functions similarly to a twitter-like Discord server with a much stronger sense of community.

That said, there's nothing wrong with the big servers that they recommend to first-timers! They're impersonal, but you can change servers at anytime, or even set up accounts on multiple servers

Show threadRobinBrenizerNov 20, 2022
@flpresets @Pwnallthethings thank you. I’m on a developer server because it was in English and now I’m confused 😂 I just sort of jumped in
Show threadRobinBrenizerNov 20, 2022
@flpresets @Pwnallthethings thank you very much
Show threadGrouching Towards BethlehemNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings yes indeed. I won’t give his data mining one more bit of my own info.
Show threadStop-the-MAGAss-ReichNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings That is why we need elected officials, news outlets, govt offices here with the Elephant site logo prominently displayed.
Show threadNick "Neiloch" Nov 20, 2022

@Pwnallthethings I just pinned my alts including Mastodon with "Bye."

I don't buy the whole "watching the ship go down" or "mocking/satire is helping" or "it doesn't matter because so many others are doing it."

It's all copium for their twitter addiction and it's kind of sad.

Show threadDave Wilburn Nov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings I think the only potential addendum I'd make is to limit posting on the bird site to tagging of their major advertisers in threads or with screen caps of bigotry/fascism to maximize their threats to brand safety and compel them to starve the site of revenue. It worked against Ye.
Show threadJoe Beehammer (🐝 🔨)Nov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings
As of last night. I loved Twitter at one time. It's dead to me already
Show threadJon RodmanNov 22, 2022
@thebeehammer @Pwnallthethings I deactivated then realised I really should delete everything so re-activated and now waiting on a download file then the lot will be slashed and burned. 👋 👋
Show thread1RAOKADAYNov 20, 2022

@Pwnallthethings Basically all my posts on the bird site are about the Mastodon. Which helps I guess.

The Group chat over there will be harder to leave.

Show thread1RAOKADAYNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings Need to figure out whether the edit functionality is available on mobile. Still haven't seen it.
Show threadNico Nov 20, 2022
@1RAOKADAY only available in web browser unfortunately. Give it time it’s an open source thing it will show up on apps as well
Show threadEd SandersNov 20, 2022

@Pwnallthethings

Don’t even give him your presence as an audience. He doesn’t deserve it.

Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings good time to redirect twitter.com to 127.0.0.1 in your `/etc/hosts` (or `C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts`)
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta @Pwnallthethings How can I do the equivalent of that on a Mac?
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@jacquelinehoman mac should have it in /etc/hosts. You may need to modify the file as an administrator.
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta only problem is that hosts is not a directory in my Mac, and I'm NOT at all tech savvy and don't want to screw anything up I won't be able to fix.
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@jacquelinehoman that's the one!
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta So how do I do that redirect thing?
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022

@jacquelinehoman you just need to add an extra line for:

127.0.0.1 twitter.com

at the end

Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@jacquelinehoman also, if you're happily using a terminal, I am questioning your claims of non-tech savviness. :)
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta Just because I can putter around a tiny bit in a terminal and know maybe 5 Linux commands at most, that doesn't mean I know how to do much else, LOLZ! I don't know how to safely do a redirect for a site/platform or anything like that. That's way over my head.
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@jacquelinehoman
Something like this should work
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022

@jacquelinehoman
Quick summary of what this does:

Whenever a http (or https request) is made from your browser, the browser needs to convert domain addresses, like twitter.com (in https://twitter.com/home) into IP addresses. The first thing that gets checked is the hosts file. 127.0.0.1 is your local computer. So a twitter.com request gets redirected locally. Since your computer is not running a server, your browser will simply fail to resolve the network request.

Log in to X / X

Log in to X to see the latest. Join the conversation, follow accounts, see your Home Timeline, and catch up on posts from the people you know.

X (formerly Twitter)
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta Ah, I see! So basically, it's telling my computer to tell Twitter to go f*ck itself. I like that!
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta OK, I added that line to my hosts file, but my browser still takes me to Twitter. What did I do wrong? How come it don't work for me?
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman my guess is you need to restart your browser.
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022

@jacquelinehoman

So if you're still getting actual requests, you may need to restart your browser. Your browser will sometimes cache the answer to "Hey, what's the IP for twitter.com?" so it doesn't have to query either the hosts file or the DNS server (which is what it talks to if it doesn't find the answer there).

Now that said, if this is working you should get this:

Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022
@jacquelinehoman the weird thing about this is you might initially expect to get a completely failed request as if you just typed 'localhost' into your browser, like this:
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman The reason *that* doesn't happen is because browsers also have the ability to cache responses from a domain. In that case the browser skips the network request entirely.
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 21, 2022
@diracdelta Welp, I think I messed everything up entirely because both twitter and localhost don't work now
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 21, 2022
@diracdelta
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman congrats! This is working as expected. :)
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 21, 2022
@diracdelta I restarted Google, and still get the same "site can't be reached" message for localhost, but now for Twitter I get this:
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman This is, bizarrely, *also* expected. This was the thing I mentioned earlier about local caching.
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman Essentially, twitter has previously cached a scaffold of the website. This is enough for it to render the UI that you see there, but when it attempts to actually talk to twitter.com to populate the feed, it fails (since it's talking to 127.0.0.1)
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman what does localhost normally do? You *should* get "This site can't be reached" for localhost.
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 21, 2022
@diracdelta Oh, OK. See I don't understand all this stuff. I'm NOT smart at tech stuff. At all.
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 21, 2022
@jacquelinehoman should you need to ever access twitter for some reason, you can simply remove the line from the hosts file in future, and you should be good to go again.
Show threadJacqueline HomanNov 20, 2022
@diracdelta Will adding that line mean 127.0.0.1 no longer takes me to localhost?
Show threaddiracdeltaNov 20, 2022

@jacquelinehoman

No, it's the other way around. The second entry is the thing that is being redirected to the first entry (which must be an ip address).

Show threadPhil GreerNov 20, 2022

@Pwnallthethings

I think all people leaving twitter should request an archive before they leave.

bring the backend servers to a crawl

Show threadSteve TorrenteNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings LOL I just wish I could QT this . . .
Show threadKate BirdNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings Thank you for sharing concise instructions over there about how to migrate. I'd been dragging my feet and overwhelmed by it!
Show threadFluxxRoxxNov 20, 2022

@Pwnallthethings

Once I moved here I parked my bird account. I see no reason to try to build content or connections there. Especially when most of the content I am looking for is filtered much more easily here.

Show threadFluzNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings yup, yup. Ap is gone from phone. No interactions going forward.
Show threadkwhNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings working on it, it seems like the import bit takes several days (!) to complete
Show threadTom DelargyNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings I've heard this argument before but there's a counter case. Wanna hear it? Firstly, if what we post on Twitter is highly critical of Elon Musk and his sock puppets we test his hypocritical commitment to 'free speech'. Better to behave like disruptive squatters than to walk the plank without being forced to. He wants us gone. Let's help him destroy Twitter on our way out. That's my current thinking. I refuse to go willingly. No one should, imho.
Show threadJay Thoden van Velzen ☁️​🛡️​Nov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings there is no reason to go there anymore, and it is much nicer here, anyway
Show threadSloanLANov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings Very true. I honestly don't know why so many are staying and just creating accounts here without actual participation. The Mastodon approach is much better.
Show threadJeff FeckeNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings I officially signed off there. It's the only way.
Show threadLauraNov 20, 2022
@Pwnallthethings @kalmn I’m not that convinced that more new users are what this platform is clamoring for right now. I’ve found the community to be pretty welcoming toward this flood of newcomers, but the overall vibe I’m getting really isn’t “Please, we need more of you.”