Texas Observer did it right.
Set up their own instance for staff: not just accounts on other instances.
Welcome to the Fedi:
@TexasObserver
https://texasobserver.social/public/local
@jeffjarvis Is this the first official press org to do what you advised?
@tchambers @TexasObserver this is brilliant! A model for other news organizations.
The only critique I'd have is make sure to consult with security specialists -- progressive journalists piss off powerful people who might look to take down your server.
@robertwgehl @tchambers @TexasObserver
Also using a different domain name from existing sites (instead of a subdomain) misses the chance to verify ownership.
@Mikezero @robertwgehl @tchambers @TexasObserver
By using their existing domain name.
@Mikezero
> This could lead to fraud and phishing yes?
What could, and how?
@clacke
> thenewspaper.com sets up an instance thenewspaper.social ... and a spoofer sets up thenewspaper.news
Use a subdomain like social.thenewspaper.com, so people are still looking for the same second-level domain.
> [email protected] as being validated for thenewspaper.com without actual validation
Accounts on social.thenewspaper.com can be verified against thenewspaper.com, at least in Mastodon:
https://opensource.com/article/22/11/verified-mastodon-website
Omg, this is an incredible way to sidestep/solve the issue of officiality/authenticity entirely.
@tchambers @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis @bowboe
Good. This will spread
@tchambers @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis
👋@newsdesk Working on it.
@tchambers @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis @newsdesk
Also attempting bayareanews.social for our community.
@TexasObserver @jeffjarvis @tchambers
This is so excellent to see happening!! Although I do have a question for any #mastodon pros.
Can #instance #admins ban entire other instances for all their users? Can users bypass that if so?
I’d just hate to see some crazy admin decide to block all of one side of a viewpoint for all their instances users without those users realizing it, by just blocking whole domains.
@TexasObserver @batunii @tchambers @jeffjarvis
Awesome, exactly all I was wondering, thank you! =]
@xan
Short answer: yes.
There are degrees available, but the most drastic does allow for complete separation from an entire instance.
@xan @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis @tchambers Yeah, it can be a hassle which is why I advocate running a solo instance.
The best way I can describe it is like being on a tiny space ship, evading two dangerous fleets in order to reach your destination planet below.
@tchambers If the press orgs are going to create their own instances (and they should! It's awesome to see that you've done that, @TexasObserver), it might be wise for them to have a shared Mastodon relay, so that their known fediverse is larger. Visibility can be a big problem with small servers.
Even larger orgs would only have a small (relative to other servers) handful of users. The higher profiles of those users may help make up for it, but I couldn't say whether it would be enough.
@tchambers While I'm thinking about it... For the orgs that may not want to setup their own instances, another (albeit less awesome) option would be some webfinger hackery, so that their people (who would keep accounts on other servers) can be found via their domain. I haven't done it, but it looks very easy to do.
https://blog.maartenballiauw.be/post/2022/11/05/mastodon-own-donain-without-hosting-server.html
@north @tchambers I'd be interested to know whether anyone's managed to extend @maartenballiauw's idea in a way that displays that custom handle as canonical rather than just allowing it to work for search.
Still a great discoverability boost, for sure, but does feel a bit inconsistent as is.
@myersjustinc @maartenballiauw I honestly don't know enough about how it works, but my guess is that there would have to be quite a bit of magic done on the side of the real instance for that to happen.
I just tried using the Mastodon environment variable ALTERNATE_DOMAINS to see if that would do anything, but it doesn't seem to (though, feel free to search for @ north @ xn--8r9a.com and @ jeltz.net, which are the same user on the same instance. Even tagging both in this post caused weirdness)
@TexasObserver @tchambers @jeffjarvis this is really cool! I’m interested to see if this becomes more widespread.
A world where it’s standard for news outlets to run their own instance of a social media website sounds fascinating.
@tchambers @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis I like this if the intent is a closed instance for work accounts only. It's hard to get better verification than an account run by the entity itself!
But some of the beauty of social came from reporters who have their single accounts, and merely profile themselves as "currently a reporter for XYZ". It was one voice no matter where they went, or if they wanted to have their own voice away from work.
@tchambers @TexasObserver @jeffjarvis
That's pretty cool - That they set up their own instance. I don't know anything about the Texas Observer, but I know I'm not a fan of Texas in general - Thus, I withhold commenting about the Texas Observer itself
@hellomiakoda Thanks for looking. We'll do our best to be a positive addition to the Fediverse.
As for Texas, we dislike parts of it too (at least our government, that is)! https://www.texasobserver.org/greg-abbott-uvalde-shooting/
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