FadeFeb 5, 2023
Is the sudden drop in traffic on my timeline here lately because people are wandering away from Mastodon again, or because of defederation, or because of DDOS attacks? Whoooo knows? Sigh.
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023

I am extremely fond of Mastodon. I want to hang out here for a good long time. But I'm seeing a lot of my friends quietly detach from this place because there's so much "here are the etiquette rules for this tea shop, I can't believe you didn't lift your pinky" going around that, well, who has the energy for that these days?

I cope by just ignoring most of that, but then, I've got no following or public career to worry about.

Show threadFade

...ah. And apparently if an instance gets completely blocked, even briefly, it severs the follow relationships between any users across the block.

Which explains why some people I thought I was already following (and vice versa) recently followed me, and showed as not being followed by me.

Well that's not great.

Feb 5, 2023 at 4:16pmWeb
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023

Okay, this part is actually funny to me: I thought people were blocking me because I was griping about some counter-productive disability activism. But it turns out randos have dramatically blocked me because I noted being tired of the "On Wednesdays we wear pink" nagging. And... I couldn't tell, because they would announce a block, vanish, and because of the vanishing, I couldn't tell what I'd said that they were upset over.

It wasn't even activism! It was pettier than that! Ha.

Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
In conclusion: we need more Tumblr shitposters around here. And I need to go do some damn Sunday chores while I still have daylight.
Show threadunicorndeburghFeb 5, 2023

@fade I haven't noticed any drop in Mastodon, but I also haven't paid any attention to how many followers I have here.

I'm seeing Twitter users moving to Spoutible -- I'm checking it out, too.

Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@unicorndeburgh My metric is how long it takes me to catch up on the timeline in the morning. But I think at least 50% of the slowdown there is from DDOS issues.
Show threadunicorndeburghFeb 5, 2023
@fade The big instances were slammed.
Show threadAnne JeffersonFeb 5, 2023
@fade are you on mastodon.online? What defederated? :-(
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@annejefferson I don't know what defederated, which is part of the problem! I'm still seeing wandering.shop stuff, where a lot of my friends are, but I hear mastodon.social got blocked/unblocked, and my timeline got real quiet recently, so I'm wondering if there was a block (or block/unblock) with another instance where I know people, and... HOW WOULD I EVEN KNOW, augh, it's stressful.
Show threadAnne JeffersonFeb 5, 2023
@fade it would be nice if there were any easy way to sign up for alerts about our instance. I’ve contemplated migrating to spore.social but it seems like such a hassle. I worry I’ll lose links even though it’s supposed to be Ok.
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@annejefferson I've been planning a move to zirk.us for ages, but I've been waffling because lately I'm posting a lot about pokemon, and how does that go over on a more academic instance? But how would all my posting about academic stuff go over on a game-focused instance? Sigh. I just want to talk about whatever I feel like. I hate feeling like I have to Theme.
Show threadAnne JeffersonFeb 5, 2023
@fade I think your CWs work well. I enjoy a lot of your content, but don't do Pokemon, and the CWs let me scroll by. :-)
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@annejefferson I do try to CW long specific threads!
Show threadYingtaiFeb 5, 2023
@fade I am on zirk.us and I had exactly the same reservations about moving here. But my impression is that nobody minds. :) To be honest, I don't think this instance has a very strong culture of reading the local timeline. And if you look at people's actual profiles and the Exploring tab, we're boosting exactly the same kind of thing as mastodon.social. There is highbrow stuff on the local timeline, but there's also normal fun stuff.
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@yingtai This is encouraging! I found some really need people from the Local timeline when I poked around, but I've been feeling shy about committing.
Show threadHeatherFeb 5, 2023
@annejefferson @fade For what it's worth (which might be nothing) I've been very happy with spore.social . I backed the Kickstarter when they were fundraising because I was looking for a place to land. I kept my old account (mastodon.social) going for a bit but eventually migrated and was a pretty straightforward process.
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@Habigelo @annejefferson It looks like a neat place! Alas, the ban on all NSFW, even with a CW, makes it unworkable for me. I don't often boost such, and pretty much never post any, but I need to have the option available at times.
Show threadHeatherFeb 5, 2023
@fade @annejefferson very fair. It's not my favourite rule either. I'm finding the collective boundary negotiation process on here interesting. We all come to social media to connect on some level but the nuances of that play out differently for everyone.
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@Habigelo @annejefferson And admittedly I shy away from a lot of perfectly reasonable rules that I would almost certainly never break anyway because of the Strikethrough era of LJ: I've seen the "good" rules applied quite aggressively in bad ways, so I end up leery of all sorts of things.
Show threadink and yarnFeb 5, 2023
@fade @Habigelo @annejefferson What I don't know, about rules like "no NSFW even with CW," is whether it applies to boosts - because boosts don't show up on the local TL. (Obviously this would be a question for the server admin.)
Show threadLucyKemnitzerFeb 6, 2023

@emery @fade @Habigelo @annejefferson Wait, boosts don't show up on the local timeline? That seems both counterintuitive & counterproductive.

I'm having a very hard time making mastodon work for me in very basic ways, and it makes me sad.

Show threadink and yarnFeb 6, 2023

@LucyKemnitzer @fade @Habigelo @annejefferson The local timeline shows posts from people on your local instance. As far as I can tell, you see boosts only from people you follow, and they appear in your home TL.

ETA: much in the same way that replies to other people don't show up in the local TL - it only shows original posts from people on your instance.

Show threadLucyKemnitzerFeb 6, 2023
@emery @fade @Habigelo @annejefferson Yes, one of the things I find especially difficult about mastodon is trying to read whole threads and replies. It's pulling teeth to get them all to show. I really want this to work because so many of my friends are here but maybe the federation part is just not for me after all.
Show threadink and yarnFeb 6, 2023
@LucyKemnitzer @fade @Habigelo @annejefferson This may only be working for me because I'm on a computer, not a phone, but I open the post on its original page in a new tab, and then I can see the whole thread/all replies.
Show threadAnne JeffersonFeb 5, 2023
@Habigelo @fade thanks for the recommendation. I also backed the kickstarter but I started the #52LakeChamplain project here and haven’t decided how to best migrate it if I move
Show threadHeatherFeb 5, 2023
@annejefferson neat project!
Show threadpa28Feb 5, 2023
@fade @annejefferson TBH this is why I finally settled on a commercially run instance hosted by what I believe to be a reputable and transparent company. It is nice that there can be instance for people who wear pink on Tuesday but they seem to be as problematic as the bird site. Internet sites will always be a reflection of the people who use them, who will be ultimate selected by people who run them. Commercial ops aren’t better, but tend to be pragmatists.
Show threadCautionWIP 🎃+🇨🇦+🏳️‍🌈= Feb 5, 2023
@fade @annejefferson Limited means individual users can find them and follow them but they don’t show up in the federated timeline, & I believe boosted toots get muted(?) & won’t be seen by others unless they are already following that specific account. It basically acknowledges that they exist, but tries to keep their users’ shenanigans from bothering the locals unless they actively opt in. I’ve only recently gotten into looking at the moderation structures around here so I don’t really know.
Show threadIrinaFeb 5, 2023
@fade I checked whether you and I are still following each other, and yes, we are. Thanks for the warning though!
Show threadFadeFeb 5, 2023
@irina Yeah, if I weren't seeing you posting, I'd be wondering if wandering.shop had blocked this instance. Mrf. But I might have just lost connections to a lot of people, and I don't know how I would even tell. And I can't go via Twitter to find people I knew from there on here anymore, either.
Show threadSisuile ButlerFeb 5, 2023

@fade @irina soon, my primary community backup space will be up and running, and I've got enough of my core folk on various discords that I can rebuild if I have to.

I'm just hoping that I don't have to.

Show threadClarissa C. S. RyanFeb 5, 2023
@fade OH yikes
Show threadLinkeFeb 5, 2023

@fade yeah. Some admins are a little heavy handed with the FULL BLOCK button instead of using the “no federation of public feeds, but people can still follow” button.

I had a big argument with some people about that last week. It’s a lot of why I run my own instance.