Ruth MottramSo, the #BBC got here. And they're hosting their own server it seems...
acb@Ruth_Mottram @ianbetteridge I wonder how long until the Tory party management of the BBC pushes them into getting defederated from all but the nazisphere
noodlejetski 
@Ruth_Mottram one of their accounts is verified by this page: https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-07-mastodon-distributed-decentralised-fediverse-activitypub
Rage Rumbles 🏴☠️🫂 🔞@Ruth_Mottram Probably an experiment so they can write a report in six months saying its too hard to use, offers no engagement and is mostly populated by furry people.
Darwin Woodka@autoerot1ca @Ruth_Mottram the BBC should launch some experimental furries
Pelikans@Ruth_Mottram “The team at BBC Research & Development are researching social technologies and exploring possibilities for the BBC. One part of our work is to establish a BBC presence in the Fediverse.
This is an experiment - we will run it for 6 months, and then look at how much value it has provided, how much work it requires to maintain and then decide whether and how to continue.”
@Ruth_Mottram “We're learning as we go, and we'll write about what we discover in the hope that it might be useful for others. The BBC will continue its normal social media activity in the usual places.
We're starting off small with just a handful of accounts from R&D and our colleagues at BBC Radio, but we hope to be adding more accounts from other areas of the BBC soon”:
@BBCRD
@BBC5Live
@BBCRadio4
@BBC_News_Labs
@BBCTaster
@Connected_Studio
Semi Sentient AI Cooling Water@pelikans @Ruth_Mottram But we'll always have time & resources to run whole question time sessions filled with Tory voters & will spend extra time & money to highlight the plight of Nigel Farage.
thomkennon@Ruth_Mottram
I'm still a newbie here (less than a year) but all my years of research, work, teaching and general experience has shown me that big media (state/corporate) is never on the side of humans in collaboration. What's the craic around here re this?
I'm still a newbie here (less than a year) but all my years of research, work, teaching and general experience has shown me that big media (state/corporate) is never on the side of humans in collaboration. What's the craic around here re this?
LiveByReasonSo, the interesting thing I note so far is that the only accounts so far on that instance is the accounts of basically the labs group that setup the instance, and a "BBC Taster" account.
It will be rather more useful once they have accounts setup for BBC News, various BBC shows, and maybe individual BBC jouranists and opinion writers.
Right now, there's not much content to engage with. I'm sure that's coming though.
The struggle is probably, internally, for something that the Beeb is just dipping it's toes into, most BBC employees probably don't want more work (posting to this instance), so unless there is a mandate from the top, it might go nowhere.
@LiveByReason Yes I worry about that a bit too. It seems extraordinarily difficult to tear journalists away from their twitter/facebook/instagram accounts (with a few honourable exceptions), so perhaps that's why it's so tentative...
Daniel C 👁️🐝Ⓜ️@LiveByReason @Ruth_Mottram totally agree, but i thought loads of journalists etc used multi-platform clients.. still a battle though. Progress is something though!
Pēteris Krišjānis@LiveByReason @Ruth_Mottram judging by first posts, it is meant to test tooling required to repost content meant for other social networks here. If there is minimal friction, we might see most popular accounts appearing quite quickly.
There are already few BBC journalists posting actively here.
There are already few BBC journalists posting actively here.
Cysio 
@Ruth_Mottram curious how long ‘till they publish something TERFy
Precision Petition@me @Ruth_Mottram Till isn't short for until, which has one L anyway.
wevdap@Ruth_Mottram I’m somehow remembering BBC ME from the W1A series and am not sure how to compare
INPC@Ruth_Mottram good. Back in the day, BBC engineers were very highly respected, especially in the music industry. Totally up for them putting in some work on the Fediverse!
MyOpinion@Ruth_Mottram Very good progress!
Zeolith 
@Ruth_Mottram Wait, they have a top level domain?
Also, kind of helpful to ensure identity of the accounts posting here.
Mʀ. Vɪʀɪᴛᴇ 🏴@zeolith @Ruth_Mottram Yeah I feel like this is my main takeaway from this.
Really not sure how I feel about that, it's quite the vanity item.
Really not sure how I feel about that, it's quite the vanity item.
Steven Sandoval@Ruth_Mottram BBCʼs Mastodon server at https://social.bbc means theyʼre finally flexing that `.bbc` top-level domain they've had since 2015-03-21 https://web.archive.org/web/20150329015135/http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/bbc.html https://icannwiki.org/.bbc . @BBCRD
@Ruth_Mottram @BBCRD The lack of TLS encryption on their registry operator homepage reminds me that HTTPS wasnʼt ubiquitous until fairly recently. http://nic.bbc/
RobertJacksonGood to see this ... from the outset it seems they are explicitly acknowledging that Mastodon and the Fediverse, by and large, operates in a manner consistent with their own stated values.
I rather suspect the BBC's instance will be held to that 
Charles Roper
iamdtms@Ruth_Mottram Pretty good example for the masses! Well done, BBC, thank you!
Laimis@Ruth_Mottram loving seeing this!
HawkmoonFox won't be far behind.
@Ruth_Mottram I bet they'll still never mention Brexshit.
Simon Harper@Ruth_Mottram @Doon but why is it an experiment? All they have to do is just host their own server (oh they have) and cross post to all the social platforms, including their own they’ve just set up - It’s not rocket science.
C.S.Strowbridge@Ruth_Mottram
I've heard some people claim that Mastodon is not 'brand friendly'. This is proof that that claim is crap. A brand can start it's own server for relatively cheap and control its brand 100%. Don't let people outside the brand join, but as long as you are connected to the other servers, people can follow you.
I've heard some people claim that Mastodon is not 'brand friendly'. This is proof that that claim is crap. A brand can start it's own server for relatively cheap and control its brand 100%. Don't let people outside the brand join, but as long as you are connected to the other servers, people can follow you.
Kevin Miller@Ruth_Mottram this is the way.