Maximilian KiebsNov 21, 2023
Björn Brembs

YES!
This is precisely what every university (and scholarly society!!) should be doing: have their own instance and drop X like a hot potato:

"an instance has been created [... ] on university servers, which is open to the university's organizational units. The active use of X will be significantly reduced."

https://www.uibk.ac.at/en/newsroom/2023/university-of-innsbruck-focuses-on-mastodon/

We detail all the arguments about precisely why that must happen here:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230207

University of Innsbruck focuses on Mastodon

The communications team at the University of Innsbruck will increasingly rely on the microblogging service Mastodon for science communication. Mastodon is a non-commercial and data protection-friendly platform with functions similar to the former Twitter. For this purpose, an instance has been created at social.uibk.ac.at on university servers, which is open to the university's organizational units. The active use of X will be significantly reduced.

Nov 21, 2023 at 1:31pmBuffer
Show threadBjörn BrembsNov 21, 2023

The person I should've tagged in this post is, of course, @leonido !

My bad!

Show threadLeonhard DobuschNov 21, 2023
@brembs thanks! (Actually, I am very proud of my university for getting their own instance up and running, with special thanks to @melaniebartos!)
Show threadBjörn BrembsNov 21, 2023

@leonido @melaniebartos

I want to get the same for my university! How did you do that? I ask as someone at a university where the director of the computing center doesn't see the need for pull-mirroring between their GitLab instance and GitHub 🤦‍♂️

Show threadMelanie BartosNov 21, 2023
@brembs I'm always happy to share what we've learned here and open to any suggestions. Please feel free to reach out anytime!
Show threadJeremy ForestNov 21, 2023
@brembs @leonido there is hope 🤞
Show threadmurksNov 21, 2023
@brembs I wondered whether my uni even has a Twitter account.
Turns out it has, there is a link on the homepage.
Looks a bit hacked though^^
Show threadChad GeidelNov 21, 2023
@brembs I also wish other large companies would do this as well! Why bother with verification nonsense if the instance is company-only?!
Show threadTheDinolass 🦖Nov 21, 2023
@brembs Never thought I'd see my alma mater do something like this but I am pleasantly surprised! :D
Show threadDomino JoyceNov 21, 2023
@brembs I just tweeted this at our VC 🫣
Show threadBjörn BrembsNov 21, 2023
@domino_joyce
👍👍
Show threadjfml - Jonas LaugsNov 21, 2023

@brembs Here's their account (if I'm not mistaken):

https://social.uibk.ac.at/@uniinnsbruck

Universität Innsbruck (@[email protected])

593 Posts, 1.46K Following, 2.37K Followers · Offizieller Mastodon-Account der Universität Innsbruck auf der universitätseigenen Instanz social.uibk.ac.at Official Mastodon account of the University of Innsbruck on the university's own instance social.uibk.ac.at Support: [email protected]

social.uibk.ac.at
Show threadMylesRydenNov 21, 2023

@brembs
Every organization that values its reputation should be doing this.

The people who need the information from the organization will follow to wherever that information is.

Show threadTC Won't Give In To LiesNov 22, 2023

@brembs
Yes! And media companies too

Why the NYTimes, WaPo and a few other companies don't launch a shared news server amazes me. What better way to control their content and prevent imposters.

Show threadTim ChambersNov 22, 2023

@brembs @bkeegan

Fully agree.

Show threadGytis Repečka 💾 💻 ⚙️Nov 22, 2023
@brembs Couple decades ago it was common for universities to host IRC, gaming, forum servers for people - not only academic - to socialize. I guess it's happening again with  and other  servers being provisioned on uni infrastructures 👍
Show threadYo Gurt!! 🔻Nov 24, 2023
@brembs
ActiveX has been obsoleted for a while.