Mastodawn

David Pacheco Nov 7

In case you didn't know, Owls in Towels has a new home on Mastodon

https://mas.to/@owlsintowels

We had to shift servers when the one we were on got deleted without warning a month ago. We lost our 4000 followers and had to start from scratch, so it would be a tremendous help if you could boost this or tell someone you know about Owls in Towels! Thank you everyone for your continued viewership and engagement 💛🦉

@owlsintowels RIP!!!
No wonder why the owl towel action stopped.

adaddinsane (Steve Turnbull)Nov 7

Fun. I talked about "Owls in Towels" in my last newsletter. Got about 30 click-throughs.

P3KO | Petrified activist 🐧Nov 7

Qwls in Towels

What a wonderful name that is for a band!

What kind of music could it perform?

@AlexBlock has moved Nov 7

@owlsintowels You are a must follow account!

Ben Zanin Nov 7

@owlsintowels psst @_nadine I believe the above is highly pertinent to your interests 👀↑↑ 🦉🌯

fuzzyfuzzyfungus Nov 7

@owlsintowels Superb owls are definitely not just for sundays

@owlsintowels happy to help. I cannot get enough of owls in towels. My niece is bonkers for owls!
❤️🦉❤️

Can't find a towel emoji.

BeeCycling has moved Nov 7

@owlsintowels Eek! Have followed again and boosted this post. Don't want to miss out.

Siegfried.Nov 7

@owlsintowels Nice! This is better than most cat content!

digital_bohemian Nov 7

Hoohoo, there you are again!
Refollowed & boosted. 👋☺️

Deborah Makarios Nov 7

@owlsintowels I've tried following your new account, but it doesn't seem to have connected.

@DMakarios Owls in Towels‘ new instance “mas.to” blocked your instance some time ago, so you won‘t be able to follow them, and they probably can‘t see your post.

Deborah Makarios Nov 7

@carey Good to know, thanks!

Octavia Con Amore

pink_moon_and_stars

Succubard's Library Nov 7

@owlsintowels oo, informative alt-text

Shark Attak Nov 7

@owlsintowels
Deleting a server without notice is regarded as a dick move in most social circles, respected ones and not.

The Animal and the Machine Nov 7

@owlsintowels @HollyGoDarkly
Insta follow!

Thanks!

Andreas, DJ3EI, he/him Nov 8

When a Mastodon server goes down suddenly and unannounced, one has to start from scratch, as @owlsintowels reports 🧵.

To prepare for desaster, one would want to extract and back-up a list of all followers regularly.

But I've found that is not available conveniently via the UI.

Have I overlooked something? Is this by design?

Can you please comment on this, @FediTips ?

Fedi.Tips Nov 8

It's definitely not by design, I don't see what advantage it would be to anyone?

It's not part of the export/import section because transferring followers is done through account aliases (https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server/).

What is it you would want to be doing with an exported follower list? Messaging them all to follow you? (genuine question)

Transferring your Mastodon account to another server | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Andreas, DJ3EI, he/him Nov 9

If my fediverse server disappeared unexpectedly and I had a list of all of my followers, sending each a message from my new account explaining the situation and asking them to again follow me would indeed be a plan.

For me, plan B.

Plan A would be to somehow simulate the account move process to first re-obtain my followers, then tell them.

I have not done the homework to look into the details. This may need new server db manipulation access 🤷 and/or cooperation by the old 😱.

Fedi.Tips Nov 10

"Plan A would be to somehow simulate the account move process to first re-obtain my followers, then tell them."

That is deliberately forbidden, because it could be exploited by spammers to clone or steal followers.

Andreas, DJ3EI, he/him Nov 11

I can see that it could be exploited by spammers.

I also think that having to reestablish an account after a server disappeared would be a clean, decent (but maybe unsupported) use-case.

What does "forbidden" mean? The followers' servers will automatically reject the messages unless the no-longer existing server testifies the account has moved? Or is it a social thing, that moderators will block a server that does that?

(To find out these details is the homework I didn't do.)

Fedi.Tips Nov 11

I mean the developers want to stop anyone cloning or stealing followers, because it would destroy the network.

If a spammer could copy all your followers, they would be able to spam all your followers with junk, trolling, abuse etc. The Fedi would become unusable if that was possible.

Andreas, DJ3EI, he/him Nov 11

Yes.

So "server disappears and you have to re-build followers from a backup" may well be a legitimate, but unsupported use case.

And I speculate Mastodon may not only not support it. It may have code intended to make it impossible.

I speculate you can't move your followers from server old to server new, even with total control of new, without old still existing and helping.

A developer myself, that is what I would implement.

I just wonder whether my speculation is correct.

🇪🇺 Paul Schoonhoven 🍋🍉Nov 8

@AngelaScholder tanx!!
Added @owlsintowels again!

@owlsintowels
@emanuelecariati

the owls are not what they seem

@owlsintowels omg this could be one of the best accounts here

Once More Into the Breach Nov 8

@owlsintowels this is what I didnt know I needed today.

KuboF Hromoslav bio/acc 🧬Nov 8

Damn, having deleted server sucks! @tejoesperanto without warning switched off their server with data of my organisation #Wikimedia #Esperanto, so I feel for you 🥰

Welcome back and let's go 👍

ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha Nov 9

@owlsintowels always know where your towel is! ❤️

@owlsintowels None with trowels, but some with scowls . . . and all worth seeing :-)

James Akers Dec 6

@owlsintowels these owls are adorable