This article by @parisba is why #CommunityHosting and #SelfHosting need to be normalised. They are the only way we can stop scenarios like this happening:

📰 https://hey.paris/posts/appleid

You might think this couldn't happen to you, but it could happen to anyone. It's especially scary as most big tech companies are in repressive countries.

It's much easier and cheaper than you think to make your own online services. I've done a guide for non-technical people at https://growyourown.services

#Activism

Are you frustrated by blank or outdated profiles on Mastodon?

There are two crucial pull requests still waiting for review on Mastodon's Github which would automatically load latest posts to profiles no matter which server you're on:

➡️ https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34595
➡️ https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/34597

If you're comfortable using Github, you might want to react to both these PRs to let Masto devs know there is interest in merging them!

(BTW these are by same contributor who did "fetch all replies" update.)

Tips for choosing your site's domain name:

-Keep it short and easy to type manually
-Choose something easy to spell in multiple languages
-Avoid potential homonyms (e.g. "knight" sounds like "night")
-Avoid hyphens
-Avoid offensive words as these may trigger automatic blocks on some platforms
-Avoid trademarks as they can cause legal difficulties
-Avoid using your site's software's name as it may change later

More tips in the domain guides at https://growyourown.services/a-beginners-guide-to-creating-and-using-your-own-domain-name and https://fedi.tips/what-do-i-call-my-server-what-kind-of-domain-name-or-subdomain-should-i-use

If you're running your own Fediverse server, it can be quite a lot of work to manually block every nasty server. To help with this, you can use pre-made blocklists assembled by admins of reliable servers.

There are many different lists you can choose from, choose the one that suits you best and seems most reliable to you.

There's more info about how to use premade blocklists on Mastodon at:

➡️ https://fedi.tips/importing-ready-made-server-blocklists-on-mastodon

There are links to lots of blocklists at:

➡️ https://writer.oliphant.social/oliphant/the-oliphant-social-blocklist

Have you considered making your own #GoToSocial server?

GoToSocial is a new Fediverse platform which is lighter than Mastodon and has more user safety features. It's compatible with Mastodon apps so there are already lots of ways to use it.

You don't need to be techy to set up a GTS server, there are managed hosting providers at https://fedihost.co/hosting/gotosocial and https://communick.com/gotosocial

If you ARE techy, there are manual installation instructions at https://docs.gotosocial.org

#SelfHosting #Fediverse