Mastodawn

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jul 20, 2023

Maikel 🇪🇺 | Hire Me!Jul 20, 2023

EDIT 5: Since this toot seems to be everywhere can I ask you guys to please do your magic and boost this? 👇🏽
https://firefish.maikel.dev/notes/9hnf0gw9o56zhrgo

EDIT 4: BEWARE before updating that Firefish comes with donation-asking ads.

EDIT 3: Guys, there's no more need anymore to boost this.

Right, so you're seeing this and wondering what happened and why are you seeing a new account.

I bricked my fedi.maikel.dev instance of Calckey trying to migrate to Firefish using the obsolete and broken ubuntu.sh script on their repo.

After getting annoyed, I went to sleep, woke up today and tried again but with a fresh install. The script is still pretty much broken even for that so I'm taking charge of my online presence by forking Firefish and ensuring this never happens again, there's plenty in the repo I had already changed on my instance like what comes out when I use a search box.

I've lost ALL of my social graph so lots of people won't even figure out where the F did I go unless you boost this and might think I died 😇. So please, for their sake, do boost: I was before @[email protected] now I am here in @[email protected]

Thanks you all for helping.

#PleaseBoost

EDIT: Note that I'm adding some changes to the code so expect my instance today to fall a few times before it runs stable.

EDIT2: Since this is getting interesting as other people have had the same issue I'll add a few extra thoughts:
- Remember it is just thoughts. You think everyday.
- As far as you have your follows list backed up (the people YOU follow) that's all that matters, fortunately for me I did have that in my account in blahaj.zone.
- This isn't commercial social media, losing the people who follow YOU doesn't matter, they'll find you again. Let alone the figure of people following you means absolutely nothing here.
- If you want to avoid my situation, back up everything before trying the migration. I tried to fix it for an hour, I realised the low value of the effort and that my priority wasn't to preserve but to communicate, destroyed the instance and launched a new one. Your priorities might differ, you might think your cat pics are indispensable.
- Learn the lesson: never trust "stable" releases to be actually as stable as development branches. 🤣
- If you're stuck with the ubuntu.sh installer because of the "with encoding" issue that was 'fixed' (I guess fixed is a new word for introduced) here run manually

	sudo -iu postgres psql -c "CREATE ROLE the-user-you-chose LOGIN CREATEDB PASSWORD 'the-pass-you-chose';" -c "CREATE DATABASE the-database-name-you-chose OWNER the-user-you-chose;"

And on the next run of ubuntu.sh chose that you already have a PostgreSQL setup and pick the users/password/db that you tried to make work on the first attempt. That's how I manage to get it to run on my final attempt.

Maikel 🇪🇺 (@maikel)

#pleaseboost #getfedihired #mutualaid Sometime ago in May I run out of funds, I asked you all to help me kick the can down the road and you delivered in time to survive until my second ever client's first invoice to be paid. Then all the way from May until now, almost August, I've lived of what I made with that client, used those funds to also fix stuff long overdue while I had an income and I'm a much better position to get client number 3. My goal is offering my services as a cloud systems administrator and software engineer to get at max 5 **permanent** clients, and go back to what I was doing for 4 years happily ever after. To get there I've been doing courses about marketing, sales, getting clients, web development business since those are my setbacks, the bits of running my own company that I never learnt because I started the company already having a first permanent client who used my 40 weekly hours. My expertise is wide but if I had to summarize it in one sentence it is: > I can learn anything, inside out, **blazingly fast** e.g.: @[email protected] wanted to automate something on OCI, which I never used before and within a week I was proficient to figure all the moving parts and whistles of OCI's cloud to create a testing development cloud for him. I'm a 37 years old guy who has maintained the neuroplasticity of an infant, toped up with the discipline of an adult. **The best way you could help is simply figuring if YOU could be a client**. I cannot stress that enough. The fediverse is filled of tech-oriented people. I am **convinced** those lifelong relationships are going to be built here. How could you check that? Well imagine you have THING. > THING = any of [idea, site, mobile app, desktop app, Spectrum ZX +2A tape] or all of them. Thing might need: - A cloud of computers. - A frontend - A backend. - An automation in Ansible, Python or Terraform. - Some embellishment in Tailwind, Bootstrap, or some NextJs/React/Angular. - A database in Mongo, PostgreSQL or MariaDB/MySQL. or even just might be an idea looking for its viability. What I'm offering is my brain per set amounts of hours per week: - 5h/week @ 150€ - 10h/week @ 250€ - 20h/week @ 400€ As you see, the more hours I work, the less you'd have to pay per hour. [Hire me!](https://maikel.dev/hire) But then you might not need my services at all (yet), and that's OK, you can instead help me by directly donating [here](https://maikel.dev/donations). It won't be a definitive solution but it'll surely **buy me time** to avoid living under-a-bridge by the 3rd of September if not earlier & buy groceries. Right now my biggest worry, to be very blatantly honest is food because it is 26th, we're close to all the utility bills and stuff coming in and it'll directly EAT from my food budget. All my remaining savings are, quite literally 550€ plus 50€ that someone donated yesterday and might show up in my account according to Stripe on the 2nd of August.

Maikel.dev

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jul 19, 2023

Kainoa Jul 19, 2023

Hey everyone,

Wow, what a wild ride, huh? From those first brainstorming sessions that sparked Calckey, to the epic journey that brings us here today, rebranding as Firefish - I've gotta say, I'm seriously blown away.

One year ago, Calckey was just my side project, after being a Misskey contributor for a while. But when y'all jumped on board, you made it so much more. You transformed it from my dream to our reality.

Firefish isn't just a cool name. It's everything we've been working towards. It's late nights, strong coffee, wild ideas, laughs, and even the occasional tears. It's our little space on the web where we're constantly pushing for the next big thing, and always looking out for one another.

So here we are, at the start of something new. Firefish is more than just a rebrand - it's a celebration. A celebration of you, me, and us. It's a tribute to the amazing community we've built together. Firefish is all of YOU.

We put together video that I feel really gets to the heart of Firefish. We wanted to show you guys what this whole journey has meant to us, and how excited we are to be taking this next step together.

Before I go, I just want to say a big, massive, thank you. Thank you to all the patrons who supported this. Thank you to @blackspike for the absolutely stunning logo. Thank you @angelolz for the beautiful trailer. Thank you to our development team who's made some amazing strides. And thank you all for believing in this wild idea, thank you for your support, and thank you for being part of the coolest community on the web. You guys are the real backbone of all this.

Here's to the next chapter of our journey as Firefish. Exciting times ahead, and I can't wait to see where we go from here!

Posts will shortly follow with release notes, roadmaps, technical details, migration plans. I'll keep this thread updated.

Much love,
Kainoa

https://joinfirefish.org/

@firefish

Firefish

A fun, new, open way to experience social media

Firefish

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jul 15, 2023

Hello all!

I know you haven't heard from me for a while. It's a very transitional period for me, I'm preparing to move to Athens, I'm also leaving my old job and figuring out what I want to do next. I'm taking some personal time and a long vacation to a beautiful greek island, Samothraki.

I am currently not very active in the #Calckey project, as I try to stay away from my laptop. It's also a very transitional period for the project, with the upcoming name change etc that Kainoa is working on. I hope it goes great!

Anyway, back to Samothraki: This photo doesn't do the island any justice - you can look up photos online if you want to get jealous 🤭
Just thought I'd share the view from my hammock right now, as dusk falls on the camping site. Sorry if it's too dark.

I will be back in a few weeks. I still think about the fediverse and our project a lot. Super excited about where this will take us next.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves. We've only got one you.

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jul 9, 2023

Kainoa Jul 9, 2023

#Calckey announcement

So, drumroll please...

🥁🥁🥁

Here's what's coming up!

Yes, Calckey is undergoing a full rebranding!! But it's more than that. We've worked for MONTHS on this, and there's going to be a lot of changes and exciting things coming up. This includes:

- A new name and logo
- Press releases?!?!
- A super sick trailer video
- A full roadmap for the next couple YEARS
- A new flagship server that will be AUTOMATICALLY MIGRATED TO from calckey.social (a Fediverse first!)
- A cute new mascot

<(I'm not cute?!)
- A new code hosting service with better CI/CD
- The stable release you've all been waiting for, but not as v14.0.0... as v1!!

And this is all coming on

July 19th.

Save the date.

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 25, 2023

New release candidate, and our lead dev's 20th birthday!! Happy birthday @kainoa 🎉

RE: https://i.calckey.cloud/notes/9ge5p526kjoe64je

Calckey (@calckey)

$[spin :boost_requested:] New #Calckey $[bounce :calckey:] [release candidate](https://codeberg.org/thatonecalculator/calckey/releases/tag/v14.0.0-rc3)! $[spin :boost_requested:] This will be the last release candidate before the launch of the next major version! We've taken this time to add some requested features, stomp out many bugs, and ensure that everyone is getting the experience they deserve. Also, it's my ( @[email protected] ) 20th birthday tomorrow, so if you could boost this, I'd really appreciate it, as we've all worked really hard on this 🥺 $[x2 $[sparkle v14.0.0-rc3 Release Notes]] **Major changes:** **Performance improvements**: many changes have been made to make the performance of Calckey even better, especially for users with a lot of followers. **New 2FA flow**: both the internal 2FA library and the 2FA user interface have been updated for a smoother, cleaner, and more reliable experience making sure your account is secure. **Emoji skin tone**: you can now select your preferred skin tone for body part/people emojis, and the overall experience of selecting and searching for emojis is snappier. **Reduced visual clutter**: Users can now properly hide replies in their timelines, and reply notifications are more readable. **Editing**: it's now possible to edit the options on a poll, and to add or remove a content warning from a post. **Deck view improvements**: the deck view has a new channel column, and scrolling feels more natural. @[email protected] **Accessibility**: focus trapping and keyboard navigation is now even more intuitive. @[email protected] **calckey.js**: the build system for the Calckey.js SDK is now fixed, so developers can get access to the latest version, and there's now auto-generated markdown [documentation](https://codeberg.org/calckey/calckey/src/branch/develop/packages/calckey-js/markdown/calckey-js.md) for using it. **Docker**: after many release candidates without a proper Docker tag, the Docker image build process has finally been fixed. @[email protected] @[email protected] **Notes:** Full changelog: https://codeberg.org/calckey/calckey/src/branch/develop/CHANGELOG.md#14-0-0-rc3-2023-06-24 Upgrade instructions: ```sh git pull --ff pnpm clean-all && pnpm i NODE_ENV=production pnpm run build && pnpm run migrate ```

Calckey Cloud

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 24, 2023

10 days ago, a boat with migrants sank outside Pylos, Greece, drowning hundreds of people. Survivors reported that the boat sank as the greek coastguard was trying to pull the boat away from greek waters.

The greek state murders people. Illegal pushbacks are reported all the time. The European Union talks about human rights, but is responsible for the deaths of thousands of migrants in the mediterranean sea.

These are photos from a demonstration earlier today, in the refugee camp in Malakasa, where they keep the survivors detained. We went to show our support and solidarity, to demostrate against the murderous greek state, and to talk with them. There were people with missing relatives there who don't know if their family members and friends are alive or not.

Stop "Fortress Europe" and Frontex. Solidarity to the state's victims. Freedom of movement is everybody's right.
No borders-no nations-stop deportations
#refugees #greece #pylos #antiracism

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 20, 2023

There's much talk about "Embrace - Extend - Extinguish" regarding #Meta, and I agree, it's a very real threat and something they will try to do sooner or later. However, I don't think that fediblocking their servers will stop that from happening - it could actually help them. Let me explain.

We can't stop Meta from using #ActivityPub. We knew that when we adopted an open protocol. Even if every single server blocks them, they can still use ActivityPub if they want. They already have a huge userbase from Instagram, and they will also pay celebrities to use their service. They don't rely on content from the rest of the Fediverse for their plan to work. They're not aiming for the anti-centralization crowd.

So, one way this could play out is: Everyone blocks them, and then they have another reason to lock their users in. Those who use their platform and have friends and accounts they follow there, won't have anywhere to go if the rest of the #Fediverse blocks them. So they will instantly be the biggest ActivityPub platform, and they can do whatever they want without any competition or alternatives.

Or - their users could see in practice that they don't have to view their ads, they don't have to rely on them, they don't have to eat their sketchy algorithms and give them their data, because they can follow the same accounts from any fedi server. Of course they have the money and power to lock users in with various ways. But this way users will see they have choices.

I'm worried that the discussion these days revolves around the pattern: "Are you against Meta? Then you have to block them!". And if you don't intend to necessarily block them, then that means you are not so much against them, that you are willing to give them a chance to prove they have good intentions etc. That you think that, if Meta is on fedi, then they'll be cool.

I have absolutely no second thoughts about what Meta is. They are capitalist snakes and they will shit on everything you love for profit. I am not giving them any chance to prove otherwise, I know what they are. And I intend to keep saying that. If they use ActivityPub, I will be saying that directly to their users, on their platform, but from my server - not giving them anything. I will probably be saying to a lot of people "What the hell are you still doing there? Come over here!". The fact that I'll be able to tell them from another platform, will be proof that there is indeed no reason for them to stay on Meta. I've tried converting facebook users, most of them were never really interested because they want to stay in touch with certain people that are on Meta's platform. Let's see how it will be when they will actually be able to do just that.

The war for Meta's userbase is just around the corner. I do not intend to avoid it by blocking them. I won't move to Meta's platform anyway - I didn't leave facebook to go back to them on fedi. I hope you won't either.

We might lose. But we will fight. Screw Meta. Let's show their users they have options. Don't forget that most of us had or still have accounts on mainstream social. I can't wait to show what we've been building here to even more people. Bring it on!

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 20, 2023

The more I'm trying to understand the call to block #Meta's #P92 #Threads, the less sense I think it makes. Let's see some of the arguments:

- "Meta is evil": Yes they are. Don't sign up to their new service. I don't think all of their users are evil though. I still have my facebook account.

- "There are privacy concerns". Yes there are - for their users, not ours. For us, as admins of communities that are willingly federated, what are the privacy concerns? Most of the stuff we do is public anyway. We're federated to hundreds/thousands of servers. Do we know who owns each of them, and what they do with whatever data they get from us? If you think there are privacy dangers from federating with servers that you don't know what they do with their data, then we should defederate from everyone we're not 100% sure about - so basically from everyone. Saying that federating with a Meta server is dangerous is like saying that an open federation was a bad idea all along.

- "We have to protect our users". From what? I get defederating from nazi servers, and then we are actually protecting users. If Meta doesn't completely screw up moderation, I don't think we can seriously claim that interaction with Meta users in general will be abusive and harmful. If your users don't want any interaction with Meta users, they can block them at user level.

- "We have to protect the Fediverse". From what? From being an open space for communication? From not being a walled garden? By pushing people to actually use Meta's platform, if they want to communicate with other Meta users? Do you realize that the biggest obstacle for mass adoption is that most users need social media to communicate with their friends, and if they can't do it from fedi, then they'll stick with Twitter or Meta? And if you don't want "mass adoption", then what are you even doing using an open protocol? Just set up a defederated instance or forum. I use an open protocol because I want users of the platform I provide to be able to communicate with more people on other platforms. I don't have to agree with the other platforms on everything - if we did, we'd just make one platform instead of thousands of different ones. I'll use fediblock to protect users from abuse and harassment, not from communicating with whoever decides to use a "free" platform (and "pay" by viewing ads and giving up their privacy). I think they're getting ripped off, but hey, it's their choice. It's definitely not the same as being a nazi.

- "We have to stop Meta's plans". Sorry to break it to you buddy, but you can't do that by blocking them. ActivityPub is an open protocol and they have every right to use it. They will attract users for a number of reasons: They'll have celebrities on board, they have the money to provide a smooth service, and they can provide communication with their already enormous userbase on Facebook and Instagram - and with the fedi servers that will choose to federate with them. If you think that the current active fedi userbase of a few million people worldwide is such a selling point for Meta... it's not. It's not what will convince people to sign up. If someone wants access to the fedi userbase, they can already do that by just signing up on a Mastodon, Calckey etc server.

I'm all for blocking the new platform if it causes actual practical problems for us. But declaring you'll block them anyway because you don't like Meta (I don't like them either)... to be honest, this kinda feels like an admin power trip to me. It could be even perceived as an asshole move to your own users. You're not "protecting" them from Meta. If they want to be protected from Meta, they can just not sign up to Meta. If they don't want any communication with Meta users, they can block them on a user level.

I'll be discouraging anyone from using Meta's services, as I already do. But forbidding fedi users to interact with Meta users is not the same thing.

Chill down, fedi.

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 19, 2023

There is another reason I find the discussion about blocking #Meta's #ActivityPub project #Threads interesting:

I've been saying for a while now that the #Fediverse is a new and different beast, and whoever tries to understand it simply as a direct social media replacement misses the whole picture. We're also federated communities, just as much.

Today we see a lot of concern about "what will the #Fediverse do" with #Meta. Wanna know what we will do? Everything and nothing. Because the Fediverse is not one entity. This is the essence of its decentralized nature - and that's cool. If your server intends to block Meta servers completely - cool. If not, cool again.

But if you expect a unified response on something like that, you're in for a disappointment.

This is not a "schism", a "problem", something to "solve". This is just decentralization in practice. We don't need to have the same blocklists, and that's ok. Open protocols are not something you can control, so chill. When the time comes for this subject, choose a server with a policy that you agree with. But if you're worried that we won't all have one unified stance... are you sure you actually like #decentralization?

Panos Damelos (on vacation!)Jun 19, 2023

A few thoughts about #Meta's #ActivityPub project (and whether we should instantly block it).

Personally, I don't see much point in declaring something like that in advance. I'd like to see what they do in action, and then decide if it's needed. I'm not against interacting with Meta users, as long as it's on my terms, through the software I choose, on a server I know doesn't exploit my data.

Don't misunderstand me, I think Meta is among the worst. I have no hope that a federated Meta platform will be any less greedy and expoitative than what we've already seen from them. I would advise anyone against using their platform. However, I myself have been a daily facebook user for over a decade. A lot of people I know -and enjoy interacting with- are still there and never got interested in the Fediverse. What can you do? We are only responsible for our own decisions. But I'd still like to read their thoughts.

I am sure Meta's AP implementation will give us a lot of reasons to be against it. My guess is that they will combine ActivityPub for plain posts with closed-source, unfederated features, so that they lock users in (and give them reasons to put up with their ads or whatever they do). I think it's very probable that we may need to block them anyway, for whatever reasons - they might be a source of spam, for example. But I want to wait and see what happens in practice first.

My main point is: What if we all declare that we will indeed block them? Do we gain something? Does Meta lose something? At this point in time, I doubt it. I mean, do you think that Meta depends on the existing fediverse for content? In the first week after they open registrations, they will probably have more active users than all other fedi platforms combined. If we say we'll block them, will it stop any users from signing up to their platform? I'm afraid not.

People who consciously don't want to use a Meta platform, are probably already in the #Fediverse. Federation with ActivityPub is not Meta's main selling point. Sure, there is a buzz around decentralized services at the moment, and that won't hurt Meta's attempt, but the people who'll try it will probably try it mostly because they'll be curious about "Meta's anti-Twitter" or because of advertisement, and less because it will be "decentralized". They already have such options.

Even if we all decided to block them, then practically we'd just end up with yet another centralized Meta social media platform, with its users only interacting with each other. But even though I'm against using Meta's services, I'm not against interacting with Meta users in general, just like I have no problem emailing gmail addresses. On the contrary, I'd like their users to see, once they arrive, that they could do more or less the same things without depending on Meta. I'd like to see interaction with other fedi users becoming such an essential part of Meta's new platform, to the extent that they will be forced to play well with the rest of the Fediverse, so that their users will have a smooth experience with all of their friends/followers. And I'd like to see some of their users leaving them for other platforms if they fail to do so.

To recap: I'm also very, very suspicious of Meta and I know they don't have good intentions - I'm not suggesting that maybe they've changed and they will do things differently, to "give them a chance" first. I just don't think that declaring to block them makes much sense at this point in time. Maybe they will give us real reasons to block them once they launch their platform. But I'm not by principle against interacting with Meta users, as long as I can avoid Meta's ads, black box algorithm and data mining.

Perhaps, after all, this could make us build even better fedi platforms. Let's see things get more serious - we actually need it. And since they can't force stuff down our throats, I'm not afraid of Meta on ActivityPub. Bring it on!