You've seen them on Twitter, you're seeing them on the fediverse: accounts with names like "AmazingNature8" or "HistoryPix", or occasionally human-sounding names like "Massimo" and "Veronique". Popular topics include nature and wildlife photos, historic images, relatable memes, fine art, and so on.
They repost photos or memes that have gone viral elsewhere, like Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit. The text of the post is scraped as well; google a distinctive sentence and you'll turn up a previous post. Credit, if it's ever given, is a handle with no URL or indication of what social network it belongs to. Tellingly, on the fediverse, there are virtually never image descriptions.
I loathe these accounts. They are the pink slime of the Internet.
Since I end up having to give this spiel every time I raise the alarm about such accounts, I'm putting it down here in a more permanent place. Read more…
Will we be federating with Facebook/Meta's microblogging site, Threads?
No.
Why not?
The genocide, mostly.
Sweet. Who else blocks Threads?
Check out the Anti-Meta Fedi Pact for a list of signatories.
Here's why I think you're wro—{#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER
Over the past several months, numerous large servers run by single individuals have shut down abruptly or made irreversible moderation decisions. A few have been widely defederated after it became apparent the admin went AWOL and stopped updating the software and moderating.
In my opinion, a major factor in these events is servers growing too fast for the existing mod/admin team to manage, and it's important for admins to set some ground rules for themselves ahead of time about when to pause registrations or recruit more moderators. But that's a pretty complex matter and it will be different for everybody.
However, at the bare minimum, more than one person should have the "keys" to a server, so to speak—even if it is a very small server where admin and moderation work can be done by one person. It's even part of the Mastodon covenant—the standards required for a server to appear in the list at joinmastodon.org. Read more…