The #fediverse is dramatically changing the way I view social media. For-profit platforms trained me (and others, I'm sure) to value aligning with the almighty algorithm over authenticity. This place feels like a natural evolution of the original idea - long before #socialmedia went so wrong.

Has anyone ever met #AlanMoore? —

Hi everyone at BSD Cafe,
I’d like to start by thanking everyone for being part of this community - your presence and support truly mean a lot!
This message will appear across all my BSD Cafe social accounts, as I’d like to make sure it reaches everyone. Apologies for the duplication, but I genuinely believe it’s important.

Lately, there have been some discussions and questions surrounding content moderation on our instance, and I wanted to take a moment to offer some clarity and reaffirm the spirit of our community.

As you know, BSD Cafe was founded as a space primarily focused on technology, with a special place for *BSD and open source. More importantly, though, I want it to be a positive, welcoming, and constructive place for everyone. Our community guidelines, especially principles like "Promote Positivity" and "Be Kind", are central to this vision.
I've seen questions arise, sometimes involving accusations of political censorship from different perspectives, regarding why certain posts might be moderated. I want to be very clear on this: My moderation approach focuses primarily on the tone and manner of communication, not the specific topic itself.
I don't intervene simply because a post discusses politics, a particular tech company, or any potentially divisive subject. I do step in when a post, regardless of the topic or the viewpoint being expressed, adopts a tone that is:
* Provocative or intentionally confrontational.
* Aggressive or disrespectful towards other users or groups.
* Overly negative without constructive intent.
* Contrary to our core principles of kindness and mutual respect.
This standard applies equally to everyone and every "side". If someone were to post something like "Users of X software are idiots", I would address that just as readily as any other topic presented in a hostile way, even if I personally dislike software X.
The goal isn't to "censor" opinions, but to preserve an environment where discussions, even critical ones, can happen civilly and respectfully, without descending into flame wars or personal attacks. We aim to be a space that is pro-constructive dialogue and pro-positivity, not anti-anyone.
BSD Cafe is our shared digital home. Let's continue working together to keep it a pleasant and rewarding place where we can share ideas, learn, and connect over our shared passions (tech and beyond!), feeling comfortable and respected.

Thank you sincerely for your understanding and for everything you contribute to making BSD Cafe a special community!
Let's keep building this positive space together.

Looking at Solid Project: Can anyone give an overview of how this fits together with or complements ActivityPub?

https://solidproject.org/TR/protocol

Throwback to this illust that took me forever bc my laptop was dying and Ps was too much for it. This is more than A DECADE old.

#mastoart #fediverse #fediart #creativetoots #pixelfed #artistsontoot

I’m proud to be joining @Mastodon’s Board of Directors to guide and support this important platform.

I believe that #Mastodon and the #Fediverse represent some of the most important advancements in social networking design and technology. They have the potential to reverse the harms wrought by the monolithic social media platforms of yesterday.

But even more than that, Mastodon and the Fediverse can be so much more than what we are against. We have so much potential. I believe in all of our power to build and change the world. We start by building and convening in healthier online communities because our strength together is far more than the sum of our differences. I believe in building technologies that help bring out the best in humanity; I believe in the amazing things we can do and be when we work together.

I love Mastodon. I love what we are and what we will be. Now let’s build a better world together 💞

Linux communities beware of #PewDiePie fans

Regardless of PewDiePie’s personal #politics (which clearly, at the very least are problematic), it is fairly well known by anyone who has been following him for any number of years that the vast majority of his fan base are enthusiastic fascists.

Now #PewDiePie , who’s content centers around PC gaming and Windows, has decided to switch to #Linux and published a video encouraging his followers to do the same. This means a very large number of his #fascist fan base is going to be switching to Linux.

Now many Linux communities are going to be forced to more explicitly choose their politics. Like the parable of the Nazi bar, if the community remains politically neutral, it will become fascist in short order.

A few things to be wary of:

• People asking you not to be “too political” or to “focus on the technology, not the politics” is a classic and highly effective fascist ruse to get moderators to lighten up on fascist elements posting in their community.
• People complaining about free speech rights. The #Internet and the #Fediverse is already a domain where people can speak freely about their politics by running their own server and building their own community with few to no government constraints. You don’t need to compromise on whether fascists have the right to free speech in your community.
• Arguments over your code of conduct (CC) and “safe spaces.” Keep them up-to-date. Research other people’s CCs, learn about the history of why these CCs came to be, learn about what the function of each clause of the code is included and phrased the way it is. These were usually designed to make explicit the fact that a community wants to be a safe space where underprivileged people can feel comfortable expressing themselves, and it is very easy to make people afraid to express themselves. Fascists understand these CCs and the concept of “safe spaces” were explicitly designed to exclude them, and often attack these ideas.

#introduction

Hi all you all know of me.

My name is Stu for anyone who hasn't heard of me.

I like technology and music and golf ⛳.

I love open source platforms and decentralized platforms.

#opensource #bsd #freebsd #linux #fediverse

@Gargron There is not a single word about the #Fediverse. What's going on there? Very strange. @cubicgarden

#Networking nerds: stop using and recommending american #Ubiquiti gear. Use #Mikrotik (from Latvia) and support a country that provides significant aid to Ukraine 🇱🇻 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62z6gljv2yo)

Plus, #Mikrotik is on the #Fediverse! @mikrotik

Hello #Fediverse! Let's see if the mentions work as expected by acknowledging some people that helped me get online:

Thanks @grunfink@comam.es for the #snac server, @stefano@bsd.cafe for the blog posts that pointed me to it, @voron@snac.nya.pub for the theme and @manton@manton.org for motivating me with your book

Throwback to this unique plushie I made back in 2023. I tend to forget about it but I actually love it! Look at that little guy!

@p @epsi @Stellar @NonPlayableClown Are they actually going to leave #4chan then? Make a new forum? Spin up their own #rebased / #Soapbox / #Mastodon instance on the #Fediverse?

Seems like many users are leaving for #8chan tho.

Very excited to be at an in-person @Mastodon aperitivo at #IJF25. @andypiper is welcoming us all and setting the stage. The #fediverse can help build a more free, more international, more democratic social web.

Pixelfed before v0.12.5 has a vulnerability where it could leak your private posts, regardless of whether you are a Pixelfed user or not.
Admins should update ASAP.

When following someone from a different server on the Fediverse, the remote server decides whether you are allowed to do that. This enables features like locked accounts. Due to an implementation mistake, Pixelfed ignores this and allows anyone to follow even private accounts on other servers. If a legitimate user from a Pixelfed instance follows you on your locked account, anyone on that Pixelfed instance can read your private posts.

I wrote a blog post about how I found the vulnerability, how disclosure coordination went and general ramblings about Fediverse safety:
https://fokus.cool/2025/03/25/pixelfed-vulnerability.html

I just discovered why some of my followers from larger #Mastodon instances (like mastodon.social) would mysteriously unfollow me after a while!

A pull request was just merged in Mastodon that fixes a critical bug in their follower synchronization mechanism.

Turns out Mastodon implements the FEP-8fcf specification (Followers collection synchronization across servers), but it expected all followers to be in a single page collection. When followers were split across multiple pages, it would only see the first page and incorrectly remove all followers from subsequent pages!

This explains so much about the strange behavior I've been seeing with #Hollo and other #Fedify-based servers over the past few months. Some people would follow me from large instances, then mysteriously unfollow later without any action on their part.

Thankfully this fix has been marked for backporting, so it should appear in an upcoming patch release rather than waiting for the next major version. Great news for all of us building on #ActivityPub!

This is why I love open source—we can identify, understand, and fix these kinds of interoperability issues together. 😊

@GossiTheDog "Mastodon" really needs to get cracking on full data portability, IMHO.

It's a shame this hasn't been pushed higher up on the list of things to do.

I think many people have invested quite a bit of time and effort into their posts and profiles, and moving all that data, or somehow managing a switch-over doesn't seem to be that simple, if at all possible.

New: Fediverse Report 109

This week, an essay about #Bluesky's proposal for setting user preferences on their accounts. This allows people to indicate how they want their data to be handled off-protocol. I wrote about how the #fediverse can improve on this, using its strengths of many different communities, each with its own culture and values.

Also:
- Next week is the digital conference @fediforum
- A research dataset to compare Threads and Mastodon users

Read at:

Mastodon Pro Tip: Ever miss "that good post" you made a while back? Just search for it! Type in the search bar:

from:me word

And there it is.

My campaign on Instagram and Facebook for a migration to the Fediverse. Funnily enough, it brought a lot of new friends from the Fediverse itself.

What's up with mastodon.social instance @Gargron?
Yesterday it was cdn.concert.io and today it's admanager.concert.io.

There is absolutely no explanation over why they are integrated with the instance. Once again thanks to #TrackerControl which exposed these integrations.

It's time to ditch the mastoson.social instance.

Saddling small sites with the same duties as huge platforms means many will shut down in a hammer blow to net plurality.

We'll be left with the Sophie’s choice of monopoly services; the incubators of online harms.

URGENT: The UK government must change the Online Safety Act to protect safe, non-commercial blogs, forums and fediverse.

Write to your MP to #SaveOurSites 🌐

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp

During my talk today at the Fediverse House, I quoted @danirabbit :

RE: https://mastodon.online/@danirabbit/113919277314661343

I think I just onboarded someone to the fediverse. I didn’t say “decentralized” or “open source” or “server” or even mention email lol I just said “It’s like you can follow anyone from any social network and there’s no ads”

@newyorktimes's veteran tech reporter John Markoff interviewed some of #TeamFediverse including @Gargron, @reckless1280 and our CEO @mike for a feature on the rise of decentralized social media. “It goes back to the original principles where the internet started out as decentralized,” Eugen Rochko told Markoff. Here's the full story [may be paywalled].

We're so excited to develop these conversations further at SXSW this weekend — check out the itinerary and sign up to join us at #FediverseHouse at the second link.

https://flip.it/NcjhLL

https://lu.ma/xbve5fa0