Posts by bob@soc.freedombone.net
(DIR) Post #9k18IfYpO5S4PCDdg0 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-19T21:19:08.093347Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
This was never really true. I know that memory fades easily, but not that long ago we had the whole Snowden thing and before that Wikileaks. A bunch of devs did a bunch of things for explicitly political reasons and made corresponding decisions in line with their beliefs.GPG. I know it's hated and even renounced by its original developer but it's still core infrastructure for a lot of operating systems. Invented with political aims for political reasons. Tor also.There are many other examples but these are just the most obvious.
(DIR) Post #9k18JOY080WpvfB78S by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-19T21:22:24.962587Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@frickhaditcoming Not entirely, but maybe in part. The original GNU manifesto isn't highly anticapitalist, although I think it does mention capitalism as a problem.
(DIR) Post #9k18Kg2YZkuWTJ58EK by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-19T21:28:19.984319Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@carcinopithecus It's a while since I read it, but if I put my Stallman platter hat on at a rakish angle I expect he would say that GNU was not anticapitalist because the questions of price and profit were always secondary issues and that the freedom to share software was foremost.
(DIR) Post #9k33k94Hg1yOHj8Og4 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-20T17:46:59.601200Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@seven @cwebber As the Mastodon developer said earlier, shared blocklists might be quite a bad idea. There would be much less independent scrutiny and so innocent users could easily end up being "cancelled" for malicious reasons. Adversaries might use shared blocklists against us.
(DIR) Post #9k3ZfBpbAo0rwKwjSK by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-20T17:53:07.868485Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cwebber @emacsen The recent and thankfully brief spam epidemic highlights a weakness. A spammer can sign up on lesser used but otherwise legitimate public instances, whose admins will not be watching them like a hawk, and they can keep doing that indefinitely. The more the fediverse grows and the more public instances there are then the more this could become something other than a mere annoyance.I think the real solution is a Zot-like protocol with varying levels of access. Rather than just follow/unfollow you can have more granularity about what other users can post on your timeline.
(DIR) Post #9k42Ior8oLCiz3LwXo by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T06:50:40.856053Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
@sean Tabloids are the original fake news
(DIR) Post #9k49MLF9YGCpylD90K by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T08:28:58.397656Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
https://apnews.com/46da2dbe04f54adbb875cfbc06bbc615
(DIR) Post #9k4CYd8V9VlUoGeQTI by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T08:57:07.569322Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@bort @popstar My rule of thumb is that if you see people posting bad stuff then check the local timeline of the instance they're coming from. If it looks like a den of illegal content, hate speech and alt-right dogwhistle phrases then block the instance, otherwise block the individual account. Also if people I follow begin routinely boosting bad stuff into my timeline then I just unfollow them.
(DIR) Post #9k4CYdU7r73vtKlhB2 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T09:07:24.761385Z
1 likes, 2 repeats
@popstar @bort Yes. There does seem to be a high correlation between instances with anime girl avatars and alt-right goons.
(DIR) Post #9k4gwWs55sKoxFHa3k by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T14:32:22.431356Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@fitheach I saw the video and found it amazing that there were people defending this man. But we live in evil times.
(DIR) Post #9k4pQ28aizbLxMaJfc by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T15:07:53.373044Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This is what the modern Conservative party looks like. Brutal and thuggish. Strangling the oppressed. Its paper thin veneer of respectability temporarily interrupted to expose the hideousness which lurks beneath the surface.mark_field.jpg
(DIR) Post #9k6WiQyjaycVOnxFia by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-22T09:22:30.265282Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
So depending upon how long it takes I may delay the next Freedombone release a little. It's becoming clear to me that the current blocklist model for fediverse servers is inadequate and that it's impractical to try to keep up with an ever growing list of sites controlled by adversaries.So I think I'll retire gnusocial and postActiv until such time as I can operate them from an allowlist of domains, and switch Pleroma over to using that. I can pre-populate the list with a few popular instances and then the userop can add their own as needed.This would make it far less likely for new people getting into the fediverse via self-hosting to have to deal with an off-putting assortment of disturbing/illegal content. If the initial user experience is bad people are less likely to want to be in the fediverse.
(DIR) Post #9k6YjSCYjYBfOF2EsK by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T08:06:32.377410Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bort Pretty much yes. There is always the question of ceding space there, and that if there are no opposition voices on Twitter then it becomes entirely a mouthpiece of the establishment. But the ability to have control of your timeline there is so weak that really only the most combative personalities end up remaining active.
(DIR) Post #9k6Yxob8GGfKuBNQjw by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-21T07:18:30.505283Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@bort This type of thing is also a problem for new entrants. Unless they're only following a small number of accounts they're likely to encounter a bunch of bad stuff and that doesn't give a good initial impression. If gab federates then this problem is likely to get worse.
(DIR) Post #9k6Zpw9APWN9xI6U52 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-20T15:20:57.497097Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Production and Realization https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n32KkclZQQ0
(DIR) Post #9k6abEhbEw3h78lNoW by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-22T09:24:55.949270Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
This was people are making a conscious choice about who to federate with, and are not just having stuff foisted upon them without consent.
(DIR) Post #9k6abFBjQuA4carRmS by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-22T11:42:34.410980Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@deutrino I'm planning on retaining the existing blocklist functionality and could maybe have that switchable. Much of the blocklist will still be needed for XMPP, email, Matrix, etc.
(DIR) Post #9k6tfSFchq4LQFP1WK by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-22T16:19:49.660701Z
3 likes, 0 repeats
@dude This kind of issue has been raised many times over the previous decades. I don't think the above license will work, because it's not legally viable.To have a Free Software license which has usefulness in a court then you need to get it passed by a copyright lawyer. Using invalid licenses merely means that other people or any political persuasion can use the software *for any purpose without limitation* and that other Free Software developers probably can't use the software due to lack of legal enforceability.
(DIR) Post #9k6vOKLl1q1ru3EU08 by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-22T16:39:25.983231Z
3 likes, 1 repeats
@dude I'm sympathetic towards keeping the fascists out, but the license isn't the way to achieve that. Fascists aren't going to read the license and think "better not use this".
(DIR) Post #9k8Ch3JMUjvKwJaQka by bob@soc.freedombone.net
2019-06-23T07:28:25.884874Z
3 likes, 2 repeats
I may leave the fediverse for a while. Despite a lot of firefighting my threat model is clearly broken. It's time to step back and reconsider whether the fediverse is still a useful medium. Once again, Mike McGirvin was right.