pleroma.debian.social

pleroma.debian.social

jlines | @jlines@pleroma.debian.social

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@mike @jdp23 @rwg I see one of the biggest problems with current social media is that the algorithms keep showing readers more of what they like to see, but rather like issues of highly processed foods, it is not always a good thing to be fed only what you like.

@mike @rwg @jdp23 I see Flipboard and similar as being able to add value as content aggregators, similar to the way the BBC has ‘The Papers‘ articles on its website. Flipboard, by working with publishers, hence filtering out unreliable sources, could give access to a spectrum of views on, say Electric cars.

@mnot @1br0wn sometimes I am so tempted to tap someone on the shoulder and say 'I am so sorry your piles are painful' or whatever personal thing they are discussing, or comment on a film or restaurant they have mentioned.

@rwg @jdp23 @mike Very much agree on the running their own servers - while appreciating Flipboard's promotion of the Fediverse. Flipboard, and Facebook, Twitter etc flatten the name space, removing useful clues for the reader about the real source. If something appears on a monolithic site, which appears to be from something like a source you trust, you could easily be misled. The reader is expected to trust the platform, not the source.

@Paulatics you certainly came across better, I felt slightly sorry for Marc, as it is hard to be the man on the ground stuck with defending an indefensible position. Canada would benefit from looking at the European Union @EUCommission which appears to be demonstrating world leadership in this space.

@cwebber I have been an XMPP fan for ages, and find it really frustrating that due to networking effects (of the social kind) everyone non technical is hooked on WhatsApp and how good and useful it is (and it is, I use it, but reluctantly), when the concept of Instant Messaging is good and useful. I am very concerned about Who pays for WhatsApp . People assume the WhatsApp fairy.

re: The problem of proving 'real' identity

I have written more on The Proof of Identity Problem on my blog

The problem of proving 'real' identity

As the world becomes more digital increasing numbers of organisations want us to “prove” that we are who we claim to be. There is a fundamental problem there, in that, in a digital world, if I give organisation X the proof that I am some particular person, there exists the possibility that someone will use this same information to “prove” to organisation Y that they are me.

@lcamtuf I was looking for steganographic software within Debian, and came across snowdrop, and although it did not meet my needs I appreciated the diversion into vacuum tubes and banknotes

@stefano there are many good things about cloud technology, but clouds do not *have* to be remote and run by some external cloud provider. There are also advantages for privacy and security about putting more thought into where data should be, which need not be the same place for all data. Also a more local cache, fetched in advance from a central location would allow things to proceed in the event of a comms issue.

@jwildeboer @EUCommission I have been following them for some time. Although I am not an EU citizen they often demonstrate understanding of areas such as software freedom and the need for social media platforms which are not controlled by giant commercial entities. I wish more government level entities had the same level of awareness.

re: Another reason to dislike WhatsApp

@john as well as concerns about Who pays for WhatsApp

Monitoring for mail delivery problems

After an issue where a large mail provider stopped accepting mail from my default outgoing mail server (detected by my wife, who sends more mail than I do) I decided I had better know if this happens again, and have written it up as Monitoring for email delivery problems in case it is useful to someone else.

RFC 9518 - Centralization, Decentralization, and Internet Standards

RFC 9518 is another thoughtful document from Mark Nottingham @mnot regarding the balance of Centralization and Decentralization in standards. I would add Network Time to that, were I not writing from Oxford (famous for Oxford Time) and https://xkcd.com/2867

Federated attacker/trust information
I am pondering the use of ActivityPub for distributing information about bad actors on the internet. Something like a fail2ban action which would publish on securitybot@social.examplle.com a structured message carrying the meaning "192.168.12.7 has just blocked 10.1.99.5 for SSH bad password attempts". It could follow, for example securitybot@social.example.net etc, and so on and decide to add possible attackers to its own blocklists.

@nik @fsf as a general case I find it alarming how many web sites (almost all) on the Internet, run Javascript from external sites, so that even if you are visiting a site you trust you are running code from, from Meta (Facebook), Twitter (or X or whatever they are today), Google, and often a dozen tracking companies without your knowledge - unless you use NoScript, or 'Use the Source, Luke' - often an alarming experience.

re: pleroma on social.paladyn.org upgraded to 2.5.5
@gantua @john I am, but some of this is an experiment to find a route to package projects, such as pleroma, where verifying Freeness is an obstacle to even starting the process.

re: pleroma on social.paladyn.org upgraded to 2.5.5

@gantua @john There is certainly a lot to do, both in the copyright file and in a source package for the front-end. However making access to the Fediverse simpler seems an important goal, and I am trying to find a way to a usable and maintainable package in bite sized chunks. Would love to see some Fediverse packages in trixie.

re: pleroma on social.paladyn.org upgraded to 2.5.5
@john @gantua I wonder if a pleroma-deps package containing all the currently unpackaged erlang dependencies, in experimental/non-free would be a stepping stone towards a package in experimental/contrib. They could move to main by a mixture of modules being packaged if they were independently useful, or the process of working through the copyright file.

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