@maegul@hachyderm.io cover
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

maegul

@maegul@hachyderm.io

A little bit of computing and a little bit of neuroscience.

he/him/they

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

maegul , to Fediverse News
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Iceshrimp: A fediverse platform

Was just told (by @Subversivo ) about this: https://iceshrimp.dev/iceshrimp/iceshrimp.net

are rewriting the whole thing (a JS/Node / fork) in C# with Blazor for the frontend.

Cool to see. Should handle the performance issues that have plagued the *key forks and maybe provide a new general branch of fediverse platform.

What lang/stack isn't represented on the fediverse now? C++, Kotlin?

@fediverse
@fediversenews

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@mick_collins @Subversivo @fediverse @fediversenews

I'm not familiar enough (or at all) with C#, but AFAICT, it could make an instance more stable, as firefish and misskey have struggled with handling a decent amount of users and C# could be a faster system for the server.

Also, a re-write sometimes is a good thing. And, developers have different preferences for languages, so having a C# project around enables C# devs to more easily contribute to the fedi.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@ark_lamp_umbrella @Subversivo @fediverse @fediversenews

Rust is covered (lemmy) and AFAIU akkoma is in elixir (so kinda erlang).

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

UI differences are a big factor in the success/failure of decentralised federation of diverse platforms and content

And this seems a good example: bridged posts onto which has a lower character limit than Mastodon.

So, just like posts on mastodon, you don't get the full content of the post (which ends with an abrupt ellipsis here) and have to take a link to the original platform.

However powerful the underlying protocols, this isn't far from screenshots.

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@can

Lemmy federates pretty well with mastodon. From mastodon you can follow a community as you would any person/user.

There are two major problems though.

  1. everything in that community comes through as a flat firehose, including comments. There's structuring into posts with comments inside.
  2. Mastodon doesn't understand the type of object lemmy sends over ActivityPub, and so simply provides a title and a link to the original post.

Also, you can just follow lemmy users on mastodon.

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Zagorath @Teppichbrand

And to really get it you have to have been a vulnerable commuter (cyclist etc) in an encounter with a car where they've clearly just not seen you and will kill you if you're not constantly on the look out for such things.

Despite being well informed about such things I was still shocked my "first time" as I watched a car just turn into me like I wasn't there while the driver was looking elsewhere.

cars were already a problem. Weaponising them with tech hype is toxic.

hrefna , to random
@hrefna@hachyderm.io avatar

This statement is going to live rent-free in my head for a long time to come, I suspect. #ActivityPub

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @adamhotep @tchambers

I’m probably out of the loop or daft on something. Is there any reason in particular why it’s gonna live rent free or why the comment about screenshots strikes so hard?

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @adamhotep @tchambers

Incidentally I recently ranted along similar lines, bringing up screen shots: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul@akkomane.social/112278407165110460

“
In fact, I’d argue that what we have now is strange. Each piece of social media interaction has to get translated into whatever my current platform decides is the appropriate format and understanding of that interaction. In reality, that’s really not much progress on the screen shots used to share inter-platform content on big (unfederated) social media.
“

maegul , (edited ) to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

The fediverse won’t succeed at putting up a substitute and that’s a problem?

Just an impression: All the pieces seem to be there. But what’s required is a team, with devs, PMs and coordinators, dedicated to making a particular place in the .

That’s resources and decently sized financial and organisational demands, especially to get a critical mass of users.

Is the fediverse up to that challenge? If not, is it an issue worth addressing?

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@admin

Some, maybe many, hope for the decentralised model of the fediverse to “take back the internet”. Each time a commercial platform “enshitifies“, there are then calls for the fediverse to replace it with a federated alternative, in part to take advantage of the moment of user agitation.

But, IMO, resources and financial support are a touchy topic in the fediverse. If such has lead to a mismatch between ambition and opportunity, and, capability, that may be worth addressing.

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@ajsadauskas @lemmyreader

Yep! It seems a good Threadiverse ecosystem could be on its way with lemmy etc, nodebb and discourse. Hooking a stack overflow alternative into that could make a lot of sense of kick starting it.

Though at some point UI differences could prove problematic(?)

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@weirdwriter @ajsadauskas @lemmyreader

Yes, forum platforms too (incl #nodebb of course).

I do get the (very vague) impression discourse is focusing on integrating well with masto to a good extent and so might not integrate too well with the other Reddit/forum platforms. If true, that might be a good enough reason to start with another base. OTOH, it’s a familiar platform to many devs so adapting it for stackoverflow like use could go well right?

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Nice demonstration of why mastodon's dominance is problematic

See the conversions here:
https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/4628
and
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/federating-the-content-of-posts-note-articles-and-character-limits/4087

AFAICT, mastodon's decisions, which are arguably problematic (on which see: https://lemmy.ml/post/14973403) are literally trickling down to other platforms and infecting how they federate with each other as they dance around mastodon's quirks in different ways.

It seems like masto is ruining "the standard" with its gravity.


@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Trainguyrom

Ha
AFAIU, two platforms other than mastodon (lemmy and discourse) have issues federating because at least one of them is trying federate well with mastodon (for obvious reasons). The mastodon quirk causing issues is, AFAIU, the way it kinda mangles articles and pages (long form formats in ActivityPub), which are appropriate for forums and link-aggregators like lemmy and discourse. So someone hints been done to work well with mastodon’s mangling, which hurts lemmy-discourse interop

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@p03locke

Yep, yep and ... yep!

maegul , (edited ) to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Reflecting on the firefish/calckey "moment"

which was about a year ago now, I can't help but suspect it was a small event with wider implications on the dominance of #mastodon in the #fediverse

I think it was the last chance to direct the twitter migration energy into discovering new/different fedi platforms.

And it was blown, with alt-social in a weird steady/waiting state that's smaller I suspect, than what many hoped for.

@fediverse
#firefish #calckey

cntd: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul/112358202238795371

1/

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

So the basic story would be that mastodon's dominance is pretty entrenched and the "migration" event is mostly "over" (whatever other "events" are on their way)

But I wonder about the details of the firefish moment

I think it revealed that there are/were plenty interested in novel & different platforms. We're novelty seekers after all right. Generally, I'd wager any new platform needs some degree of novelty to "make it".

Further, its collapse showed how hard creating a new platform is.

2/

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Firefish did well at presenting itself as "professional", capable and rich. But these were over-promises, and despite a number of people being involved or contributing, a good deal of user enthusiasm, the whole thing fell into a heap.

And that's the bit that concerns me. How many people/teams are there both capable and willing to put up a good, successful and sustainable platform?

The #firefish lesson may be that the fediverse just hasn't attracted a healthy building culture/personnel.
3/3

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@julian

Lol re "nodeBB".

AFAICT (where some rumours likely to have truth to them are behind this) the essential failure was a flawed lead dev and an excessive tolerance of their BDFL approach by fellow contributors and "backers".

When those flaws become critical there was no governance/org to compensate. That dev was making weird decisions on the fly that were ruining the platform. Then they walked and nothing was left. And so all the promise of being big/serious was facade/hype.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@BeAware @julian

I'm aware ... I'm talking about the "moment" that happened last year where some hype grew around it. Whatever survives now is clearly a distinct project IMO.

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

People are actually on BlueSky

There's now a decent measurement of user numbers (https://bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dev/bskycharts.edavis.dev/bsky_users_total.html) ...

They've got about 1.6M MAUs ...
& 0.8M Weekly unique users & 0.340M Daily.

That's not nothing!

Roughly double mastodon and 60% more than the whole fediverse (by MAUs, see fedidb.org).

Bluesky is quite "international" with large Japanese and Brazilian popltns, and there's real attrition happening IMO.

Still, let the protocol wars begin I suppose?

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@anderseknert @fediverse

LOL ... yea plenty right.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@anderseknert @fediverse

Fair (kinda the simple explanation why I'm anti-threads-federation).

While I'm no BlueSky-stan, the idea/promise of the system is a hybrid, which I think is generally worthwhile (especially while things like twitter and threads dominate) but also interesting.

How hybridised it becomes (and can become) is the question though with big outstanding questions.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Loukas @fediverse

Comparatively, it's definitely a lot more into shitposting vibes, for sure.

I think their biggest problem right now is they don't have good community self-organising features (nor masto, but the boost culture corrects for that IMO), so those who want more serious sub-cultures aren't getting much footing (and may never).

Feeds are interesting but not very fruitful IMO and hashtags are new, so it's a bit flat community-wise there, and many users are "wait & see" I suspect.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Loukas @fediverse

Agreed (and said the same myself)!

As I've said it ... alternative social has run its course in this post-musk-twitter moment. Everyone's settled down where they ended up.

And yea, either more major disruption or some new killer features (rather than clones of big social) will be needed to shake things up. Neither seem particularly likely in the short term ... your EU-meta smackdown is probably the best bet??

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Plugins for fediverse platforms.

Where is this up to? Is anyone thinking along these lines?

I've seen @db0 espouse such (eg https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/8581651) (sorry for the tag if annoying).

I've certainly thought of it myself ... because it's a pretty obvious idea for an ecosystem aiming for richness and sustainability.

Seems a perfect fit for reusable moderation tooling too, rather than each new platforms having that trouble.

This is essentially 's idea it seems.

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@box464 @db0 @fediverse

I’d forgotten about them (firefish/Misskey plugins) actually (we probably saw each other over on firefish “back in the day”).

maegul , to politics
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Not knowing US constitutional law, it seems to me the SCOTUS decision might mean that the Dems missed an opportunity when they had the house

That it’s a federal matter seems legally predictable/natural to me, and that it then falls to congress to enforce then also seems natural.

What am I missing on that?

Otherwise, what would the Dems have had to lose by passing an act when they had the house? The 14th was right there.


@politics

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@barney @politics

Who should enforce it then? Seems like exactly the sort of thing a court wouldn’t want to touch so as not to look too political, no?

Unless there’s no way around the fact that the 14th effectively creates a “constitutional crime” within federal courts’ jurisdiction that can be pardoned by a congress super majority, which would have been my intuitive reading.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@barney @politics

Were there not conversations at the time about how 14A would have been enforced? None of the issues around that are new and would have been obvious at the time.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@barney @politics

Sorry, just read 14A, sec 5:

> The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The decision seems pretty predictable to me then.

In fact it seems that this was never going anywhere and that the provisions are actually pretty weak. If an insurrectionist is popular enough to be a plausible presidential candidate, then they’re not unlikely to have significant support in congress.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@barney @politics

Yep that so makes sense to me now. Thanks! Seems like a petty bad decision then.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@jonnix @politics

Interesting. How could congress ever enforce this under 14A,s5?

maegul , to Work Reform
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Performance reviews are just employers controlling the narrative when employees are underpaid

Right?
If you underperform, brutal negotiations ensue … prove your value or the deal is off.

Buuut, if you’re overperforming, you get gold stickers and praise, and the possibility of a pay bump through a process controlled by the employer …

instead of you telling the employer that they have to prove their value or the deal is off.

Instead over performing then becomes the expectation.

@workreform

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@henfredemars

Yea. Which touches on the issue of who determines the performance score of an employee and how transparent and inclusive it is.

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Mastodon CVE Report

Didn't expect the mastodon CVE report/account would kinda end up being about platform diversity on the fediverse (TLDR: only mastodon really had the problem, which was huge)

https://arcanican.is/excerpts/cve-2024-23832/discovery.htm

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@skullgiver

The point though is that not all platforms had the problem, which means platform diversity would have lessened the significance.

maegul , to Fediverse News
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

The Fedipact statistics are interesting

7% of active users committed to - https://fedidb.org/current-events/anti-meta-fedi-pact

  • How representative of the user base is this, or are admins gatekeeping here? A large survey would be good to clear that up.

  • EG, Mastodon, relative to its userbase, seems the most "Meta friendly" with only 57% of fedipact users (but ~80% all users)

  • Fractal of niche-dom? Fedi ~1% of social media, fedi-pact ~ 10% of fedi. So anti-meta-fediverse ~0.1%?

@fediverse
@fediversenews

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@ada

Interesting! Cool to know that the actual number is higher than 7%.

In the end though how likely are Threads/Meta to not have hategroups?

Would it be a good idea to have a more accurate (and therefore higher) number on how many Threads defeds there are?

andybalaam , to Learning Rust and Lemmy
@andybalaam@mastodon.social avatar

The fediverse is working. I am now following (using Mastodon) a "Learning Rust" community on Lemmy [1], who I found through them commenting on my peertube video [2] using Lemmy.

[1] @learningrustandlemmy [2] https://diode.zone/w/wJJJ7DRh3fCvHq6KuZY3t9

#fediverse #rust #lemmy #peertube

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@andybalaam @learningrustandlemmy

This is an inception level of fediverse layers … I’m just rolling with it!

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Decent Decentralisation

https://berjon.com/decent-imaginaries/

Good counter to the focus on protocols.

> a protocol needs to achieve two things: it needs to prevent the accumulation of power imbalances between parties … and it needs to make it easy for users to cooperate in building the the rules they want for how the protocol's operation affects them … the success of decentralisation and … of a democratic digital world rides not only on liberation but also on organising.

@fediverse

By @robin

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@poVoq

Perhaps a totally fair critique.

But for me the instance node in the Fedi binds many things together however much their governance aims to be democratic: username, platform, defed policies, moderation, user data (ie posts).

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Mildly notable social media moment for me watching a Dr Becky video on YT.

In listing her "socials" she's got , and (and of course ).

link below

Is this the new central axis of social media?

Which is funny cuz I've never really been to any of those. No accounts and only visited IG a few times because something else linked there for some information.

Also, I didn't really notice Threads was succeeding.

https://youtu.be/3NeKR7bqolY?si=SJWzXyhk_S5jNdml&t=53

@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@makeasnek

Yea for sure. I’m not enough of YouTuber to use an account and comment though.

Plus I get the feeling that the astrophysics community kinda bounced off of the fediverse. But definitely worth a try.

maegul , to Fediverse
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Is decentralised federated social media over engineered?

Can't get this brain fart out of my head.

What would the simplest, FOSS, alternative look like and would it be worth it?

Quick thoughts:

  • FOSS platforms intended to be big single servers, but dedicated to ...
  • Shared/Single Sign On
  • Easy cross posting
  • Enabling and building universal Multi-platform clients.
  • Unlike email, supporting small servers

No duplication/federation/protocol required, just software.

#fediverse
@fediverse

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@strife @joeldebruijn

Yea this is the essence of the idea. Strip down the interop requirements as much as possible, relying on existing tech as much as possible, and allow software and norms to solve all the other problems, where, TBF, it seems that software is doing all the heavy lifting in the fediverse anyway, but also has to handle federation and the protocol.

maegul , to Work Reform
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

What the new tech creator-content platforms and economy miss

Adam Neely on "quitting " puts two ideas together (that I hadn't) and implicitly asks "what if the new platform/economy fails you"

Longevity and freedom from traditional gatekeepers. The content-creator economy fails on these promises.

Burn out is baked in and ignoring the traditional gate-keepers is at your own very serious risk.

The world is the same, tech is just milking us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RceZ8VS8PbQ

@workreform

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@mariyadelano @workreform

head rolling around in unbounded confirmation

Yep yep yep yep yep …

maegul , to AcademicChatter group
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@academicchatter

So I just learnt that J Physiol requires figures to be made with Biorender (https://www.biorender.com/), a VC backed subscription SaaS extend and extinguish of scientists drawing pictures!

Is this a thing now!? Complete privatisation of the publication workflow!?

Am I the only one enraged by this!? Pictures? We could have just made our own shared repository of useful graphics. Our own open source software. Uggghhh!

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@kraweel65 @academicchatter

I’m not in academia any more. So I don’t know where things are up to.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@NicoleCRust @academicchatter

Bizarre, yes, but as I said in the original thread, it seems well designed to trick researchers into thinking that it’s a standard that they may as well just use like MS Word.

A relatively tech illiterate lab leader will often just tell their students to use it in the same way they do everything else to please the journals. Because as far as they know illustration already works like documents and MS Word.

Rather shameful for an “academic institution”.

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