Notices by Fancy Sandwiches (fancysandwiches@urbanists.social)

@mekkaokereke @ScottStarkey @ajsadauskas @MishaVanMollusq Mastodon isn't just underfunded though. It's also helmed by a person who is resistant to changes from anyone outside, and actively pushes back against changes that would benefit everyone. If you gave Mastodon a pile of cash today you still wouldn't see a lot of progress.

Mastodon desperately needs an io.js type fork to happen. Something that removes Gargron from the critical path, and rapidly adds much requested features to Mastodon, with the ultimate goal of being merged back into Mastodon and Gargron agreeing to change how the project is managed.

That or maybe we should start putting our eggs in another basket (GoToSocial sure looks interesting).

@FlashMobOfOne Very much looking forward to seeing more of Macho Man

Hey Fedi I need your help! People are illegally harvesting threatened #Cicadas species on a massive scale at Big Foot Beach State Park in Wisconsin and taking them to sell in wet markets. The park staff are aware, as is the local DNR Conservation Warden, but they're not taking action. Can you please take a few minutes and call the DNR Violation Hotline? 1-800-847-9367. Say that you were told about people illegally harvesting cicadas at Big Foot Beach State Park in Lake Geneva #WI. Please Boost!

@confluency the "just install linux crowd" are so infuriating. I "just installed" it a few weeks ago, and had to spend at least 30 hours tweaking shit to get a "normal" and usable experience, and there's no way I could have done any of that in the amount of time that I did, without being a huge nerd that used to use Linux full time over a decade ago. It's not viable unless you're someone steeped in this stuff, which most people aren't, and don't have time to be.

@FlashMobOfOne I just started the same journey as you a few weeks ago. So far everything I've wanted to play, except one game (Yakuza Kiwami 1), has run flawlessly. I've been delightfully surprised.

@matt @FlashMobOfOne yeah, if not gparted any other related tool should work, the important part is doing it outside of the existing OS.

Well manicured lawns are for idiots

Is there a non-mobile client that lets me schedule toots? I have so many photos that I could probably post at least one a day for like a year, but it's too hard for me to sit down and do it one at a time. I'd like to just spend a day uploading photos and writing alt text and be done for a while.

Big shout out to the @alt_text bot. My last post had a picture which I had written alt text for, but the client I was using encountered an error on my first attempt to post the picture. On my later successful attempt it apparently dropped the alt text, but posted everything else. The wonderful alt text bot sent me a DM as a reply to the post, I doubt I would have realized on my own.

@Covok @inthehands @jenniferplusplus I think it's going to be the Enron thing. Some company deemed too big to fail will go all in on AI, and fail miserably. This will make it much more appealing to report on how bad all of this shit is, so we'll see more mainstream reports on how bad this tech actually is. This is basically what happened to crypto after FTX fell over.

@tchambers @smallpatatas @timbray @lauren @fediversenews @spreadmastodon "I have an account I created on Mastodon to test how this integration works" is not the same as "oh wow, I have seen the light and am moving from Threads to Mastodon".

ProTip: If you're using PayPal to make an international purchase check if your financial institution charges you fees for international purchases first. PayPal will default you into paying in USD via a conversion rate they set, but you can opt out an pay at your financial institution's conversion rate. I did this today and save about $3.00 on a $50 purchase.

@tokyo_0 Yeah, the old slip some ads in the RSS feed trick. I do think that they will try to throw their weight around as the largest server in the fediverse and try to get other servers to agree to putting ads in the feed for a cut of the profits. I also think they'll try to have ads (or at least some mechanism that would enable ads) put into the AP spec.

I don't think they'll do this right away, because it's going to be a lot harder to get folks to defederate after a while.

@tokyo_0 I would not be surprised if they offered servers an improved frontend to Mastodon that was fully instrumented with analytics and ads.

I want to take a minute and address "Meta cannot possibly inject ads into your feed" . Yes, technically speaking it would be effectively impossible for Threads to inject ads into your feed. But y'all are forgetting how ads on social platforms work. Every post from a brand is an ad, whether or not they're paying Meta to forcibly put it into someone's feed. If you follow Wendy's you're going to see their ads, and Wendy's isn't going to need to pay Meta for you to see the content.

#Meta #Threads

"But I would never follow Wendy's!" you shout at your screen. Yes, *you're* not going to follow Wendy's but if someone you follow boosts or replies to a Wendy's ad, you're going to see the ad in your feed.

Look at the Wendy's Threads profile, they get hundreds of replies and thousands of likes. I don't know how many boosts, Threads doesn't say. If they pay Meta to boost a post they'll get even more likes, replies, and boosts, increasing the chances of an ad reaching your feed.

#Meta #Threads

So yeah, technically speaking it's impossible for Threads to inject ads into your feed as long as you're not on Threads. However, Wendy's (and literally any other brand) can use the tools they get on Threads, plus classic viral marketing techniques, to get their posts into your feed. Threads will be the largest instance on the Fediverse by a couple orders of magnitude, the influence they will have will be outsized.

#Meta #Threads #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Facebook #Instagram

I would like to buy a laser pointer for my cat, she loves chasing light, but I cannot find a reputable source for quality laser pointers. I don't want to buy one of those trash keychain ones sold at most pet stores, but I also don't want to buy a super powerful one that is too bright for my cat. I'd like something with decent build quality, I don't need it to be rechargeable because I have a ton of rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. Does anyone have a suggestion?

#cats #laser