Notices by Elena Rossini 🌈 (_elena@mastodon.social)

I'm feeling IMMENSE gratitude towards you, the people of the Fediverse, today and every day.

Thank you for caring about:

💜 privacy
❤️ alt text / accessibility
🧡 digital sovereignty / self-hosting
💛 the indie web
💚 human creativity
🩵 the environment

and also for:
💙 rebelling against Big Tech

Here I feel like I found a community of like-minded people... Thank you for making me feel part of a great mission.

#GratefulForYou

Dear Fedi friends,

I want to share a discovery that made my MONTH.

10 days ago, while I was putting together the slides for my presentation at Berlin #FediDay, I noticed a new entry in the @cercle directory (the Mastodon instance set up by the Service Numérique of the French Ministry of Culture):

✨ @MuseeOrsay ✨

Ouiiiiii!

Paris' super prestigious museum - that welcomed 7.3 million visitors last year - is now on the #Fediverse !!! 🥳

Let's give Musée d'Orsay a warm welcome ❤️

Me: "I want to learn German."

Them: "Why would you do that? Don't bother!"

Me: "Because I spend half my time on the Fediverse clicking on the 'Translate' button."

I can't help it if so many of the awesome accounts I follow are in German. And I want to be able to understand their messages without clicking on 'Translate' 50+ times a day. Plus this way I would understand / could attend ALL the talks at Berlin #FediDay.

I'm putting this here so that people hold me accountable 😅🤗

@aral my second slide about the Gaza Verified team. I am super grateful @fabio @casey @joynewacc @aseelfromgz @rania40 for all you do 🙏

@gazaverified

@aral I know! That's why I gave a shout-out to the amazing team of volunteers in my other slide ❤️

https://mastodon.social/@_elena/117262424960026140

Thank you for all you do!

@aseelfromgz @rania40 @casey @joynewacc @fabio

Good morning Fedi friends!

Yesterday was such an incredible, energizing day of presentations at Berlin #FediDay. And very intense!

I simply wanted to give a shout-out to the people doing incredible things on the Fediverse, whose stories I shared in my presentation:

💙 @aral and @gazaverified
💚 @stefano and @admin + @littlefedi_official
💛 @jonassmith and @smk
❤️ Christine, @imacrea and @cercle

You all give me so much hope 💜

@aral @ayl @berlinfediday @gazaverified yes! I even had a slide with pics and names of the amazing Gaza Verified volunteers ❤️

RE: https://berlin.social/@berlinfediday/117247022137409672

If you want to watch my #FediDay talk live tomorrow, I’m on at 12:00 🙈

Now on my way to Berlin. I can’t wait!

Earlier this week I unsubscribed from #1Password and moved to #Bitwarden... due to their donation of 300k to DHH's #Omarchy.

I made sure to let them know about the reason, so that hopefully the company would notice those kind of decisions have an impact.

Day one I got messages from their AI system.

But today I got a response by a real human at 1Password (or so it appears).

If you are curious about the company's official response to the backlash, check out the screenshot (and/or #AltText)

@aral unbelievable! (actually, totally believable, greedy b------s)

I remember fondly how last year I would spin up VPSs for self-hosting experiments. CPX21 was something like 3 or 4 Euros a month. I don't dare look at the current price.

Avari!

Shots were fired... in German, because when a mainstream TV station runs a 2 minute commercial for a teeny tiny dormant social network, which is a trojan horse for mandatory age verification, staying silent isn't an option.

🔗 : https://aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01KZX7EVD20ENF7C7CW1F7W633

If what attracts them to #WSocial is their 24k users, well, #Eurosky has the same but much much livelier activity.

So when is @tagesschau planning to cover Eurosky? Or - dare I say - the FEDIVERSE with its millions of accounts?

Oh happy day! 🎊

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd68q3wynnqo

To be fair, 166 billion dollars would have been fairer, but I'm ok with this too, over the usual joke of a fine.

#Meta #BigTech #DownWithMeta #Broligarchy

@lxo thanks Alexandre! So funny, last night I had a dream I was at an hackers conference (one of only two women on a panel). Aw if only I could learn the skills 😅 Love the HOPE name for it ❤️

Surprising good news from 🇫🇷 !

"France's Constitutional Council strikes down social media ban for under-15s"

🔗 : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2026/08/14/france-s-constitutional-council-strikes-down-ban-on-social-media-for-under-15s_6756507_13.html

"In its decision, the Constitutional Council raised concerns about the possible impact on privacy from instituting an age-verification system for all users."

Wow! I was not expecting this at all.

#privacy #AgeVerification #France

@aral I had completely missed this and I’m so sorry Aral!

Glad that Codeberg took swift action.

I think it’s the same person who harassed me 2 years ago when I was taking too long to write an article about Sharkey and he made up crazy conspiracy theories about me

Special day today: the home screen of my jailbroken e-reader informed me I hit a 100-day reading streak. This week's average reading time has been 42 minutes a day 🥳

I owe it all to #KOreader and #SimpleUI - somehow having visible metrics motivated me to pick up my #Kindle every day.

I wrote more about it on my #GoToSocial account: https://aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01KR0PEJEZ00Y7506QFE60TKA3

If you are interested in doing something similar, the website https://kindlemodding.org is a phenomenal resource.

#KindleJailbreak

@sknob @aral pure fire 🔥🔥🔥

For the record, I am positively fuming over the new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in France.

How convenient that this way Big Tech behemoths like Meta, X and TikTok won't have to change a thing. (Don't get me started about Grok, which should have been banned MONTHS ago).

AGE isn't the problem. It's the TOXIC, PREDATORY, EXTRACTIVE nature of these platforms that is the real issue.

They are getting away scot-free. I hate it. All I can do is speak up with those around me 🫤

The scariest thing about new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in Europe (France, I was expecting more from you) is to see the positive reactions of my family members, who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the arguments discussed in the media. "It's to protect the children!" No it isn't.

I'm sending this superb article by the @eff to all of them:
🔗: https://www.eff.org/issues/age-verification

Now is the time to #resist and speak up and educate those around us ✊ #privacy

Good morning Fedi friends,

I have been feeling a rising anxiety over the state of the open web and the fediverse - after seeing efforts by politicians all over the world (in Europe too!) to introduce age verification laws for social media.

My way of coping?

Teaching people how to self-host their own Fediverse profile (using the superb #GoToSocial) via #YunoHost.

Chapter 1 in this series is available here:

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-gotosocial-part-1-installation-and-set-up/

#resist #blog #ActivityPub #selfhosting