Notices by The Newsmast Foundation (newsmast@newsmast.social), page 5

Consent and connectivity. The Fediverse is a safe place for people to flee toxic social media. We need to hold on to this. As the hub expands its connections, at the same time we should carve out spaces which prioritise consent above connectivity. Not everyone wants to join “big fedi”, and we should respect that.

Equally as we increase connectivity, it’s essential to double down on moderation - adding more layers, at server level & across the network. The recent issue with spam hitting Bluesky from Nostr, via Mastodon and Bridgy Fed, shows how important this is. FediCheck, FIRES and Bluesky’s composable moderation are all great initiatives. We’re working on this too with Patchwork, our suite of server plug-ins.

People before protocols. We don’t want Fediverse servers to be just nodes or relays. Even if a service runs on ActivityPub, it’s not always right to connect to it. And sometimes to reach interesting people, we’ll need to connect across protocols.

For us bridging to Bluesky, and next to Nostr, isn’t about shitposters or bitcoiners, but to engage with thoughtful, stimulating people - and there are lots out there. That’s why we’re expanding our contributors, and launching opt-in posts from our Feeds on Bluesky.

Adding layers of moderation, putting people before protocols, building portable identities and amplifying diverse voices will enable us to influence the bigger networks we connect with, maintaining and growing the unique character and values of the Fediverse. More people deserve to benefit from what everyone has built here, creating a new social web beyond proprietary, predatory, profit-led platforms.

At the Newsmast Foundation we’re excited to play our part in making this happen.

Amplify diversity. If trolling is the essence of X, and Elon Musk the ultimate troll, we need to counter this by amplifying diverse voices, and protecting them from equally toxic reply guys.

A prominent black academic recently left Bluesky after being hounded in her comments, and the same has happened too often in the Fediverse. We need to celebrate and amplify diverse voices and dampen the dunkers. We’d like to expand our Amplifier technology (coming soon) to help with this.

A hub of technology and values in the social web

The Fediverse has a unique opportunity to act as a hub of technology and values in the wider social web. Equally, we need to respect those who want to stay in smaller, consent-based, safe spaces. Creating this helps the rest of the Fediverse to open up more freely.

As part of our mission to grow the social web, we’re now on Bluesky & Threads.

They’re very different spaces compared to what we’re used to here, but we look forward to connecting with the people over there and inviting them to federate.

We believe that more voices in the social web will help grow open source social media and pull people away from so-called ‘big tech’.

If you have an account over there search Newsmast and say hi!

#fediverse #socialmedia #threads #bluesky

We believe in connection and democracy.

That’s why we believe that federation can help accelerate the social web beyond what we’ve seen before. More experts = more to talk about!

It’s a great chance for us to show the power of communication & curiosity, while helping expand the social circles of fedi a little more.

Reply & let us know what you’re optimistic about as we federate!

Not for you? Simply block the bridge @threads.net & @bsky.brid.gy domains.

#fediverse #federation #bridge

The Fediverse is emerging as a hub for the wider social web.

You can see our thoughts about it and what we're doing to welcome it on the thread below 👇

#fediverse #socialmedia #threads #bluesky

With Bluesky bridged two-way and Threads federating one-way, we’re now going to extend our knowledge-sharing Communities by bringing in hand-picked contributors from these two sources. All our moderation - blocks, filters and human moderation - will remain in place.

We respect the fact that this isn’t for everyone, so we’re first inviting everyone who uses our app or follows our feeds to block Bluesky and/or Threads if that’s what they prefer to do. On the Newsmast app you can apply a block in Settings, and you can also apply a block on your home server:

https://privacy.thenexus.today/how-to-block-threads-on-mastodon/

We’ve been researching key contributors on both platforms who will bring great additional content to our Communities. Soon, we’ll be reaching out to some, inviting them to opt into federation. We’ll then integrate them into a small number of test Communities, bringing their knowledge and comments into our timelines.

Our Amplifier will help users fine tune what they see, opting in or out of Bluesky and Threads content on different timelines, in addition to sorting posts and enabling catch-up.

Excitingly, the two-way bridge to Bluesky makes dialogue across platforms possible.

We’ll be getting in touch with Fediverse posters and contributors in the test communities, inviting them to opt in to the bridge. Once we have enough people on board we’ll be able to bridge our Feeds to Bluesky - only showing posts from people who have opted in.

Pinning a Community on the Newsmast app is easy.

Just log on with your Newsmast or Mastodon account, select a Community that interests you, and hit the pin!

Pinning a Community means you can seamlessly swipe between the things that matter to you, no matter your home server.

#fediverse #tech #mastodon #community #fedidev #feditech #socialweb

New features for Newsmast: We are so excited to announce a release we have been working on for more than a year - The Amplifier. 🧭

We believe curated timelines let you discover more. But only if you are the one in control.

Our Amplifier will be able to:

✅ Opt-in or out of posts from Bluesky & Threads
✅ Choose whether to include Posts, Reposts or Replies
✅ Cycle back through time and pick up where you left off with a version of Phanpy’s “Catch-up” feature

#mastodon #fediverse #news

Any Patreon subscription automatically invites you to our new Discord server where you can engage with the Team in real time. There are other unique perks on offer depending on which subscription works best for you and we’d love to hear your feedback and if there is anything else you'd like us to offer.

Your support is key to ensuring we can stay free for all forever, supporting Communities on Newsmast and other projects connected by Patchwork.

With precision tuning, you can customize settings across your entire account or specific timelines. Whether you want to keep your Home timeline dedicated to friends or stay updated with Joe Biden’s Threads account in the US Politics Community, it's in your hands.

We're not stopping there! We're committed to expanding options over time, empowering you to boost marginalized voices and diverse content. It's a whole new way of organizing your timeline, bringing you into the curation process.

We're incredibly grateful for your support which allows us to continue improving our corner of the fediverse. By joining us on Patreon, you're not just supporting our work – you're fueling ongoing development, team growth, and new initiatives.

We’re working across a range of projects, turning Newsmast Communities into world-leading forums, helping make the social web safer & more accessible, and supporting organisations escape the clutches of big tech.