Notices by shellsharks (shellsharks@shellsharks.social)

@ssweeny @ernie @bookwyrm Agreed. Starter packs and domains as identity are perfecto. Two things that would be game changing for the Fediverse. Two biggest detractors of Mastodon/Fedi have always been what server to join and then how to discover people and be discovered by others. Having your identity tied to a domain instead of a server could partially help with what server to join, as then server choice only becomes an issue of moderation. Starter packs help with discoverability.

@AkaSci @tchambers @Gargron A few things...

- Improve discoverability: Starter packs, custom lists, opt-in/buildable feeds ("algos”), bsky has these of course

- Improve identity/account portability: Bskys domain as identity is genius and would help here. But the common folk still aren't going to have a domain to use. Generally, improving the onboarding process, i.e. server selection would go a long way

- Celebrities: We need more “big" accounts to come here

- Probably moderation improvements

@Gargron What I want most most most is just the ability to post more than 500 chars at a time. Just make this something customizable by an admin! Pweeeez! I am too verbose for only 500 chars most of the time! 😅

Edit: I'm aware of glitch-soc. I'm on a managed, vanilla-masto instance 😭

@tchambers @stefan I've been toying with a bunch of "starter pack” ideas for a while now...

- The #fediroll: https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/04/22/fediroll (https://shellsharks.social/@shellsharks/112316258053751977)
- My Masto "Starter Pack": https://shellsharks.com/notes/2023/10/20/infosec-mastodon-starter-pack
- The #indiesec #mammoth "Smart List” (and .csv export) https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/03/21/mammoth-indiesec-smart-list (admittedly I need to udpate this)
- Fedi Power-boosters: https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/03/26/power-boosters-of-the-fediverse
- Fedi artists: https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/08/30/favorite-fedi-artists
- Fav bots: https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/01/06/bots-in-space
- Cool instance accounts: https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/03/29/the-whimsical-corners-of-the-fediverse

End of the week, so I've got some #infosec / #cybersecurity #followfriday recommendations! Here are some folks I've discovered recently...

- @addison (great instance name too!)
- @32x33
- @nyxgeek

Some other fun accounts I've encountered on great instances include...

- @feld
- @david

Have a great weekend y'all!

I know #threads is a polarizing subject here on Fedi but news is news…

Threads has enabled #Fediverse-bourne replies. i.e. you can now reply to federated Threads posts and those replies show up actually on Threads.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/6/25/24185226/meta-threads-fediverse-likes-replies

Kinda neat to see my Fedi profile show up natively on that platform. It even creates a clickable handle on the reply post that links to my Masto profile.

You can see my reply post (and the Threads-bourne post I replied to) here https://shellsharks.social/@shellsharks/112678293741616415

#threads #Fediverse There are a lot of peculiarities still with the entirety of Meta's Fediverse integration, but the (somewhat) steady rollout of additional functionality is in my mind promising, at least for those who look forward to or are at least ambivalent to bridging traditional Fedi and the threadsland.

One example (of said peculiarities) is searching for and replying to threads-bourne posts is often problematic due to content fetching issues with Mastodon. Things will improve in time

@BeAware I suppress duplicate boosts but I definitely don't mute them. Boosts are awesome! They are the “algorithm" in many ways and how you discover more things to follow. MOAR BOOSTS!

@MediaActivist I don't have any suggestions for instances to join but maybe they'd be interested in having their own instance hosted on their own domain? My single-user instance is hosted on https://masto.host for $20/months (which is overkill for what i need solo). If the org was willing to pay a bit for hosting and didn't have super high compute/federation requirements then they could go that route. There's a lot of freedom and resiliency you can buy by going with your own instance fwiw.

@clacke Can't say I've been around for all 16 years but glad to have been around for at least the last 2-6 (depending on when I start my count). I'll be writing on my site and posting about it here fwiw.

@inforflux You're never late! Welcome! I do think the #indieweb is starting to have a bit of a renaissance though. There's a lot of indie hosting providers popping up and gaining popularity and a lot of people spinning up blogs in response to traditional social becoming user hostile. I've been cataloguing some indieweb search engines here to help myself explore a bit too https://shellsharks.com/indieweb#explore-the-indieweb!

@wmjohnston06 @nathan @tchambers

You’ve landed in a great place I think! I discovered the “IndieWeb” about 1.5 yr ago and its changed a lot about how I think about my presence on the web and how I write. Check out some other cool bloggers (and their Fedi presences) on my blogroll if you’re interested! https://shellsharks.com/blogroll

I'm pumped that #blogroll's are back but in the spirit of sharing follow recommendations for folks on the #fediverse, not just the #indieweb, I wanted to introduce the idea of a #fediroll. This is simply your shortlist of accounts you love and would recommend others follow! Here's my starting 10 below (there's many more I'd like to add in the future)

- @cmdr_nova
- @liaizon
- @nadiaalbelushi
- @jcrabapple
- @ricmac
- @christophertrottier
- @deadsuperhero
- @mttaggart
- @dismantl
- @silverwizard

#followfriday is back (after I missed it last week). Once again, here's some cool #infosec / #cybersecurity accounts I've discovered and followed recently...

- @Omkhar
- @zh4ck
- @pietrushnic
- @freddy
- @zerotypic
- @jeFF0Falltrades
- @13reak
- @WPalant

Plus a few cool accounts I've discovered from fun instances around the #fediverse...

- @Shrigglepuss
- @tonicfunk
- @stephan

I've also updated my site's #blogroll with Fediverse handles for each site entry's author - https://shellsharks.com/blogroll

@silverwizard I'm sure my site has accessibility-related atrocities 😭

I've been trying to remediate at least.

Another installment of great #infosec / #cybersecurity follows for this #followfriday

- @vegard
- @todd_a_jacobs
- @silverwizard
- @LoganGoins

I also wanted to do another round of "Whimsical Lands of the #Fediverse" where I highlight some accounts I've found on cool and unique instances. Here's some I've discovered over the last week! 🤩

- @kern
- @Dcgirl
- @coffee
- @jfkimmes
- @jeff
- @iliana
- @kopper
- @carol
- @mayor
- @n0madz
- @phos
- @Pawornruj
- @pre
- @shibao

One sure-fire way to unearth a ton of great content from the less-visited corners of the #Fediverse is to follow accounts that #boost liberally. I refer to these as “Power-Boosters” and they are the key to keeping your feed awesomely diverse, extremely lively and damn-near algorithmic (in a good way). Here are some of the power-boosters I personally follow…

- @Qyriad
- @argv_minus_one
- @jcrabapple
- @mastodonmigration
- @LambdaCalculus
- @tchambers

https://shellsharks.com/notes/2024/03/26/power-boosters-of-the-fediverse

#mastotips

@tchambers @fediversenews @spreadmastodon This is great! To be fair though, threads-folk can't see or interact with anything on this side of the Fediverse yet which is where we will likely encounter a lot of said "harassment” / toxicity but I'm optimistic about it all. I think threads users and thus threads-borne content is overwhelmingly benign / positive and more crucially, we on this side have plenty of experience dealing with bad actors who may show up whether from threads or elsewhere. 😃