Notices by contrapunctus ✊🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (contrapunctus@en.osm.town)

@SnowshadowII That's a feature made to protect you from websites tracking you by inspecting your screen size. But you can turn it off in Settings - think it's called Letterboxing.

I was today years old when I learned that Pascal Neis' famous Result Maps, which I've been using ever since I started contributing to #OpenStreetMap...are not #FreeSoftware ! 👀

@pascal_n can you please release them under a free software license? 🙏

#XMPP is not perfect, but BY FAR the biggest issue is the tech community's perception of it, and the consequently lower number of users and devs.

That's a you problem, not an XMPP problem.

3/

Over the years, I've onboarded close to 100 non-geeks to #XMPP. I ask them to install Quicksy (Android/iOS), and we're good to go.

XMPP is the only chat system I've used since 2017. I onboard family, friends, coworkers (from the arts), OSM contributors...

But the #Signal #WhatsApp #Discord and #Telegram silo-lovers (and the #DeltaChat and #Matrix NIH fanboys) have the gumption to loudly proclaim that XMPP is unusable.

It's a bit like telling a fish that swimming is impossible. 🙄

1/

@rysiek @agturcz Sounds like @snikket_im is your best bet, then. All Snikket clients have OMEMO enabled by default. And this way you actually can actually trust the operator, i.e. yourself, and control exactly what cloud services are used (including "none").

And Signal is seemingly not the perfect solution it's being made out to be, either.

https://troet.cafe/@pixelschubsi/113808514523533577

https://troet.cafe/@pixelschubsi/113808528593247949

@rysiek @agturcz Then, I confess to being confused about what you mean.

Why did you find it to be "a pain to use"?

Some clients don't have end-to-end encryption enabled by default - I hope that will change some day, but I never found that to be a dealbreaker. If someone sends cleartext, me and my friends immediately ask them to enable OMEMO.

Still, no feature or convenience is worth using a centralized silo. Reddit, Twitter, and Meta are proof enough.

@adbenitez @rysiek I was ready to boost in the first paragraph, and then I saw the #DeltaChat recommendation 😅

I haven't heard good things about DeltaChat UX. #XMPP allows you to self-host, register on public servers without even providing an email address, and ask non-geek contacts to install Quicksy or Prav (so they can register using phone numbers). It's got AV calls and other features expected in modern chat.

And XMPP is actually made for chat from the ground up.

@rysiek @kkarhan @agturcz An awful lot of people say they've used #XMPP "a while back". But they're often unaware of the best of XMPP, and have an unfairly negative view of it.

Did you happen to try...

...#Snikket for hosting?
https://snikket.org

...apps like #Quicksy and #Prav which use phone numbers for easy onboarding, same as #Signal #WhatsApp or #Telegram?
https://quicksy.im
https://prav.app

...featureful clients like #Cheogram #MonoclesChat #Gajim #Movim etc?

@aral This reminds me that there's actually an awful lot of criticism of capitalism. But hardly any discussions or pushes for _replacements_ to capitalism.

I see only one possible alternative - anarcho-communism - but I also know I'm in the minority. And that's why I think the discussion of replacements is avoided - it seems there is no consensus on alternatives.

So criticism of capitalism is everywhere, and calls for replacements are nowhere to be found.

@mdhughes @screwtape @stokesauce@toobnix.org @stokesauce@mastodon.sdf.org I'm not sure whether it's in a usable state, but here's a library I wrote for CLIM applications that you may find useful.
https://codeberg.org/contrapunctus/interact

Latest crowdfunded changeset in #Mumbai #India. Took me close to an hour.

> Lokhandwala - add 22 POIs, 3 street lamps, 2 manholes, 2 building parts, apartment complex; improve building geometries
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/160558164

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#160558164

#OpenStreetMap

#huskyapp claims to have "Markdown support with WYSIWYG editor", but I don't see anything of the sort when using my #Akkoma account (fe.disroot.org)...nor does it appear with my #Mastodon account (but Mastodon doesn't support Markdown, right?)

#FediHelp

(Husky v1.6.1 from F-Droid.)

Here's my first changeset for this project. Took about 50 minutes.

> Dalia Industrial Estate - add 9 amenities, 6 shops, 2 craft, leisure, 6 buildings, 19 building parts, 9 building details, 4 commercial landuse, residential landuse

https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/159912844

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#159912844

Next set of changesets!

> Chembur - add restaurant
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/159921462

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#159921462

> Lokhandvala - add sports centre, building details, 2 building parts, swimming pool, 2 pitches, service road, gate
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/160001557

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#160001557

> Lokhandvala - add 2 sidewalks, 2 crossings, 2 manholes, 2 fast food, shop, bank, street name, building details, 4 buildings; convert 2 building nodes to areas
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/160002155

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#160002155

The latest crowdfunded changeset in #Mumbai #India. Took me about 2.5 hours.

> Lokhandwala - add 47 POIs, building details, 5 building parts, 5 entrances, 3 manholes, 2 poles; improve 2 building geometries
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/160160994

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#160160994

#OpenStreetMap

Latest crowdfunded changeset in #Mumbai #India. Took me roughly 2.5 hours (again).

> Lokhandwala - add 30 POIs (27 shops, 2 amenities, office), 2 buildings, 8 building parts, 4 entrances, 3 apartment complexes, manhole, 6 street lamps; improve 4 building geometries
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/160290609

https://osmlab.github.io/changeset-map/#160290609

#OpenStreetMap

@serge @kolev Re: onboarding people to XMPP - I don't ask them to "use XMPP", I ask them to "install Quicksy". That removes the server selection step, and gives them easy contact discovery and password recovery. They can use their Quicksy account with other clients later.

That's as convenient as Signal, while still being federated.

(I should add this to that section of the guide, I guess.)

@kolev I'm not familiar with your exact setting, but I've written some broad points on the subject based on my experience in onboarding people.
https://contrapunctus.codeberg.page/the-quick-and-easy-guide-to-xmpp.html#onboarding-and-advocacy

It's critical to prevent #Bluesky from becoming the next #Twitter, and the time to prevent it is right-freaking-now.

It's important to not let it get as bad as #Telegram / #Matrix / #Discord / #SignalApp vs #XMPP. Or #GitHub vs #Forgejo. Trying to fix things at that stage is far more difficult.

5/

@realcaseyrollins Twitter was centralized, which allowed a change in ownership to affect the whole platform, to spread misinformation and hate across the world, and to engage in election interference.

Bluesky seems to be "centralized with extra steps". If we allow it to become as dominant as Twitter used to be, we will get a new centralized and corporate-controlled social media, which we can all very much do without.

I highly recommend reading -
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/