Notices by Robin Riley (robin@social.riley.pub)

@skinnylatte love it 🤣 and CONGRATULATIONS! that sounds like a fun new adventure

Staying informed in the US is not going to get easier anytime soon, especially as old standbys fall to billionaires or preemptive obedience to the authoritarian regime.

I've assembled a list of 40+ outlets that I find valuable, prominently featuring:

* nonprofit, co-operative, and independent news rooms,
* outlets relevant to Petaluma and the Bay Area,
* international outlets,
* and, yes, a selection of for-profit outlets.

Many of them are on fedi or Bluesky.

https://blog.riley.pub/news-and-information-in-2025/

#News

@aral thanks for the call to action!

Just donated ✅ and if I can find a way to get a SEPA-compatible payment method as a US-based person I'll join as a member too.

Phase 1 clinical trials have been approved for a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that blocks transmission, a novel approach that could be useful for a variety of respiratory infections for which we have vaccines.

Shout out to Washington University in St. Louis for their work on this!

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp1290

#COVID #Vaccines #PublicHealth #HealthAndSafety

If you can, stay and fight. Especially if you're a white US-born person. It's our mess to clean up.

When I see white folks thinking about leaving, I usually just give em space because it's often an emotional response from people who've never had to interact with any country's immigration system. They tend to work through it.

Emigration is often treated as a last resort for good reason.

Signed,
Someone who has supported multiple immigration petitions

Been sitting on this a while. I'm going to FOSDEM and, on balance, I'm more scared than I am excited. But needs must, my risk profile has changed.

I hope I'll be in good company trying to approach it thoughtfully and safely 😷

https://blog.riley.pub/mask-up-echoes-of-2020-fosdem/

#FOSDEM #HealthAndSafety #MaskUp

Run a server on the fediverse, and worried about the UK's Online Safety Act?

Ofcom is hosting a session for "small low-risk community sites" on February 12th.

Make sure you get informed before making any drastic decisions about your server! https://lu.ma/qijpvfnl

#Fediverse #Compliance #OnlineSafetyAct #UK

@tim Yeah I was reluctant to mention Nextdoor, especially given how much petty grievance I see floating around the space 😅 But yeah, so far it's the only other place I've found that has some of the same types of local groups I've appreciated on Facebook.

Good question about the ads, I haven't figured that out myself. But the more I rely on it the more I'll also feel pushed to do something about it 😂

As promised, a blog post on why and HOW I'm leaving Facebook and other Meta services: https://blog.riley.pub/walking-away-from-facebook/

In it, I share the steps I'm taking to unwind my Facebook dependence in an orderly fashion, what alternatives I'm using, and how I'm getting settled in.

I hope someone out there finds it useful.

#Facebook #Meta #Privacy #IndieWeb

@lightweight Oh excellent! Glad to have another fellow traveler. The storage costs were what really pushed me over the edge :blobcat_sleepless:

@lightweight I had everything piled into Digital Ocean droplets, probably could've saved money by introducing a dedicated storage solution but it was more complexity than I was willing to deal with 😂

When I'm done with this project my storage will all be down to local machines and off-site backups, with some low wattage cloud servers to act as proxies.

Wow. Self hosting Ghost is delightfully simple, especially with the Docker container. Nice change of pace from the last few applications I set up on my new server :blobcat_glasses:

Now it's just down to setting up Matrix and Pixelfed!

Then I'll have functionally replaced my old server, and can begin winding it down. Looking forward to knocking a couple hundred a month off my hosting bills :blobcat_bongo:

How do you feel about the fact that in the United States people with disabilities can be paid a sub-minimum wage?

Today is the last day to submit a comment to the Federal Register asking for an end to this practice. Right now, people who profit off the back of this exploitation are flooding it with comments.

Allies: please don't miss the opportunity to even the score. It takes less than 5 minutes.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/12/04/2024-27880/employment-of-workers-with-disabilities-under-section-14c-of-the-fair-labor-standards-act

#Disability #USPol #EqualRights

@cwebber @spritely Looking forward to seeing y'all there! I'll be there with the @matrix crew 🥳

Huge thanks to @OpenForumEurope and @EclipseFdn for their leadership on the Cyber Resiliency Act.

We at @matrix have had to be laser focused on the UK's Online Safety Act, so it's a relief that, as we emerge from that and start assessing the CRA's impact to our work, there's already a body of expertise for us to draw on.

Great things are possible when FOSS foundations work together!

#FOSS #OpenSource #Compliance

One of my favorite things: FOSS founders/BDFLs transferring a project's trademarks over to a communally governed nonprofit.

It's an act of selflessness and visionary leadership that gives a project the opportunity to become a truly public good.

Good on ya, @Gargron 👏🏻

#FOSS #OpenSource #Governance #Mastodon