Notices by Amelia Bellamy-Royds (ameliabr@front-end.social)

@kfogel Interesting observation, although I think it really can't be separated from the shift in meaning of "a couple" from "a set of two" (synonym: a pair) to "a small number of" (synonym: a few).

There is nothing grammatically uncomfortable about the contrast of singular article & plural count in "I'll make a few changes in a few hours."

But, 🤔 "few" is an odd one out, maybe: originally a pure adjective ("it takes few hours to make few changes"); the "a" later added to match "a lot" etc.?

@mia You know, I was just thinking about the old kids-show cliché of the house with the little old lady who never gets any trick-or-treaters because the local kids have decided she's a witch, but no, you've got to crank it up a notch.

Although these days I think the tabloid Hallowe'en panic is more about people giving away their cannabis gummies.

@evan @mekkaokereke

Worth mentioning that "allow" vs "block" aren't the only two options. There are "limited" settings, where users from an instance can follow & be followed but don't show up in more public content.
https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/moderation/

So it is possible to imagine a set-up with an allow-list of known well-moderated sites, a block-list of known bad actors, & limited setting for new/unknown instances (maybe with new limited settings that work better for cautious discovery of new servers).

It is no surprise, really, that the two big social media companies considering ActivityPub support, Tumblr & Flickr, are those that have previously had major loss of users.

A social networks' biggest asset is its user base: people join, & stay, because other people are there. But there's a critical mass effect, & if people start leaving, others will follow.

Federation provides a large social network as a baseline from which they can work to attract new users (and retain their current ones).