Notices by Jerry Lerman (jerry@hear-me.social)

Hey, Fediverse! I'm looking for informed opinions on database choices.

I can stand up an Internet-facing application and have it use either mysql or postgresql. Which is the better choice, and why do you think so?

Thanks!

#Mastodev #SelfHosted #SelfHosting #Postgresql #mysql

@kaia You're an interesting person. You'll do fine.

@tchambers Yes. Perfectly stated. This is the exact position taken here on hear-me.social.

I will add one additional perspective.

Servers that claim they "block Threads" or "block Meta" are not blocking Threads or Meta. Neither Threads nor Meta have any interest in joining their servers. What they are doing is blocking people who opened accounts on Threads. They are saying that they don't want to have anything to do with those people, most of who never heard of the Fediverse.

The result is, when someone on Threads asks "what is the Fediverse", the answer is, a bunch of people who don't want to talk to us because they believe they are smarter and better than us. The reaction? The people on Threads will never in their lives consider joining the Fediverse because they think we're a bunch of pompous arrogant asses who think we're better than everyone else. We've lost them forever because Fediverse people refuse to talk to their kind. I have seen these conversations so often there. Personally, I think their response is expected and understandable.

I prefer people on Threads have an opportunity to meet people on the Fediverse and learn what the difference is, rather than to hate us because they think we hate them. For Heaven's sake, 99% of them don't even know the Fediverse exists. Now, thanks to the blockers, they won't care to find out anything about it. I wouldn't either.

Go Brazil!
https://globalnation.inquirer.net/260785/brazil-gives-meta-72-hours-to-explain-new-fact-check-policies

#Meta #facebook #Instagram #moderation

@kaia Yes. She's posted all sorts of made-up incredible lies about me because I wasn't willing to block the Firefish mother ship. She is probably the worst person to ever happen to the Fediverse.

Given that she blocks any Admin who doesn't entirely agree with her, it's a fact that, given enough time, .art would become the first self-defederated instance.

@kaia Shutting down in the sense of blocking? Why? Asking as an Admin.

@dansup ??

@paul @dansup There's no basis for the statements against Dan or his applications, except maybe jealousy. No normal person can hate Dan or hate anything he's doing. All Dan deserves is praise.

The people posting this stuff against Dan must be the most useless people and so to feel like they have any power they try bullying.

Unfortunately, any response just encourages the jerks to continue the harassment. It's how they feed.

@debacle @_elena
I have not been so lucky ☹️

Maybe your family and friends like talking to you more than my family and friends like talking to me.

@_elena @debby
Elena, your reason for being drawn to Matrix is the same reason I was drawn to #Jabber (XMPP). And, sadly, it's the same downside. Getting friends and family to move to a private platform seems impossible.

I don't know if I'm the crazy one, or them?

I chose Jabber because it seems more appropriate for one-on-one chats, although it supports groups. Matrix, to me, seemed to be the reverse situation. But, I could be wrong.

I've also read many stories about how difficult it is to both run a Matrix server and moderate it. Although, I haven't faced moderation issues yet with my Jabber server.

@debby Agreed, for sure. Signal is the best of the centralized messaging apps available for the reasons you state. Nobody should use the others. BUT...

But, #Signal's server software is proprietary, not open source, which concerns me. Only their client software is open source. Why might this be?

UPDATE: Signal has made all their software open source. My information was outdated. However, the software only runs on their own servers, which might be concerning to some people. This is certainly a better situation than WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, X, Threads, and BlueSky.

#XMPP servers, on the other hand, are entirely open source. The servers are distributed and privately owned, like Mastodon, Friendica, Lemmy, Piefed, Sharky, etc. allowing people to choose their server and then communicate with anyone using any other XMPP server.

The optional #OMEMO encryption that most XMPP servers offer is as good as the best others offer, including Signal. They support video calls, file transfers, group chats, and all this stuff.

I believe in Open Source distributed software so much, and that nobody should allow a corporation to keep their identities and data, that I opened my own XMPP server to the public this weekend (https://between-us.online).

I just wish I could convince people I chat with to start using it. I seem to care more about these concepts than most other people. Is it me or them who has it wrong?

@_elena

Important reminder, if you own a domain name and don't use it for sending email.

There is nothing to stop scammers from sending email claiming to be coming from your domain. And the older it gets, the more valuable it is for spoofing. It could eventually damage your domain's reputation and maybe get it blacklisted, unless you take the steps to notify email servers that any email received claiming to come from your domain should be trashed.

Just add these two TXT records to the DNS for your domain:
TXT v=spf1 -all
TXT v=DMARC1; p=reject;

The first says there is not a single SMTP server on earth authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. The second says that any email that says otherwise should be trashed.

If you do use your domain for sending email, be sure to add 3 records:
SPF record to indicate which SMTP server(s) are allowed to send your email.
DKIM records to add a digital signature to emails, allowing the receiving server to verify the sender and ensure message integrity.
DMARC record that tells the receiving email server how to handle email that fails either check.

You cannot stop scammers from sending email claiming to be from your domain, any more than you can prevent people from using your home address as a return address on a mailed letter. But, you can protect both your domain and intended scam victims by adding appropriate DNS records.

#cybersecurity #email #DomainSpoofing #EmailSecurity #phishing

#santa #SantaClause #privilege #Affluence

@jsit
Finally happened: @theonion

@dansup@mastodon.social @dansup@loops.video
Please provide a way to turn off the yellow background on the Loops videos when viewed on a webpage. I cannot watch a video without immediate eyestrain. This isn't an exaggeration.

Hasn't anyone else asked for this?

#Loops

Interesting post about one of the #Lemmy developers: https://raddle.me/f/lobby/96713/heads-up-the-tankie-behind-lemmy-ml-got-banned-from-r

If anyone who is on Lemmy finds themselves feeling uncomfortable using Lemmy based on this information, there are two federated alternatives you can move to, #Piefed and #MBIN. Information is here: https://jointhefediverse.net/join?lang=en-us

@kaia I know what I'd like to call her

Extraordinary!
https://streetartutopia.com/2024/11/11/unraveling-the-mystery-of-3d-street-art-a-closer-look-at-anamorphic-masterpieces/

Turns out Democracy dies in the light as well. I canceled my Washington Post subscription because it turns out Democracy is not important to them.

#washingtonpost #USPol #USPolitics #CancelWP

I opened a #Friendica server (https://my-place.social) because I became inspired to try it out based on this blog post by Elena Rossini: https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-future-of-social-is-here-a-show-and-tell-part-3-friendica

If you have any interest in checking out Freindica, read her blog post first.

My early experiences with Friendica are similar to hers and were the reasons that my interest, at the time a couple of years back, didn't last more than a few hours.

I've been using Friendica for over a week now, and I do very much prefer it to Mastodon, after having gotten used to it.

Friendica is like 2 applications in one. Yes, it is a Facebook replacement. I don't use that part. I can't tell you much about it.

The other application is like Mastodon with extras. If you're interested, read more about this further down.

What I really like about Friendica:

Groups! This is really fantastic. There is, for example, a group for Friendica Support, Friendica Admins, and Friendica Developers. I had questions and problems getting the server going. I posted questions in the Friendica support group and I got help directly from the Developers.

You can't get this on Mastodon. Sure, you can use hashtags, but they will only be seen by people who happen to log in at the right time for them to appear on their timeline, or if they happen to search for the hashtag. With groups, the conversations are all there waiting for you when you enter the group.

Interestingly, there are a couple of Mastodon groups. They aren't very active, but that they exist shows that they would be helpful if Mastodon had it.

Circles. These are very similar to Lists in Mastodon where you can create circles of people.

#Phanpy works with Friendica! This is a big plus. I love that I can use the Phanpy catch up feature with my Friendica feed. Catch up is a wonderful Phanpy feature, BTW.

But, there are a few rough edges with its integration with Friendica. While threaded posts work perfectly for Mastodon, they don't always display well when using Phanpy with Friendica.

RSS feeds are built in. You can follow RSS feeds like you follow other accounts. On Mastodon, I use the RSS-parrot bot to do it. But RSS feed posts look much nicer in Friendica since they are part of it.

Bluesky integration is built in. Your Bluesky timeline is right inside your Friendica timeline. This feature I can't test because there's a bug when using a Bluesky PDS (Personal Data Server). However, it will be fixed in the next release of the add-on. I was able to reach the developer in the Friendica Support group.

Can automatically post to WordPress.

Tumblr integration is built in. You can see your Tumblr feed in your Friendica timeline. I'm not much of a Tumblr user so haven't used this much.

Diaspora integration is also built in, but I've not used it.

I can see a post preview before sending a post, so I can see exactly what it will look like. I like this very much!

What I really don't like about Friendica:

The UI takes getting used to.

You can filter messages by selecting a number of different criteria to hone what you want to see. But so many choices makes it all confusing and a little overwhelming.

No translation option. But when using Phanpy, translation is available via Phanpy.

No way for Admins to make announcements like in Mastodon. I miss this.

Can't limit servers, can only block them entirely. I like being able to just limit some servers and I wish I could do this as well in Friendica.

Can't make a post reply private. In Mastodon, I can reply to a post privately. I don't see the option in the Friendica UI. However, if I reply via Phanpy, I can do it.

It works with Tusky, but I need to keep logging in. I need to try other apps.

I can't set a notification to tell me when someone posts.

By default, new accounts are locked. When you open a new account, you have to approve followers. In Mastodon, it's the opposite. I like the Mastodon default better.

Fewer moderation tools. Mastodon has better moderation tools.

Fewer tools to see what is happening with the server. However, it is does support Zabbix which provides a lot of server information if you're willing to set up a Zabbix dashboard, which is on my to-do list.

Anyway, this is all I can think of for now.

Curious? Try Friendica at https://my-place.social

@_elena @elena @jerry@my-place.social #Mastodon #Masto #Fediverse #Friendica