Second Life on Mastodon

[Modulated]

3 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

No it's not.

Mastodon is a federated network of server instances. Every instance is run by people who want to run an instance. You can run your own just like you could run your own web server.

Most instances have a general theme, eg LGBTQ, technology, gaming, retros stuff, music genres, furrys, etc etc.

When you join an instance, you get access to that instance's internal timeline, that is everything everyone on that instance posts. This is not shown publicly even though the individual posts might be.

There is also the federated timeline, this is all posts from all instances that are linked together. 

When you visit an instance as a unregistered user, you might not see any of the timelines, just a list of federated posts & hashtags that are trending on that server.

Each instance has it's own acceptable content and moderation policies.

Moderation is not shy. If someone is a bad fit for an instance, perhaps because they showed up expecting to behave like this is Twitter or a forum and act out their reply guy troll fantasies, they will be asked to leave and find somewhere else. Moderation extends to blocking entire instances across the entire fediverse. Which works surprisingly well as it's human nature for birds of a feather to flock together. 

 

As far as funding goes, that works like any other open source project. People can contribute to the platform creators, or chip in with the running costs of their local instance. There are no adverts and no corporate overlords.

OK maybe I wasn't clear , the one guy is the one doing most if not all the work on mastadon software /app itself. That's what I meant. Also it has only around 2 million users compared to nearly half a billion on twitter. It's really not even a competitor, just an alternative.

[HeathcliffMontague]

This Mastodon stuff is actually interesting. It's like a throw-back in time from the 2000s and even the 90's, just with obviously more modern tech. Lost interest in Twitter aeons ago, obviously have FB to keep in touch with famlily, used it quite a lot over the years for work for relevant (closed) groups, and it's been pretty darned useful in that respect. (Changed the m to an r. Makes a lot of difference apparently) 

LL mods, please don't close this thread unless it goes obviously out of line. Show some patience, it might go some place interesting

[Bree Giffen]

I don't use any social media except for Facebook messenger which is used primarily for having long distance voice calls. Is something going to happen to the SL forums that I don't know about? 🤔

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, Modulated said:

OK maybe I wasn't clear , the one guy is the one doing most if not all the work on mastadon software /app itself. That's what I meant. Also it has only around 2 million users compared to nearly half a billion on twitter. It's really not even a competitor, just an alternative.

There are many apps to access Mastodon on both iOS and Android created by lots of different people. Some free, some commercial.

The core mastodon software is developed on github and has dozens of active authors. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon

The federated multi instance nature of Mastodon makes an exact user count impossible, there is a bot that's doing it's best and showing we're up to 8,691,843 accounts and growing at 2.3K an hour. https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount

The growth has been overwhelming to the point many instances are requiring applications or restricting signups entirely.

 

SL has 46K people online right now .. 

[HeathcliffMontague]

6 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

I don't use any social media except for Facebook messenger which is used primarily for having long distance voice calls. Is something going to happen to the SL forums that I don't know about? 🤔

Not really. Just something that might get more traffic here or may not make any difference at all

[Ayashe Ninetails]

So you've basically got to choose one server and can move around but it's somewhat involved? The main reason I love Discord (and wish LL would make an official one for Second Life) is because I can be multiple places at once. I've got about 33 servers I'm in currently - all related to entirely different topics and interests. 

If Mastodon worked similarly, I'd be more tempted to hop over.

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, HeathcliffMontague said:

Not really. Just something that might get more traffic here or may not make any difference at all

What would be really cool is if @Linden Lab ran there own instance, automatically gave every resident an account, and then replaced the feeble in profile feed with an actual full fat social network of just us. A few little QoL integrations like auto following people you were friends with and it would be awesome.

[Arielle Popstar]

18 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

What would be really cool is if @Linden Lab ran there own instance, automatically gave every resident an account, and then replaced the feeble in profile feed with an actual full fat social network of just us. A few little QoL integrations like auto following people you were friends with and it would be awesome.

Then put it in the viewer like some viewers used to have IRC?

[Love Zhaoying]

39 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

There are many apps to access Mastodon on both iOS and Android created by lots of different people. Some free, some commercial.

The core mastodon software is developed on github and has dozens of active authors. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon

The federated multi instance nature of Mastodon makes an exact user count impossible, there is a bot that's doing it's best and showing we're up to 8,691,843 accounts and growing at 2.3K an hour. https://bitcoinhackers.org/@mastodonusercount

The growth has been overwhelming to the point many instances are requiring applications or restricting signups entirely.

 

SL has 46K people online right now .. 

That "one guy" is busy!

[Artorius Constantine]

I didn't read this entire thread so someone may have said this already but please be aware that the Mastadon servers are owned by individuals. It works like Open Sim. It's a dispersed Open Source network run by many unknown and unchecked people and whoever is running the server you log into can access all your info..

It's not secure and not to be trusted with your actual information.

I never tweeted so I won't be riding any Mastodons anyway.

Make sure you use original user names & passwords and such for security reasons, all I'm saying.

[Coffee Pancake]

6 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

Then put it in the viewer like some viewers used to have IRC?

The existing feed is already in the viewer and has been for years. This is junk and no one uses it. This could be much better using mastodon as a drop in off the shelf replacement.

[Love Zhaoying]

27 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

So you've basically got to choose one server and can move around but it's somewhat involved?

The "one server" is your "home" instance server. There is no reason to move around, unless you want to have some affinity with the people on the server based on the fact you're all on that server.  

For example: Other users on Coffee's server said hi to me / saw my posts to Coffee etc., and now I am aware of those people.  Those same users may as well have been any other people who follow Coffee.  They just happen to also use the same server as Coffee does. 

I could be wrong, but I don't see a "benefit" of moving to a server where I have more "affinity" except perhaps, some obscure freedom topic-wise that I don't see missing on my "general" server.  I dunno, probably I'm not seeing whatever it is that I'm missing out on lol!

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, Artorius Constantine said:

It's not secure and not to be trusted with your actual information.

and Twitter just  gave away everything for 5.4 million users.

I hope you're not imaging the rest of the internet is run by checked individuals with assurances of trust, perhaps with little diamonds burnt into their forheads.

Although it might be worth noting that the core bulk of Twitter's infosec community all up and left for https://infosec.exchange/ pretty much overnight.

[sirhc DeSantis]

I left when they changed the name from Proboscidea in order to get 'with the holocene kidz'. No hard feelings, I now run a quite successful milk derivatives business. Love, Ronnie Soak.

(More serious. I shifted to a wossname started by the place where I have politics, recipes and bizarro stuff on a daily basis for the past decade. And why yes I am the 'SLer' there =^^=. Unlike others, I will not break tos etc by saying where. The need for you hooms to try to shout all the time long ago ceased to surprise me).

[Modulated]

My last post on this thread..for everyone leaving twitter...

[HeathcliffMontague]

3 minutes ago, Modulated said:

My last post on this thread..for everyone leaving twitter...

So you actually care enough about not leaving Twitter to care about leaving Twitter. Meta obtained.

[Love Zhaoying]

24 minutes ago, sirhc DeSantis said:

I left when they changed the name from Proboscidea in order to get 'with the holocene kidz'. No hard feelings, I now run a quite successful milk derivatives business. Love, Ronnie Soak.

(More serious. I shifted to a wossname started by the place where I have politics, recipes and bizarro stuff on a daily basis for the past decade. And why yes I am the 'SLer' there =^^=. Unlike others, I will not break tos etc by saying where. The need for you hooms to try to shout all the time long ago ceased to surprise me).

You remind me of "Trombipulation"! 

[Artorius Constantine]

1 hour ago, Coffee Pancake said:

..

I hope you're not imaging the rest of the internet is run by checked individuals...

Not 'imaging' anything at all. I never said so and never mentioned Twitter except to say that I don't tweet, so I have no clue why you're doing the "Yeah but these Apples are just like these Oranges" thing. Twitter is a business that controls all it's servers, just like LL. Mastodon is Open source and controlled by average Joe's. Just like Open Sim. They are nothing alike.

I have no dog in this fight, just sharing what I know about Mastodon in case people want to join. They should simply be aware that it's not secure and to not use their standard login information.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

30 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The "one server" is your "home" instance server. There is no reason to move around, unless you want to have some affinity with the people on the server based on the fact you're all on that server.  

For example: Other users on Coffee's server said hi to me / saw my posts to Coffee etc., and now I am aware of those people.  Those same users may as well have been any other people who follow Coffee.  They just happen to also use the same server as Coffee does. 

I could be wrong, but I don't see a "benefit" of moving to a server where I have more "affinity" except perhaps, some obscure freedom topic-wise that I don't see missing on my "general" server.  I dunno, probably I'm not seeing whatever it is that I'm missing out on lol!

Oh okay, yeah that sounds very different to how I typically use social media like Twitter. Closer to how I use Discord, but yeah, Discord's whole thing is being a central hub for a gabillion servers you can join simultaneously.

I never tweet or have conversations with individual people on most sites. I mostly just browse news, oogle recipes, get gaming updates, follow a bunch of blogs and magazines, and lol at trending shenanigans. So far, the bird works well enough to keep doing that. Once it explodes, I'll look for an alternative - likely following the food blogs over to YouTube or wherever. 😄 

At least LL/Second Life is already set up on multiple social sites for people looking for new alternatives - now they just need to get on Discord! *looks at LL* 😃😏

[Rowan Amore]

"With Mastodon, it's more complicated. The privacy policy differs from one server to another. For example, the mastodon.social instance's privacy policy states that administrators have access to private messages. So, when you find an interesting server to join, make sure you analyze its privacy policy first."

[Coffee Pancake]

50 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

At least LL/Second Life is already set up on multiple social sites for people looking for new alternatives - now they just need to get on Discord! *looks at LL* 😃😏

Discord doesn't scale to all of us, we can't have a single server with all of SL in it, even if we split it up by language.

[Orwar]

   Looked at it, didn't get it, and I reckon it'll be about as dead as its namesake before long. How many Flickr alternatives did the SL community try when that was 'dying'? Can't even remember which site(s) people were wanting to move to.

   Never used Twitter, so I doubt I'd find much use of a less popular clone of it. 

[Love Zhaoying]

I'm basically (personally) comparing Mastodon to Reddit, considering I only recently joined Reddit.

Mastodon seems more social than Reddit.  Less topic-oriented.

[JeromFranzic]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

"With Mastodon, it's more complicated. The privacy policy differs from one server to another. For example, the mastodon.social instance's privacy policy states that administrators have access to private messages. So, when you find an interesting server to join, make sure you analyze its privacy policy first."

Exactly, this is what I encounter when I travel to different sims in Open Simulator. Some sims require users to accept a specific Terms of Service before being allowed in one. Usually it involves giving out your avatar's UUID on a sim's web page. This is why I don't use my RL e-mail or name for my Second Life/Open Sim avatars, given the privacy issues that might arise if I accept a ToS for entering sims. 

OK, back to Mastodon...

[kali Wylder]

I created a twitter account back in  2009.  I followed it for a couple of months checking in regularly to read and occasionally tweeting.  Then I dropped it but never closed my account, just hardly ever logged in.  I use it when I hear about a tweet in these forums or there's a link in something else I read.  Haven't tweeted anything since 2009, sure don't need another platform to take it's place.  But I suppose there's no harm in trying this Mastadon thing.  I rather doubt that it's going to enrich my life though.