Posts in category "microblogging"

Flushed after the success of getting GoToSocial 0.5.2 working successfully, I was about to celebrate with a cup of tea when this post appeared in my timeline about the release of 0.6.0 (Release Candidate 1).

Good morning everyone! We just cut the first release candidate for v0.6.0 of GoToSocial: v0.6.0-rc1.

There's a preposterous amount of changes included in this one (we'll do a proper organized list when we do the release proper).

If you feel adventurous and up for helping us out with finding any bugs/regressions in the release, please have a go on the release candidate and let us know if you find any weirdness :)

Funnily enough, the upgrade process was one I had considered and was keen to understand so obviously, I just leapt in and attempted the upgrade.

# systemctl stop nginx
# systemctl stop gotosocial
# mv /opt/gotosocial /opt/gotosocial-0.5.2
# mkdir /opt/gotsocial
# cd /opt/gotosocial
# wget https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/releases/download/v0.6.0-rc1/gotosocial_0.6.0-rc1_linux_arm64.tar.gz
# tar xvf gotosocial_0.6.0-rc1_linux_arm64.tar.gz
# cp ../gotosocial-0.5.2/sqlite.db .
# cp ../gotosocial-0.5.2/config.yaml .
# mkdir storage
# cp -rv ../gotosocial-0.5.2/storage /opt/gotosocial
# chown -R gotosocial:gotosocial /opt/gotosocial
# systemctl start gotosocial
# systemctl status -l gotosocial
# systemctl start nginx

Then I examined the GoToSocial log file to see if the database migrations had been executed OK.

timestamp="29/11/2022 11:38:43.364" func=bundb.sqliteConn level=INFO msg="connected to SQLITE database"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.473" func=bundb.doMigration level=INFO msg="MIGRATED DATABASE TO group #2 (20221006114842_add_rss_functionality, 20221011125732_refetch_updated_emojis, 20221031145649_emoji_c\
ategories, 20221108142419_create_account_tombstones)"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.479" func=bundb.(*adminDB).CreateInstanceAccount level=INFO msg="instance account footy.social already exists"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.479" func=bundb.(*adminDB).CreateInstanceInstance level=INFO msg="instance entry already exists"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.479" func=concurrency.NewWorkerPool level=INFO msg="worker.Worker[messages.FromClientAPI] created with workers=4 queue=400"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.479" func=concurrency.NewWorkerPool level=INFO msg="worker.Worker[messages.FromFederator] created with workers=4 queue=400"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.487" func=concurrency.NewWorkerPool level=INFO msg="worker.Worker[*media.ProcessingMedia] created with workers=4 queue=40"
timestamp="29/11/2022 11:40:01.487" func=concurrency.NewWorkerPool level=INFO msg="worker.Worker[*media.ProcessingEmoji] created with workers=4 queue=40"

Login to the GTS Admin interface to check the version and, much to my surprise, success. The GTS version in the footer is 'GoToSocial 0.6.0-rc1 git-97f5453'.

I am not sure I like this increasing but irritating use of the More or Sensitive Content tag on Mastodon. From a cursory glance, I cant even see how to add it from the Web interface.

I'm not sure whether it's enforced by the Mastodon instance or actively selected by the user. I presume it's the latter. Microblogging to supposed to be short, snappy and spontaneous.

I understand why sensitive media content might merit another key click (to protect the children) but if you're posting about politics, I'd really rather see all the content in one fell swoop and then I would feel free to choose to ignore it.

You really don't need to put introduce your wonderful, world beating, gonna go viral post with tags

#politics #rant

and then take the trouble and waste your time to add a '^L' style teaser

'Show More'

....which when clicked then reveals

I think all lives matter.

...because that is just one line and I have had to waste 0.8 seconds to hit a key to read your banal, trite one liner.

If you truly have a thought provoking rant or have produced a lengthy essay on the current political situation or some new, insightful thoughts on Covid 19, then either write a blog or consider doing a degree in PPE.

That stands for 'Philosophy, Politics and Economics' not 'Personal Protective Equipment' BTW.

Edit: Turns out this is trivial to disable these teasers in the Mastodon Web client simply by setting the preference 'Always show media marked as sensitive'. RTFM.

Its fair to say it took me a while to fully get microblogging. In fact, initially Twitter left me as cold as a corpse in a deep freeze.

Inevitably, things change and like an old woman, I reserve the right to change my mind more frequently than my underpants, and in 2008, I started using Twitter to post a continuous bytestream of inane drivel in less than 140 characters.

Last July, when identi.ca launched, I immediately signed up for the open source microblogging service. I even built my own Laconi.ca instance - not necessarily because I intended using it but just to see how easy (or hard) it was to install and configure the software.

As a controlled experiment, I set myself the task of participating fully on identi.ca to see how long it would take me to acquire 100 friends on identi.ca. The answer, surprisingly, was 14 days.

Since then I have really enjoyed the sense of community on identi.ca, I have met lots of interesting people and enjoy the technically oriented focus of the folk over there. identi.ca isn't Twitter and the majority of my 'friends' steadfastly continue to use Twitter. This is understandable - Twitter gets all the media coverage. Twitter is where most people live and freedom is all about the freedom of choice.

I have continued to be a keen user and advocate of the identi.ca service as I think it offers several advantages over Twitter and it has genuinely made me consider the role of open source software versus proprietary systems with lock-in and closed data silos.

identi.ca has continued to be actively developed and it's exciting to follow developments and build each new version as it is released. Evan Prodromou and the identi.ca team actively participate on identi.ca and are genuinely responsive to honest, constructive feedback from users.

However, this week has seen a couple of developments that have sowed the first seeds of doubt about the future of identi.ca (not Laconi.ca) and raise a nagging concern.

The announcement of a hosted, off the shelf microblogging service - status.net with premium features costing undisclosed amounts of money. Obviously, Evan (and the identi.ca team) can't exist and feed their families on the many plaudits, thanks and congratulations of 60,000 identi.ca users and he was always going to have to monetize the service to pay his mortgage. However, the provision of a paid for service with premium features raises a few issues. In all the congratulatory coverage, sensible, intelligent people seem to have conveniently overlooked this particular 'elephant in the room'.

There is an obvious potential conflict of interest. If Microsoft are paying $50,000 for a hosted microblog and demand tight integration with Outlook which Evan fundamentally disagrees with, will he yield ? Will the development of other OpenMicroBlogging (OMB) functionality be delayed due to the demands of paying customers (large or small) on status.net ?

Obviously, identi.ca is built on Laconi.ca which is Open Source so anyone is free to fork the code and develop the software independently from Evan. For example, I could theoretically extract all my data from identi.ca, import it into my own Laconica instance and microblog away in the federation of Laconi.ca instances until my heart's content.

Today, we get another far more worrying piece of news - identi.ca obviously have more funding than I thought. My worries about Evan and his family living in a Montreal hostel, eating beans on toast and children with no shoes were clearly ill-founded. Identi.ca have announced the acquisition of Twitter.com with the following immediate results:

• identi.ca now has a Twitter like theme - urgh !
• We are already starting to see the inevitable influx of Twitter celebrities (Britney Spears, Barack Obama, Guy Kawasaki, Guy Cashmore, Jonathan Ross).
• The 'Featured' tab on identi.ca used to feature interesting individuals and long standing identi.ca advocates. Now it is consumed with Twitterati.
• It can only be a matter of time before the spammers follow

This reverse takeover of Twitter is rather like applauding The Clash's resolute refusal to play of Top of The Pops and then turning on your telly to see the band performing 'White Man in Hammersmith Palais' with Tony Blackburn as your smiling host.

To use another musical analogy, do you remember the very last song on the very last tour by the Sex Pistols in America and immortalised in the film 'Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle' ? After the last song, John Lydon squats down on his haunches and sneers at the audience.

'Do you ever feel like you've been cheated ?'

Well, Evan, yes - I do.

Dont bother with my slow, tortuous methods,

Just be Stephen Fry.

• Look for people with similar interests.
• Look at the friends of people you have just followed.
• Look out for people who have criteria for following others e.g. I will only consider following you if you have ever replied to me (and made me laugh out loud)'. Satisfying the first is easy, the latter less so.
• Scan the Public time line. Occasionally, you will find a gem in the fast flowing river.
• identi.ca currently doesn't have an 'Import my friends' but they will undoubtedly use the same old tired nickname with the same old, tired profile pic.
• Old technology, admittedly but you could email an invite to friends who might be interested.
• Never, ever unsubscribe from anyone. This is easy on identi.ca as this is not currently supported..
• Use searches to find like-minded individuals talking about common subjects of interest.
• If you stumble across interesting content on another service (FriendFeed, blog, Twitter) with a link to their identi.ca profile, follow them.
• Blindly follow anyone who replies to your posts.
• Look out for people located close to you (town, county, country).
• Do not troll for followers on other services although subtle, understated evangelism may prove worthwhile.
• Do not, ever, under any circumstances, beg or plead for followers.