It has been a while

...since you heard from me; the blog, the FediReporter tag, the Toots which came from the various instances I have accounts and a presence on.

Including the link above just reminds me it would be good to revisit and write a new page; as things change, and that page was popular. We could benefit from personal views from others.

But as you will see below, I am glad to be writing, and slowly getting more active here once again. Still quite annoyed by non-sense like cryptic one liner posts, or people who see no problem posting arms and dead animals in the open timelines, no content warnings from them. Or carrying flags that for me don't make sense.

There are many places

And we can find better fitting communities. Just look around, read, ask people — and try, create an account and observe the place yourself (no better evaluation, if you are attentive).

This post started as a Toot at my new home instance, and evolved so soon I copied the text over and edited with added links which were relevant. Take them as bookmarks, they are mostly full blog posts and each is intended to be read and considered; no binge-ing, keep a bookmark and return later.

From this intro, not included in the live Toot, we move on to it's full content, below. Hope you enjoy reading it, thank you.

Sometimes, Quieter is Better

In an earlier conversation with our local system admin, Niklas @nipos , he wrote :

You're right that our instance is too quiet in the local timeline.In fact,all of my instances are so I will be rolling out this feature to all instances this evening.

I responded right away with a Thank you for the acceptance of my suggestion, much appreciated.

Now I would like to go back and send a note to all my friends, here in fediverse, an update of sorts.

Sorry that I have been mostly quiet – in fact not logging in to Fediverse much at all for the past 4 months or so.

Why is that?

I got involved in a forum community, supporting an applications which I really like, and that has taken a lot of my attention and time. Long letters to friends all over the world also take effort, time and dedication, but are very enjoyable.

I am fortunate to have their letters coming, and that they enjoy my usually long replies. I have published some, as the quality of Writing we see really makes me feel more readers should see them. Of course, I restrain to only posting my own writing, and I edit personal information, anonymize my friend's real ID so they are not exposed.

Things come and go in phases, and I have been very happy to be in a productive, creative phase once again. As before, I will try to do as much as I can, and put down in writing the ideas and projects that inspire me. A fun journey, it is.

Muensterland.social IS my main account

...and has been for months now. I am more well know in fedi circles from another account, at a larger instance, where I was an active and friendly moderator and above all, more importantly, Content Producer.

Due to my annoyance of the damage to visibility of my personal work as a result of FediBlock non-sense, I searched for a new home for my Publishing work.

And I found it, and it worked well, no block stopping my work from being seen or replied to, like happens in some places. (I wrote about that in a blog, or two, more than twice in fact).

My Writing is the most important contribution

...that I can bring to this interesting place. I have been involved in computer networks for many years, starting from before Internet access was a consumer commodity like it later became.

I wrote memoirs and dialogues I had here with some other old-timers, and greatly enjoyed that. The pages were well received and informed a newer generation on how things were in the past.

Turns out they were quite similar!

Happy here, thank you Niklas!

I don't think users show appreciation for the effort, work, time and talent people put into making those instances and services available for anyone. No corporate backing, no advertising revenue, no personal data harvesting and brokering for profit.

This instance is quite special for me. It's like my very own, personal instance, with the advantage that I enjoy it running on beautiful hardware, and with professional management. From my first post about Muensterland :

Muensterland.social runs on a HP ProLiant DL380 G6 server with two Intel Xeon Quad Core CPUs,32GB memory and 4x72GB RAID5 HDDs so there is still much space for new users.

For a geek like me, the server description was saliva inducing. OMG. I want in, thank you!

And a location in the European Union, which for me is essential for personal privacy and comfort. Wrote a Blog page about how I had just discovered Muensterland.social, and it had 820 page views in the 5 months since publication. This for a small, Tech and Fedi focused blog like mine, is significant.

This is soon to be in a Blog page...

...as what started as a Toot, due to it being written in a superior Platform (Glitch-Social), in an instance allowing MarkDown rich text format and perfectly presenting it; turns out I soon saw I should take it to my normal text editor, and add links to relevant post as well. Which is done and will be in the completed Toot when sent, soon.

A copy will be saved here, and that will receive the full love of a Blog post, which for me is my ultimate Content Production experience. I aim for a Magazine style and quality, and am happy that my work has the shine and information like one of the professional ones.

I enjoy this journey as a Citizen Journalist, and this post marks a return to my active #FediReporter tag and work.

Thank you again, Niklas, for the great service. Glad my Nomad heart brought me to a better caravanserai.

Sincerely,

rgx@muensterland.social

#Fediverse #Glitch #Glitchsocial #markdown love #nomad

Banner image is a photo by Dzmitry Dudov (Dead_Angel) on Unsplash

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

I have been thinking about a new and better Instance.

And a small snapshot of my busy Tabs list in #Waterfox browser shows that I really was looking for some good GlitchSocial instances.

Found a nice one, here. Muensterland.social came up in my search, from one of those tabs in the header banner.

Thank you, 🐘nipos@muensterland.social ! 😺

#MarkDown love for me. #xp #glitchsocial <!—more—>

How did I find it ?

One of the search tabs I had open (quite hard to locate a List of GlitchSocial instances, when you need one), showed a page which is Nick's Blog and mentioned this new mastodon service he was bringing online.

This whole page is based on a conversation yesterday at Qoto's timeline. Lightly edited for clarity and formatting, adding links, etc.

Crossposting — Gone Wild...

The Funniest part of this — for me anyways, was HOW did this end up here, at Qoto, OMG ??

Not intentional, at all; post was created at a remote new instance, a brand new account. But for good in the end; I am REALLY committed to leaving Mastodon behind and moving to better platforms.

GlitchSocial is one, Pleroma is another, I have accounts in BOTH types of instances, and love their added features, design improvements, and many, many new things.

The Pleroma FE (front end, or user interface — Intro Guide here) is a bit unusual for a mastodon user – but it HAS a second choice of Client; many pleroma instances have the GlitchSocial Web client as an option, sometimes as a link in their Front pages even.

For those of us who like to Read The Friendly Manual, there's a detailed Pleroma FE Guide here.

These notes now appear in a polished Web Magazine here. I developed various pages as extensions of toots and conversations had in various instances; one of the reasons I love having various accounts and always looking for interesting ones to try. #FediReporter I am...

So How did this post end up here, unexpectedly ?

The real screenshot snippet in OP above is just part of the Tabs Overload in my current browser (#Waterfox Current always).

And I HAD been intensively searching for a list (non-existant, afaik) of GlitchSocial instances. They tend to be blended in with generic mastodon ones (no thanks), so it was quite a chore.

[ parenthesis : I will provide that as soon as possible, there is a need ]

And then, what happened ?

My search went into late last night.

• By that time I had found a nice one, created an account and started trying things out.
• Looking good, the basics taken care or, some notes and screenshots saved.
• off to bed, near 3 am.
• Hello again, coffee and we get into it. Configuring a crossposter for the new account, next...

Crossposting ?

Yep. As in, moving posts and content from one network to another. I do enjoy that, there's no denying that there's GOOD stuff in every one. Some are plagued by bad actors, arses and other undesirables.

But, there's The Economist, BBC News, Scientific American, The Guardian and NY Times —– full feeds with quality content I love. Plus, Cats. Lots. of. Cats...

All of those I can chose to share with #fedi friends; easy, with a crossposter.

• for this, my Qoto.org account, I use Moa Bridge, as it is agnostic and doesn't mind my instance name. Recommended for #qoto people. Simple and barebones, functional, a little less explained than the other options.
  

And another, better alternative ;

• if your instance is NOT objected by the hosting instance, a BETTER and EASIER to configure tool is available – the awesome Crossposter, created by Renato Lond at his Brazilian instance.

Rightfully seen as a top notch tool, it has all the controls, works magnificently, fast and has PRETTIER output. Yep. I love it, and use it if the account is acceptable.

There are possibly others, and I welcome suggestions and reports from their users, if desired.

And HOW did it get here ?

...that OP above ? Yeah, you see, you can configure your crossposter of choice to use a Keyword.

• Moa defaults to '#moa' and '#xp'. The shorter one is easy-peasy to remember and only takes 3 chars on the freaking limited Twitter char count. So, I of course use it.

• Renato's tool allows your choice of keywords (yeay for user friendliness!). Since I am always busy, '#xp' is a nice one. Ooops.

...that explains, the surprise appearance of this OP above, here at Qoto.

Woot ?

...was my first response on getting a reply notification to it — I hadn't posted it at Qoto.org, or intended to.

• but the original post at Muensterland.social , had the #xp tag. Intended to bring it into Twitter, which I intended to.
• regardless of my forgetting, Moa is watching for that tag too, and bam! wham! off to Qoto it goes, when it shows in my Twitter stream.

Moral of the Story – be careful with your keywords, as unexpected results do occur.

A revision is in order, after which I will copy and make this into Today's Web Magazine post.

At your friendly #FediReporter home at TeDomum

#QotoJournal #webstories #Fediverse #Culture

#WordCount : 958 words, 7,051 characters used. Thank you qoto.org for a HIGH limit allowance.

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

Have been thinking about new and better Instance. [Part 2]

This morning, I wrote this Toot at a new instance, which I found and registered at late last night.

And picture of my busy Tabs list in #Waterfox browser showed that I really was looking for some good GlitchSocial instances.

Found a nice one, here. Muensterland.social came up in my search, from one of those tabs in the header banner.

Thank you, 🐘nipos@muensterland.social ! 😺

#MarkDown love for me. #xp #glitchsocial <!—more—>

Glitch-Social — Instances List is Needed!

I HAD been intensively searching for a list (non-existant, afaik) of GlitchSocial instances. They tend to be blended in with generic mastodon ones (no thanks), so it was quite a chore.

[ parenthesis : I WILL provide that as soon as possible, there is a need ]

And then, what happened ?

My search went into late last night.

• By that time I had found a nice one, created an account and started trying things out.
• Looking good, the basics taken care or, some notes and screenshots saved.
• off to bed, near 3 am. A few hours of sleep and...
• Hello again, coffee and we get back into it.

Now I am writing this page, to document and describe not only the process, but mainly the Why — the reasons which lead me to look for alternatives in Fediverse, what they can offer, etc.

Why look for a change?

I am REALLY committed to leaving Mastodon behind and moving to better platforms.

GlitchSocial is one, Pleroma is another, I have accounts in BOTH types of instances, and love their added features, design improvements, and many, many new things.

The Pleroma FE (front end, or user interface — Intro Guide here) is a bit unusual for a mastodon user – but it HAS a second choice of Client; many pleroma instances have the GlitchSocial Web client as an option, sometimes as a link in their Front pages even.

For those of us who like to Read The Friendly Manual, there's a detailed Pleroma FE Guide here.

These notes now appear in a polished Web Magazine here. I developed various pages as extensions of toots and conversations had in various instances; one of the reasons I love having various accounts and always looking for interesting ones to try. #FediReporter I am...

How did I find it ?

One of the search tabs I had open (quite hard to locate a List of GlitchSocial instances, when you need one), showed a page which is Nick's Blog and mentioned this new mastodon service he was bringing online.

Got my attention, quickly! Lots to like...

We had planned putting online a new Mastodon instance for a long time but then we saw that a small German instance would go offline soon and decided to take it over.

Continuing an existing service and making sure that all existing users don't lose their digital home is much better than creating a completely new service out of the nothing.

You can find the instance at Muensterland.social but it's mainly meant for people near Muenster and most posts are in German.

Interesting — a thoughful admin is important, and he seems a good one. And it gets Better.

Using GlitchSocial and allowing 5,000 characters for Toots!

The instance runs with the GlitchSocial software (Git repo) which is a fork of Mastodon which allows more settings for users as well as server admin.

For example GlitchSoc makes the 5000 chars limit instead of 500 chars possible [the usual and pesky Mastodon limit] and that's important for having real conversations and not just a short message.

Wow. To have support for larger Toots and messages is ESSENTIAL for my self expression. I have campaigned for about 6 months now, and it's an uphill battle, to tell you the Truth. Why?

• Many of the senior developers in the Mastodon project, starting with Eugen R. himself, came from Twitter.
• The cramped 144 characters there forced users to adapt and try to find clever ways to instill meaning in those miserable spaces.
• As it's prone to happen, people will adapt and thrive, somewhat, even in sh1ty conditions.
• Case in point, all those old TwitterHeads who can't understand why 500 chars is not sufficient. Freak, it's 3 times the TW limit!

My Response to that? Screw your 500 Hard Limit!

Ha, ha, ha, thanks God and some illuminated beings, we DO have instances in mastodon and elsewhere that DO allow more than 500 Characters. Qoto.org has 65,535 characters max limit, a generous allowance even for a very verbal writer.

( I have personally used up about 5,000 tops, I would say. In extreme cases, so this limit is a God-send, yes please. )

And then, the Closer :

A few lines down, this gem :

Additionally we do now have a #Halcyon instance at web.Muensterland.social so you can use it with the easy and beautiful design of Twitter.

Muensterland.social runs on a HP ProLiant DL380 G6 server with two Intel Xeon Quad Core CPUs,32GB memory and 4x72GB RAID5 HDDs so there is still much space for new users.

For a geek like me, the server description was saliva inducing. OMG. I want in, thank you!

Halcyon's Client — Main Features :

Nick is using the well-regarded Halcyon mastodon and Pleroma client. A screenshot below (reduced in size) shows Eugen's account at Mastodon.social as rendered in Halcyon. [img source – Halcyon]

From the homepage for Halcyon :

• It looks like Twitters user interface which you may already know
• It supports custom character limits of Pleroma and modded Mastodon instances
• It supports custom emojis in posts and user names and has a emoji picker
• It's completely free of advertisements and trackers
• It's open source – You can help adding features you're missing
• It has full support for the lists feature including create/edit/delete
• It has full support for the filters – Also from other clients
• There are dozens of free Halcyon instances – No single point of failure
• Halcyon is available in many different languages – Currently 9
• Who to follow feature to easily find other users with similar interests
• Supports different media files like GIFs,videos or audio files
• Privacy friendly players for content from YouTube,Vimeo and Peertube

Looks good, and can be tried without hassle or expense.

Halcyon's Additional Resources :

• List of free Halcyon instances you can use.
• Git instance for the project
• Nick's personal account and projects page

Famous Last Words :

I would like to sincerely thank all the dedicated people who put in a lot of effort, time and resources in providing us all the Software, the Instances and Content for the Fediverse.

It's thanks to them that we can enjoy a rich experience, the freedom to move and find communities we enjoy, and the ability to ignore or even shut the door in the varied annoyances that Internet living has those days (a subject to another post, another day).

Please visit and see new content at your friendly #FediReporter home at TeDomum.net

Originally partially posted at Qoto.org, with many thanks for excellent services and a refined user experience.

#wordCount : 1333 words, 8,021 characters used. Thank you qoto.org for a HIGH limit allowance. [note that this is the actual MarkDown source for this page, and includes tons of URLs and Formatting code.]

#QotoJournal #webstories #Fediverse #Culture

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page