History &mdash; Musings by @rg https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/tag:History A place to jot down ideas, notes, pointers. Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:16:17 +0000 Memories - Starting in Computing, in the 70's https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/memories-starting-in-computing-in-the-70s <![CDATA[ ----- Z(1) = Y + W(1) A #Fortran Statement in this #Vintage #computing input device. The famous "punched cards", which each cold hold 80 characters or one line of programming instructions or data for processing. I learned this language, and created my assignments in decks of those cards. Back in November, when I was starting in mastodon, we had a delightful thread about it, which included this image. @k11m1 -- see it here #QotoJournal #History #Technology #Programming May 17, 2020, 8:32 PM \!--more-- ----- Programming, can be Fun or Frustrating A more recent conversation, which started naturally once I saw Klimi's post : My response to this simple statement was a long reply, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing, and now forms the body of this page. ------ Getting it Right on the First Try ? LOL... It is not impossible, but it takes a lot of concentration, and hopefully a smaller programme to work with. When I first learned, we did not have access to computers directly at all; that was reserved for the high priesthood, serving the needs and whims of the large, school gym sized computer center. We students would create our programmes, that had to do some task assigned by profs. ---- Making my own Deck -- IBM model 29 : And later get the lines of code ready for input -- punch cards for us. I did my own punching, found a quiet room with a machine in the Physics department, little used, and would go there to prepare my deck, Because testing was laborious (revisions equaling new cards needed, finding a punch, etc) we tried the best we could to read and follow the logic. But I think getting it bug free in 3 passes was good, very good. ----- 20 Years Later... Fast forward many years, and me teaching BASIC programming; my students were bright, did well, but they found it quite hard to create a small programme in paper only (without trying to run and see what happens, to find the errors). This was good for discipline, but it is less common. They whined every time I called for a pencil and paper only task, lol....😺 ------ And it continued : @k11m1 Yeah, it was something that was needed when computing power was a precious resource, much less common, and we needed to conserve it. Good things resulted from that - people created solutions to enable remote access, shared systems, one large machine that processed tasks from many people or departments; scheduling, so you could slot a job for some late hour when there were less people around. Following the logic is a good thing, as you write line by line, it should make sense, and flow -- or else, why did you use that line, and the next? There are pesky typos that break things, but other than those small input errors, the code should be understandable and make sense. Someone else might have to work on it someday, and that will make their job easier and faster too. ------ Programming Languages Evolved from Needs Back in time programming languages were developed to cater to some specific need or group of users; making it easier to create the projects they needed. We used Fortran, which is Formula Translation; it was created for Science and Engineering students and professionals. I had a room mate who was in the Math department, we were both 1st year students, had the same Profs (from Math department), and the same assignments. But his class used another language, called Algol - which was a better fit for Math people's needs. We enjoyed comparing the finished results of our assignments; quite simply, we looked at the thickness of each other's stack of cards. Sometimes, Algol would win (win being a smaller deck, less processing time), other times Fortran got it. 😄 ------ My First Computer was a Burroughs 5500 It was my first time ever seeing and working with a computer -- a mammoth Burroughs 5500 mainframe, and I loved every aspect of it. Over time, I observed that I could tell right away when something was broken in a new project. When I had my source code written up, the next step was to hand it in, for a pool of secretaries who would prepare our cards, overnight. Or find a spare IBM punch machine somewhere (my preferred, faster route). Got the cards? Processing time! Go to the computing center, and get in line with other students with their own decks; we lined up outside, in front of a room that contained a card reader (input) and a large printer (output). This was a smaller room, wired to the computer next door which was all air conditioned to around 18 degrees Celsius year around. The card reader had two doors, it's own Input and Output of student processing; in via one, hand in the deck, watch it be read, get a printout, out via the other door. As the deck was handed in and loaded into the card reader, we stood watching, hoping for a good run. Any result would produce a paper printout, those continuous paper forms. Many times, it was a report of an error at some point. processing took some seconds; and I noticed that success or failure was indicated by the card reader behaviour; a perfect program would pass thru the reader in linear fashion, smooth flow. I got excited, maybe this time it's all Good!! I also noticed that hesitations in the stack flow indicated errors; it would stop at some card, pause or a few seconds, Bad sign! 😔 Soon it would resume, a short report printed, and a more or less dejected student headed out door #2. ...to go back to his desk, his notes and code write up. Read the report (quite cryptic usually), and trace thru the programme to find what was wrong. ------ Smooth Flow is Good News Getting a smooth card reader flow was an instant sign I might have made it - and at best happened at the 3rd try or so (worse sometimes, in harder jobs or if you weren't focused enough). Some great work was done in developing whole languages to be used for teaching Programming, like Pascal -- good habits would carry on into a professional's work life, and be appreciated by anyone working with this person, or later maintaining their legacy code. #QotoJournal #History #Technology #Programming #Retro #IT ------ And Klimi enjoyed it. 😺 Thank you, I enjoy writing a lot. And this could be developed into a new Blog post easily, a thought that occurred to me as I wrote it too. Another motivation for going in length. I have a couple of favourite Blog posts that started this way, as a Toot or a series of them, and were so interesting that a Blog page was next. :) I am having many ideas for Blogging again, hope it does come; just got to clear my head, jot down notes and fire up the tools. Appreciate the comment, which means a lot. 😄 ------- Some Articles about Punched Cards and Computing : While searching for the references in the next session of this page, I came across a wonderful list of articles. At the must-visit Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, California. Location Computer History Museum 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 About 100 Kilometers south of beautiful San Francisco, and very near the GooglePlex, the giant company headquarters which I suggest as a second attraction to visit if you find yourself in this region. The Museum is breath taking, wonderful, get there early as there's much to see. Reference Articles from CHM : Punched Cards & Paper Tape The Punched Card's Pedigree An Empire Built on Punched Cards A Scientific Census ------ References -- Keywords used in this Article a. FORTRAN : Fortran is a general-purpose, compiled imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. Originally developed by IBM in the 1950s for scientific and engineering applications, FORTRAN came to dominate this area of programming early on and has been in continuous use for over six decades in computationally intensive areas such as numerical weather prediction, finite element analysis, etc. Wikipedia page b. BASIC : BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use. The original version was designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz and released at Dartmouth College in 1964. They wanted to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. Wikipedia page c. Punched Cards : A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be used for data processing applications or used to directly control automated machinery. Wikipedia page d. ALGOL : ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the Association for Computing Machinery in textbooks and academic sources until object-oriented languages came around, for more than thirty years. Wikipedia page e. Burroughs 5500 : The Burroughs 5500 was a unique machine, first introduced in 1961 as the B5000. Later advanced to the B5500 (1964) adding disks and finally the B5700 (1971) adding solid state drum. It was the first computer to use the stack as its only means of accessing data. The Burrows 5500 article, Sky Visions Burrows 5500 computer Brochure, Computing History Museum f. IBM model 29 Card Punch : The IBM 29 Card Punch (also called the 029 or Type 029 Key Punch or Keypunch), introduced about 1964 to coincide with the introduction of the IBM 360. Available in nine models with various combinations of keyboard (12-key numeric or 64-key alphanumeric)... Columbia University page IBM model 29 video YT g. PASCAL : Pascal, a computer programming language developed about 1970 by Niklaus Wirth of Switzerland to teach structured programming, which emphasizes the orderly use of conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements. Although Pascal resembled ALGOL in notation, it provided the ability to define data types with which to organize complex information. Encyclopedia Britannica page ----- 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]]>

Z(1) = Y + W(1)

A #Fortran Statement in this #Vintage #computing input device.

The famous “punched cards”, which each cold hold 80 characters or one line of programming instructions or data for processing.

I learned this language, and created my assignments in decks of those cards.

Back in November, when I was starting in mastodon, we had a delightful thread about it, which included this image. @k11m1 — see it here

#QotoJournal #History #Technology #Programming

May 17, 2020, 8:32 PM <!—more—>

Programming, can be Fun or Frustrating

A more recent conversation, which started naturally once I saw Klimi's post :

My response to this simple statement was a long reply, which I thoroughly enjoyed writing, and now forms the body of this page.

Getting it Right on the First Try ?

LOL...

It is not impossible, but it takes a lot of concentration, and hopefully a smaller programme to work with.

When I first learned, we did not have access to computers directly at all; that was reserved for the high priesthood, serving the needs and whims of the large, school gym sized computer center. We students would create our programmes, that had to do some task assigned by profs.

Making my own Deck — IBM model 29 :

And later get the lines of code ready for input — punch cards for us. I did my own punching, found a quiet room with a machine in the Physics department, little used, and would go there to prepare my deck,

Because testing was laborious (revisions equaling new cards needed, finding a punch, etc) we tried the best we could to read and follow the logic.

But I think getting it bug free in 3 passes was good, very good.

20 Years Later...

Fast forward many years, and me teaching BASIC programming; my students were bright, did well, but they found it quite hard to create a small programme in paper only (without trying to run and see what happens, to find the errors).

This was good for discipline, but it is less common. They whined every time I called for a pencil and paper only task, lol....😺

And it continued :

@k11m1 Yeah, it was something that was needed when computing power was a precious resource, much less common, and we needed to conserve it.

Good things resulted from that – people created solutions to enable remote access, shared systems, one large machine that processed tasks from many people or departments; scheduling, so you could slot a job for some late hour when there were less people around.

Following the logic is a good thing, as you write line by line, it should make sense, and flow — or else, why did you use that line, and the next?

There are pesky typos that break things, but other than those small input errors, the code should be understandable and make sense.

Someone else might have to work on it someday, and that will make their job easier and faster too.

Programming Languages Evolved from Needs

Back in time programming languages were developed to cater to some specific need or group of users; making it easier to create the projects they needed.

We used Fortran, which is Formula Translation; it was created for Science and Engineering students and professionals.

I had a room mate who was in the Math department, we were both 1st year students, had the same Profs (from Math department), and the same assignments.

But his class used another language, called Algol – which was a better fit for Math people's needs.

We enjoyed comparing the finished results of our assignments; quite simply, we looked at the thickness of each other's stack of cards. Sometimes, Algol would win (win being a smaller deck, less processing time), other times Fortran got it. 😄

My First Computer was a Burroughs 5500

It was my first time ever seeing and working with a computer — a mammoth Burroughs 5500 mainframe, and I loved every aspect of it.

Over time, I observed that I could tell right away when something was broken in a new project.

  • When I had my source code written up, the next step was to hand it in, for a pool of secretaries who would prepare our cards, overnight. Or find a spare IBM punch machine somewhere (my preferred, faster route).
  • Got the cards? Processing time! Go to the computing center, and get in line with other students with their own decks; we lined up outside, in front of a room that contained a card reader (input) and a large printer (output). This was a smaller room, wired to the computer next door which was all air conditioned to around 18 degrees Celsius year around.
  • The card reader had two doors, it's own Input and Output of student processing; in via one, hand in the deck, watch it be read, get a printout, out via the other door.
  • As the deck was handed in and loaded into the card reader, we stood watching, hoping for a good run. Any result would produce a paper printout, those continuous paper forms. Many times, it was a report of an error at some point.
  • processing took some seconds; and I noticed that success or failure was indicated by the card reader behaviour; a perfect program would pass thru the reader in linear fashion, smooth flow. I got excited, maybe this time it's all Good!!
  • I also noticed that hesitations in the stack flow indicated errors; it would stop at some card, pause or a few seconds, Bad sign! 😔 Soon it would resume, a short report printed, and a more or less dejected student headed out door #2.

...to go back to his desk, his notes and code write up. Read the report (quite cryptic usually), and trace thru the programme to find what was wrong.

Smooth Flow is Good News

Getting a smooth card reader flow was an instant sign I might have made it – and at best happened at the 3rd try or so (worse sometimes, in harder jobs or if you weren't focused enough).

Some great work was done in developing whole languages to be used for teaching Programming, like Pascal — good habits would carry on into a professional's work life, and be appreciated by anyone working with this person, or later maintaining their legacy code.

#QotoJournal #History #Technology #Programming #Retro #IT

And Klimi enjoyed it. 😺

Thank you, I enjoy writing a lot.

And this could be developed into a new Blog post easily, a thought that occurred to me as I wrote it too. Another motivation for going in length.

I have a couple of favourite Blog posts that started this way, as a Toot or a series of them, and were so interesting that a Blog page was next. :)

I am having many ideas for Blogging again, hope it does come; just got to clear my head, jot down notes and fire up the tools. Appreciate the comment, which means a lot. 😄

Some Articles about Punched Cards and Computing :

While searching for the references in the next session of this page, I came across a wonderful list of articles. At the must-visit Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, California.

Location

Computer History Museum 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043

About 100 Kilometers south of beautiful San Francisco, and very near the GooglePlex, the giant company headquarters which I suggest as a second attraction to visit if you find yourself in this region. The Museum is breath taking, wonderful, get there early as there's much to see.

Reference Articles from CHM :

References — Keywords used in this Article

a. FORTRAN :

Fortran is a general-purpose, compiled imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. Originally developed by IBM in the 1950s for scientific and engineering applications, FORTRAN came to dominate this area of programming early on and has been in continuous use for over six decades in computationally intensive areas such as numerical weather prediction, finite element analysis, etc. Wikipedia page

b. BASIC :

BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use. The original version was designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz and released at Dartmouth College in 1964. They wanted to enable students in fields other than science and mathematics to use computers. Wikipedia page

c. Punched Cards :

A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be used for data processing applications or used to directly control automated machinery. Wikipedia page

d. ALGOL :

ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the Association for Computing Machinery in textbooks and academic sources until object-oriented languages came around, for more than thirty years. Wikipedia page

e. Burroughs 5500 :

The Burroughs 5500 was a unique machine, first introduced in 1961 as the B5000. Later advanced to the B5500 (1964) adding disks and finally the B5700 (1971) adding solid state drum. It was the first computer to use the stack as its only means of accessing data. The Burrows 5500 article, Sky Visions Burrows 5500 computer Brochure, Computing History Museum

f. IBM model 29 Card Punch :

The IBM 29 Card Punch (also called the 029 or Type 029 Key Punch or Keypunch), introduced about 1964 to coincide with the introduction of the IBM 360. Available in nine models with various combinations of keyboard (12-key numeric or 64-key alphanumeric)... Columbia University page IBM model 29 video YT

g. PASCAL :

Pascal, a computer programming language developed about 1970 by Niklaus Wirth of Switzerland to teach structured programming, which emphasizes the orderly use of conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements. Although Pascal resembled ALGOL in notation, it provided the ability to define data types with which to organize complex information. Encyclopedia Britannica page

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

]]> https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/memories-starting-in-computing-in-the-70s Thu, 18 Jun 2020 16:29:38 +0000 Is it Important, which Instance you are in? https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/is-it-important-which-instance-you-are-in <![CDATA[ ------ Casual Conversation, Interesting Tips. Once again I had an enjoyable conversation, earlier today. From my laptop, logged into my Qoto acount via Web client, I also browsed Mastodon.social via Pinafore, and we started a chat. Achso was there(@achso@mastodon.social), and we kind of continued a conversation from a day or two before. I enjoyed it, said a lot, and thought it would make for a nice blog post. The full thread is online, and can be seen here. I was posting via Pinafore, and limited to 500 characters, unfortunately - which led to some choppy posts (instance there limited to 500 chars max). \!--more-- We really should petition Eugen R. @gargron@mastodon.social and beg for a larger limit for the MaximumTootSize variable. Currently, it's 500 characters, larger in some instances that customized their own limits. ----- Conversation Follows. ( Achso's Toots are shown in quoted form, mine are in plain text form. ) @achso : Otherwise this will stay a niche thing. And it deserves better than that. I think it is sad that many of my old contacts from abroad - US and other places - refuse to leave their old biotope. ----- Some people will come and see what is going on here if it keeps growing and getting media reports. I only joined here in November -- close to 2 months now, but in that short time I went from total newbie to having 3,400 posts or so, Staff position at my main instance, and being part of maybe 10 instances of Mastodon alone. Plus the wonderful integrated services - love Write.freely! Insta, I stayed away, always. Dumb people, hashtag binging, bothers me, they are clueless. ----- Curiously -- I found my curiosity and interest in this Fediverse due to a BBC News report about the Indian Diaspora, from TW to mastodon instances. Saw it on my rarely visited TW timeline, read the article. Uhm, what is mastodon? LOL, the rest is #history.... :-P Having lots of fun, it's keeping me happy and busy thru Winter, depressive in general in our Northern latitudes. ----- This very article : @achso : Twitter classified the famous Landmesser-photo as "hateful imagery"? Wow... I think there is no lack of antifascist people on Twitter now, but many of them act like - cough... - fascists. Intolerant, stubborn, uptight... Anyway, Mastodon is different, which is good. ;) Yes, I like it here, it's very refreshing! With politics and all, but like on Fidonet, we can make waves, run our own things, and have a voice. On the algorithm driven major soc media sites, not a chance, they silence you simply by not showing your content. Hey, if you even want to try a smaller instance, come and visit Qoto.org, it's a nice place, if I may say so. ----- But does Choosing an Instance Matter ? @achso: Is it really important which instance some is on? Isn't it the core of the fediverse that it does not? Just asking... I think that is an excellent question! And I am part of various ones, although lift the flag and sign my blog with my main one. How does it differ, being in one or another? a very small instance will likely have a very quiet local Feed. This is sad, as the Local feed is where I find most social interaction happens; camaraderie, we see each other, all posts. And sometimes we provide support just to encourage a friend to keep going. ----- at the opposite end, a very large instance will have an extremely busy Local feed; no lack of things to look at, but like Twitter, many will fly by without any reaction, as people don't have the time to relate, read, respond before another barrage of posts land. I visit and post somethings here in ms.soc, it's the Flagship and sometimes good for exposure. But it wouldn't work for me as a home. I find the Local feed overwhelming indeed. ----- So size is important. Theme also - there are generalist instances, and posts from all kinds; might be good to discover new things, interesting. Less good for more focused posts or interests, which sometimes a more focused instance can better take care of. Language, one's native one is ideal, even if we do fluent English, thankfully, bridging the divide; I still love to write and converse in other languages. Culture : like travel, seeing the instances in other countries, is fun. ----- I love this discussion and will likely collate all of my posts above and build an article for a blog post on it. I have been enjoying doing that. Wanted to ask you, remember our chat from yesterday, regarding Fidonet, Front Door? wanted to request if you allow me to quote you on a possible article for the blog? If you prefer not to, I understand, but I am a learning journalist and respect my sources. Thank you for the nice conversations! @achso: Sure, no problem.Nothing wrong with a little bit of sentimentality. :) BTW: As a journalist (desk editor, reporter) for more than 30 years I have to help my young fellow colleagues, no? ;) ----- Thanks, Achso! This was a fun conversation, and helped me organize thoughts on why visiting, getting to know different instances is fun and important. I enjoy traveling and choosing small cafés or restaurants in the streets of towns and cities abroad. Our mastodon instances are very much like Cafés, and the quality varies, the customer base is a big part of how nice they are, how active specially. Management can also make or break a community. I am grateful to the administrators and staff team of the various instances which I belong to; with all of them I have learned, observed and thought about different ways things can be done. Fun. Thank you, friends. ;-) Below I will outline a little about these instances I frequent. No specific recommendations, just notes, maybe help you know what's available and how they can vary? ----- Some instances I frequent : In no particular order, just writing from the top of my head in my text editor... Qoto.org - listed in my blog signature, Qoto is my primary instance; one where I spend most of my time, have made many posts and enjoy socializing with local friends which follow my work closely. I have volunteered and been elected as a Moderator there recently. Instance Theme : STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are the theme here. Not strictly enforced in everyday posting, which can be relaxed (I do contribute a lot of Cat pictures!). Users number : just over 6,500 now with a recent influx of Spanish Twitter migration. Registrations : open. ----- Todon.nl - A Left wing instance, Todon has some nice people I had met over the Feeds and enjoyed conversations with. I am also aligned with the local political lean, so it's one of my favourites. Well connected, posts distribute quickly. Instance Theme : there's a number of activists, and users who enjoy the place, where they won't meet any vociferous politically opposing people. Users number : just over 5,300. Registrations : are via an application, explain how your personal views align with Todon's. [temporarily Closed atm] ----- Hackers.town - a community of people interested in computing, network and systems administration, security, privacy, and related topics. An interesting place for people interested in learning about those topics, which is my case, because it has experienced users in these various fields. Instance Theme ; Technology, Computing, Security, CyberPunk. Users number : about 200, although their total post count is astronomical. Registrations : are controlled, as the front door says "Speak friend and enter." ----- Toot.Cafe - This is an instance frequented by programmers, web designers, etc, and administered by Nolan, the author of the brilliant Pinafore mastodon client. For many knowledgeable users, Pinafore is tops, for it's speed, streamlining and support of multiple instances - and ease of switching between them. See more information at the project's home. Not a general instance, but I enjoy visiting and chatting with Nolan when I have a suggestion for Pinafore. Instance Theme : Web design, Mastodon, programming, UI design, Clients for Mastodon network. Users number : 2,772 Registrations : Open, via Request an Invite link at front door. ----- Nerdculture.de - This small instance is run by Ingo J., a veteran systems administrator, fellow FidoNet user and operator and host also of the Friendica node I frequent. Ingo's own description : "All friendly creatures are welcome. Be excellent to each other, live humanism, no nazis, no hate speech. Not only for nerds, but the domain is somewhat cool. ;) No bots in general! (only with prior permission)". E.U. based, so European Privacy and other laws apply - an advantage for me, in any network services choice if available. Instance Theme : A General instance, based in Germany. Posts in English and German. Users number : 365 Registrations : Open ----- Mastodon.social - The Mothership, this instance is home to Eugene R., who is the lead developer of the Mastodon project. For many new users, it's the only instance they know of, so it has a large influx of new people and the largest number of users in Fediverse (not counting the Gab instance and peripheral systems, as they are not widely accepted by a lot of other fediverse instances). A very, very busy local timeline, if you get bored of waiting for some new post at any smaller instances. A good place to see what a very large Mastodon instance would feel like (and to know what kids of hardware it takes for such high numbers of users). Also a good place to boost posts from, if you want some extra spreading for a new thread. Instance Theme : a General instance, no specific theme. Users number : 455,000 as I write. Registrations : open. ----- Mastodon.technology - A fairly large instance, with a Tech theme and actively moderated. The administrator has clearly stated rules and isolates his instance from many others. Some of the excluded instances (as listed in his git page here) are black balled simply for federating with other instances that Ash Furrow, the local admin, does not want connections with. Sadly this blocks a lot of info from other, more open minded instances (and I mean the ones that are not fascist dominated, but get tarred here in his extensive blocked list). Instance Theme : Tecnnology. But selectively disconnected, see note above. Users number : 19,500 Registrations : Open, fill in form ("Why do you want to Join us?") to request an invite. ----- Mastodon Instances in the World : Bonus, if you read this far in the page, lol... A nice world Map showing the local concentration of Instances. Click on Image for Large Version. Map of Mastodon instances from Mastodon Network Monitoring Project, August 17, 2017. From an interesting article At Medium.com. ----- 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]]>

Casual Conversation, Interesting Tips.

Once again I had an enjoyable conversation, earlier today. From my laptop, logged into my Qoto acount via Web client, I also browsed Mastodon.social via Pinafore, and we started a chat.

Achso was there(@achso@mastodon.social), and we kind of continued a conversation from a day or two before. I enjoyed it, said a lot, and thought it would make for a nice blog post.

The full thread is online, and can be seen here. I was posting via Pinafore, and limited to 500 characters, unfortunately – which led to some choppy posts (instance there limited to 500 chars max). <!—more—>

We really should petition Eugen R. @gargron@mastodon.social and beg for a larger limit for the MaximumTootSize variable. Currently, it's 500 characters, larger in some instances that customized their own limits.

Conversation Follows.

( Achso's Toots are shown in quoted form, mine are in plain text form. )

@achso : Otherwise this will stay a niche thing. And it deserves better than that. I think it is sad that many of my old contacts from abroad – US and other places – refuse to leave their old biotope.

Some people will come and see what is going on here if it keeps growing and getting media reports.

I only joined here in November — close to 2 months now, but in that short time I went from total newbie to having 3,400 posts or so, Staff position at my main instance, and being part of maybe 10 instances of Mastodon alone.

Plus the wonderful integrated services – love Write.freely!

Insta, I stayed away, always. Dumb people, hashtag binging, bothers me, they are clueless.

Curiously — I found my curiosity and interest in this Fediverse due to a BBC News report about the Indian Diaspora, from TW to mastodon instances.

Saw it on my rarely visited TW timeline, read the article. Uhm, what is mastodon?

LOL, the rest is #history.... :-P

Having lots of fun, it's keeping me happy and busy thru Winter, depressive in general in our Northern latitudes.

This very article :

@achso : Twitter classified the famous Landmesser-photo as “hateful imagery”? Wow... I think there is no lack of antifascist people on Twitter now, but many of them act like – cough... – fascists. Intolerant, stubborn, uptight... Anyway, Mastodon is different, which is good. ;)

Yes, I like it here, it's very refreshing!

With politics and all, but like on Fidonet, we can make waves, run our own things, and have a voice.

On the algorithm driven major soc media sites, not a chance, they silence you simply by not showing your content.

Hey, if you even want to try a smaller instance, come and visit Qoto.org, it's a nice place, if I may say so.

But does Choosing an Instance Matter ?

@achso: Is it really important which instance some is on? Isn't it the core of the fediverse that it does not? Just asking...

I think that is an excellent question! And I am part of various ones, although lift the flag and sign my blog with my main one.

How does it differ, being in one or another?

  • a very small instance will likely have a very quiet local Feed. This is sad, as the Local feed is where I find most social interaction happens; camaraderie, we see each other, all posts. And sometimes we provide support just to encourage a friend to keep going.
  • at the opposite end, a very large instance will have an extremely busy Local feed; no lack of things to look at, but like Twitter, many will fly by without any reaction, as people don't have the time to relate, read, respond before another barrage of posts land.

I visit and post somethings here in ms.soc, it's the Flagship and sometimes good for exposure. But it wouldn't work for me as a home. I find the Local feed overwhelming indeed.

  • So size is important. Theme also – there are generalist instances, and posts from all kinds; might be good to discover new things, interesting. Less good for more focused posts or interests, which sometimes a more focused instance can better take care of.

  • Language, one's native one is ideal, even if we do fluent English, thankfully, bridging the divide; I still love to write and converse in other languages.

  • Culture : like travel, seeing the instances in other countries, is fun.

I love this discussion and will likely collate all of my posts above and build an article for a blog post on it. I have been enjoying doing that.

Wanted to ask you, remember our chat from yesterday, regarding Fidonet, Front Door? wanted to request if you allow me to quote you on a possible article for the blog?

If you prefer not to, I understand, but I am a learning journalist and respect my sources. Thank you for the nice conversations!

@achso: Sure, no problem.Nothing wrong with a little bit of sentimentality. :)

BTW: As a journalist (desk editor, reporter) for more than 30 years I have to help my young fellow colleagues, no? ;)

Thanks, Achso!

This was a fun conversation, and helped me organize thoughts on why visiting, getting to know different instances is fun and important.

I enjoy traveling and choosing small cafés or restaurants in the streets of towns and cities abroad. Our mastodon instances are very much like Cafés, and the quality varies, the customer base is a big part of how nice they are, how active specially. Management can also make or break a community.

I am grateful to the administrators and staff team of the various instances which I belong to; with all of them I have learned, observed and thought about different ways things can be done. Fun. Thank you, friends. ;–)

Below I will outline a little about these instances I frequent. No specific recommendations, just notes, maybe help you know what's available and how they can vary?

Some instances I frequent :

In no particular order, just writing from the top of my head in my text editor...

  • Qoto.org – listed in my blog signature, Qoto is my primary instance; one where I spend most of my time, have made many posts and enjoy socializing with local friends which follow my work closely. I have volunteered and been elected as a Moderator there recently.

Instance Theme : STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are the theme here. Not strictly enforced in everyday posting, which can be relaxed (I do contribute a lot of Cat pictures!).

Users number : just over 6,500 now with a recent influx of Spanish Twitter migration. Registrations : open.

  • Todon.nl – A Left wing instance, Todon has some nice people I had met over the Feeds and enjoyed conversations with. I am also aligned with the local political lean, so it's one of my favourites. Well connected, posts distribute quickly.

Instance Theme : there's a number of activists, and users who enjoy the place, where they won't meet any vociferous politically opposing people.

Users number : just over 5,300. Registrations : are via an application, explain how your personal views align with Todon's. [temporarily Closed atm]

  • Hackers.town – a community of people interested in computing, network and systems administration, security, privacy, and related topics. An interesting place for people interested in learning about those topics, which is my case, because it has experienced users in these various fields.

Instance Theme ; Technology, Computing, Security, CyberPunk.

Users number : about 200, although their total post count is astronomical. Registrations : are controlled, as the front door says “Speak friend and enter.”

  • Toot.Cafe – This is an instance frequented by programmers, web designers, etc, and administered by Nolan, the author of the brilliant Pinafore mastodon client. For many knowledgeable users, Pinafore is tops, for it's speed, streamlining and support of multiple instances – and ease of switching between them. See more information at the project's home. Not a general instance, but I enjoy visiting and chatting with Nolan when I have a suggestion for Pinafore.

Instance Theme : Web design, Mastodon, programming, UI design, Clients for Mastodon network. Users number : 2,772 Registrations : Open, via Request an Invite link at front door.

“All friendly creatures are welcome. Be excellent to each other, live humanism, no nazis, no hate speech. Not only for nerds, but the domain is somewhat cool. ;) No bots in general! (only with prior permission)”.

E.U. based, so European Privacy and other laws apply – an advantage for me, in any network services choice if available.

Instance Theme : A General instance, based in Germany. Posts in English and German.

Users number : 365 Registrations : Open

  • Mastodon.social – The Mothership, this instance is home to Eugene R., who is the lead developer of the Mastodon project.

For many new users, it's the only instance they know of, so it has a large influx of new people and the largest number of users in Fediverse (not counting the Gab instance and peripheral systems, as they are not widely accepted by a lot of other fediverse instances).

A very, very busy local timeline, if you get bored of waiting for some new post at any smaller instances. A good place to see what a very large Mastodon instance would feel like (and to know what kids of hardware it takes for such high numbers of users). Also a good place to boost posts from, if you want some extra spreading for a new thread.

Instance Theme : a General instance, no specific theme.

Users number : 455,000 as I write. Registrations : open.

  • Mastodon.technology – A fairly large instance, with a Tech theme and actively moderated. The administrator has clearly stated rules and isolates his instance from many others.

Some of the excluded instances (as listed in his git page here) are black balled simply for federating with other instances that Ash Furrow, the local admin, does not want connections with. Sadly this blocks a lot of info from other, more open minded instances (and I mean the ones that are not fascist dominated, but get tarred here in his extensive blocked list).

Instance Theme : Tecnnology. But selectively disconnected, see note above.

Users number : 19,500 Registrations : Open, fill in form (“Why do you want to Join us?”) to request an invite.

Mastodon Instances in the World :

Bonus, if you read this far in the page, lol... A nice world Map showing the local concentration of Instances. Click on Image for Large Version. Map of Mastodon instances from Mastodon Network Monitoring Project, August 17, 2017.

From an interesting article At Medium.com.

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

]]> https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/is-it-important-which-instance-you-are-in Sun, 05 Jan 2020 01:24:44 +0000