On Sunday 05 May 2024 21:55:36 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: It sounds more like your account got hijacked while you weren't actively using it. But this would probably mean that "somebody" out there who has the tools or resources was scanning for unused accounts to take over. Bill

From the main page on floss.social (given, they say to report breaches of CoC): "Sending email to admin(a)floss.social" Hope it helps. Cheers Michele On 2024/05/06 02:34 PM, J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote:

On Monday 06 May 2024 17:15:57 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: I don't actually use Mastodon, just like I never used Twitter before it, don't use X, etc. However, do they require real names, full names, etc.? Is it possible just to go to a different place and create a new account with a new identity? If not, then I will probably never use any disservice like them. Bill

On Monday 06 May 2024 17:56:47 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: Like other disservices of this kind, it seems only to put the bad guys in charge of everybody else. It just provides an opportunity to ban people for no reason (or because somebody else has hijacked their account); or to ban somebody merely because one doesn't like something they said, or because of opinions that they have expressed elsewhere, or to ban them based on nothing more than gossip and slander. I have the deb packages for a couple different Mastodon clients, but until now I haven't felt that I am missing anything important. Bill

On Monday 06 May 2024 18:23:15 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: A little research has discovered that it is run somewhat like jabber/xmpp, and no doubt was based on that general idea. In any case, the servers are run by individual admins, so maybe it's possible to access the TDE feed from another server. Otherwise, I have to agree, it doesn't sound like that server, @tde.floss.social, is really serving us. Bill

On 2024-05-06 20:37:20 Felix Miata via tde-users wrote: I have used it in the past, and could again, if the information I want/need appears there. The original post by Slávek implies that the stuff that I would expect to appear in the Announcement list now appears in Mastodon. There are now so many channels being posted to, it is extremely difficult to understand where to get information: mailing lists? There are at least three; irc? Mastodon? TDE wiki? Bugzilla? Gitea? –aaaagh! Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0

On 2024-05-07 06:57:36 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote: You're probably right; but at one time a browser I was using (might have been Firefox, long ago) had no way to clear cookies selectively, and now I always forget that option exists. Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 04:52:29 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote: So then that's pretty much how jabber/xmpp servers are also run. Some require all kinds of personal information, yet there are others (or at least one that I know) that requires nothing to create an account, not even email or other contact information. But then, of course, if you lose your password or have other problems with the account, it is lost for ever. But then you can just create a new account. I didn't imagine there was much tracking, either, otherwise Mastodon could not compete successfully as the anti-X-Twitter. But when I went to their home page, I found that I cannot do that over a proxy, that they want javascript and cookies enabled, etc. So for me, that's still tracking, whether they actually do so themselves or not. But I read what Slavek wrote in a separate email, that you can see what's being posted without actually logging in. I think that's probably more my style. I like to know if anything important is happening; I don't necessarily want to join the party. Bill

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 13:00:54 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote: That's not myself! I don't track anybody. That's my evil twin. He never comes when summoned, but is always showing up uninvited, where he's not wanted, and at the worst possible, most embarrasing moments. Yes, I think for me, for now, I am satisfied just to be an occasional observer. I'll save my rants for the mailing list. :-] It seems that I ought to learn how to do that rss thing. There are a couple of podcasts (for old-timey music) that I know ask for rss subscription, but I just sidestep that part and download the mp3 of the show to my machine. That is not what they intend, of course, but it works for me. However, I probably ought to learn how to do this rss for real. It might come in handy. Bill

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 13:57:09 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: Well, actually ... I am pretty good at evading most tracking. For one thing, I use dedicated browsers for various activities, each with specialized settings. I would recommend Icecat, by the way, over Firefox, for your ultra-secure anonymous browser; indeed, even over the Tor browser, which often reverts to default settings (in my experience), and leaks data. It's true, if I am doing something that requires me to use a direct connection and have javascript and cookies enabled, then I do so, very briefly, take care of my business; then I clear all that data, and close the browser. Otherwise, I never use javascript, never, and I always send plain text emails, and refuse to open html email, except sometimes when I have gone offline -- and even that can be risky. For most of my online activies, though, it would be hard to identify me, my machine or location. I don't claim to be bulletproof, as nobody can escape notice entirely, and probably they ought not even attempt it, as that might only attract even more intense surveillance. I have only a reasonable expectation of privacy. And that is possible, to control what information and data one gives out. It takes some work, true, but I find that I gradually need less and less, that I can still live without constantly checking something online. I use the internet when it is useful to me, not when I am useful to the corporations who control it. I read somewhere awhile back that we are all celebrities now: that this is how celebrities live, always aware that they are being watched. But since they know that they are being watched, they choose instead to guard their private lives, and to satisfy the curiosity of outsiders by thowing them little scraps of information (which may be accurate or not), allowing them brief glimpses into their lives. You are a star now. Start acting like one. ;-) Bill

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 15:43:22 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: That's a hard life. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-finds-that-aging-brow… Bill

On 2024-05-06 08:53:58 Michele Calgaro via tde-users wrote: I received a response from admin(a)floss.social quite quickly: so apparently it was due to inactivity. (Why couldn't the page say so, and provide the email address?) And now I can see @tde.floss.social, so all is well. Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 05.20:58 William Morder via tde-users wrote: I had set up a Mastodon account too at the time it was mentionned on the tde list - I'll have to look, I guess I have been suspended too, as I hardly ever looked there since. I never use a phone to get messages, I stop all "notifications" either on my computers or my phones and just like you I can't stand attendance or update requirements. I go llok for information when and where I need. Looking at the world around me, I sometimes wonder if I might be an alien...

On Monday 06 May 2024 22:01:53 Thierry de Coulon via tde-users wrote: If we refuse to be sheep, to be conforming compliant consumers of whatever is put before us, then we must be aliens. If one is old enough to remember what was before the home computer and internet, then indeed it does feel like I have been transported into some alien place, where everything looks pretty much the same as I remember, but beneath the surface everything has changed. But I don't think that the people who envision and start these tech companies regard themselves like that. I know that many of them lived on ramen noodles and slept on the floor in tiny apartments, or that they lived all together with their developers, until they found investors or ... what's the term? ... venture capital. The problem is, with success, one must keep growing, bigger and bigger; otherwise, people are going to be out of work. But with that growth comes the problems of organizations that grow beyond what is useful and necessary to their community of users, and they who control these corporations feel less inclination to respond to actual people. What does Cory Doctorow call it? the enshittification of the internet, or of tech? Bill

Dne út 7. května 2024 E. Liddell via tde-users napsal(a): In addition, it is also easy to follow posts as RSS channel, also without the need to create an account: https://floss.social/@tde.rss Cheers Slávek --

On Sun May 5 2024 21:55:36 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: FWIW: It's 15 months since I last logged into Mastodon. It took me a moment to figure out which of the Mastodon domains to use (mastodon.social). But I could log in ok and then it spent about a minute "preparing my home feed" and then everything seems to be working. I switched to BSky because I needed an algorithm to filter posts rather than drowning in a deluge of conversations. And I'm still on Xitter. --Mike

On 2024-05-07 19:18:41 Dan Youngquist via tde-users wrote: Yes, I think that the bigger an individual server gets the more problematic its "user-friendliness" becomes, perhaps because of the effort of riding herd on the large number of accounts on it. I suspect it's another instance of the idea that throwing more people at a problem doesn't necessarily help fix it. On the other hand, trying to pick out a small Mastodon server to host one's account is rather trying; there is always the chance that it will suddenly disappear, leaving one suspended in mid-air like Wiley Coyote. Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 18:17:41 J Leslie Turriff via tde-users wrote: Somebody else here (E.Liddell, I believe) said that the requirements for signing up vary greatly among the servers available, which, as I said, sounds a lot like jabber/xmpp in that regard. Thus I suppose that maybe some server admins are more responsive to their users, and maybe it isn't a direct ratio between size and user-unfriendliness. In other words, you may need to go fishing until you find the server you like. As for jabber/xmpp, I always use the server at hot.chilli.net (and they have others under the same umbrella). They allow registrations without requiring any personal information, and they have been rock-solid in terms of stability. I cannot remember having any problems with them, no server down time in my experience, etc. (I wonder, idly, whether they host for Mastodon?) Of course, I am just drawing a comparison here. Maybe the Fediverse servers are like that, and you may find others that work for you. If I understand what others have said, you can sign up with any server, and still use that account to interact, post, upload and follow accounts on other servers (again, like jabber/xmpp). If anybody should come up with such a Fediverse server, by the way, it seems that such information would be of interest to many people on the TDE mailing list, so please share. I am still considering whether to take the trouble to sign up, but I want to avoid those bad experiences. Out of all the Mastodon clients available for Devuan or Linux in general, I have so far settled on toot, as it is command-line only, operates inside a terminal. I hope that means that I can use it over the Tor network, but we'll see. Otherwise, I think I'll just find a way to rss or somehow get to read what gets posted there. Bill

On Tuesday 07 May 2024 19:08:39 William Morder wrote: Well, it appears that I spoke too soon. That is just their own Mastodon feed. I did try to subscribe to TDE's rss feed using akregator-trinity (and I even tried to run it over Tor). Everything worked fine, except for when I tried to read the actual feed <https://floss.social/@tde.rss>, and again I get the message that I cannot read it without enabling javascript and (if I recall) cookies. Now, if I enable javascript, that negates any benefit that I get by using a proxy; javascript reveals pretty much all details about one's machine. If you don't believe me, check it out for yourself: https://ipleak.net/ It is odd that people have some idea that Mastodon is more private, but if all your information is out there where everybody can see it, then it's not really private, and somebody out there will be tracking it. The same with E.Liddell's suggestion about setting up one's own instance. It doesn't help, unless we can be truly anonymous. So again, I am glad it's there for others, but it's not for me. And so far, I don't feel that I am missing much; not enough to make me want to use Mastodon, anyway. When I was searching for Mastodon applications, I found several IRC and Jabber clients, and I hear that Pidgin has plugins for Mastodon, but the only connection I have seen with Jabber is that people on Mastodon like to use Jabber to send direct messages. There are still a few options for getting the rss feed, but I doubt that my results will be different. Bill

On Wednesday 08 May 2024 13:21:15 E. Liddell via tde-users wrote: I think I remember that screen, as I have tried to run other browsers over Tor, and have tried various configurations just for testing; such as having javascript enabled. You get several different possible locations, it seems, because your browser is making many different connections, or maybe making those connections over different ports; but in any case, you will appear to be in several different places. With javascript disabled, I get only one location, which is not my actual location. It is good that you have WebRTC disabled (something one can do in Icecat), and Tor+Privoxy does not leak DNS requests if it is properly configured. In Icecat, and I believe in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers, under Network Settings > Connection Settings, there is a place to click boxes for "Proxy DNS when using Socks5" and "Enable DNS over HTTPS"; all of which combined ought to stop most data leaks. As I said before, though, nobody is bulletproof, and it's nowadays a sign of psychological health to be justifiably paranoid. Staying anonymous will help to keep that paranoia down to a very low simmer rather than boiling over. In Icecat, the only identifiable information is my accept language, en-US, which could be changed now and then, if I wanted to be too clever, to say, en-UK, en-IE, en-CA, en-NZ, en-AU or whatever. It would be nice if it could just be set for en, and not worry about those differences, which is how my Devuan system is set up. Also, by way, Icecat has some settings to evade browser fingerprinting. Maybe that feature also exists in Firefox or other browsers; I haven't compared for a while. Bill

On 2024-05-08 12:28:13 William Morder via tde-users wrote: But privacy is not the problem that Mastodon and other Federation software intend to solve; they are trying to provide "social" internet services that do not lock the user to a particular platform. Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0

On 2024-05-07 20:58:27 William Morder via tde-users wrote: In fairness, I suppose that I did it to myself by abandoning the account for a year; but it would have been nice if the email address for contacting the admin was on the page that I became locked into. Leslie -- Platform: Linux Distribution: openSUSE Leap 15.5 - x86_64 Desktop Environment: Trinity Qt: 3.5.0 TDE: R14.1.2 tde-config: 1.0