Michael H

Hi! Michael here, and nice to meet ya 🏳️‍🌈. I'm your friendly theATL.social admin...and enthusiast of #urbanism, #biketrails, #tech, #gatech, and #Atlanta , Georgia 🇺🇸

Trying my hand at creating a lil' Mastodon site with a regional focus on my hometown.

More about me: https://mikeh.dev

GitHub: https://github.com/mikehikes
The Internet Home: https://mikeh.dev

Public Key

npub13vw8pmaywycedyw9qfdl83pmyen5nrzhljkr5yuvalhj0rd0smfq6zgmng

NIP-05 Address

michael_at_theatl.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsgk8rsa7j8zvvkj8zsyklncsajve6f33tletp6zwxwlme83khcd5sprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuumwdae8gtnnda3kjctvqyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv6krh9s

Publishing to

relay.snort.social

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub13vw8pmaywycedyw9qfdl83pmyen5nrzhljkr5yuvalhj0rd0smfq6zgmng

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Last Notes

2026-10-17 17:05:23 UTC

Afternoon, theATL.social! First. if you live in #Georgia, remember to vote!
Early voting is from now until October 30th. Election Day is Nov 3rd.
You can find your polling place at https://iwillvote.com
Next, let's talk about that spam wave 🌊...whew lordy. Thank you for your spam reports - @npub1qu3…nk4m and I are working through them as they are beng reported.
On the backend, I'm enhancing our existing anti-spam and anti-fake-signup system to hopefully stop this stuff before it reaches profile feeds. I'm also working on a system that checks links for potential phishing and quarantines those links if suspected.
Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts, too.

2026-10-12 13:23:56 UTC

- reply

Well, that's interesting. It has not been /that/ difficult managing the bot problems on theATL.social - with most of the issues addressed with ASN blocks on Cloudflare, especially ASNs 13238 and 45102...
The remaining issue, on which there is room for improvement in Mastodon, is signups. I've had to implement creative solutions on that side to slow (but clearly not stop) the bot-driven signups.
I've found that, for better or worse, one must use bots to fight bots. The agent wars, thus,have begun.

2026-08-11 20:32:01 UTC

- reply

...continued
I also considered using #Ghost, which has an ActivityPub adapter. However, Ghost, as compared to WriteFreely, is a comparatively "heavier" app that offers more currently useful functionality.
WriteFreely, however, is very light, but the non-paid-hosting version is a bit light on features (such as adding images). The lower level of complexity, however, made integration into theATL.social's services easier.
I'd rather build up the features (in the public fork) of the features needed in WriteFreely, then trying to swim through Ghost's code to get it to integrate into theATL.social's stack.

2026-08-11 20:23:58 UTC

Hey theATL.social 👋
Thanks to your suggestions, we now have a new service: #WriteFreely , a publishing/blogging platform that runs on #ActivityPub.
This new service is available at https://write.theatl.social - users at any membership level may now create a blog.
Logging in is easy: your existing theATL.social Mastodon account logs you in.
I've (publicly) forked the WriteFreely repo to continue developing on additional features...first of which is easy adding of pictures and other media. I'm open to suggestions as to what should be worked on next.
More thoughts in the thread 🧵

2026-07-30 19:32:46 UTC

The wildfire air quality mess has finally reached #Atlanta, and it's as awful as the red dots on this purpleair.com map show.
But, not a peep of news on our local newspaper (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), and our local TV news is lying and lying that "there is very little impact on the air quality for us on the ground."
My guess for the obfuscation is that the press wants to avoid the unhinged reality-deniers who lose their minds whenever a fact is stated.
Everything is a hoax to these folks, even when they're burning their lungs with acrid smoke and smog.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/117/010/545/613/273/980/original/2468a9d72a80e0fb.png
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/117/010/573/014/235/312/original/a1a202ed97401ae5.png

2026-01-07 22:47:45 UTC

All the horrible news today was just...overwhelming. 😔
It's as if Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism was used as an instruction manual instead of a cautionary tale.
And the censorship and lies happening concurrently on all the various [larger] social media platforms is just icing on the shitty cake.
I try to have a "it's always darkest before the dawn" mental orientation, but the light just keeps getting dimmer and dimmer.
I just hope we can find the leaders who can lead us out of the ravine of this fascist evil that blights our lives, like a sewage leak that destroys everything it touches.
Rest in Power, Renee Nicole Good ✊

2025-10-18 21:12:29 UTC

Some snapshots (without visible faces) of #Atlanta's #NoKings march (10/18) from Civic Center to the GA State Capitol.
Had an inspiring, intense, and affirming time.
When there is so much darkness, being a part of folks fighting for our democracy helps me envision the dawn.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/205/529/085/274/original/d07f07c3a3e47357.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/210/373/721/350/original/2c6194d086dafc57.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/214/671/478/842/original/a7b7813547c858de.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/115/397/219/477/284/823/original/24aa20e99731f0db.jpeg

2025-10-17 13:08:00 UTC

Hey theATL.social! Happy pre #NoKings day in #Atlanta!
On Oct 18th, you have a choice of:
1. Rally @ the former Civic Center Parking Lot (10am to 1pm)
2. March from Civic Center to Georgia State Capitol (~1pm - until)
More info here: https://www.mobilize.us/?q=no%20kings%20Atlanta
(Note: signing up is optional - it's okay to just show up!)
Weather should be great, the vibe is 🚀 and our democracy needs us 🇺🇸.
I'll be there, and hope you can make it too :mastodance:
There's also plenty of other #NoKings events around the Atlanta metro: Check out https://nokings.org

2025-10-06 01:20:33 UTC

Hey theATL.social! So, I've been (trying to) follow all that's new in #Bluesky, which is interesting and terrifying at the same time.
One of the primary goals of theATL.social is to reduce or eliminate dependencies on the large centralized organizations (Meta, Google, Reddit, and any other Globalmegacorp) that can unilaterally decide to ban, shadowban, or censor speech.
Practically, that means that at theATL.social, we moderate ourselves.
Although Bluesky's current articulation of #ATProto doesn't have the degree of decentralization that Mastodon has, it does allow for the use of a Personal Data Server (PDS) to store all user content/activity locally, instead of on Bluesky's servers.
This gives us a degree of autonomy (with some caveats, but I'll get to that in a future post).
So, if you are a financial contributor to theATL.social, you can set up your PDS-based Bluesky account today at https://members.theatl.social

2025-09-26 13:57:16 UTC

Morning, theATL.social! Some morning announcements/thoughts:
It looks like we have a new version of Mastodon v4.4.5 released. I plan to have this server upgraded to that, this evening.
And, another update to the #pyfedi fork this weekend too.
In other news...
Reading about the likely consolidation of TikTok into Larry Ellison's Globalmegacorp, it's astonishing but not surprising how the gov't and its oligarchs are now consolidating control of any opinion-setting company/tech they can get their hands on.
I'm grateful that decentralized social media is now well-established, but not unfortunately, widely popular in the same way that TikTok is.
I wasn't sure if #Loops was an active #Pixelfed project or not? But, either on AT Protocol or #ActivityPub, it seems that there needs to be something that can serve in TikTok's place, and perhaps be ready to get a foothold when folks [may] migrate off TikTok when the bad people take control.

2025-05-25 18:06:56 UTC

Yesterday, the stars aligned for me to take a solo section hike on the #AppalachianTrail (trailhead @ 35.03524, -83.47016), and it was astonishingly beautiful.
When I arrived the weather was cool and rainy - it felt like I was in the #PNW, but absolutely perfect hiking weather.
The Blue Ridge Mountains were doing their thing, the greenery was extra green, and although it was busy-ish because of Memorial Day, there was still plenty of space for a quiet and contemplative hike.
It was a bit of a drive from #Atlanta, of course (2h 30m), so next time I may arrive the evening before for some car camping - especially as I'd like to explore more of the trail in NC.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/114/569/764/433/993/252/original/be441bd7a68a775f.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/114/569/764/454/040/601/original/d3defc800fbff2ac.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/114/569/764/457/503/400/original/6ea566f9236d190d.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/114/569/764/709/539/207/original/2b73082f79946237.jpeg

2025-05-19 00:42:14 UTC

Streets Alive today (in #Atlanta) on the West Side had a fantastic vibe. [So much so, I forgot to take any pictures.]
For background, Streets Alive is Atlanta's car-free day on selected road corridors about once a month.
I was thinking...there are certain areas along the route, like Summerhill and through Georgia Ave, which could likely sustain an every Sunday during spring and summer event. That's probably cheaper than opening up a 4-mile stretch of road.
It would be so much fun to have that - maybe even sit on chairs in the road while enjoying beverages. Just like in other cities that already figured this out decades/centuries ago.
Less cars and more humans, please. :ablobcatheadbang:

2025-04-27 16:53:38 UTC

Hey y'all! Today is #Atlanta Streets Alive!
theATL.social will be hosting a booth at/near 33.75568° N, 84.38880° W (Peachtree St & Poplar St).
Stop by for a free sticker and good vibes. (And maybe a cookie or two 🍪 ).
I'll post updates as the day progresses - but, do stop by and say hi 👋

2025-04-05 23:24:59 UTC

Some reflections about today at the #HandsOff rally in #Atlanta.
I admittedly was feeling a bit hopeless. All the messages of terribleness from family and friends this week (from gov't firings, programs shutting down, etc), my literal life savings getting hit by these stupid tariffs, and well, I felt like a rowboat in stormy seas.
But my god, the number of people who showed up at Piedmont Park and marched - miles of patriotic Americans - marching to the GA State Capital. All the signs, the energy, the chants, the marching bands.
The energy was great, the mood was intense but focused, and seeing the sea of Americans at the end of the march brought tears to my eyes.
The media showed up too - documenting to everyone that this for real.
And during this, all the organizing on Mastodon, on Bluesky, the work of #Indivisible Atlanta (esp. Kimberly Krautter) has been inspiring beyond words.
We've got a political and social movement, folks. There is a long way to go to fixing what is so terribly broken, but activating people for political action is Step 1 in that struggle.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/114/287/932/073/972/965/original/97bac68af8715783.jpeg

2025-02-27 17:04:38 UTC

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (#AJC) in #Atlanta: This murder-by-car of a human (I'm not going to use the bullshit passive voice and "pedestrian" on this one) was completely avoidable.
Link: https://archive.ph/j40Vw
How so?
There used to be a "shared street" setup on Peachtree Street in Atlanta where the outer lanes of the street were converted to an outdoor sitting area, and the road section for cars was a single-lane in each direction. Traffic slowed down, and the area was more safe for all street users.
But, alas, the property owner of the surrounding buildings and the hotel nearby pitched a fit, claiming various bs excuses like "it took more time to get to the interstate" and "ambulances will be delayed" and so on.
Then, that property owner (Bowers) used his money/power/influence in the General Assembly (Georgia's state legislature) to threaten to ban any future "complete streets" if the shared street wasn't torn down. He bullied the mayor into doing it, and the rest is history.
Source: I helped lead a protest against the tearing down of the shared street. It was awesome, inspiring, and ultimately made no f-ing difference apparently.
And now a man is dead because some asshole property owner thought, rather ironically, that an ambulance would get stuck to pick up a patient. Oh, and he may be a few minutes late getting home.
Kudos to the AJC for reminding people of the history of this.
#safestreets
#urbanplanning
#georgia
#peachtree

2025-02-07 15:42:41 UTC

Hey theATL.social, #Atlanta friends, #Georgia friends, those in the civic tech space, and strangers of the internet 👋
TL;DR: Is there interest in having a [virtual and Georgia/Atlanta-focused] town hall on what our community here can do to collectively preserve, protect, and defend our democracy 🇺🇸 ?
Reading https://www.404media.co/you-cant-post-your-way-out-of-fascism/ (h/t to @npub1lpd…2zu5), and reflecting on the many conversations on here, with friends, colleagues, and peers, we're all doing a lot of doom scrolling (guilty as charged 🥴 ) and feeling helpless as the tenets of our democracy are burned down.
I believe that the Fediverse is a unique and special place where organizing can occur without the censoring, shadow-banning, and other "stuff" going on, on other platforms. So, let's take advantage of that.
And, there is an intersection with civic tech and democracy building that is now critically important as the Federal government is self-destructing critical public data, among other terribleness.
Let's do something together - starting with a virtual town hall for Atlanta and Georgia friends. It going to take the largest team effort in American history to halt the advance of authoritarianism and fascism. Let's get started. 🗽
#democracy

2025-02-01 18:39:01 UTC

Welcome new theATL.social users @npub1wnf…4xus, @npub1cuk…yf4z , @npub1hsh…lnhg , @npub15c2…q62h, @npub12ww…mue3 , @npub1ul5…n2eh, and @npub1lc5…2zs6 !
So glad you've joined our little slice of #Atlanta on federated social media.
Feel free to introduce yourself, and/or follow the #Atlanta hashtag. The Local Feed (https://theatl.social/deck/public/local) is also a great place to get started.
I hope you have an enriching and meaningful time on Mastodon, and welcome to the Fediverse! :mastodance:

2025-01-21 13:16:57 UTC

Morning, theATL.social! First, I want to give a shoutout to [@wandy_dev](https://theatl.social/@wandy_dev ), who has joined the theATL's dev team (now of 2!) - he push our current fork to match the latest version of Mastodon (4.3.3), which will be deployed shortly.
And, of course, lots of crummy news from America-land yesterday. I suppose I wasn't overly shocked when my Instagram searches (yes, I use Instagram, but probably shouldn't :eyeroll: ) are now blocking #Democrats hashtags, but freely allowing #republicans.
For the Republicans tag, however, critical posts are still being included - which goes to show how arbitrary and capricious the "moderation" decisions of Meta are now.
I am under no illusions that federated communications services (#Fediverse/#Mastodon) or semi-federated ones (#Bluesky) will ever have the user base of Meta. However, I /do/ believe that these services will shine even brighter as beacons against the darkness of censorship and ideological obedience.
And, it's not just for national issues either - local news and independent opinions also get trampled. I may be tooting my own horn, but I am proud that theATL.social - and other servers with similar missions - can serve as lighthouses during times when the storms of our society (esp. in the 🇺🇸) are at their most brutal.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/866/350/547/911/178/original/5740470f429d2d23.jpeg
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/866/350/563/753/571/original/d122e3d2a718b244.jpeg

2025-01-19 17:25:49 UTC

<sysadmin stuff>
The AWS SDK for S3 suddenly stopped working for my non-AWS object stores (DigitalOcean, R2, etc)...and I thought I was losing my mind.
Well, looks like AWS decided to stop allowing others to leverage/freeload their software for use on competing services.
Understandable-ish, but doing it suddenly, know that stuff would break - on top of AWS blatantly making bank on services based on OSS software - well, that makes for some very bad karma. :sad_dog:
#DigitalOcean #mastoadmin #aws #cloudflare
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/856/162/293/262/687/original/b190e6c7fb0fa68b.png

2025-01-09 20:02:20 UTC

So, we're getting a winter storm in #Atlanta, with all the potential for bad stuff.
The surrounding county, Fulton County, [GA] just pushed a public safety alert screeching on all our mobile phones to let us know that...we should check #X for updates ⁉️.
So, I should browse updates in-between the various warmonger demands for the 🇺🇸 to invade other countries, garden variety hate speech, and all the other delights of the cesspool formally known as Twitter?
I just can't. Seriously, in the year 2025, the local county government can't find another way to deliver life safety-critical information than on X/#Twitter?
I mean, never mind Mastodon. How about publishing to, oh, I don't know...a website.
Wow. Just wow.
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/800/159/671/813/712/original/bbf2e88375244def.jpeg

2024-12-30 01:01:17 UTC

What is the measure of a man? For Jimmy Carter, he made a choice after his Presidential term to spend his years chipping away at the suffering in our world.
In a political world where relationships are transactional, power is purchased with cash, and the expectations of leaders keeps falling lower, Carter reminded us that there is another path: where leaders selflessly work for the good, and not debase themselves simply to gain power over others.
The only time I saw Jimmy Carter was when I attended a play, "43 Plays for 43 Presidents" in 2008 at local theater in Atlanta whose name I can't immediately remember. As the title suggests, the play was a performance of short vignettes of US Presidents, many of whom were cast in an appropriately negative light. (Some were funny too!)
I was too distracted to see the Secret Service escort Carter and Rosalynn into the seats. However, as the play was wrapping up #38, a roar emerged from the crowd, and lo-and-behold, the 39th President of the United States was in attendance, right in front of me. I felt a sense of pride in Jimmy Carter - as both an American, and as a Georgian 🇺🇸 .
May his memory be a blessing, and his legacy inspire others to make our world a bit better tomorrow than it was today. 🕯️
#carter
#jimmycarter
#atlanta
#georgia
#39
(photo credit: Bill O'Leary / Washington Post)
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/739/003/126/866/782/original/cf4410e71910fe58.png

2024-12-03 22:05:16 UTC

So, the https://marta.fail project has reached a good release point, and I now have alerts being sent to ~160 separate Bluesky accounts.
(MARTA is the transit agency for #Atlanta, #Georgia).
Using the magic of Anthropic Haiku 3.5 and prompt (https://gist.github.com/mikehikes/a805c915d946157bd3a33c69028f4557) 🪄 (which has the benefit of being very inexpensive and very fast), the raw emails from #MARTA's email alerting service are parsed into 1) a <200 char post, and 2) structured data that can be used in future applications, data feeds, etc.
This did take a bit longer than I thought. The proof-of-concept worked great, but the prompt engineering and workflows to distribute each alert text to one or more accounts was a bit more tedious than I anticipated.
But, now, I can follow my nearest rail station and common bus lines on Bluesky, instead of having to dig through piles of emails!
It looks like someone has done something similar for the #MTA in #NYC (mtaalerts.bsky.social) and #WMATA in #DC (https://wmata-incidents.bsky.social/), but I think I'm the first to break everything into separate accounts?
Next up, back to [re]-building/integrating the landing page and members page for theATL.social!

2024-11-15 01:23:06 UTC

- reply

Some more info:
I'm working to integrate the two services (BlueSky and Mastodon) together - at the moment, there is not automatic cross-posting, however, there are no technical barriers to doing so.
Why add BlueSky to theATL.social's offerings so quickly? The service has very rapidly become the replacement for Xitter-like communication.
My vision for theATL.social is to become a collective home for many services: #Mastodon, #BlueSky, email forwarding, etc., all linked together in a single domain. And, to give back both value to the community for the exchange of information, and value to the financial contributors of the site.
Enjoy! And thank you again for your support.

2024-11-15 01:17:39 UTC

Hey theATL.social!
The hackathon is done, and theATL.social financial contributors (at any level) can now signup for #BlueSky accounts with a ".theatl.social" handle 🚀
Visit https://members.theatl.social and check it out:
You can create as many accounts as you'd like, but within reason, of course!
(Note that the Members Site will ask you to re-authorize access, as there was some major rebuilding of the app).
If you could give me a heads-up if it is working for ya, that would be amazing.
And...more fun stuff is on the way too. More info in 🧵
#Atlanta
#theATLSocial
https://o1.theatl.social/media_attachments/files/113/484/319/676/474/699/original/2817923738cebf66.png

2024-10-15 01:56:52 UTC

tl;dr: Check out @npub1jgc…td7j
Hi friends around the Fediverse! For my other day job, I work with #democratic and #progressive candidates and organizations to help them win elections using data/tech solutions.
As I'm based in #Atlanta and I've been wading through election data in #Georgia for years, I thought it would be a nifty public service to provide very frequent updates on the daily data dumps from the Georgia Secretary of State's office during the early voting period that begins tomorrow, October 15th.
If you'd like to follow along, follow @npub1jgc…td7j!
I'll dive deep into the data, identify trends, maybe do some predictions, and try to see where we may end up on Nov 5th.
Thanks for following me and/or theATL.social, and if you're in the 🇺🇸 and eligible to vote, make a plan to vote today!
#georgia
#elections
#2024election
#election2024
#harris
#walz

2024-10-10 17:16:14 UTC

And, an open question. I've been sitting on the democrats.social domain (which I purchased a while ago), with the intent on running a Mastodon server for the target demographic (Democrats, etc.) etc. to use Mastodon instead of Twitter.
The Mastodon software stack wasn't in as much of a great place to get that going earlier - but now with 4.3.0, perhaps now is the time?
So, for the hive mind, is now the best time to stand up something like that? Or, is this still something that wouldn't get much traction or interest. 🤔
#democrats
#politics
#mastodon

2024-09-01 19:21:00 UTC

Hey #Atlanta, if you're looking for some post #DragonCon stimulation, check this out at the #GoatFarm:
https://www.audiovideoclub.org/event-details-registration/avc-fest-the-goat-farm-an-audio-visual-activation-2024-09-06-18-30
I'll be there on Friday night. Looks super fun and interesting!