Nostr notes by Scott M. Stolz

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2024-11-06T12:02:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ehg
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl]
[quote]Because they're soapboxes, they're all about pumping out content and not about connecting and interacting.[/quote]
Well, that is the nature of platforms modelled after pre-X Twitter. They have always been soapboxes.

I think the real future of the fediverse is communities, discussion groups, and forums. A place where people belong and interact as a group with similar interests.

It certainly makes it easier to choose if you don't have much ...

2024-11-05T14:52:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…unds
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It certainly makes it easier to choose if you don't have much of a choice.

But on the flip side, people still use email even though there are multiple options available. Sure, most people flock to the giants, like Outlook or Gmail, but a huge percentage of them do not. Most web hosting accounts come with free email on your own domain, for example. That is why a lot of companies and organizations have email addresses on their own domain names.

It may be easier for people to sign up with one instance, but it is not a show stopper for decentralized social media.

@[url=https://mastodon.iftas.org/@iftas]IFTAS[/url] Some guidance ...

2024-11-03T04:09:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…trcz
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@[url=https://mastodon.iftas.org/@iftas]IFTAS[/url] Some guidance for administrators and moderators would be good.

It was inevitable that big players with big pockets come to play ...

2024-11-02T16:43:51Z

It was inevitable that big players with big pockets come to play with decentralized social media. It’s very similar to how they embraced email and the web. It’s just good technology that has many use cases.

The most important thing is that independents, individuals, and small players don’t get squeezed out.

For the social web and fediverse to grow (I consider those to be two different things, by the way), I think that we would need the following:
[ul][li]Passionate individuals who are trailblazers.[/li]
[li]Multiple organizations the represent different interests, including grassroots, independents, and small players.[/li]
[li]A willingness to collaborate to create the best outcome possible, and preserve individual choice and agency.[/li]
[li]Tools that facilitate collaboration.[/li][/ul]
Money and attention flooding into the social web isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Money is just a tool that can be used for good or bad. And attention will help the social web and fediverse become large enough for the network effect to activate (i.e. the network is so large that people want and need to be on that network).

The pitfall we have to avoid is:
[ul][li]Allowing any one organization or individual to control the social web.[/li][/ul]
So an organization that represents the commons would be ideal. What would be better is multiple organizations working together so there is no concentration of power & influence.

Also posted here: #^[url=https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/socialhub-made-by-you/4580/10]https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/socialhub-made-by-you/4580/10[/url]

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2024-10-31T18:08:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…acup
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl] Hubzilla's issue has always been the UI and lack of documentation. When we fix that, I think Hubzilla will take off as long as we promote it more.

I woke up to a lot of drama in the fediverse concerning the ...

2024-10-30T15:45:00Z

I woke up to a lot of drama in the fediverse concerning the future of ActivityPub and how it compares to AT Protocol. Reading what others had to say, some of it got a bit heated.

I think the biggest problem that ActivityPub faces is that the more popular platforms are not interested in implementing new features. So you have this situation where smaller platforms are trying to innovate in ActivityPub, but the larger platforms won't recognize any of those innovations.

For example, Mitra and a new project called Forte are collaborating on nomadic identity over ActivityPub. Once it is stable, it will probably be ported over to Hubzilla. Out of hundreds of projects, only three would support nomadic identity.

@[zrl=https://hub.hubzilla.hu/channel/pepecyb]Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ...

2024-10-29T13:11:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…3r6t
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@[zrl=https://hub.hubzilla.hu/channel/pepecyb]Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝[/zrl]
[quote]What I don't understand: Why did Zot/Nomad have to be kicked out?[/quote]
I think from a development standpoint, it is just easier to strip things down and focus on one thing. Less to maintain. Less potential conflicts. You know any errors or conflicts are because of ActivityPub, not something else. Et cetera.

Right now he seems to be focusing on getting nomadic identity to work with ActivityPub. The first two projects that will support it will most likely be Forte and Mitra, since they appear to be collaborating on nomadic identity together.

Hopefully it will make it into Hubzilla, which would make it three platforms. If Mike decides to continue maintaining Streams, that would make it four platforms.

Fediverse servers cost money to operate, but there are a variety ...

2024-10-25T20:05:55Z

Fediverse servers cost money to operate, but there are a variety of ways to pay for it.

[b]What type of funding method do you prefer for a fediverse server?[/b]

You can pick more than one. Please boost or repeat so we get a wide variety of answers.

@[zrl=https://fediversity.site/channel/mikedev]Mike Macgirvin ...

2024-10-13T02:23:41Z

@[zrl=https://fediversity.site/channel/mikedev]Mike Macgirvin 🖥️[/zrl] said:
[quote]What it would take is for a few people to learn about and explore the vast fediverse that exists outside Mastodon and lift a finger to help out.[/quote]
I've been thinking about this a lot, and I have ideas on what we can do to spread the word about the great technologies we have available.

We need documentation. We need websites dedicated to Nomadic Identity, Nomad Protocol, and OpenWebAuth. And we need some flagship instances with an intuitive interface that new users can adapt to quickly.

We also need some way to coordinate as a community. I think we have a lot of people who want to contribute, but who have limited skills and/or simply don't know what is needed. Or if they do know what is needed, they can't find the documentation needed to learn how everything works.

I think we can do everything that is needed for Hubzilla and Nomadic Identity and OpenWebAuth to succeed. We just have to get organized and coordinate with people outside of the Hubzilla community.

Here is Mike's full post:

[share author='Mike+Macgirvin+%F0%9F%96%A5%EF%B8%8F' profile='https://fediversity.site/channel/mikedev'; avatar='https://authorship.studio/photo/b55393c9-b30f-4312-9f97-8f6ddebf92c9-6'; link='https://fediversity.site/item/e83a2e34-9a19-4996-be01-be209110b675'; auth='true' posted='2024-10-12 21:22:00' message_id='https://fediversity.site/item/e83a2e34-9a19-4996-be01-be209110b675';]Hubzilla (was called 'redmatrix' at the time) brought nomadic identity to the fediverse in 2012. It's still here and nomadic identity still works, though it pre-dates W3C DIDs by a number of years. There also was no AT protocol or Mastodon or ActivityPub back then. Streams, forte, mitra, and probably a few others have working implementations of portable identities using DIDs over ActivityPub today. All of these could still use a bit more work, but they all inter-operate reasonably well at this point.

In the dozen years I've been working on this, the number of people across the entire planet that have been willing to help has been around 3-4. What it would take is for a few people to learn about and explore the vast fediverse that exists outside Mastodon and lift a finger to help out.[/share]

As part of the expansion of the fediverse, I would like to see ...

2024-10-08T13:31:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…5s8z
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As part of the expansion of the fediverse, I would like to see more adoptions of federated single sign on. With technologies like OpenWebAuth, you can log into websites using your existing social identity. It would make it easier to comment on blogs, forums, and other social media platforms.

cc: @[url=https://newsmast.social/@newsmast]Newsmast[/url]

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2024-10-06T08:01:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…04yt
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl] said:
[quote]Allegedly, a "good" advice for image descriptions is always to describe images like you'd describe them to someone on a landline phone.

Sorry, but that's non-sense. At least for anything that goes significantly beyond a real-life cat photo.[/quote]
That advice only makes sense if you assume that the person on the other end of the line has no idea what you are describing and has never seen anything like it before.

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2024-09-30T13:33:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…qg2m
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl]
[quote]Yes, and it'll have to involve as many Mastodon users as possible. This means that it'll have to be reasonably easy for Mastodon users to use without having to jump through hoops.[/quote]
Setting up a Hubzilla forum and turning on ActivityPub is easy enough. It is compatible with Mastodon, and they can interact with the forum remotely via Mastodon if they wanted. That part is easy. The tougher part is recruiting enough people who are interested in the topic so we have valuable discussions and recommendations.

One way would be to approach it as if you were writing a book in ...

2024-09-29T23:11:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…lg73
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One way would be to approach it as if you were writing a book in text format. A book with no images will describe things in a way that gives you a mental image.

Normally an author has a picture in their head and they convert it to written form. Except in this case, you are starting with an image (rendering) and then converting it to written form.

If there is a story behind the rendering, then include that, as it would make the description more compelling, both for people who can see & hear, and those who can't. People are more likely to feel a story than a technical description of the item.

Ideally, we get feedback from deaf and blind people. And perhaps some feedback from writers too.

I think we need to come up with a way to create a working group or interest group on accessibility, or get involved in an existing group. Because I think that simply asking for feedback from random people won't be enough.

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2024-09-29T22:52:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…c2f5
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl]
[quote]I can't choose my audience. Not when I post to the general public. My audience is whoever happens upon my posts.[/quote]
You may not be able to choose who views your posts, but you can and should choose your target audience.

Basically, who do you want to reach? Who would resonate with your content? Those are the people you write for and you write in a style most of them will accept.

People who complain about technicalities but who have no interest in the content you post are not as important as the people who actually want your content.

[quote]And so, all I have is what I've learned so far plus deduction from what I've learned plus assumptions based on what I've learned. Plus a little hope for feedback whenever I post an image.[/quote]
I am glad that you are working on accessibility and experimenting on how to do it best.

But it is hard to help you when you ask for feedback and then reply that our feedback is wrong.

I am not saying I am right, because I probably am not, since I am not your target audience. But when I said I can't help you, it means it feels like you wouldn't accept my feedback anyway. Others in your target audience are probably more suited to give you feedback.

Well, I am not sure what to tell you then. You are working with a ...

2024-09-28T20:44:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…92rz
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Well, I am not sure what to tell you then. You are working with a very picky audience and what is worse, there is no agreement on what the rules should exactly be. Plus there are some serious technical limitations. So no matter what you do, someone will complain.

You are going way beyond what accessibility standards require or recommend, and apparently some of your followers still don't think it is enough.

You do have to cater to your chosen audience, so I understand that. But just realize that what attracts one audience repels another. And you also have to consider whether the loudest complainers are actually the majority or not. Most of the time the loudest people are actually the minority... that's why they have to shout so much.

So you do have to consider whether you are catering to the silent majority or the loud minority. It is possible that most people don't want what the loud majority wants.

It is good that you are doing research and asking people about how to do it. But in the end, you will have to figure out what level of effort you want to put in, especially considering that you are providing labor for free to generate this content. If it is out of love, that is great. But even then, there are limited resources and time in the day.

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2024-09-28T12:43:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…463x
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@[zrl=https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland]Jupiter Rowland[/zrl]
[quote]That'd be three separate and different descriptions per image. One in the alt-text. One redundant one under the image with no added value. And the long description[/quote]
Let me clarify:

Image
ALT tag ONLY if different than the short description.
Summary / Short description underneath in plain text. [b]Less than 500 characters.[/b]
Link to a page that has both the image and the longer description (any description longer than 500 characters).

You could go as high as 1000 characters for the short description, but a summary should be short (500 characters or so). Anything above 1000 characters should be in the article.

For example, if the image you post is a meme that clearly has the text written in it, then the description could simply be "A meme about [topic] by [author name]." You don't have to repeat what the text says in the meme. But the alt text would need to be longer since it would need to explain what the meme is. The alt text and the short description would not be the same.

If the image does not have text in it, then it would be something like this:

[image] (alt text = "An image about [topic]."
"This is a 500 word description of the image, and I will summarize the whole thing in less than 500 characters. if it is longer than 500 characters, it goes in an article."
More details: #^[url=https://example.com/articles/name-of-article-about-image]https://example.com/articles/name-of-article-about-image[/url]

In the article, you include the whole description, as long as you want. Since it is on the web, it will find additional viewers. You can ask them to comment on the original social media post, and/or allow people to comment on the article.

Basically, when you have super long descriptions (over 500 to 1000 characters), you should treat it as if you are promoting a blog post on social media (rather than the whole thing only exists on social media).

One option is: Image (with alt tag) Short description underneath ...

2024-09-27T23:10:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…92rz
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One option is:

Image (with alt tag)
Short description underneath in plain text.
Link to a page that has both the image and the longer description.

It is enough where everyone knows what the image is about, and those who want or need more explanation can follow the link.