Darnell (Seize The Day)

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿš€ Darnell.bio ๐Ÿคณ๐Ÿพ @darnell:shh.darnell.ooo ๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป Darnell.tv

Recently there was a Distributed Denial of Service (also known as DDoS) attack against Fosstodon, a prominent Mastodon instance.

@kev@fosstodon.org (Kev Quirk) quickly alerted everyone about the attack & took measures to mitigate the threat.

You probably had trouble accessing # Fosstodon for the last few hours. That's because we have (and still are) the target of a DDoS attack. Fosstodon was the target, but other Masto. Host customers were impacted because of it (sorry about that, folks!)

Unfortunately, we've had to take the decision to put Fosstodon behind # Cloudflare to mitigate the attacks. I don't like it either, but we need to do what we can to keep the lights on.

More details to follow... (via Kev Quirk)

Since Fosstodon is hosted upon Masto Host, their services were slightly affected as well (note: my Mastodon instance is also hosted by Masto Host, but I did notice any sluggishness from the attack).

There is currently a DDoS attack going on in the Masto.host infrastructure.

Some instances are affected. I am investigating and will report once I know more. (via Masto Host)

@mastohost@mastodon.social was able to shake off the attack like a duck shaking water off itโ€™s back.

However, it made me wonder: should Fediverse admins have a secondary ActivityPub powered status account just in case a nefarious force temporarily takes the site offlineโ€ฝ

Should regular Fediverse folks have one as wellโ€ฝ

Short answer: Yes!

Long(er) Answer For Admins

Fediverse Admins should consider opening a secondary ActivityPub powered account that is hosted on a different server as their Mastodon, Misskey, Pleroma, etcetera, instance. It would also be wise to put it under a separate domain as well (just in case the main social domain is targeted by hackers).

I suggest microblogging Admins use WriteFreely as Fediverse admins will be able to inform the public without having to deal with the hassle of maintaining an active social network on yet another social platform.

If setup & hosting is too bothersome, then they could always create a premium account on Write.as & let @matt@writing.exchange handle the technical details of keeping their status blog online.

For Fediverse Folks

Yes, you should create another account, preferably on a different platform just in case your account is targeted.

If (God forbid) angry authoritarians attempt to exact their revenge upon my Mastodon account for mocking their political messiah as an outdated dinosaur...

...& it disappears, then I have the options of using my Misskey or WriteFreely account to communicate my thoughts to cyberspace.

Obvious Conclusion

Yes, having a secondary ActivityPub powered Fediverse account is something Admins & regular folks should consider; preferably using a different hosting provider, platform & if affordable, on a different continent (just in case of war or for political/legal reasons).

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

Okay, so the Fediverse was already beautiful, but when @mmccue@mastodon.social (aka Mike McCue, cofounder & CEO of Flipboard revealed that Flipboard has embraced Mastodon within the app, I was excited!

Accessing your Mastodon account from within Flipboard is a beautiful experience, especially on iPad.

I do hope that Flipboard embraces other Fediverse platforms in the future, as it would be cool to view my Pixelfed, WriteFreely & Misskey timelines within Flipboard app.

But Wait, There Is More

Following the footsteps of Medium, Flipboard launched a semi-public Mastodon instance at Flipboard.social (you need to request an invite to join).

However, they plan on going one step further by having their social news network embracing the Fediverse.

The combination of Flipboard.social and our beta Mastodon integration helps make the brave new world of the Fediverse more approachable and beautiful. But thatโ€™s just the beginning. Flipboard is exploring how best to implement ActivityPub so that we can federate our unique ecosystem with every service and user in the Fediverse. This will make it possible for users on Mastodon or other Fediverse services to follow content creators, curators and Magazines on Flipboard. Similarly, Flipboard users will be able to follow users and feeds on services like Mastodon, PixelFed and PeerTube. (Inside Flipboard)

Flipboard has not yet announced when their main site will embrace the Fediverse, but hopefully it will be later on this year.

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

I do not like TikTok & consider it a waste of time (highly entertaining yes, albeit still a waste of time).

That said, banning this app because its international headquarters is in China ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ is silly.

The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to advance legislation that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok, the viral video app owned by Chinaโ€™s ByteDance thatโ€™s been swiping market share from social media stalwarts. [...]

โ€œA U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide,โ€ a TikTok spokesperson said Wednesday. โ€œWeโ€™re disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok.โ€ CNBC

Ignoring the privacy concerns about TikTok unethically siphoning data, the reason that banning the app is idiotic is one simple reason: TikTok would become even more popular amongst the youth.

Even if Apple & Google removed TikTok from their respective app stores, people would simply jailbreak or root their phones in order to regain access to TikTok.

Instead of leaning on the law, the US government should encourage TikTok alternatives via grants or tax incentives which (in the long term) would be far more effective.

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

I thought @w7voa@journa.host & @tezoatlipoca@mas.to were joking, respectively, when they mentioned that Bing! (which is owned by Microsoft) was producing hilariously awful search results regarding the population of our solar system.

While Bing corrected the Martian blunder when it came down to the number of humans residing on the red planet, the rest of the solar system is allegedly over populated.

Obviously Bing is mixing results from multiple sources (a result of their algorithm perhapsโ€ฝ) without understanding the context of the question being asked, but this is something that Microsoft can fix (hopefully soon, lest the conspiracy folks proclaim this obvious blunder as a hidden truth).

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

Emerging from the shadow of its digital ancestor, Calckey (which is a fork of Misskey) is about to do something rarely seen amongst Fediverse forks, which is launch a native app upon the App Stores.

@thatonecalculator@stop.voring.me Thanks for the info! Do you have a time frame for when it will launchโ€ฝ Also, for iOS/iPadOS, are you beta testing via TestFlightโ€ฝ (Misskey Permalink)

@darnell@darnell.moe we'll probably go straight to release in a month (Calckey Permalink)

Launching a native app upon Android & iPhone (maybe iPad tooโ€ฝ) is a smart move, as it signifies to most non-tech people that your social project exists & that the developer is serious about maintaining a presence in cyberspace.

Most people use mobile devices to connect online, & having a powerful official or third party app can easily determine the difference between mass adoption (something Mastodon is beginning to experience) or a fringe site used by power users.

While launching on Android should be fairly straight forward, Calckey might have a minor issue with launching on iPhone & iPad as there is an abandoned iPhone/iPad app under the same name.

This will probably not be an issue as Calckey could launch as Calckey Social (or a similar variant) on the App Store.

I do wish Apple would grant Calckey the name on the App Store in order to reduce confusion when people are searching for the pending Calckey app (as having an abandoned calculator pop up first would perplex people).

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

When it comes to third party apps enabling people to use the full power of their Fediverse instance, MissRirica is Queen.

Created by @fruitriin@misskey.io, this app allows lovers of Misskey & Calckey to log into their instance account, & use most (if not all) of the features available from the website. Most third party apps as well as official apps do not allow this (to my knowledge the official WordPress app is the only one that comes close).

However, figuring out how to access your Misskey or Calckey instance from MissRirica is slightly different as the powerful third party app requires you to create an API key instead of using your email & password.

Hopefully this video can explain (just in case anyone needs help).

To sum up the video:

  • Log into your Misskey or Calckey instance
  • Tap on โ€œSettingsโ€ on your sidebar
  • Tap on โ€œAPIโ€ (Underneath โ€œOther Settingsโ€)
  • Tap on โ€œGenerate Access Tokenโ€ & a pop up window should appear
  • Type in a name for your API
  • Tap on โ€œEnable allโ€ button
  • Tap on the checkmark at the top right corner of the pop up window
  • Another (smaller) pop up window will appear, with your โ€œTokenโ€ code
  • Copy the API code (paste it notepad or somewhere else)
  • Open up the MissRirica app
  • Tap on the Profile near the bottom left corner
  • Select โ€œAdd account,โ€ then select โ€œExisting accountโ€
  • Either select from the more popular instances or type in your instance domain
  • Paste the access token code
  • You now have access to your brand new Misskey / Calckey app! Enjoy!

Update: This post was inspired by @jo@blahaj.zone & I thought I should make this post to help anyone else who has this question. I might do more How To videos about Misskey in the future (time permitting of course!)

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

This is really cool! Cloudflare has officially joined the Fediverse via @cloudflare@cloudflare.social (also @radar@cloudflare.social too), but instead of joining an instance or launching an instance on their own domain, they decided to build a Fediverse platform instead by the name of Wildebeast.

Today we're introducing Wildebeest, an open-source, easy-to-deploy ActivityPub and Mastodon-compatible server built entirely on top of Cloudflare's Supercloud. If you want to run your own spot in the Fediverse you can now do it entirely on Cloudflare. [...]

Wildebeest serves two purposes: you can quickly deploy your Mastodon-compatible server on top of Cloudflare and connect it to the Fediverse in minutes, and you don't need to worry about maintaining or protecting it from abuse or attacks; Cloudflare will do it for you automatically.

Wildebeest is not a managed service. It's your instance, data, and code running in our cloud under your Cloudflare account. Furthermore, it's open-sourced, which means it keeps evolving with more features, and anyone can extend and improve it. (Via the Cloudflare Blog)

I actually discovered Wildebeast after visiting the Fediverse Observer & so far over a dozen instances have embraced Wildebeast on itโ€™s very first day.

@fediversereport@mastodon.social (an account you should follow) was able to figure out the basic pricing (for those wishing to host Wildebeast on Cloudflareโ€™s servers).

I wonder if we will see more companies launch their own flavor of the fediverse in futureโ€ฝ I do not think companies like Alphabet (also known as Google) or Meta (also known as Facebook) will enter the Fediverse anytime soon with their current social services, but we could see Apple & Amazon enter the Fediverse via their own flavored social networks.

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

Last year the CEO of Automattic promised that Tumblr would embrace ActivityPub & thus join the Fediverse.

Unfortunately it seems as if Tumblrโ€™s embrace is proving to be more challenging than they previously imagined, with Fediverse implementation scheduled sometime this year.

So with no clear timetable of when Tumblr will embrace the Fediverse, others (including myself) were hoping that Medium would embrace the Fediverse.

Sadly Medium declined to join the Fediverse, although they did offer a consolation prize by launching a Mastodon instance for prestigious Medium writers.

Fortunately there is a viable social blogging option available right now who fully embraces ActivityPub (& no, WordPress & MicroBlog do not count).

Itโ€™s Time to Misskey

From the outside Misskey appears to be yet another Fediverse Microblogging service who mimics the best of Twitter & while attempting to omit the worst aspects of the blue bird site.

However, what separates the cat obsessed (yes, really!) social network from rivals is itโ€™s powerful customization & content features that would appeal to Tumblr & Medium fans alike.

I will briefly mention a few of these awesome features below, as there are way too many to mention in one post (as I am still discovering more every day if not every week).

Get Down For Markdown

Aside from supporting โ€œ@ mentionsโ€ & hashtags, Misskey allows rich text formats via Misskey Flavored Markdown (also known as MFM), which include the basics such as bold, linked texted, etcetera.

However, if folks visit their local MFM cheatsheet, they will be amazed to discover that Misskey also supports:

  • Quotes (sometimes called block quotes)
  • Minimizing or maximizing texts
  • Center aligning text
  • In-line syntax (great for programmers highlighting code)
  • Text flipping or even posting upside down
  • Different types of fonts
  • Minimizing or maximizing the size of emojis
  • Blurring out text (great for hiding specific spoilers!)
  • Plus many more!

Misskey allows people to creatively display their text & emojis to the world, which will appeal to content creators & artists alike.

Note: some of these text formats are not supported by Mastodon so followers using those apps will miss out on the fun (or chaos ๐Ÿ˜‚, depending on your view).

Powerful Page Support

Although this might not appeal to everyone in the Socialverse, Tumblr & Medium fans will be excited to know that their Misskey instance will support as many pages as they need.

Misskey Pages are a feature where you can create custom web pages. In them you can include different types of media and formatting. and even run programming scripts. Like with many other areas of Misskey, you can format your content using MFM.

Pages in Misskey are composed of different types of Blocks, and the blocks can be moved around using drag-and-drop. (Via Misskey Hub)

Pages is a feature I wish every social network provided, as sometimes you want to expand on what your instance is about, or list rules or even highlight something outside of a post that people can easily find.

Custom Curated Timelines

One of the things I love about the Fediverse is that there are so many incredible people to follow. Unfortunately you can easily be overwhelmed, & miss out on some great content.

Instead of giving up on finding your content or secretly wishing someone would create an algorithm (something big tech would be willing to do for the price of your privacy), Misskey solves this issue by allowing you to create Antennas.

Antenna is a feature that allows you to freely set conditions for a custom timeline and automatically collect matching notes.

Antenna conditions can include conditions to include/exclude certain keywords and tags in different combinations as well as other options. When a note matching an antenna's conditions is posted, the note will automatically be added to that antenna's timeline.

To create an antenna, click โ€œAddโ€ in the Manage antennas page. Then fill in the options to customize your antenna. (Via Misskey Hub)

This solves a huge problem when it comes to filtering out content that you want to see, & I am already starting to follow Mastodon, Misskey, Pixelfed, Pleroma & Calckey accounts on my solo Misskey instance (@darnell@darnell.moe).

I plan on creating numerous antennas to help follow people posting about the topics I love (ranging from sports, technology, fediverse, culture, geopolitics, humor, space, science, etcetera), & I believe overtime I will be using Misskey more than I use Mastodon.

Optional Adsโ€ฝ

I know what you are thinking, โ€œUggghhhh Ads!!!โ€ Yes, I feel the same way too. In fact, I rather pay to avoid seeing any ads, as I feel they distract from the overall experience.

Some publishers on Tumblr & Medium use ads to put food on their table, & if their Misskey instances begins to see millions of views then they will quickly need to figure out a way for an instance to pay for itself.

However, instead of trying to insert a Google Ad Words snippet of code, Misskey admins can simply use ad affiliate links or just use links to corporate sponsors (the latter is how Mastodon pays for servers & software development) to help keep the lights on.

Widgets, & Plug-ins & Custom Themes, Oh My!

There is so much more to Misskey that people will find useful! For example:

One More Thing

What got me hooked on Misskey was the fact that Rin Nakashima, also known as @fruitriin@misskey.io (a phenomenal developer) created an amazing iPhone, iPad & Android app for Misskey called MissRirica.

Unlike prior Misskey apps (or even ones that have showed up afterwards), MissRirica is a fully functional Misskey app that implements nearly all (I suspect all but I am not sure) of the powerful Misskey tools & options featured on the platform.

It is an S-tier third party social networking app that puts most social networking apps (both official & unofficial apps) to shame due to itโ€™s raw power. I would gladly pay $10 USD per month ๐Ÿ’ต to use the app, but Nakashima is kind enough to make the app available for free.

In lieu of an in app payment, please support her efforts via patreon or Ko-Fi (note: I suggest the $8 per month tier on Patreon, but hopefully she offers a higher tier in the future).

Also if you can please feel free to support the creator of Misskey, @syuilo@misskey.io who devotes her free time to making Misskey an S-tier social networking site (& I am not saying that lightly).

Addendum: Managed Hosting

If you lack the time or technical skills to create a Misskey instance, then I suggest using a managed hosting service in which a company handles installing the software, upgrades, security, etcetera.

I use @12vpx@social.12vpx.com who offers managed Misskey hosting & they have done a phenomenal job in ensuring my instance is properly updated to the latest version as well as handling any issues that might rise up (no, they did not pay me to type this but they are just that awesome!). A special shoutout to @neil@social.12vpx.com for setting up my Misskey instance & ensuring it is properly upgraded!

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

A long time ago in geek years (real time it was last year in October), @MKBHD@twitter.com declared Youtube as the only S-Tier social network.

@elonmusk@twitter.com noticed this claim & responded by tweeting out two words:

It now seems as if Elon Musk is attempting to compete with Youtube by sharing ad revenue with the Twitterverseโ€”but there is a catch.

As far as ending legacy accounts go, a few celebrities will definitely abandon Twitter, but most will probably pay in order to avoid spammers & trolls impersonating their official accounts.

Elon Musk still has not revealed what the ad split for ad revenue will be, but I assume Twitter will mimic Google & use some mysterious, complex algorithm to determine how many crumbs you receive from the Twitter Tycoonโ€™s bakery.

Although Elon Musk views Mastodon as an emerging threat, his biggest social rival (at least in the news/sports/informational arena) is Youtube, the latter which rolled out @username handles last year.

Youtube ironically can do everything Twitter is doing right now via community posts, although it currently is more cumbersome than creating a tweet.

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)

So another day, another Misskey app for iDevices has appeared, this time with support for Mac App Store.

Called Kimis, this app was created by @lakr233@twitter.com / @launchctl@social.qaq.wiki (note: I think both accounts belong to the same person but I could be wrong), & to my knowledge is the first Misskey app to embrace the MacBook.

Like itโ€™s predecessors MissCat (by @wada@misskey.io) & Socialhub, Kimis offers a simple display of Misskeyโ€™s timeline (as well as trending hash tags) that should be familiar with users of Twitter, Mastodon, etcetera.

While not as powerful as MissRirica (by @fruitriin@misskey.io), Kimisโ€™s sole advantage over itโ€™s more powerful rival is the login process, as MissRirica requires an API (Application Programming Interface) code in order to login while Kimis only requests your login credentials via a web pop up window (Mastodon & other Fediverse apps also use the latter method).

Although I still prefer MissRirica as it utilizes the full power of Misskey, I am glad to see more developers create apps for Misskey, although I do wish they would consider offering premium features (in order to help put food on their table).

Discovered via:

@candinya@nya.one helpful note.

๐Ÿ‘จ๐Ÿพโ€๐Ÿ’ป by Darnell Clayton ๐Ÿ”› @darnell@darnell.day

๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿพ Follow my adventures upon: ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@one.darnell.one ๐Ÿ˜ (Mastodon) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.app ๐Ÿ“ธ (Pixelfed) ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿพ @darnell@darnell.moe ๐Ÿฆ (Misskey)