Krellan @krellan@mastodon.social

Just signed into Mastodon for the first time since the big Mastodon debut boom in summer of 2017. Nice refinement since then, without losing the special touch that makes Mastodon unique.

Mastodon is rather cool. I wonder if it will inspire other open source projects that build large communities, and would otherwise be limited to a single website? Being federated and distributed neatly solves the scaling problem, not just technical, but administrative as well (keeping out spammers, keeping out griefers, and funding for server hosting).

My cat Mister Neffer had to be put to sleep this weekend. He was suffering from kidney failure and lost his appetite and energy, and just wasted away over the last month. His breathing became labored, then we knew it was time. I miss him deeply already. He was such a sweet cat. https://mastodon.social/media/mkeg_HZeyCmPPmTwk9Q

I just scored 1,219,178 on The Hobbit #pinball machine by @JJPinball 08465-1 via @hobbitpinball

Great #mastodon migration tool, see which of your contacts on "the birdsite" have matching accounts on a Mastodon server: https://mastodon-bridge.herokuapp.com/

Great #mastodon instance-finding tool, see which instances are out there, and how popular they are: https://instances.mastodon.xyz/list Also lots of pretty things under https://radar.amberstone.digital/

Great #mastodon remote-viewing tool, take a peek at the local timeline of a server without needing to sign up there first: http://www.unmung.com/mastoview?url=mastodon.social&view=local

As for the debate about online music royalties, I'm glad to see this idea get traction. User-preference-based licensing, instead of site-wide licensing. Makes much more sense, puts customers more in control, and rewards artists. https://musicindustryblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/exclusive-deezer-is-exploring-user-centric-licensing/

I love the little icon I have, but the picture is at least 10 years old now. I now have a beard. Thinking of shaving it off, though. The beard is nice but ages me. Thoughts?

Did well at the BAPA pinball playoffs today. Got 3rd place, out of a field of 29 people. https://matchplay.events/live/wg69/players/20409

Another nice thing about having multiple servers (instances, shards, whatever) is that it also distributes the burden of sustaining the service. If it blows up too big to pay the webhosting bill out of pocket, servers could each individually choose how to monetize. Some might inject advertising, some might charge for membership, and so on.

Without reading yet, my best guess about how Mastodon federated timeline works: Each server links to several others, and for each link, a server wanting more content lets the other side know how much spare capacity it is willing to accept, then the other side selects and sends down enough content to fill that. Repeat for other direction of link, so it is bidirectional. Nice, that way each server gets to set its own editorial policy, as to what to publish to a wider world. Right, or way off?

I really like the idea of a federated social network. Hope it lasts. Remember when Ello went viral and then seemed to fizzle out. Mastodon has legs because of the killer idea of multiple instances all linked together.

Need to read up on how the Mastodon federation works. How does it decide which toots are worthy enough to pull across servers? I really like the structure, reminds me of the old IRC.

Nice, you can look through other people's profiles by number, not just by name. Reminds me somewhat of early Facebook, which in turn reminded me of ICQ. https://mastodon.social/web/accounts/1 Example

Only thing that seems non-intuitive is finding the list of your followers and followings. Found it, by clicking on your own icon, in the search/toot column. Wish the list of followers/followings would be its own toplevel column. Might be useful for making other lists as well, then.

Love the multicolumn interface on desktop. Great way to take advantage of larger display surfaces, while still retaining the layout of an interface that is obviously designed for scrolling vertically on mobile.