Phil Gyford @philgyford@mastodon.social

I'm not 100% sure why I currently have this set up to require me to approve new followers, but I do. I'm bemused by people who request to follow a stranger having added no description, links, toots, or even a full name to their account...

I mean, there's no way to verify anyone is who they say they are but still, it would at least be nice to know *something* about you. Or about who you're pretending to be.

2018: Still trying to persuade people that clickable/tappable things on web pages should *look* like they're clickable/tappable.

We bought a Beko washing machine from the Co-op and the process was not as smooth as one might hope, which I have detailed here https://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2018/08/15/washing-machine/ This is still the content you’ve signed up for.

Samuel Pepys is now here as @samuelpepys . Currently tooting 1665's events in real time, as he does on Twitter. He just won eight shillings at billiards.

Maybe if you're on an instance of lots of friendly people you could have an account on which you only allow approved followers, and usually post followers-only toots. Like a private Twitter account.

But then you can also make individual toots public. Which on a big instance I assume won't be seen by many people. But on a cosy one I imagine it's more like a chatroom/Slack and others would see it. They're more like followers of a public Twitter account. Maybe?

I thought Mastodon's different privacy model might obviate the "need" for having both private and public accounts. But I think I was mistaken.

You can't both be followed by anyone who wants to follow you and toot publicly (like a public Twitter account) and, sometimes, only toot so a select group of followers can see (like a private Twitter account).

Unless I've missed something? Not a criticism of Mastodon, just realising my misunderstanding.

:looks at the 23,483 tracks in iTunes that I've given ratings to.

"Hmm, I'm not sure I've got this right. I think I've made ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ too broad."

>.<

What fun to have another round of "let's join Mastodon". I hope one of these orbits generates enough momentum for the journey to continue, but I'm not sure we have the velocity yet.

Having not used this for a while it took me ages to work out how, using Amaroq, to find a particular user. And now I'm confused by its ambiguous "you are/aren't following this person" icon/button. BUT I'M SURE THIS IS ALL READY FOR MASS ADOPTION.

Well this has gone very quiet, for those I follow, anyway. Anyone think it'll ever pick up again or is it just too hard to overcome the network effects of Twitter etc?

This is for Rod, to see if he can see it. Hello!

It's a bit odd to see toots about the policies of this Mastodon instance, including from the Admin, only to realise they've been boosted by a friend on a different instance and so they're not about this instance after all. It's like having strangers be very, and repeatedly, emphatic about the laws of a country in which I don't live and will never visit.

23ºC and sunny outside. Gorgeous. The perfect weather to improve how I manage my vim bundles.

Mastodon really does seem like the "good old days" of the 1990s… back when things became popular in the US before making their way to the UK.

(It's only my US-based friends who seem to post on it at the moment.)

I'm a bit daft for writing my own weblog software in 2017.

And extra daft for adding on so many extras around the actual weblog bit.

And really, very, very daft for pretty much re-writing all the code I wrote, but didn't quite finish, six years ago.

Give me strength.

Unconvinced.