Notices by Fedi.Tips (feditips@mstdn.social), page 6

@fdroidorg @apps

F-Droid also has some exclusive apps like @PixelDroid , an Android app for using PixelFed which is not available on Google Play.

If you use Android, you can find lots of Fediverse-related apps and other free open source software on @fdroidorg, an alternative to Google Play which emphasises privacy and ethical software.

Also, some apps which cost money on Google Play are free of charge on F-Droid, such as Fedilab @apps. (This is because the app devs encourage people to use F-Droid.)

Due to Google's anti-competition roadblocks, it's slightly tricky to install F-Droid, but once it's installed it's very easy to use. It looks and works very much like a normal app store.

If you are comfortable using an APK file you can get it from F-Droid's website at https://f-droid.org

For less technical people, there's a step-by-step beginner's guide to installing F-Droid at:

https://switching.software/replace/google-play/

#Fediverse #Android #FediTips #FOSS #Libre #FLOSS #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #DeGoogle #GooglePlay #Alternatives #FDroid

Hey there new people!

If you've just joined here, you may be wondering if you need to sign up on multiple servers?

The short answer is no! One account on one server is enough 👍

Longer answer:

The servers on here talk to each other through a process called "Federation".

This might sound complicated and technical, but it's really not. You already use federated networks every day, and so does pretty much everyone in the world, even your grandparents.

When you phone someone, you don't need to be on the same provider or even in the same country, because the world's phone networks are connected together through federation.

When you email someone, you don't need to be on the same email provider, because the world's email providers are federated together.

Servers on Mastodon and the Fediverse are federated together in the same way phones or email are. One account on one server lets you seamlessly interact with people on other servers.

#FediTips #Fediverse #MastoTips

If you're using Mastodon, you can put your new posts under maximum privacy by doing both of these:

1. Log in through your server's website, go to Edit Profile > Require follow requests, save changes. This means only people you approve can follow you.

2. Set your posts' privacy to "Followers only" when you post them (the setting with the lock 🔒 logo). You can make "followers only" default by going to Preferences > Other > Posting Privacy > Followers only.

However, only do this if you are okay with greatly restricting your audience by default. These settings will completely prevent non-followers seeing your new posts (unless you manually select a more public privacy setting when you write them).

Non-followers will not be able to search for followers-only posts, or see them in shares.

Also, bear in mind this privacy setting only applies to your new posts. If you've already posted something as public, that old post will remain public.

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #Privacy

A couple of follow-on things to add to this:

- Mastodon does not (yet) have end-to-end encryption, so please don't post any sensitive information on here. Use an e2ee messenger app (such as XMPP with OMEMO switched on) for anything like that. The privacy settings on Mastodon are about adjusting your audience rather than guaranteeing absolute privacy.

- If you set your default privacy to followers only, this will also affect your boosts, and override their visibility settings. So, if you have followers-only as default privacy and boost a public post, the only people who see your boost are your followers. (This is apparently undocumented, thank you to @mastohost for spotting this!)

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #Privacy

@datenschutzratgeber @mastohost @threemaapp

Centralisation brings risks of being bought out by bad actors. Whatsapp was sold to Facebook by the same billionaire who now owns and runs Signal.

It's difficult to escape centralised services if this happens.

There's no perfect solution, but I wouldn't recommend going on centralised services because there's no easy way off them if they start eroding their privacy (which is something that has happened before).

If you use the @FediFollows directory (at https://mastodon.online/@FediFollows/108521414258703203), when you click on an account's follow button it will ask you to enter your own Mastodon address, in a process called "remote follow".

Remote follows are annoying as you have to keep entering your details again and again, even though you've already logged in on your home server 🤬

Fortunately, there is now a solution, a new plug-in for Firefox browsers called "Mastodon Simplified Federation":

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mastodon-simplified-federation

When the plug-in is installed, you don't need to enter your address any more when doing remote follows 👍

The plug-in is written by @rugk and you can find out more info at https://github.com/rugk/mastodon-simplified-federation

(Thanks @aral for mentioning this plugin!)

#MastoTips #Mastodon #FediTips #RemoteFollows #Follows #RemoteFollow #Follow #Following #FireFox #Plugin

Something a bit different today...

There's a really nice Fediverse admin on here called @stux who provides lots of free decentralised public services (public instances of Mastodon, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Matrix, Nitter, Invidious, Searx etc).

Stux is spending hundreds of euros a month so that these services remain free and operational.

Apparently Stux has had a tough time finding work recently, but has their own small business which provides web hosting.

If you're looking for a small indie hosting provider, this might be a really good choice as the money raised will help keep the Fedi going too:

➡️ https://stuxhost.com

(I'm sorry to embarass you Stux, but I think you deserve a shout-out for the good work you do!)

A reminder that Mastodon and the Fediverse do NOT use cryptocurrency, blockchains, NFTs, tokens, coins, mining, web3 or anything like that.

Masto and the Fedi run on traditional servers and use a sustainable network federation model somewhat similar to e-mail (that's why Fediverse addresses look similar to e-mail addresses).

Also a reminder there are no venture capital firms or other investors either. No one owns the network, each server is independent. Masto and Fedi server running costs are paid by their owners, sometimes with donations from users.

No one is getting rich from the Fediverse, it is all volunteers with some getting donations and a few getting modest grants from foundations. Please remember this when you interact with admins or developers.

(There might be some individual users who post about cryptocurrency/blockchain, but the infrastructure this place runs on doesn't use it at all.)

Tl:dr - Decentralisation does NOT mean cryptocurrency/blockchain

#Fediverse

Little headsup, Mastodon developers seem to be testing a language selector in the posting interface (see attached image).

The idea is you set the language you're posting in which will make it easier for other people to filter your post out if they don't speak it.

You can already set your default language in the Preferences/Settings section, but the idea of this new feature is to let you optionally change the setting for each particular message. This is handy if you toot in several languages.

I have no idea if/when this will be rolled out, the developers' instances often get test features like this.

#Mastodon

The makers of @pixelfed, the Fediverse photo sharing platform, have just created a slick new guide to the Fediverse at:

https://fediverse.info

It's got a list of Fedi projects, a list of mobile apps for Fedi platforms and an opt-in directory of people to follow.

The directory is particularly interesting as it works very differently to FediFollows or Trunk. You add hashtags to your profile plus a special extra hashtag #Fedi22, then submit your profile to the site, and it will become searchable for the tags in your profile.

(And, yes, Mastodon is part of the Fediverse, see here for details: https://mstdn.social/@feditips/108215973331591896)

#FediverseInfo #Fediverse #FediTips #MastoTips

Every time I have mentioned the excellent social reading network @bookwyrm, people have replied or messaged asking if there is a film & TV version. I'm not exaggerating, it is every single time, and different people each time.

If there are any developers out there looking for Fediverse ideas, please do a film & TV version of BookWyrm! (More info about BookWyrm here by the way: https://joinbookwyrm.com)

Film data is (I think) available freely from Wikidata, so that side shouldn't be an issue?

There is demand for a federated film review site, its users are just waiting for it to come into existence.

"If you build it, they will come" :blobcheer:

#Fediverse #AskFedi #AskFediverse #Dev #Development #ActivityPub #Film #Films #Movie #Movies #TV #Television

@Ombra @humanetech

Just to respond to "(Mastodon) has the most users (so it's the most social)."

I know this takes a bit of time to get used to, but federated platforms aren't in competition with each other.

When one federated platform grows, that also increases the audience for the other platforms that federate with it. As long as cross-platform federation is maintained, then success of one platform helps the others.

Because of this co-operative nature, you really don't need to check which Fedi platform has the most users when deciding which one to use.

To take it to an extreme, if a developer created a Fedi platform for themselves that literally no one else used, but it was still compatible with Mastodon etc... well then, they can be just as social as anyone on Mastodon, because they can still follow people, people can follow them etc.

The Fediverse co-operates because because it helps us all, but sincere co-operation is a concept that doesn't exist in Twitter, Facebook etc.

Okay, it's time to tell new users a secret about Mastodon.

Mastodon is (whispers) part of a much bigger network 😮

Mastodon servers use an open standard called ActivityPub to talk to each other. That's how you interact with people on other Mastodon servers.

But, dozens of other federated networks also use ActivityPub, so (this is the good bit!) you can follow people on these other networks from your Mastodon account!

For example:

PixelFed (https://pixelfed.org) is a photo sharing network, here's a random example account @Iancylkowski

PeerTube (https://joinpeertube.org) is a video sharing network, with a p2p system that allows videos to go viral even on small servers, here's a random account @craftykat

BookWyrm (https://joinbookwyrm.com) is a social reading site, an open alternative to Amazon's Goodreads, here's a random account @mouse

Together, Mastodon and these other services form... The Fediverse :fediverse:

(whispers) Click on the link...

https://framatube.org/w/4294a720-f263-4ea4-9392-cf9cea4d5277

Every server on Mastodon and the Fediverse has its own set of rules, written by the people who own and run that particular server

You can see the rules on your server by logging in through a web browser and clicking on "About this server". You can check the rules on other servers by going to their front page and cilcking "Learn more".

If you disagree with your server's rules, you can move your account to a different server with different rules (instructions for moving are at https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107939441820299376). You can even set up a server of your own, where you write the rules yourself (instructions are at https://mstdn.social/@feditips/108120327467587242)

This is one of the biggest differences between Mastodon and Twitter: On Twitter it's entirely Twitter's management that decides what is acceptable. On Mastodon, thousands of separate servers each have their own rulebook. While Twitter governs its users, on Mastodon the users can govern themselves.

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Fediverse

FediPhoto Lineage is a free open source app that lets you post a photo to the Fediverse instantly, as soon as you have taken it and approved it.

You can get it from @fdroidorg (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.fediphoto.lineage) and there's a page about it at https://silkevicious.codeberg.page/fediphoto-lineage.html

There's also an official account at @fediphoto_lineage

FediPhoto Lineage is based on the original FediPhoto app that was developed by @pla, a Fediverse enthusiast who sadly died at the beginning of 2021. Patrick enjoyed taking photos of the world while out and about, and this app made it as easy as possible. He is much missed 😢

#FediTips #Fediverse #FediPhoto #Photography #Photos #FediApps #FOSS #FLOSS #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #Libre

If you're putting content on FunkWhale, bear in mind that channels can be followed from Mastodon etc but accounts cannot be.

So, if you want people to follow your FunkWhale content from elsewhere on the Fediverse, it's your FunkWhale channel address(es) that you want to advertise.

To make clear:

-Following a FunkWhale channel works fine, just as expected. You can paste the address into Mastodon etc and click follow.

-Trying to follow a FunkWhale account from Mastodon etc doesn't work, it just brings up a "follow request" message that is never resolved.

(For any developers out there who would be interested in fixing this bug, there's an open issue about it at https://dev.funkwhale.audio/funkwhale/funkwhale/-/issues/1315)

#FunkWhaleTips #FunkWhale #FediTips #Fediverse #MastoTips #Mastodon

@fu @Picturavis @craftykat

I guess technically it's the ActivityPub Fediverse, but I'm trying to keep it simple for new users. The posts in this thread are aimed at people who have just joined Mastodon.

Obviously there's a historical perspective with other protocols, and experimental things like Zot etc, but new users are extremely unlikely to have any experience of those.

If you're on Mastodon, you don't need to do anything special to interact with other Fediverse platforms.

Their posts will look just like Mastodon posts, and you'll interact with them the same way. You probably won't even notice you are interacting with anything outside Mastodon!

See the attached images below for an example of interacting with a PeerTube video from within Mastodon. The account used in the example is @yesterkitchen, you can try interacting with it yourself if you like.

By the way, to see what a post looks like on its home platform, click on its datestamp at the end of the post. This will open it in a new browser tab or window.

#FediTips #MastoTips #Fediverse #Mastodon

Hello to all you brilliant new people on Mastodon and the Fediverse!

Welcome! 👋

If you're wondering how to get started on here, take a look at this guide for beginners:

https://mstdn.social/@feditips/107537092666623537

If there's anything you want to know, if you have any questions, reply to this post or send me a message and I will try to find the answer 🤔 (And don't worry if you think it's a stupid question, there's no such thing!)

#MastoTips #FediTips #Mastodon #Fediverse #NewHere #Introduction