Multiverse

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24727683

> The fediverse w/the activitypub API sell itself as being decentralised, but it’s actually just neutral. It merely enables decentralised forums to coexist with centralised venues. The Lemmy implementation in particular does nothing to proactively promote decentralisation or counter concentrations of power. > > When the software is not designed to steer toward decentralisation, centralisation persists because the network effect is left uncountered. The current stats prove that a mass majority of users and their activity are subject to the concentrated power of a few, which ultimately singularly falls under the power, oversight, and competency of the biggest walled garden in the world: Cloudflare Inc, in the US. > > Calling Lemmy “neutral” is overly generous, in fact. When the stock Lemmy web client is queried for communities, it prioritises the giant centralised communities in top rankings of the search results. It’s no better than Google, where Cloudflare also dominates the top slots in web search results. This exacerbates the network effect by cattle-herding people toward increased centralisation. > > Lemmy ranks decentralised communities at the bottom. And in some cases the ranking is so low that it’s out of reach when cross-posting. The cross-post mechanism forces a search for the target community, and that search does not support entry of the address of the community that includes the domain. When the list is so long it exceeds the pulldown window length, it’s out of reach. > > Yes, we know centralisation is not their deliberate goal. Lemmy developers fear that newcoming novices would unwittingly post in a ghost town without strategically cross-posting and then become immediately discouraged by minimal engagement, and from there bounce back to Twitter or wherever they came from. But it must be realised that the mass nannied steering they have resorted to has cultivated centralisation that defeats the founding purpose of the fedi. >

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24598576

> The state of the fedi superficially parallels what Eric S. Raymond articulated in the 1990s on software construction. There are two models for digital community building within the fediverse. The intent was a decentralised bazaar whereby power is well dispersed, with no single entity excessively wielding disproportionate power. Activitypub was designed to enable the bazaar model to exist, but it neglects to curtail the antithetical model that anarchy-minded folks want to escape: the cathedral. > > The hope and expectation was simply that builders of giant monolithic cathedrals would have no interest in the fedi; that they would want their empire to take the conventional path of walling themselves off. Fedi founders did not envision ambitions for power would emerge within the fedi. Who would have predicted that Facebook would decide to compromise its garden walls in exchange for influence over a quite small population? Or that Cloudflare’s centralized walled garden would be exploited to supercharge disproportionate growth by node operators intent on using the network effect to concentrate power? These kinds of technofeudal actors have traditionally vied for absolute power without attempting to cannabalise and occupy a fair structure to then coexist with. > > Fedi founders thought the federate/defederate option would sufficiently control for actors who would work against the vision of the bazaar. This blunt tool relies heavily on the demographic of relative pseudo anarchists being larger than it is. > > I think it was Kensanata (Alex Schröder) who notably stressed what I regard as a true dichotomy, the sentiment of which was something to the effect of: > > > you can simply go where the people are, or you can go where the platform and tech is well-designed.¹ > > The former are utilitarians and the latter are deontologists who find other people (though far fewer) that share the same understanding and appreciation of structures that feature resistance to tyranny. The separation is comparable to anarchists (at heart) seeking out a small freedom-rich niche away from the ivory tower cathedral. > > The bazaar (decentralised) segment of the fedi comes at the cost of utility, as principles of digital ethics trump the instant gratification of a large audience. The sacrifice is not in vain. It’s made with an expectation that wisdom will spread and sustain. Though it seems clear that the cathedral will always exist and perhaps always enjoy dominance of the majority who serve it (are pawned by it). > > There is a noteworthy contrast from Raymond’s C&B essay. Raymond likens the bazaar to “selfish agents” attributed to “utilitarian” Linux hackers under the idea that Linus harnesses their egos collectively (“egoboo”). Whereas in the fediverse of community builders, it is the selfish agents unwilling to compromise time and convenience who fill the cathedrals, baited by heavily populated communities. > > Raves and Burning Man started off small and great; rich in culture, before rapid growth diluted the subculture and commercialisation did what it does. The natural response is to “take it underground” to try to restore the original greatness. > > The fedi has passed that inflection point. We have LW serfs popping into */c/privacy communities to heckle whoever they perceive as “paranoid”, or worse, deliver a lecture on privacy (from Cloudflare). There is a profound and somewhat ironic number of CF cathedral folks making way into digital rights types of communities, not seeing the starkness of which would be comparable to Donald Trump appearing at a reggae festival, or an AOL user in the 1990s stepping into an engineering usenet newsgroup. > > So here’s a fun search result: > > 🌩 lemmy.world🌩|decentralization > 🌩 kbin.earth🌩|decentralize > ⚠lemmy.ml/c/decentralized > > There are just 3 communities specifically for decentralisation chatter and they are all on centralised hosts. It’s actually useful that they exist in those places from an outreach standpoint. But it’s likely being overly generous to assume they exist for outreach to those who need to be reached. > > Anyway, going forward we need tools and datasets with metrics. The metrics currently serve the utilitarian who simply looks for the most exposure of their content without regard to the ethics underpinning decentralisation. Metrics that serve the bazaar would have to measure degree of power centralisation. > > ¹ paraphrased - not an exact quote >

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24512484

> (The pic is sample output for an arbitrary query on “vegan vege pesc”. Irrelevant side note: there is no free-world venue for pescatarians.. just one in L/W that scrolled off the screen) > > ## CF > > The federation is not wholly decentralised, obviously, when giant centralised fiefdoms like Facebook “Threads”™ and Cloudflare hook in their technofeudal variety of oppressive infra and abuse their power. > > Each post submission begins with finding a relevant venue for the content and it must be consistent with my sense of ethics. Cloudflare is automatically nixed because it’s inherently centralised in a walled garden (regardless of the user count for any given node). CF is a non-starter for an open, free, and fair society (fair implying power balance, equality, transparency, etc). > > My script queries the catalog of communities for relevant venues. It still prints the Cloudflare walled garden because it’s useful to see what names match my regex queries, which sometimes helps form a better query. It’s the only thing #LemmyWorld is good for (a shit-ton of community names with redundant variations of the same subject matter). Those results are in red, tagged with a thundercloud (🌩 ), and printed first (because when they scroll off the terminal I don’t typically care to scroll up to see them). > > ## non-CF > > CF is not the only issue. Some non-CF nodes are centralized due to uncontrolled growth to disproportionately large sizes. I don’t cancel them hard-and-fast like CF nodes, but they get treated with low “last resort” favorability. They have the warning symbol (⚠) and are in yellow. > > ### Is my math decent? > > My script began by filtering on total user count. Then I realised dead or dormant users probably should not count because such users don’t really contribute to a node’s disproportionate power over a population. It’s active users that matter. But if the number of active users in a day are filtered on, that’s too dynamic for deciding where my post can live for a month or however long it is relevant. So I took the users_active_half_year count. Is that sensible? > > What constitutes an “active” user, simply logging in, or commenting? > > The line is drawn at 2 standard deviations above the average -- after tossing outliers. Nodes with less than 5 active users in ½ a year are likely 1-person nodes which do not influence the average. The average is around 320 active ½yr users per node. The standard deviation is ~702 users. My statistical competence is rusty for sure, but I’m a bit bothered by a standard deviation that’s more than double the mean. Seems like a variation so wild it should perhaps be disregarded. Nonetheless, I opted to flag nodes that exceed ~1724 users_active_half_year. > > The pseudocode looks like this: > > avg=$(sqlite3 "$db" 'select round(avg([counts.users_active_half_year])) from node_tbl where tags not like "%cloudflare%" and [counts.users_active_half_year] > 4') > variance=$(sqlite3 "$db" 'select avg(([counts.users_active_half_year] - subtbl.aua) * ([counts.users_active_half_year] - subtbl.aua)) as var from node_tbl, (select avg([counts.users_active_half_year]) as aua from node_tbl where tags not like "%cloudflare%" and [counts.users_active_half_year] > 4) as subtbl where tags not like "%cloudflare%" and [counts.users_active_half_year] > 4;') > > sqlite3 "$db" "select case when baseurl in (select baseurl from node_tbl where [counts.users_active_half_year] > $avg+sqrt($variance)*2) then '$yellow⚠' else '$cyan' end||baseurl||'$reset',name from community_tbl where (name like '%${1}%' or desc like '%${1}%') and baseurl not in (select baseurl from node_tbl where tags like '%cloudflare%') order by baseurl,name" > > Code is ugly because sqlite does not have a stdev builtin function. > > My other thought is to cut slack for closed nodes because at least they are expected to shrink. To list the possible figures to filter on, this is a record for lemmy.ml (the biggest non-Cloudflare node): > :::spoiler record for lemmy.ml > url = https://lemmy.ml/ > baseurl = lemmy.ml > name = Lemmy > desc = A community of privacy and FOSS enthusiasts, run by Lemmy’s developers > downvotes = 1 > nsfw = 1 > create_admin = 0 > private = 0 > fed = 1 > version = 0.19.12 > open = 1 > usage.users.total = 54790 > usage.users.activeHalfyear = 4201 > usage.users.activeMonth = 2125 > usage.localPosts = 167331 > usage.localComments = 818559 > counts.site_id = 1 > counts.users = 54790 > counts.posts = 167331 > counts.comments = 818559 > counts.communities = 4608 > counts.users_active_day = 947 > counts.users_active_week = 1496 > counts.users_active_month = 2125 > counts.users_active_half_year = 4201 > icon = https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/fa6d9660-4f1f-4e90-ac73-b897216db6f3.png > banner = > langs = ["all"] > date = 2019-04-20T18:53:54.608882Z > published = 1555786434000 > time = 1751974533970 > score = > uptime.domain = lemmy.ml > uptime.latency = 0.034 > uptime.countryname = France > uptime.uptime_alltime = 99.04 > uptime.date_created = > uptime.date_updated = 2021-10-29 15:09:21 > uptime.date_laststats = 2025-04-11 21:03:25 > uptime.score = 100 > uptime.status = 1 > isSuspicious = 0 > metrics.usersTotal = 54790 > metrics.usersMonth = 2125 > metrics.usersWeek = 1496 > metrics.totalActivity = 985890 > metrics.localPosts = 167331 > metrics.localComments = 818559 > metrics.averageUsers = 50720.8825256975 > metrics.biggestJump = 225 > metrics.averagePerMinute = 0.02475 > metrics.userActivityScore = 0.055574151274483 > metrics.activityUserScore = 17.9939770031028 > metrics.userActiveMonthScore = 25.7835294117647 > tags = [] > susReason = [] > trust.lastCrawled = 1751974533970 > trust.baseurl = lemmy.ml > trust.metrics.usersTotal = 54790 > trust.metrics.usersMonth = 2125 > trust.metrics.usersWeek = 1496 > trust.metrics.totalActivity = 985890 > trust.metrics.localPosts = 167331 > trust.metrics.localComments = 818559 > trust.metrics.averageUsers = 50720.8825256975 > trust.metrics.biggestJump = 225 > trust.metrics.averagePerMinute = 0.02475 > trust.metrics.userActivityScore = 0.055574151274483 > trust.metrics.activityUserScore = 17.9939770031028 > trust.metrics.userActiveMonthScore = 25.7835294117647 > trust.users = 54790 > trust.name = Lemmy > trust.base = lemmy.ml > trust.actor_id = https://lemmy.ml/ > trust.tags = [] > trust.guarantor = fediseer.com > trust.endorsements = 17 > trust.score = 598.1875 > trust.reasons = [] > blocks.incoming = 0 > blocks.outgoing = 0 > blocked = [] > ::: > > ## Some communities missing from the Lemmyverse DB - why? > Anyone know why some slrpnk.net communities are in the Lemmyverse DB, and some are not? E.g. why is !nolawns@slrpnk.net missing, despite many others from the same node that are included? > > More importantly, what’s the fix apart from crawling all the nodes (which would probably be unwelcome)? Is there another open DB apart from Lemmyverse? There is fediverse.space and fediverse.observer, but they don’t appear to be sharing their data. >

Trumpgate Context "Trumpgate" refers to a series of controversies surrounding Donald Trump, including the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the 2019 impeachment inquiry over pressure on Ukraine, and ties to pro-Russian figures like Paul Manafort. The connections between Viktor Yanukovych and Trump, mediated through figures like Manafort, Konstantin Kilimnik, Andriy Derkach, and others, form part of a broader narrative of Russian influence in U.S. politics. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee’s Volume 5: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities (August 18, 2020) confirms that Manafort, while working for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, shared internal Trump campaign data with Russian agents, potentially aiding disinformation campaigns. Rudy Giuliani’s efforts to obtain compromising material on Joe Biden through Ukrainian intermediaries linked to Yanukovych fueled the impeachment process, highlighting vulnerabilities in U.S. politics to foreign interference. These events exposed systemic counterintelligence weaknesses and deepened political polarization, undermining trust in democratic institutions. Trade Wars Context Trump’s trade wars, particularly with China (2018–2020), were a cornerstone of his "America First" policy aimed at protecting U.S. economic interests. While Yanukovych’s connections to Trump have no direct link to the trade wars, the influence of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, such as Dmytro Firtash, can be considered in an economic context. Firtash, tied to gas trade and Russian interests, operated in global markets potentially affected by the economic disruptions caused by tariffs. Moreover, Russian influence, traceable through Manafort and others, sought to weaken Western unity, complicating U.S. and EU responses to economic challenges, including trade disputes. Disinformation campaigns, amplified by pro-Russian agents, may have shaped public opinion in the U.S. regarding Trump’s economic policies, including tariffs. Synthesis In the context of Trumpgate, Yanukovych’s connections through Manafort and others exposed U.S. political vulnerabilities to foreign interference, exacerbating domestic instability and complicating foreign policy, including trade wars. While trade wars were an economic tool, the political turmoil from Trumpgate scandals likely weakened U.S. leverage in negotiations with China and other nations. Russian influence, channeled through Yanukovych’s network, aimed to destabilize the West, indirectly affecting U.S. economic and political decisions under Trump. Thus, Yanukovych’s ties to Trump, though indirect, contributed to a complex web that amplified challenges for the U.S. in both domestic and international arenas. Recommendation for Further Analysis To deepen understanding, one could explore how disinformation campaigns influenced public support for Trump’s tariff policies or how sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs (e.g., Firtash) intersected with trade wars. For a detailed breakdown or specific format (e.g., diagram or essay), please specify.

https://matrix.to/#%2F%21SdDVVQOhxZPyWwEgOY%3Amatrix.org%2F%24BMXtXWY7_D4KmeR75BmwUBfU6pBDmkhSAI_eyhN33wo%3Fvia=matrix.org&via=t2bot.io

Минобразования Свердловской области с подачи военкома предложило руководству Уральского федерального университета заняться вербовкой неуспевающих студентов на войну против Украины. Письмо замглавы ведомства Евгения Бирюка ректору вуза Виктору Кокшарову опубликовал независимый союз студентов УрФУ.

В тексте говорится, что учащихся, которые не справляются с образовательной нагрузкой, имеют академическую задолженность или подлежат отчислению, следует агитировать на заключение контракта с Минобороны. Тех, кто согласится, выгонять из вуза не будут — вместо этого им дадут академический отпуск с правом восстановления на обучение после службы.

Идея начать рекрутинг в вузах принадлежит военкому Свердловской области полковнику Юрию Аксенову. Тот обратился к замгубернатора Василию Козлову, утверждая, что подобная практика уже существует «в ряде субъектов» России. В связи с этим Аксенов попросил распространить ее и на уральские вузы.

В 2024 году Свердловская область провалила спущенный из Москвы план по набору контрактников на фронт, выполнив его только на 25% и оказавшись на последнем месте среди всех регионов Уральского федерального округа, писало Ura. Из-за этого военком Аксенов объявил войну чиновникам областного правительства. В частности, угрожал им персональной ответственностью за невыполнение целевых показателей и всячески оскорблял их на закрытых совещаниях, говорили источники издания.

В середине лета действующий на тот момент губернатор Евгений Куйвашев сменил ответственного за вербовку в области — им стал его зам Козлов. 26 марта главу региона отправили в отставку после 12 лет работы на этом посту. Причины не назывались. После этого источники «Коммерсанта» сообщили, что Куйвашев стал фигурантом уголовного дела о коррупции. Сам он отказался подтверждать или опровергать эту информацию.

Между тем Свердловская область входит в тройку лидеров по количеству потерь на войне с Украиной. По состоянию на 7 апреля известно о гибели 3506 солдат из региона. На первом месте находится Башкирия (4578 убитых военнослужащих). Следом идет Татарстан с 4489 погибшими, подсчитали «Русская служба Би-би-си» и «Медиазона» на основе открытых данных.

кросс-пост из: https://infosec.pub/post/25299471

> > --- > > ## 🔴 Частые ошибки в Mastodon и Fediverse > > ### 1. Ошибки входа в систему > #### 🚨 Ошибка: "Неверные учетные данные" > Возможные причины: > - Вход на неправильный сервер (инстанс) > - Ошибка в имени пользователя или пароле > - Caps Lock или неправильная раскладка клавиатуры > - Проблемы с двухфакторной аутентификацией (2FA) > > Решение: > - Убедитесь, что входите на тот же сервер, где зарегистрированы > - Проверьте пароль и используйте менеджер паролей > - Если включена 2FA, убедитесь, что используете правильный код > > #### 📨 Ошибка: "Подтвердите свою почту" (но письма нет) > Возможные причины: > - Письмо попало в спам > - Проблемы с почтовым сервером инстанса > > Решение: > - Проверьте папку "Спам" > - Запросите повторную отправку письма > - Свяжитесь с администратором сервера > > --- > > ### 2. Проблемы с публикациями и лентой > #### ⏳ Посты не загружаются / Лента пустая > Возможные причины: > - Проблемы с сервером Mastodon > - Медленный интернет или блокировки > > Решение: > - Проверьте статус сервера (https://instances.social/) > - Попробуйте VPN или смените DNS > > #### 🚫 Ошибка: "Вы не можете публиковать" > Возможные причины: > - Лимит публикаций > - Ограничение от модераторов > > Решение: > - Подождите и попробуйте позже > - Свяжитесь с модераторами сервера > > --- > > ### 3. Ошибки подключения > #### 🌐 Сайт не открывается > Возможные причины: > - Сервер перегружен или временно недоступен > - Блокировки на уровне провайдера > > Решение: > - Проверьте статус сервера на https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ > - Используйте VPN или альтернативный браузер > > #### 🔄 Ошибка синхронизации с другими инстансами > Возможные причины: > - Проблемы федерации между серверами > > Решение: > - Подождите – иногда данные загружаются с задержкой > - Проверьте, поддерживает ли сервер федерацию > > --- > > ## 📌 Вывод > Mastodon и Fediverse – децентрализованные сети, и ошибки могут зависеть от конкретного сервера. Если проблема сохраняется, попробуйте: > ✅ Проверить статус сервера > ✅ Очистить кеш браузера > ✅ Обратиться к модераторам вашего инстанса > > Если у тебя есть конкретная ошибка, могу помочь разобрать её подробнее! 🚀

🔹 Idea: A festival dedicated to decentralized social networks and the free Internet. Bringing Fediverse users, developers and enthusiasts together in one space to share knowledge, experience and ideas. 🔹Goals: Popularization of Fediverse and decentralized platforms (Mastodon, Pleroma, PeerTube, Lemmy, etc.). Discussion of technology, privacy, federation and the future of digital freedom. Meetings with developers, activists and users. 🔹Format: 📍 Offline and online sections. 🎤 Speeches, discussions, master classes. 🎭 Cultural program (music, art, hackathons). 🤝 Networking, exchange of projects, collaborations. 🔹 For whom? 🛠 Developers 📰 Bloggers and journalists 🔒 Privacy enthusiasts 📢Digital rights activists 👥 Regular Fediverse users 🔹 When and where? 💡 Options are being discussed. A hybrid format is possible (online + offline in one of the cities). 🔹 Tags: #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pleroma #PeerTube #Lemmy #Decentralization #Privacy #FreeInternet What do you think of the idea? Need something added or changed? 🚀