An oversimplification: wikidata is a graph database where people edit semantic triples (subject, predicate, object) instead of text articles.

One could argue that the Fediverse is itself a graph database that anyone could edit, though current implementations are mostly focused on taking this abstract data and putting a usable shell that resembles specific applications.

Is every entry on a ibis an as:Article object? Could it be generalized for any type of Linked Data? This would make it possible to not only have a federated wikipedia but the whole wikidata project.

I’d guess that whoever would be willing to give you copies of legal documents just to join an “exclusive” instance would also be okay with contributing a few bucks per month to pay for its costs.

Why do you want to run an instance for that many people? Do you have 1000 people already, or is that just a number that you decided to work with? Why would people be interested in joining an instance with less functionality than the bigger ones?

Also: does it have to be Mastodon, or would you consider other alternatives? Pleroma and GoToSocial would be a lot easier to manage.

Hey, just wanted to thank you for bringing up the issue with the portal at alien.top. I updated both the portal and the lemmy instance now, should be working again.

1. Go to Wikidata. Create an account if you don’t have one.
2. Search for the person.
3. Find the “Add Statement” button (all the way on the bottom of the list of statements)
4. For property, select “Mastodon User” (you start typing it, it will show up in the dropdown).
5. Add the mastodon handle (without the first @ sign)
6. Submit.

This is totally a display of form over function.

The main issue for newcomers is the paradox of choice, and unless you are some exceptional case you’ll end up clicking more than one of the options and be facing a wall of options to choose from.

Also, what is the use case for recommending Emissary?

For the while, yes.

FYI: there is !toyota@gearhead.town. Maybe it would be better/nicer to use that one instead of being too specific?

I can make you a mod there too if you’d like.

I will take a look at the login issue. Seems like I need to update alien.top to a more recent version of Lemmy.

If you already have a Fedi account and just want to help with the community mapping, please take a look at https://fediverser.network/. The “fediversed” instances (like alien.top) can update their own mapping based on changes from fediverser.network, so any on one place can be used by admins elsewhere.

Nothing can be easier than going to https://portal.alien.top/, signing up with your Reddit account and seeing your account already subscribed to communities corresponding to your favorite subreddits.

I am not talking about people like you that get involved in the communities they enjoy. I am talking about those that seem to be dedicated to a personal mission.

I agree with almost all of your points, but I don’t think that it’s okay to normalize guilt by association, and I call them “the mob” because I see these calls for defederation less as a real concern for their safety and more of instrument to enforce compliance.

I think there is a spectrum between what you did (you were mod until you no longer thought that the pain of dealing with Reddit was worth it or morally justified) and someone who sticks around as a mod of 50+ subreddits because they see as an instrument of control, or someone that keeps running a big Mastodon instance despite financial struggles; and my point is to understand where most people lie.

Just because you made the mistake buying into a shitty walled garden like iOS doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for other people.

So much misfires in one single sentence. Impressive.

• “you made the mistake”: I am not talking my phone, but from other people that I want to talk to.
• “shitty walled garden like iOS”: I may not like, and you may not like, but there are 20-30% of the whole world that to do prefer to have a phone that gives them a walled garden and gives them some peace of mind. But instead of accepting that other might have different values than you, you try to dismiss their values as secondary to your cause and you pass your values as something that should be universal. Are you noticing the pattern here?
• doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for other people: if someone on Android can not have video calls via XMPP with someone on iOS, then no, it doesn’t work for neither of them.

I see a pattern here of you ignoring reality

You want to keep believing that your solution is superior and that the problem is with everyone else that keeps choosing the wrong things? Fine, I will not be able to convince you otherwise. But to keep being presented with actual experience from other people and respond by saying that “they are ignoring reality”? This is just silly.

No, I missed it before.

My “axe to grind” is not against mods. My “axe to grind” is against Small Fedi. I can elaborate more later if you want, but now I need to get back to work…

I’d say that they are the same thing, just in different contexts. But okay, if I wasn’t clear it’s on me to fix it.

I legitimately did it because I had been a member of the community for years and really felt passionate about keeping its standards and making sure it remained safe for the community.

Would you do it for a community you didn’t care about?

Do you think that doing something because you “really felt passionate about it” is “selfless”?

You are having Stockholm syndrome if you think otherwise.

I am not picking a favorite. I’d like XMPP to succeed. I still have my accounts. I still occasionally check if the apps improve to the point where I can install on my parents’ phones and having them using it, and every time I failed.

Element is far from great, but I did manage to set it up for my parents, for my wife and then at least we can share pictures, we can have video calls so that they can see and talk with their grandkids, and we can have a family group, and we can have reaction emojis when someone says something funny.

Can you at least consider not being so condescending, and maybe see that other people have different priorities and values than you?

Just on one very small and developer hostile platform that outside of the US and Japan hardly anyone uses

Oh, come on!

• 35% market share in Europe
• 22% in China.
• 14% in South America

XMPP does not work perfectly fine. You can cover your eyes and ears all you want, but stop gaslighting people.

The rest would be some maganged opposition only existing because Mark lets them. But we had that argument before.

Yeah, right. You’d rather deny the existence of literally over 1 billion people just to keep your belief that your solution is better for the people. Excuse me if I don’t buy your "argument*.

It is a broader issue, namely: there is no such thing as doing a “thankless” job for purely altrustic reasons. This is not an issue on a small scale, but once it reaches it some critical mass we should wonder what motivates those who keep a position of authority.

(And before I get another barrage of people saying “I do it because I care about it/ I want to help / someone needs to do it”… yeah, sure, but if you are cultivating something because you happen to like the thing at hand , then you are doing for your own personal interest and it is not entirely altruistic. And that is totally fine.)