switching.social @switchingsocial@mastodon.at
A guide to ethical privacy-conscious apps and sites. It's aimed at non-technical people who want easy-to-use alternatives:
- Website
- https://switching.social
Hello!
This is the official Mastodon account for the site switching.social.
It's a guide for non-technical people who are concerned about protecting their privacy online. It only lists easy-to-use sites and apps that are ethical and privacy-friendly.
You can find out more at https://switching.social
If you know someone who might benefit from this guide, please share the link with them!
#Introductions #NewHere #DeleteFacebook #DeleteGoogle #ReplaceFacebook
New section on switching.social, for blogging alternatives. First entry is @write_as :
https://switching.social/ethical-alternatives-to-medium/
It would be nice to have a wider range of blogging alternatives too, perhaps alternatives to Tumblr, Blogger and Livejournal?
If you have any suggestions, let me know.
(#Plume is still in alpha testing)
#Blogs #Blogging #Bloggers #Writing #Publishing #Macroblogging #ActivityPub #Federation #Fediverse
The noted English diarist Samuel Pepys is now live-tooting in real time from 1665:
(Courtesy of timetraveller @philgyford )
#London #TimeTravel #LiveTooting #History #Diaries
p.s. Yes, I know this isn't a privacy-friendly alternative to anything, but it just seems so cool 
New section on switching.social, for blogging alternatives. First entry is @write_as :
https://switching.social/ethical-alternatives-to-medium/
It would be nice to have a wider range of blogging alternatives too, perhaps alternatives to Tumblr, Blogger and Livejournal?
If you have any suggestions, let me know.
(#Plume is still in alpha testing)
#Blogs #Blogging #Bloggers #Writing #Publishing #Macroblogging #ActivityPub #Federation #Fediverse
#ActivityPub support is now available to everyone! 🎉 🎊 
Write.as blogs don't federate by default, so to enable it you can either sign up with our new page: https://write.as/new/blog/federated, or if you're already on Write.as, go to your blog's Customize page and click "Enable federation"
Note this also includes support for custom domains. So if your domain is hosted with us, you can now choose your handle when you enable federation and your blog will be accessible in the fediverse!
You can now mention pixelfed users, will be releasing more AP support this week!
I will be back in dev soon for #mastalab. Please, let me know what features are a top priority for you. I will use this thread for dev. Thanks for your suggestions.
Bug fixes are also welcome :)
Hello desktop #Mastodon users!
Can you recommend desktop Mastodon clients/apps for Windows, Linux and Mac?
(Preferably ones that are easy to install and use.)
@Stoori @gargron @switchingsocial
If the goal is to make it easy for non-technical people who are already hesitant to get into Mastodon, I think the default UI of Mastodon itself should be easy for first-timers.
If you have to tell people to log in to yet another instance for things to be "easy" you've already lost.
Federated social networks are confusing enough as it is.
@switchingsocial @gargron I agree on the interface. It's really awkward IMO. I found a couple of discussions on GH:
https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/5341
https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/5736
Given that these date back to 2017, I'm not hopeful for a quick fix. note the comments in the first issue: it's a blocker to adoption for some people and their friends / family. 🙁
Let your thoughts be known in the issues!
Great to see so many new people trying #Mastodon 
Most common barrier for them seems to be the interface, but this could perhaps be made much easer with a single tweak of the Mastodon UI: allow a double-width home column, either optionally or as default.
Twitter has several columns like Mastodon, but the main feed is wider so it's always clear which column is which. There's a sense of focus that Masto lacks.
Has this been proposed? If not, can someone propose it?
I've also done a thread listing these and more resources on Twitter.
If you're on #BirdSite, please retweet this to help spread the word:
https://twitter.com/SwitchingSocial/status/1027948677648855041
Looks like a lot of people want to #DeleteTwitter and try out #Mastodon! 👍 👏 🎉
If you know someone who wants to make the switch, here are some resources to help them:
Official Site
https://joinmastodon.org/
How does Mastodon work?
https://kevq.uk/how-does-mastodon-work/
Mastodon info incl. mobile apps
https://switching.social/ethical-alternatives-to-facebook/
Twitter-style interface for Mastodon
https://social.dev-wiki.de/login/
Mastodon Crossposting service
https://crossposter.masto.donte.com.br/
(M -> T currently blocked by Twitter, but T -> M works)
Do you want to use Mastodon with a Twitter interface?
You could try @halcyon , a service that lets you use any Mastodon account with a Twitter-style interface.
All you have to do is log in with your existing Mastodon account at any Halcyon instance, for example this one:
https://social.dev-wiki.de/login/
(More Halcyon instances and technical details here: https://notabug.org/halcyon-suite/halcyon )
🎶 "It's #FollowFriday, I'm in love..."🎵 📻
@yunohost Y U NO HOST: Project that tries to make #SelfHosting and #CommunityHosting as easy as possible 👍
@nextcloud NextCloud: Alternative to DropBox and Google Drive, gives you more privacy and control ☁️
@TV5Monde TV5 Monde: Official account of the world's largest French-speaking TV network 🇫🇷
@cats CATS: Cats, cats, cats, cats and more cats 🐱
@warandpeas War and Peas: Webcomic
Previous #FF posts:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100526011803804895
Previous Follow Friday posts:
Follow Friday IX
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100486127543147851
Follow Friday VIII
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100446815137297067
Follow Friday VII
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100406642364413856
Follow Friday VI
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100366992857354506
Follow Friday V
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100327150901389768
Follow Friday IV
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100287762758071816
Follow Friday III
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100248023097315151
Follow Friday II
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100209022548185377
Follow Friday I
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/100169139721834708
Hi Art Friends! I'm Lucy, I make comics about real-life adventures and feelings. I'm a tall ship sailor, a cartoonist, a teacher, and a traveler. I'm currently on a huge national tour with my new book, 100 Demon Dialogues! Say hi!
I'm thinking about building an #ActivityPub plugin for #Wordpress. Does anyone know if something like that already exists? Is anyone else interested in that?
RT @TimHarford@twitter.com: "Zuckerberg -- who says privacy isn't a value that's important to most people any more -- owns the four houses on either side of his Silicon Valley house so that no one can use them as a perch to spy on him..." @doctorow@twitter.com
https://boingboing.net/2018/08/08/zucks-in-a-barrel.html
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/TimHarford/status/1027490247037345793
LIKE OIL LEADS TO GLOBAL WARMING...
DATA LEADS TO SOCIAL COOLING
If you feel you are being watched, you change your behavior.
Big Data is supercharging this effect.
#ActivityPub support is live! You can now follow *Public* Write.as blogs from Mastodon, such as our @blog
It's limited to Public blogs right now (a paid feature) so we can slowly roll this out and plug holes as needed -- once I'm confident things are stable in the next few days, it'll be available to everyone for free.
You can read a bit more about the update, and I'd love to hear any feedback / ideas / bugs here! https://discuss.write.as/t/activitypub-support/64
