timothyjchambers - Tumblr blog

timothyjchambers · 1 month ago

Text

The Next Stage for Indieweb.Social

Indieweb.social is a six-year-old. Launched only 3 years after Mastodon 1.0 itself did, give or take.Over the last two years, it was clear to me as the owner and admin that it was growing and would either need to find some form of new structure to take it to the next level, or, in some way, artificially cap or even have to find ways to shrink ongoing growth. Something I did not wish to do. One way or another, IndieWeb.social would need a new, bigger home. And I’m excited to announce this today.

For a server purely launched back then only as a labor of love—and one that I did not know would even get a couple hundred people interested—it has thrived beyond my hopes: growing steadily, year on year, the Patreon support has been rock solid to keep the lights on, and most importantly, the users here have grown to be a wonderful community. It’s now approaching 12K registered users, 1.2K monthly users, and almost 700,000 posts.And it has been—as was its mission—a great place for the IndieWeb, openweb, humanetech, and larger open social web communities to all commingle and cross-pollinate.

Over this same time, I’d been looking for a way to transition this from a small self-run server, admin-centric place—and to turn it into a more user-managed one, akin to some others that were born that way.

So I am grateful to have found a solution for all of these needs for this community:

As of April, IndieWeb.social will be owned and managed by the Newsmast Foundation, while they move its governance to a user-managed direction. So as of the end of March 2025, I will move from being an admin here to being a user—and an ongoing supporter of this Indieweb.social via Patreon.

I’d strongly encourage everyone to stay with me there on Indieweb.social, and to support it on Patreon if you can; every dime goes only to this server.

And as this starts making moves towards being community managed, do recommend that folks who love it here join in.

Nothing could be in better hands, and Newsmast deserves great credit for enabling this. I owe them a great deal of gratitude and am delighted to be a member of this place now, where I can watch its evolution and cheer it on. This is how the fediverse SHOULD work—how communities can grow from a tiny glimmer to a stable and thriving community and then grow upwards.

The fun part here is just getting started.

The FAQ about this next stage for is here: https://www.newsmastfoundation.org/faqs/

And the new admin account for this server from Newsmast is: https://indieweb.social/@indiewebadmin

And Thor, our volunteer moderator remains: https://indieweb.social/@Thor

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 4 months ago

Text

Moderating Threads at a Server Level for Indieweb.Social

A few days ago, I expressed concern over Meta’s new fact-checking and content moderation policies. When Thread announced its move to the Fediverse over a year ago, we chose not to take preemptive action. Instead, we saw that we had all the tools needed for proportional responses to potential threats to keep our folks safe. And as we stated then, we would treat Threads.net like any other Fediverse server.

For details on Meta’s new content policies see here: https://opentermsarchive.org/en/memos/meta-dampens-hate-speech-policy/

Although we haven’t received any moderation tickets from Threads users, not a single ticket, Meta’s updated content policy changes are, in our view, an action that by itself warrants a response.

Effective Immediately: Limiting Threads at Indieweb.Social At A Server Level

We’re limiting (silencing) Threads at the server level. Here’s what this means:

Limited Visibility: Threads content will no longer be viewable from the federated timeline. Threads.net content would be almost completely hidden from this server - for users who do not already follow Threads users.

Users who do currently follow Threads accounts will not be severed from those existing social relationships, and new users here can still follow Threads accounts should they wish to.

But this will almost completely limit Threads content to anyone not actively seeking Threads content or following Threads users.

This decision prioritizes our community’s well-being and safety. While we value federation and interoperability principles, we’ll always prioritize our users' needs.

Why Limit Instead of Fully Block?

There are no easy answers to this issue, and we understand some servers will choose to not limit and only choose to moderate this purely at a user level, and some servers will fully defederate with Threads accounts.

_We respect each of those choices. _

Or view: By limiting Threads instead of blocking (yet) we allow individual choice while minimizing the risk of harmful or misleading content spreading to our users and the risk of our moderation team being overloaded.

I empathize with Manton’s perspective: “Even though I’ve blogged about my disagreement with Meta’s new approach to content moderation, I don’t think defederating is the answer. It makes a decision for thousands of users, cutting them off from following Threads accounts, rather than letting each user decide if they want to opt out. It makes the fediverse worse and more disjointed, in my opinion.”

_But the only choice isn’t nothing, versus full defederation. _For now, limiting is to our view the appropriate response to keep our folks safe while taking action at a server level reacting to Meta’s latest content moderation changes.

Proportional Moderation

And at Indieweb social we commit to moderating all individual harmful accounts we see, and interactions with Threads content on our server to those following or encountering Threads content even while Limited.

We’ll continue monitoring the situation closely, and will move to full fediblock if we see:

Harassment or Harmful Content: Consistent failure to address harassment, hate speech, or content violating our TOS may lead to defederation.

Malicious or Spammy Behavior: Engaging in malicious activities, such as spamming or spreading malware, may result in defederation.

Even if we see relatively few issues but enough to cause our moderation team to be overloaded, we would defederate.

A limit of Threads can become a full block of Threads** instantly **should we see the need (limits are revocable while on Mastodon fediblocks are permanent) and we will be continuing to watch this very fluid space.

All this said: Am very open to good faith discussions on this choice in the comments on the post on my Mastodon account.

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 5 months ago

Text

Predictions for the Open Social Web 2025

2025 Open Social Web Predictions

I just finished looking over my 2024 predictions, and now onto 2025. I try to make these as quantifiable, verifiable and crisp as I can. OK - here goes - in no particular order:

▶️ The ActivityPub based Fediverse as measured by FediDB will grow by 1 million users in 2025 crossing over 12 million users. The BlueSky registered userbase will grow from its current number of 25 million registered users to over 50 million. Both networks will struggle with churn, but monthly active users will not drop below current numbers both see today: 1 Million MAU for Fediverse, and as far as I can find 20 million monthly active users for Bluesky.

▶️ Threads will cross over 600 million monthly active users in 2025. (today it is 300 MM).

▶️ Threads will enable full, two-way Federation in 2025, but will remain opt-in.

▶️ Bluesky developer communities will grow, the number of independent PDS servers will grow, but there will not be any viable options other than the centralized offering rum by BlueSky for Relays and AppViews in 2025.

▶️ There will continue to be waves of users migrating to emerging social media platforms in 2024 and they will primarily be going to Threads, BlueSky, and Mastodon roughly in that order. No new alternative social platforms emerge with any substance in 2024.

▶️ BlueSky and Threads leadership will support BridgyFed to move to “opt out” on its service Bridging over to ActivityPub users and that will launch in 2025 on both platforms. Mastodon will enable each server to choose to be “opt in” or “opt out” of the BridgyFed offering.

▶️ Over 20 percent of “open social web” users will be “bridge enabled” to talk to at least one other protocol by 2025.

▶️ Apps that aggregate the Open Social Web content, such as Flipboard’s “Surf,” or OpenVibe or Tapestry will all be in the top 5 “open social web” apps by download numbers for 2025.

▶️ One other major top 20 US social media service will add Open Social Web support (likely adopting ActivityPub first but with BlueSky support on roadmap)…and it will not be Tumblr.

▶️ Lemmy, Mbin, PieFed, and other content aggregator offerings will have over 250,000 posts in 2025.

▶️ Ghost will launch its 1.0 version of Fediverse support in 2025 and will be in the top 10 of all Fediverse servers by 2025.

▶️ Over 250 thousand federated podcast episodes will be published by 2025 according to FediDB, by Podcast Index, Castopod, and other fediverse enabled podcasters.

▶️ South America and Africa will grow increasingly more relevant to the Open Social Web.

▶️ One new non-microblogging social digital type will launch that does not exist at scale today on the Open Social Web - and it will have over 50,000 registered users in 2025

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 5 months ago

Text

Review of My 2024 Predictions

Looking over my 2024 predictions before I make some 2025 predictions, to soberly say which ones I got right, wrong and way wrong.

▶️ For starters got this one WAY, WAY wrong: " The overall Fediverse as measured by FediDB will cross 25 million registered users, and by year’s end over 3 to 5 million monthly active users. The Fediverse will cross over 35,000 servers in 2024."

The open social web did grow to about this big, but did so on BlueSky, while Mastodon and fediverse based social grew too, but by less…about 1 million registered users or so this year.

▶️ Also wrong. (I think, by the metrics I used) " Flipboard and WordPress will both move to be at least in the top 10 Fediverse software providers by monthly active users by the end of 2024." I say I think because I think I got the metric wrong in my own prediction. For instance, according to fedidb Flipbaord had almost 7,000 Monthly Active Users, (federated Flipboard accounts) but thy had almost 18 million “status counts.” And Wordpress software saw just under 30,000 users accounts on just over 9,000 servers, it saw 6.7 million total posts.

Still by the metrics my prediciton chose that is another swing and a miss.

▶️ OK finally got one I’d say 3/4th’s right: “There will continue to be waves of users migrating to emerging social media platforms in 2024 and they will primarily be going to Threads, Mastodon, and BlueSky, roughly in that order. No new alternative social platforms emerge with any substance in 2024.”

This feels correct, with the one note that the order was actually “Threads, BlueSky and Mastodon” seeing the benefits.

▶️ This one I think I got right, but also think the role was minor. Suspect the next midterms it will be a larger role but that is the subject for another post. “Disinformation that originates on the Fediverse will for the first time - have a role in the 2024 US Election, spreading into other centralized platforms.”

▶️ This one I count as fully correct. BlueSky did federate out to other PDS’s. But not in a major way yet. And Bridgy Fed did a robust roll out. “BlueSky will federate out to other Bluesky servers for the first time in 2024, but users will remain primarily at the initial flagship server and others will struggle to gain adoption that year. At least one robust AT to ActivityPub bridge sees wide reach in 2024 on both sides of the BlueSky to ActiivtyPub worlds.”

▶️ This one I count as a 3/4th correct prediction, too. The partial miss is that it did so for some countries but not ALL yet. And as we don’t have data on how many federated accounts exist, the size of federated Threads is hard to guage. But anecdotal evidence that it is at least hitting the scale I predicted. “Threads will federate into all its users who opt-in, at least in “read-only” mode akin to what the early test users see today. This will move Threads to functionally be the second largest Federated server software in 2024, next to Mastodon.”

▶️ Meta did a responsible and slow roll out of federation that I do think helped this prediction be true this year. And they actually moved to a bit more than “read only mode.” So here is what I predicted a year ago: “Threads will federate into all its users who opt-in, at least in “read-only” mode akin to what the early test users see today. This will move Threads to functionally be the second largest Federated server software in 2024, next to Mastodon….There will be continued controversy and discussion inside the Fediverse as the Threads interoperability launches …but throughout 2024, the Fediverse works it out, and moderators will without major incidents be able to manage their servers in this new environment - and the Fediverse as a whole navigates this without any major schism forming.”

▶️ Got this one right too. And I was right that it wasn’t Tumblr, the platform was Ghost. “There will be at least one other medium-to-large new social media platform in 2024 that will formally announce it is adopting ActivityPub and actively building out support for it….and it will not be Tumblr. Tumblr will continue experimenting in ActivtyPub, offering it to users who buy Tumblr subscription ad-free versions.”

▶️ Back to another miss. Actual combined monthly average users of Lemmy, Kbin, Mbin and PieFed more like 43,000. So that was WAY off. “Lemmy & Kbin Fediverse servers continue to evolve their features and UX and integrate more closely with the Fediverse and will grow to 1.5 million registered users, and over 200K monthly active users in 2024.”

▶️ On this one, I count it as half correct, but wrong again missing on my prediction of adoption numbers, while I was right that offerings like Loops, and federated podcasts via Podcast Index launched. But not at 50K users yet. “One whole new category of software will grow to a solid foothold in the Fediverse - beyond the existing microblogging, peer-tube-like videos, longer-form blogging, and Lemmy/Kbin-style social news aggregation. I have no idea what that would be - federated storefronts? federated podcasts? Other? - but it will grow to see over 50,000 registered users.”

▶️ Jury is out on this one and hard to say via FediDb data. Mastodon and other Fediverse accounts did see Brazilian users grow as X was temporarily banned there, but saw far less influx than BlueSky did. “At least one other continent becomes relevant for the Fediverse in 2024 - beyond its current concentration in North America, Europe and Asia. Expect growth in Africa and South America and elsewhere but at least one will emerge as an important new growth area for the Fediverse by the end of the year.”

OK what do you all think? Was this review more or less accurate to what I got right and wrong?

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 5 months ago

Text

A Quick Snapshot of the Microblogging Landscape

So given the post-election swell of BlueSky and Threads…and a far more modest but existent swell of new users to the Fediverse, it feels like the battle to be a non-X/Twitter microblogging solution is coming into view. Threads and BlueSky, each seeing a recent momentum of over 1 milliion users per day are the clear top two.

Notable that both Theads and Bluesky are built with the open social web, and decentralized open tech features are either inherently part of both, or soon will be. ActivtyPub for Threads, ATproto for BlueSky.

So I am thankful that this is not a battle between closed and open, but that all the major competiors in this space are all open.

So in one way it is a “format war” like VHS/Beta and for now Threads/Mastodon/etc are on one side, BlueSky on the other. But I actually think and hope that ATProto and Activitypub build out more and more interoperability, so it all becomes like open email: and no-one much cares if it is pop3 protocol or imap protocol and eventually it all just works as one big “open social web.” And things like BridgyFed are the eariest signs of that.

A big note: Threads and Bluesky’s massive success of late and Mastodon’s modest success does not make Mastodon and other fediverse/activitypub offerings losers. In this case it isn’t zero-sum. Fully open, patent free, non-commercial offerings like Mastodon, etc, have different needs and lifecycles and futures not tied to VC’s or shareholders. Where BlueSky will have it’s own financial expectations to it’s investors, Mastodon is - as Nilay Patel said - “definitionally unkillable.”

And the Mastodon and non-Threads fediverse itself has also seen steady growth, in total users at 11 million, good server growth, active monthly users inching upward and currently just over 1 million. For me, Mastodon never needed to “win” but rather be big enough and robust enough to keep everyone else honest and then keep growing over longer timescales.

But it does paint a picture where the landscape will likely emerge over the next year. Sometime later I’ll look back at my 2024 predictions - that I think I got some right, some very optimistic and off. I think there are too many moving pieces to predict 2025 other than that Threads and BlueSky emerge as the main commercial heirs to what the old Twitter was.

How it plays beyond that will hinge on a few variables including:

I do think it will matter deeply as to how and when Threads fully turns on two-way federation into ActivityPub. Do other major services join supprting ActivtyPub? Or ATProto?

I do think it could make a big diffeerence if BlueSky folks choose to allow BridgyFed to be opt-out on their side, fostering more users interoperating with the ActivtyPub side of the Open Social Web.

I think it will matter at how quickly Mastodon continues to sand off its rough edges.

The most common negative critique I see of Mastodon by those who reject it is that it is the “Linux for Desktop” of social. I get that. But it needs to evolve quickly into becoming what ChomeOS is to the Chromebook laptops - which also runs a version of Linux and has grown to a healthy share of users. It has that in it: just look at Phanpy.social to see what I still find a superior Fediverse UX than any of the social platforms.

I think it will matter if orgs like IFTAS, and Social Web Foundation are well funded and both help the Fediverse evolve in safer and more robust functionality.

I hope that Mastodon itself leans into a more plugable architecture: enabling alternative UX to plug in, allowing alternative services to plug in and offer other functionality across servers. That could enable faster evolution of key parts of Matodon while also allowing the core product to evolve at its own pace.

I hope that BlueSky finds keeps evolving it’s own unique ways, it also finds ways to lean into interoperablity over the next year, even in small ways like supprting 500 character messages that are easier to bridge, suppritng rel=me for verification, and finding supprting BridgyFed evoltution.

In a way I am more optimistic than ever at the open social web. It is an exciting time to be in this space, and am thankful for the communities I have on Mastodon as my main open social web home, but also on the BlueSky and Threads accounts I also inhabit.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 5 months ago

Text

A Quick Snapshot of the Microblogging Landscape

So given the post-election swell of BlueSky and Threads…and a far more modest but existent swell of new users to the Fediverse, it feels like the battle to be a non-X/Twitter microblogging solution is coming into view. Threads and BlueSky, each seeing a recent momentum of over 1 milliion users per day are the clear top two.

Notable that both are built with the open social web, and decentralized open tech features either inherently part, or soon to be. ActivtyPub for Threads, ATproto for BlueSky. So I am thankful that this is not a battle between closed and open, but that all the major competiors in this space are all open.

So in one way it is a “format war” like VHS/Beta and for now Threads/Mastodon/etc are on one side, BlueSky on the other. But I actually think and hope that ATProto and Activitypub build out more and more interoperability, so it all becomes like open email: and no-one much cares if it is pop3 protocol or imap protocol and eventually it all just works as one big “open social web.” And things like BridgyFed are the eariest signs of that.

A big note: Threads and Bluesky’s massive success of late and Mastodon’s modest success does not make Mastodon and other fediverse/activitypub offerings losers. Fully open, patent free, non-commercial offerings like Mastodon, etc, have different needs and lifecycles and futures not tied to VC’s or shareholders. Where BlueSky will have it’s own financial expectations to it’s investors, Mastodon is as Nilay Patel said “definitionally unkillable.”

And the Mastodon and non-Threads fediverse itself has seen steady growth, in total users at 11 million, good server growth, active monthly users inching upward and currently just over 1 million. For me, Mastodon never needed to “win” but rather be big enough and robust enough to keep everyone else honest and then keep growing over longer timescales.

But it does paint a picture where the landscape will likely emerge over the next year. Sometime later I’ll look back at my 2024 predictions - that I think I got some right, some very optimistic and off. I think there are too many moving pieces to predict 2025 other than that Threads and BlueSky emerge as the main commercial heirs to what the old Twitter was.

How it plays beyond that will hinge on a few variables including:

I do think it will matter deeply as to how and when Threads fully turns on two-way federation into ActivityPub. Do other major services join supprting ActivtyPub?

I do think it could make a big diffeerence if BlueSky folks choose to allow BridgyFed to be opt-out on their side, fostering more users interoperating with the ActivtyPub side of the Open Social Web.

I think it will matter at how quickly Mastodon continues to sand off its rough edges. The most common negative critique I see of Mastodon by those who reject it is that it is the “Linux for Desktop” of social. I get that. But it needs to evolve quickly into becoming what Chome is to the Chromebook laptops - which also runs a version of Linux and has grown to a healthy share of users. It has that in it: just look at Phanpy.social to see what I still find a superior Fediverse UX than any of the social platforms.

I think it will matter if orgs like IFTAS, and Social Web Foundation are well funded and both help the Fediverse evolve in safer and more robust functionaly.

I hope that Mastodon itself leans into a more plugable architecture: enabling alternative UX to plug in, allowing alternative services to plug in and offer other functionality across servers. That could enable faster evolution of key parts of Matodon while also allowing the core product to evolve at its own pace.

I hope that BlueSky finds ways to lean into interoperablity over the next year, even in small ways like supprting 500 character messages that are easier to bridge, suppritng rel=me for verification, and finding supprting BridgyFed evoltuion.

In a way I am more optimistic than ever at the open social web. It is an exciting time to be in this space, and am greatful for the communities I have on Mastodon as my main open social web home, but also on the BlueSky and Threads accounts I inhabit.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 9 months ago

Text

Cool, just testing out the new **Micro.blog editor.** I think a good improvement overall. And it does make formatting, adding links, and images - while still in markdown -a good deal easier. Thanks @manton!

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 10 months ago

Text

I keep wishing this peace process for a #CeaseFire in Gaza well. Keep building up hope for each one, knowing that he odds are long, but maybe this time. www.npr.org/2024/07/0…

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 11 months ago

Text

Ai and the Fediverse, and Indieweb.Social

As we see Apple, Meta, and Google deeply integrate their AI systems deeply into their platforms, browsers, and operating systems, I think one of the competitive advantages of the Fediverse will be that it is place where USERS are in control of how they consume, share, and interact with AI generated content.

This advantage to users relating to AI, I think, will rival the advantage that the Fediverse already sees in terms of being free from and in control of algorithmic manipulation, free from centralized control, free from micro-targeted ads, and free from and free from data mining.

But I am putting some thoughts into how the Federation needs to evolve to better empower users. And I’ll write more about this and soon make two additions to indieweb.social’s “about” sections. One where I commit to never sell the 11,400+ users' content to any AI platform for their training, and the other announcement where I list new server rules requiring posts here to use AI-generated content to either label their accounts as “automated” or add a specific AI content hashtag to their posts, or both.

Lastly, we have already updated our Robots.txt file for this server to disallow all AI-generated content from being indexed by all AI systems we could identify. And we will be continually updating that list. It is an important note: this does not protect your public posts that federate out to the public Fediverse servers beyond this one…

But this should be an important speedbump to protect any direct scraping of public posts on this site. And some speedbumps are better than none.

For other admins, here are the robots.txt settings we added, and always up for notes to optimize this further:

User-agent: Amazonbot

Disallow: /

User-agent: Applebot-Extended

Disallow: /

User-agent: Bytespider

Disallow: /

User-agent: CCBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User

Disallow: /

User-agent: Claude-Web

Disallow: /

User-agent: ClaudeBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: Diffbot

Disallow: /

User-agent: FacebookBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: Google-Extended

Disallow: /

User-agent: GPTBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: ImagesiftBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: Omgilibot

Disallow: /

User-agent: Omgili

Disallow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot

Disallow: /

User-agent: anthropic-ai

Disallow: /

User-agent: YouBot

Disallow: /

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Good data here on #podcating usage: www.westwoodone.com/blog/2024…

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Ideas for How ActivityPub Might Solve this Problem that BlueSky Points Out?

OK Internet hive mind: working thru a half-formed idea. I like that BluesSky and Nostr and ActivityPub all learn off of each other's good ideas.

And I do think that BlueSky's claims of more seamless migration of accounts is a plus, but one that #ActivityPub folks have line of site on how to improve. The other claim of innovation of BlueSky folks is that since they are not server dependent, but rather semi-centralized (if theoretically swappabley so) that if your local server dies or crashes the user is not stuck. Now those of us who have signed the Mastodon server covenant, promise to give three months notice before shutting down. But lets say an admin and his co-admins were all hit by a (large) bus. A server goes belly up without warning in Mastodon or ActivityPub land and users have no account to migrate. In BlueSky or AT Protocol world, as I understand it, the claim is that it is not dependent on one “personal data server” and the other semi-centralized bits could enable the poor users to still migrate elsewhere. I think that is all somewhat theoretical in Bluesy now, as they have just now gotten basic federation working. But the question is: in an ActivityPub world, how could we evolve to solve that one admittedly problematic use case — without resorting to centralization, and without any blockchain gobbledegook? I have some beginnings of ideas but want to see what you all think first.

0 notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Since I'm already sending invite codes to some people, I thought it may be a good idea to write a post here as a quick intro of what to do in your first few minutes in Goblin!

Basically, once you have an invite code, you should go to https://goblin.band and click on the "register" button. And then, enter your invite code in this screen:

With that, you would get to the actual registration form. Heads up, unlike tumblr, username doesn't support dashes, but you can use low dashes instead:

You will land in this wonderful onboarding page with a pop-up window telling you "how to use Goblin" that it's entirely empty, because you no one can tell you how to use goblin (or maybe because I haven't paid any attention to the onboarding bits because I didn't think anyone would be using them for months):

From there, the first step would probably be going to 'Settings' and uploading an avatar, filling some profile info, etc.

I strongly suggest you setup an email (when you do it, you need to confirm the email, and the screen where you land to makes it seem as it hasn't worked: it has, don't worry) and take a general look at the options in your profile (for example, if you don't want to share who you are following or who are following you, go to 'privacy' and change the setting in there).

Once you are set-up, your dash is, obviously, empty, since you don't follow anyone. But you can already take a look at the rest of the timelines that area available for everyone: Local (things that people has posted on Goblin itself), Robots (rss feeds being imported), social (a mix between your own followings, local and robot), and Global (a feed with content from other servers in the fediverse, like Mastodon, etc)

You also can go to the "Explore" tab and get some idea of who is around Goblin (in the local tab) or get some suggestions of people to follow from the fediverse in general, take a look at popular tags, etc:

You can also follow Tumblr rss feeds from goblin: Just search for @tumblr-username.tumblr.com and, if they have a publicly open blog, you will be able to follow it from goblin:

And... that's it. The only thing I ask you if you get one of the invites is try to use it for a while: Post something, follow people, have fun!

70 notes · View notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Changelog 6/3/2024

Well friends, I come to you bringing some great news!

Not only @sirilyan has set-up a second Goblin server (https://kobold.page), but after a few adjustments and fixes, now Goblin is fully working as a tested multi-server network! Someone using an account based on a server (let’s say, Kobold,page) is able to follow and see posts from someone in a different server (for example, Goblin.band) not only keeping all the formatting, but also the entire reblog chain.

I know this may sound like technical gibberish, but it means that the idea of a federated version of Tumblr is finally taking shape and… it works. It actually works. And it’s beautiful.

145 notes · View notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Just merged my first code into @goblin-social (to make Tumblr feeds look better), and after work I’m going to poke at two or three other branches I’m trying out.

Nothing to it but to do it. The hellsite comes under threat? We build our own new, distributed network of hellsites, one cloud server at a time.

Also, if you’re a friend who’d like an invite code to my goblin instance, drop me a message!

94 notes · View notes

timothyjchambers · 1 year ago

Text

Goblin changelog, 19/03/2024

Another bunch of changes has been shipped!

The ides of march special arrived and left! For 24h, you could stab JC without leaving the comfort of your own dash.

The tumblr rss posts got a bit of a face wash and now are easier to identify in your dash

Posts can now be safely edited. Before this, edits were kind of a lottery: You could lose your tags, your attached videos, you name it. Now it’s safe to edit posts, you should be able to do it without actually screwing your posts. I’m sorry you lost your dose of whimsical destruction.

Now the signup form doesn’t reject usernames over 20 characters anymore. You have up to 128 chars to name yourself.

Restored the modal window with a short onboarding wizard new users get on signup, and made it a bit more goblin-oriented.

When you look at the notes of a post, the reblogs tab now also shows the tags in the reblog (so when you get someone reblogging you just adding some tags, you actually can see what’s that about, ahem :D )

A bunch of visual fixes to improve readability all around the site.

Fixed long threads coming from the fedi when they include both reblogs and replies. If you are a goblin user already, you may have seen some posts where the ‘notes’ button didn’t work at all. Basically, Goblin unravels mastodon-style reply conversations into reblog chains (which are much nicer to read), but when a chain included both replies and reblogs (most fediverse platforms allow to reblog not only posts, but also replies), Goblin was freaking out and some things were breaking. Now, that kind of threads should be converted to reblog chains properly and everything should work as expected.

38 notes · View notes