Self-hosted Mastodon hands-on tested

BlackStatic said:
Think of all the wonderful insider trading, blackmail, espionage, all the shenanigans you can pull off with a little bit of ingenuity on a platform so utterly broken.

These "alternate" platforms are lank dodgy and hugely opportunistic, Hive included.
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I don't disagree with any particular thing you said. (In case it wasn't clear, my reply to you was a joke. On this-here forum we ascribe to the broader South African philosophy of dealing with serious things by not taking them too seriously.)

However, you seem to have missed that DMs on Twitter are not encrypted either.

Messages on Facebook were not encrypted until recently.

Google only (apparently) stopped scanning email content in Gmail in 2017 to serve you ads. But it still scans them for Smart Reply and detecting courier deliveries and flight tickets and such.

In other words, someone with sufficient access could read all your emails if they wanted to. (Aside: Proton says they don't. I hope that's true.)

The question anyone must ask themselves before using any of these platforms is whether they are willing to accept their inherent tradeoffs.

One semantic point I disagree with is the choice of "opportunistic" to describe all of the alternatives, though I think I take your meaning.

Post is definitely opportunistic - rushed into beta as the pawpaw hit the fan at Twitter.

Hive certainly capitalised on / exploited the chaos ("Chaos is a ladder," as Littlefinger says).

Mastodon just happened to be a mature-enough alternative that resonated with the infosec community because of its nice and "techy" decentralised architecture.
 
Jan said:
In other words, someone with sufficient access could read all your emails if they wanted to. (Aside: Proton says they don't. I hope that's true.)

The question anyone must ask themselves before using any of these platforms is whether they are willing to accept their inherent tradeoffs.
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No one can read all the raunchy DMs I send to people on this forum though.

Right, Jan. :whistling:
 
Thanks for the good, educational article, complete with new Mastodon instances! I'm not sure what Musk's changes to Twitter will ultimately yield, but more people using Mastodon is certainly a good thing. If only to remind people that decentralised tech exists, and that it isn't as scary as they might think (remember email?).

Still, if I was to join a Mastodon server now, I'd steer clear of South African servers for jurisdictional reasons. The same reason I'm not planning on renewing any of my .za domains. It's a lot simpler to force unencrypted DM's out of a local company, than a foreign one.

Dis jammer, want ek sou ek baie graag saam wou keuwel. :)
 
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Jan said:
I don't disagree with any particular thing you said. (In case it wasn't clear, my reply to you was a joke. On this-here forum we ascribe to the broader South African philosophy of dealing with serious things by not taking them too seriously.)

However, you seem to have missed that DMs on Twitter are not encrypted either.

Messages on Facebook were not encrypted until recently.

Google only (apparently) stopped scanning email content in Gmail in 2017 to serve you ads. But it still scans them for Smart Reply and detecting courier deliveries and flight tickets and such.

In other words, someone with sufficient access could read all your emails if they wanted to. (Aside: Proton says they don't. I hope that's true.)

The question anyone must ask themselves before using any of these platforms is whether they are willing to accept their inherent tradeoffs.

One semantic point I disagree with is the choice of "opportunistic" to describe all of the alternatives, though I think I take your meaning.

Post is definitely opportunistic - rushed into beta as the pawpaw hit the fan at Twitter.

Hive certainly capitalised on / exploited the chaos ("Chaos is a ladder," as Littlefinger says).

Mastodon just happened to be a mature-enough alternative that resonated with the infosec community because of its nice and "techy" decentralised architecture.
Click to expand...

I'm too old to argue about this stuff, firm handshake, Jan, have a rocking week! Besides, I have no principles when it comes to tech, so I shouldn't really be arguing for morality. I don't care if my Huawei stuff spies on me, it's excellent quality and cheap.

You know what, I actually like to be spied on, at least that means someone cares.
 
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Reactions: Jan
surface said:
same here though ?
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Yeah we all know of your secret furry porn addiction, reported it to the police but they lost the docket. Oh well.

No man, in the context of a social media platform it's dodgy, where verifiable corporate/government individuals operate and communicate, makes you wonder what kind of heeeeeectic stuff was exchanged on platforms like Twitter over the years, boomers don't understand their communication isn't private.

It's cool that Musk is working with the Signal guys for DM encryption, means he is serious about keeping DMs private. If Mastodon can commit to doing the same I can see it becoming a great platform!

Fun Fact: Did you know, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, all Activision games, have direct National Security teams working the communication channels for security threats? At one point there were so many teams assigned to World of Warcraft, that they started tracing and following eachother!

@Jan read this, it's far out

www.mintpressnews.com

Call of Duty is a Government Psyop: These Documents Prove It

An inspection of Activision Blizzard’s connections to state power and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Call of Duty is a carefully constructed piece of military propaganda
www.mintpressnews.com www.mintpressnews.com
 
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Reactions: Jan
Hmmm...if there is a server, it can't be decentralized.

Mastadon is federated, as opposed to centralised, but definately not decentralised
 
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