

Me and Drew got back into Divinity today, if anyone wants to check out the VOD it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cDMueyCdU
At the end we talk about whether we think we should be streaming on Twitch, YouTube, or OwnCast.
Me and Drew got back into Divinity today, if anyone wants to check out the VOD it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7cDMueyCdU
At the end we talk about whether we think we should be streaming on Twitch, YouTube, or OwnCast.
Fediverse community experiment (2): Here are four storyboarded versions of my favourites final panel ideas! Thank you all for participating
!
I'll color and polish my fav somewhere next week. What's your favorite one? (↓ Poll in the replies.)
If the UK Government requires people to verify their age to visit some websites, the age assurance industry must be regulated to ensure privacy and prevent identity theft. Your chums at @openrightsgroup invite you to sign their open letter: https://action.openrightsgroup.org/sign-open-letter-dsit-regulating-age-assurance
Dahlia ‘Colour Spectacle’
Happy Monday, y'all.
I see the new King of Scotland has been holding court today.
That's nice!
Anyway, here's something orange that is always a pleasure to watch.
This is Lilium lancifolium Farrer's Form.
It is a slightly more intense orange than the usual version and with marginally thicker and more well-behaved curling petals.
Monotype on Kozo paper. I’m enjoying this process — nothing planned and but a rectangle of black ink to work from, it’s all in the moment.
Seemingly destroyed by the winter storms, this rose has come back stronger than ever. A second flourishing so far this summer.
NEW LOCATION KLAXON
Welcome to Crummackdale, north of Austwick, this valley is oft-overlooked but features some of the most extensive limestone pavement and scars in all of the Yorkshire Dales.
Extra bonus: Pen-y-Ghent looking like pure drama.
There's plenty more images from this day, send your eyespheres here https://www.iancylkowski.com/blog/2025/7/27/crummackdale-yorkshire-dales-summer
Flipping.rocks is a Hometown Mastodon server for people who appreciate arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, fungi, etc. If you want a general Fediverse home, that’s okay too.
This server has a post size of up to 5000 characters, and has been operating since 2022.
You can find out more at https://flipping.rocks/about or contact the admin @a
Well, my moist and juicy plums, it would seem to be Glastonbury Pride today. Everyone looks fabulous and the drumming was amazing.
Years ago, on another social media site, I used to run what I called a #PhoneboxConference. I pitch up at a classic red phone box and invite folk to call.
It's getting harder to find locations, let alone iconic ones.
So imagine my delight in finding one (the only?) working red #phonebox on Orkney.
And where? In Twatt, of course.
It's 4pm BST and I'm standing by.
01856771203.
Dydd Sul, ac mae popeth yn dawel. #CastanwyddenEccles
Sunday, and everything is quiet. #EcclesChestnut
Phase one of the wildflower project was "see what thrives and what doesn't". Guess it's black eyed susans for autumn sowing.
#EFF: We Support #Wikimedia Foundation’s Challenge to #UK’s #OnlineSafetyAct
IDs at the ready
Age assurance requirements under the UK Online Safety Act kick in this Friday.
UK users will have to hand over their sensitive data to cyber bouncers without being sure they'll protect their privacy.
ORG is calling for these age assurance providers to be regulated
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/org-calls-for-age-assurance-industry-to-be-regulated/
I'm back to thinking about fediadmin dashboards and tools and what it would take to get something working, and im looking at druple and zabbix and other monitoring tools because most of what i think would help is statistical reporting and adding some basic OSInt to the moderation UI. Add to the OSInt context appropriate statistical correlations and data.
Basically i need a prepackaged dashboard UI tool, a log ingester that can do activitypub messages, and a way to index and search all that efficiently. I wish i had a few thousand to sponsor development for six months, thats all it would take...
You could stand it up as a moderated relay, admins would have to apply and get approved, signing in with their oAuth from their own server account. That would grant the relay permissions to read and write reports that can be viewed in the dashboard, where the relay adds additional context about reports from the database of relayed posts. Relays could become opt-in moderation enclaves where shared community moderation values are agreed on and reports can be handled by a group of mods, or at least reviewed and commented on if wanted.
From each moderation account, they would have tools for their server, essentially scripts like fedifetcher or import/export tools and other actions via the mastodonAPI for their server.
A modular tool dashboard(think Softalicious) could allow packaging and distribution of scripts or configurations, or adding functions like the CSAM scanner that IFTAS developed. A plugin to add functionality for PeerTube features, or pixelfed moderation specific challenges.
Package the whole project up and make it available on YunoHost and anyone could put a fediserver, relay, and moderation dashboard on some old desktop in their basement <3
There are issues. The final product is asking a lot. There's some problems around post retention with edits, deletes, and expiring posts. There's questions as to the utility or need of relays after a certain amount of activity and if server alliances that might create cultural bubbles that are beneficial or not. Security and privacy issues for bad actors that join a relay unchallenged, or how joining multiple community relays might make for floods of network traffic.
This is something I, as an admin, really want to see. I feel so ignored and abandoned by the mastodon development team for not including more than the most basic moderation and reporting tools. Technical solutions wont solve our community problems, but they can empower our community caretakers to cater to their people.
edit: the OSInt data is especially relevant when doing account approval reviews.
Morning Sheep Time
A return to genuine McVities prompts a better uptake of biscuits this morning.