@sunguramy Yes, still considering what to do about it. A fix *has* been rolled out so many instances will be fine going forward (e.g. those on managed hosts where instances are upgraded en masse), but it obviously doesn't change what may have been accessed in the past. There also isn't a quick way for me to see which Pixelfed instances we federate with—I could script something but it would take me a little while to figure it out. It would also take some time to use that to generate lists of users on those instances people here follow/are followed by.

I have had a long day and don't have the wherewithal to do much now, but will be able to look into it more fully tomorrow.

@michael_w_busch Luckily, both now suspended; but this is one reason why it's my policy to nuke viral pic-scraping accounts from orbit. https://out.flipping.rocks/blog/why-picspam-and-repost-accounts-are-bad

Rock flippers, I have way more important stuff I should be asking, but this has been weighing on me for literally months.

Are we…"goblincore"? <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goblincore>

I think we might be, and it would be nice to add to our short description to help people get a better idea of what the server is like. What do you think?

Update: silencing mastodon.social for now until they get their current spamwave under control.

This will not break any of your following/follower connections: you will still see posts from people on mastodon.social you follow, and your followers on mastodon.social will still see your posts.

However, posts from people on mastodon.social who you don't follow will not show up in your timelines (unless someone you follow boosts them). You also won't see replies from people on mastodon.social unless you follow them.

I will unsilence them when they get their shit together, which is usually in a day or two. Alternatively, if people on here find it improves (or at least, doesn't worsen) the quality of their experience, I can keep them silenced; I will do a poll if there's enough interest.

If you've been living under a rock (understandable tbh), today is the US election. Some people on here will be trying to limit their news intake and avoid doomscrolling for the sake of their mental health. If you're posting about US politics, please consider using a CW for those who Just Can't Even right now.

#USpol

Hi rockflippers! A couple of things:

- ⚠️ Heads up, a spamwave is hitting the fediverse! If a dodgy account tries to follow you, please report it before you block. We have some large open-registration servers silenced, so accounts from there will not be able to follow you automatically, but others (like mastodon.social) are not.

- A new version of Mastodon is dropping. However, we run Hometown, which is a modified version and lags a little behind the official version. So if you see people talking about Mastodon changes but you're not seeing them here, that's why. (Some changes may not be implemented here at all.)

@sunguramy @are0h it is not; I will check if anyone on here has followers/people they follow, and if so, run a poll to see what people want to do.

In previous similar situations (e.g. tech.lgbt), I generally end up limiting the server rather than blocking it completely. This maintains people's existing connections, but limits the visibility of everyone else on the other server and requires you to manually approve followers from that server.

@Go_Girl it's not really about the bandwidth, it's more the storage space. However, as far as I know the built-in limits are reasonable, so if it lets you upload them, don't worry!

News has happened! You may be Over It! So, a quick reminder that you can use keywords to filter out posts you don't want to see. Go to https://flipping.rocks/filters to add a keyword to an existing filter, or https://flipping.rocks/filters/new to make a new filter.

If you want to post about stuff many people are probably sick to death of hearing about, consider using a content warning so people can easily skip them if they want. This is helpful for posts that may not match other people's filters, like vagueposts and satirical takes.

#FediTips

See previously: https://out.flipping.rocks/blog/occasionally-asked-questions-threads.html

All of us who blocked Threads when they announced fediverse integration saw this.

We told you so.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/lgbt-and-marginalized-voices-are-not-welcome-on-threads/

@brownpau behind you all the way if you do!

New blog post: Why picspam and repost accounts are bad! https://out.flipping.rocks/blog/why-picspam-and-repost-accounts-are-bad

> You've seen them on Twitter, you're seeing them on the fediverse: accounts with names like "AmazingNature8" or "HistoryPix", or occasionally human-sounding names like "Massimo" and "Veronique". Popular topics include nature and wildlife photos, historic images, relatable memes, fine art, and so on.
>
> They repost photos or memes that have gone viral elsewhere, like Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit. The text of the post is scraped as well; google a distinctive sentence and you'll turn up a previous post. Credit, if it's ever given, is a handle with no URL or indication of what social network it belongs to. Tellingly, on the fediverse, there are virtually never image descriptions. […]
>
> Since I end up having to give this spiel every time I raise the alarm about such accounts, I'm putting it down here in a more permanent place.

Site updates!

Updated the flipping.rocks About page (https://flipping.rocks/about) to be more concise, instead linking to the external documentation pages (https://out.flipping.rocks/about/) where possible.

Also updated the documentation pages, primarily "Safety, privacy & moderation" (https://out.flipping.rocks/about/safety-privacy-moderation), to reflect new Mastodon settings.

@sunguramy thanks for the heads up!

PSA: yet another techbro has scraped fedi, mirroring fediverse users' profiles and posts without users' knowledge or consent.

As far as I can tell, no flipping.rocks profiles have been scraped (I searched for a few of our most prolific posters), but you can search here: https://app.heymaven.com/discover and email jimmy@heymaven.com to request content be taken down if you want.

I've suspended the relevant domains, which should prevent this in future. (It is my practice to block, insofar as I can, sites that mirror or index people's posts without explicit consent from users.)

Hi all, opening registrations on flipping.rocks for now, due to unexpected queer.af exodus!

Just switched to paying for our hosting via @opencollective! https://opencollective.com/fedimon

This doesn't change anything from users' end. But if you are a server admin who gets hosting through fedi.monster, here's another reminder to switch over.

#FediAdmin #MastoAdmin