The domain https://fediverse.observer/ redirects to sedo now.

On October 11th these two commits where made to the repo:

this will be my final release, glad to have contributed since 2011 to some fediverse stats, https://fedidb.com/ is a great resource with more interest

this software is no longer developed

Sad to have lost such a great resource.

  • Vicinus@piefed.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    18 hours ago

    … demand usage of a 3rd-party app …

    Huh. Wouldn’t have guessed that as the answer.

    … I don’t know how PyLova may change the situation still further - it offers even more features than PieFed, though the latter keeps incorporating most of those changes back into its main codebase …

    Didn’t know Piefed was still back copying Pylova’s efforts. I recall the first time they removed attribution, in what I feel was a very dishonest way. Hopefully, if they are still integrating Pylova’s work, they are at the very least giving attribution.

    … Voyager seems by far the most commonly used one, but it only offers nominal beta-level support for PieFed.

    Yes, I strongly wish that Voyager had far better integration of Piefed features (like grouping cross-posts).

    Echo chambers do exceedingly bad things to the people trapped inside of them.

    Yep. Difficult to know if you’re in one though. In my experience, someone has to put in quite a bit of effort to even determine if they are in one.

    … I can see from the devs’ perspective that turning on the display of instance names in Voyager is not a feature that is universally good.

    Appreciate the perspective. I can see your point.

    … discovered that programming.dev has a number of community-level blocks put into place to help a new user experience a more drama-free version of the Threadiverse. You can see their full listing at https://legal.programming.dev/docs/hidden-communities/ …

    Did not know that, thanks for sharing. That was interesting to look through.

    … huge bias towards inclusion of political content regardless of the statement in their sidebar - like !memes@lemmy.ml …

    That makes sense.

    … though with less content advocating for the literal murder of every person currently living inside of a Western civilization).

    Not the best for getting people to stick around :(

    … I meant here in comparison to like a “reputation” indicator such as PieFed offers, which works regardless of instance affiliation …

    Ah, that would be a nice feature to have throughout the threadiverse. Although, I almost never see the indicator (probably too curated at this point becuase, at this point, I block bad faith actors/trolls immediately).

    … it is just frustrating to me that 3+ years later things look mostly the same as the original discussions people have …

    Yeah, quite frustrating, but I do think we are making progress and things are slowly getting better :)

    I’ve been kind of thinking the ideal instance for new users would be something like the programming.dev community hidden list, with a de-federated triad, and run by the .zip admin team. Maybe that’ll be a thing one day.

    • OpenStars@discuss.online
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      14 hours ago

      Yeah I can’t fully explain the total fascination with apps either, but I do see some definite advantages including the ability to separate viewing other web pages separately from the app, like in fast switching or even side by side in like a split screen context when that is possible. And Firefox is horrible at memory management, even on Android - it legit runs down my battery even when minimized unless I force-kill it.

      According to the comment at https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/28484007, PieFed vs. PyLova are still at odds. If there was attribution this time, I did not dig deep enough to find it, plus I highly doubt it. Although otoh PyLova seems to be included in the PieFed instance picker pages? So different devs seem to have different opinions on the subject.

      Yes agreed about Voyager although tbf the vast majority of apps lack the cross-post comment merge feature in particular - according to https://piefed.social/community/fediverse/wiki/piefed-app only Interstellar has it now (which has an odd UI that is geared more towards Mbin’s microblogging style than Threadiverse forum-style content)

      someone has to put in quite a bit of effort to even determine if they are in one.

      Really? I’ve heard it said that all someone has to do is figure out who or what they are not allowed to criticize. But I suppose there are layers, and indeed disinformation is a helluva powerful effect.

      There’s always so much more to learn about the Threadiverse - I do find it fascinating:-). Though I also can see why others react as they do whenever it gets mentioned outside of here (Reddit, Bluesky, X, etc.).

      I think PieFed.zip is just about as close to ideal as one could want, except for adding a block to Lemmy.ml by default for new users - or perhaps asking via the sign-up wizard, like “Do you want to see extremist content, including calls for murder?” Hey, some people do - sometimes me even for research purposes, and we can all appreciate having the option when that is desired, right? Nobody is wanting to be a “Karen” here and tell others what to do, only offer true choices to people who won’t yet be knowledgeable enough to be able to implement an instance block on their own yet - and again particularly to even become aware that they want one, in order to achieve their goal of avoiding both extremist and also trolling content in one fell swoop.

      If you feel like it, you could petition to add such a block, although I’ve actually tried already in the past for a different instance, and there is such enormous resistance to doing so for Lemmy.ml that I doubt it would happen. Somehow even Rimu who has such a contentious relationship with the tankies doesn’t even do that? I do find it so odd that this is one of the most common refrains that I’ve ever heard across the Threadiverse - to be able to help newcomers block the entire tankie triad - yet not one single major instance seems willing to actually do it. We’ve made our choice, collectively: this is a tankie / troll bar. Regardless of the existence of an echo chamber inside of Lemmy.ml, outside of it we are 4chan when it comes to refusing to block the content coming in from it.

      Which obviously mainstream non-technical normies nope right out, blocking that content the only way that they know how: by leaving the Threadiverse altogether (which already has exceedingly little OC to begin with, making the cost to benefit ratio simply too high).

      • Vicinus@piefed.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        6 hours ago

        … Firefox is horrible at memory management, even on Android - it legit runs down my battery even when minimized unless I force-kill it.

        Haha. I’ve never made that connection, but I also force kill everything after I’m done immediately using it. Hopefully we have a Servo (!servo@programming.dev) option before too long.

        … PieFed vs. PyLova are still at odds. If there was attribution this time, I did not dig deep enough to find it, plus I highly doubt it. Although otoh PyLova seems to be included in the PieFed instance picker pages?

        Yeah, I had a feeling. While Pylova instances are listed in the Piefed instance picker, piefed.social has “Silencing” quokk.au and anarchist.nexus. So, I doubt Mia/quokka is going to be trusting Rimu in the immediate future.

        … https://piefed.social/community/fediverse/wiki/piefed-app …

        That’s a useful page I didn’t know about before. Thanks for sharing :)

        Really? I’ve heard it said that all someone has to do is figure out who or what they are not allowed to criticize. But I suppose there are layers, and indeed disinformation is a helluva powerful effect.

        I agree, to an extent, but I think it takes a significant effort to decide to question things to begin with. If everything and everyone you encounter in your life says the Sun revolves around the Earth, in my view, it takes something extra to not just find or notice a discrepancy, but also take the time/effort to go against everything you know, see, and encounter to pull on that thread and see what it reveals. Pulling on that thread could turn your friends/family/neighbors against you, it could threaten your livelihood or safety. In a non-supportive environment, I expect it’s quite scary and it’s much easier for someone to stick their head in the ground and carry on as if they didn’t notice the discrepancy.

        … PieFed.zip is just about as close to ideal as one could want, except for adding a block to Lemmy.ml by default for new users …

        If you feel like it, you could petition to add such a block …

        For clarity, piefed.zip doesn’t block any of the ‘triad’. I believe the .zip instances marketed/known(?) as being open/non-restrictive. So, I don’t think the admins are interested in blocking any instances, unless they are spam or similarly problematic.

        Somehow even Rimu who has such a contentious relationship with the tankies doesn’t even do that?

        I suspect this has to do with the .ml admins being the Lemmy Devs, and Rimu needing to have a cordial relationship with them to maintain interoperability in the threadiverse.

        We’ve made our choice, collectively: this is a tankie / troll bar.

        I understand the feeling. It may help you to know that the ‘triad’ has decreased in total % of the threadiverse in the last 3 months. Also, look at the Threadiverse 3 years ago before the Reddit 3rd-party App Exodus, there was really only a few Lemmy instances to choose from (lemmy.ml, lemmygrad.ml, sopuli.xyz, and a couple others). So, while many instances started during the exodus, most of the established communities and instances were part of the ‘triad’ and many new users would have joined the established instances/communities. I suspect if users could easily switch their accounts between instances, you would see a huge change in the distribution of the Threadiverse.

        Which obviously mainstream non-technical normies nope right out, blocking that content the only way that they know how: by leaving the Threadiverse altogether …

        Perhaps some better on-boarding, about curation, could help improve the ‘stickiness’ of instances. It wouldn’t surprise me, if a change like that caused the slight decrease in users (between growth spikes) to even out, stabilize, and perhaps allow a slight increase in users to develop.

        • OpenStars@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          41 minutes ago

          PyLova: agreed, sadly.

          Disinformation: yes, exactly like MAGA. They aren’t bad people, just disinformed - as in actively utilized as tools to achieve the objectives of the one(s) pulling the strings. Arguably we should all resist such, but as you say the barriers against such are high, and I think we can agree that some people are simply too preoccupied with the basics of living to have either the time or inclination to become properly informed. One implication then being that it is the very foundational principle of democracy itself that works against its own demise: when unedumacashiated people are allowed to vote, chaos is not nearly as likely to result (from such “random” inputs) as the system being taken over by a malicious actor who may then use it for their own nefarious purposes.

          But even so, that explanation neither absolves people of their failures in the absolute necessity to remain curious, nor absolves us of our own failure when we allow the system to propagate, and in fact help it along.

          According to this post PieFed.zip uses the same blocking system as Lemmy.zip for new joiners. See also this comment from the admin. Like programming.dev, the .zip instances (like all other instances) can also block particular communities - which unfortunately neither the Lemmy nor PieFed UI offers a mechanism to expose that list publicly to the users, making the transparency of this issue rather horrible, where I have to link to messages from the admins but there is no webpage that will simply show an updated status - like does exist for instance federation vs. defederation. The tools here, again both Lemmy and PieFed, are abysmal at such transparency topics.

          This is the kind of stuff that I would love to see added - to Lemmy, to PieFed, or to PyLova - and I feel like the increased transparency would help entice new joiners.

      • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        14 hours ago

        though with less content advocating for the literal murder of every person currently living inside of a Western civilization).

        “Do you want to see extremist content, including calls for murder?”

        ‘death to america’ is a hyperbolic idiom meaning an end to american imperial dominance, not a wish to harm american people. as an american myself i say it all the time. i want to see an end to the system, not the people living under it. ‘marg bar amrika’ has been a protest chant for 50 years and has been deliberately mistranslated by propagandists to demonize dissent.

        what good is ‘america’ to the people it bombs, imprisons and impoverishes anyway?

        • Vicinus@piefed.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          6 hours ago

          ‘death to america’ is a hyperbolic idiom meaning an end to american imperial dominance …

          To your point, I’ve heard this meaning before, although I don’t think it is commonly known to the general populace (which is also to your other point about propogandization).

          Potentially against your point, if a slogan/idiom is being intentionally misused for misinformation, it might be time to move to a different phrase, rather than sticking with the corrupted one. Additionally, if multiple phrases could be utilized, it may get the point across better (less likely to successfully propagandize multiple options, than a single option). Although, I suspect propagandists would weaponize the ‘weakest’ commonly utilized option against the cause.

          • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 hours ago

            I suspect propagandists would weaponize the ‘weakest’ commonly utilized option against the cause.

            one example that comes to mind is the ‘from the river to the sea’ slogan; it’s a call for equal rights across historic palestine, but gets labelled as a call for genocide by detractors.

            changing the slogans doesn’t help because the target isn’t the words, it’s the underlying demand. propagandists will weaponize whatever language you use if the politics behind it threaten them.

            the way i see it conceding the rhetorical terrain just means constantly retreating to increasingly watered down language while the actual demand gets no closer to being heard.