lingo.lol is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A place for linguists, philologists, and other lovers of languages.

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#TOS

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Mr. Doctorow:

I see in the Github issue that, moving forward, the new language will be the default based on its inclusion in the Mastodon #ToS templates. This isn't ideal.

If #Pleroma is better in this regard, one option would be to encourage the adoption of Pleroma and its forks. Pleroma is much lighter anyway. FWIW: I've run my own Pleroma instance for 4 years and this is being posted from it.

However, realistically, Mastodon is likely to remain a dominant force in the Fediverse. The ToS issue is therefore significant.

I have nothing against the Mastodon core group's likely desire to be bought out for $1B due in part to its creation of "birdsites" that own piles of content. But the Fediverse might well be one of the few things that is still standing between the boot and the human face in "1984".

You're a "name" that's associated with rights. If you do the following, it might gain some traction. Work with your circle to set up a light automated fork of Mastodon. The fork could also be thought of as a spoon.

The fork or spoon would be identical to upstream except for changes made by automation scripts. Such as replacement of the ToS templates with versions that your group would select. It would be a simple matter.

Forks usually die quickly. However, there's little to prevent semi-automated spoons from lasting indefinitely. Sometimes, too, forks end up with both superior features and momentum. See: angie, a full fork of nginx.

Mastodon gGmbH has trademarked the term "Mastodon" as a software mark. However, a spoon could certainly refer to itself as Mastodon (tm) compatible. If "Xnet" isn't trademarked, that term could be trademarked and used as the repo name. Or perhaps "Little Brother" would work.

One nice thing about the spoon approach, aside from the fact that it might be relatively low effort, is that other people would have different concerns about Mastodon that could be addressed at the same time as the stated issue.

Creative Commons people would, for example, like to see increased promotion of Creative Commons in the default Mastodon setup.

So, you might be able to assemble a group of 5 to 10 people. That would be more than enough. Or the prospect of a spoon might offer some leverage in discussions with @Gargron.

Illustration: A #Mastodon is facing a fork by somebody who has a better known name than he does. The Mastodon reconsiders his position on intellectual property issues.

The illustration is partly LLM, though I have concerns related to LLM, and partly GIMP.

re: Mastodon.social and the "new" Terms of Service being proposed out there (see @sarajamielewis@mastodon.social @pluralistic today)

Like many in the #Fediverse, this has been a topic of concern amongst the admin crew here at #SocialBC!

We will not be adopting those terms for our users. Full stop.

If you are in British Columbia and would like to give us a try come on over. :) We're happy to help you with the migration.

Y’all. Mastodon has a new Terms of Service that’s problematic. I’m hoping and cautiously optimistic that they’ll sort it out. But for now it’s not good.

@mcc wrote one of the best GitHub issues I’ve ever seen. It explains everything in great detail. Check it out if you want a full picture on the situation.

github.com/mastodon/mastodon/i

🧵 1/2

(UPDATE: our crowd-sourced concern has them pausing on this. mastodon.social/@Mastodon/1147)

Summary Since it first opened, mastodon.social has operated without any sort of explicit IP grant from the users to the service, which is unusual for a social networking service. Today Mastodon ann...
GitHubNew Terms of Service IP clause cannot be terminated or revoked, not even by deleting content · Issue #35086 · mastodon/mastodonBy mcclure
#Mastodon#TOS#IP

This is really not good. If spore.social adpots these terms, I have to leave.

If #FediHost pushes this out to yazoocity.us I'll have to move the instance.

infosec.exchange/@dvandal/1146

Infosec ExchangeDaniel V. (@dvandal@infosec.exchange)@mcc@mastodon.social I think the part you're referencing is under the Intellectual Property section, right? (Edit: Here's the link to the terms template on Github: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/config/templates/terms-of-service.md) Here's the contents directly off of the 'main' branch (just pulled it down to have the latest of everything): Intellectual Property The Instance contains content provided by its users, including you, such as text, photos, videos, audio, links, and streams (“Content”). When you submit Content to the Instance, you represent and warrant that you have all of the rights, power, and authority necessary to grant the rights to the Content contained within these Terms. Because you alone are responsible for the Content that you submit to the Instance, you may expose yourself to liability from third parties if you post or share such Content without all necessary rights. You retain all ownership rights you have in the Content that you submit to the Instance, but you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual license to use, copy, store, display, share, distribute, communicate and transfer the Content in ways that are consistent with your use of the Instance. To the fullest extent possible, you agree to waive or promise not to assert against the Administrator all moral rights you may have in the Content to the extent those rights are necessary for the Administrator to host the Content on the Instance.