[Swlug] Swlug Digest, Vol 315, Issue 7

[Rhys Sage]

Thanks, don’t fully understand all of that, but it sounds interesting

It seems there's something called a Fediverse where the software is on a wide array of servers and each server talks to other servers to share data. In the case of Mastodon, it's kind-off a Twitter-like thing but instead of being hosted solely on one company's server as is the case of Twitter, it's hosted by many servers, some are back bedroom servers while others are on professional server racks, hosted by ISPs and charged at astronomical rates. Raspberry Foundation has its own Mastodon server. These servers are called instances. Raspberry hosted its instance in a professional ISP office but run it on a Raspberry Pi 4B. 

That's my understanding anyway. As I said, some Mastodon instances put the free into speech. Others can be much more restrictive. I remember getting kicked off one instance not because I was discussing with other authors of hardcore novels citing some of the hardcore elements but because the passage had a Nazi officer winning a sexual conquest. The fact that on the next page (which I had not yet revealed) he got eaten by a demon was of less importance to the site administrator than expressing her psuedo self-righteous indignation by banning me from the server. Which is it? An instance on which hardcore porn can be discussed or where self-righteous indignation rules? Yes - some of the instances can be a little kooky.