Matt Baer

Photos, words, privacy, and the open web. Dreaming of another future. 📍 Brooklyn

Founder https://musing.studio / @write_as :writeas:
Lead dev @writefreely :writefreely:
Co-organizer @nycphotostroll
Admin @ https://Writing.Exchange

Toots are searchable. #fedi22 #writing #stories #poetry #software #fediverse #web #photography

Public Key

npub1eh33dlkkp8kgj6w8jffsn5wqpte8wwfavxl90xq0huu8h7qvdh5sk6ysfx

NIP-05 Address

matt_at_writing.exchange@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvmccklmtqnmyfd8rey5cf68qq4unh8y7kr0jhnq8m7wrmlqxxm6gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qz9nhwden5te0wfjkccte9ehx7um5wghxyctwvsn3pr6e

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

relay.nostr.band

relay.noswhere.com

Author Public Key

npub1eh33dlkkp8kgj6w8jffsn5wqpte8wwfavxl90xq0huu8h7qvdh5sk6ysfx

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Last Notes

2024-10-12 12:11:59

Reading (on Threads) about why people like #bluesky over #mastodon, and most seems to boil down to usability / wrestling with servers.
Have to agree. And it's why I still think we need a good #fediverse client as an entry point.

2024-09-28 02:04:20

The fediverse is a strange place to be sometimes. It's an open network where progress happens in fits and starts in random, often hidden, pockets. And the rest don't often hear what's really going on. In the 6 years I've built on #ActivityPub, we've all had to fight for some kind of coordination.
Especially re: the new #SocialWebFoundation (which I've backed as an outside supporter via my tiny company @npub1hrl…rdwx), you can see something new is happening.

2024-06-14 00:26:46

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@npub1zrk…2n6q I personally don't think it's far off, it's just a matter of them adopting the protocols. With all the energy behind it, if it's as easy as HTML, it could happen.

2024-06-14 00:23:00

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@npub12jg…0gha absolutely. I've seen "the social web" pick up too and I really like that. The less nerdy / esoteric the language the better

2024-06-13 22:07:48

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Of course think the fediverse is the only real solution to #1. It's a long-term solution to an old problem. And every day it's great to see new people and orgs commit to it (especially in the US, where we're sooo slow to adopt anything that isn't VC-backed and marketed down our throats).
I think the human-powered web will stand in even more stark relief as AI proliferates. Less automation, more messy shit. The *real* becomes more valuable

2024-06-13 22:07:48

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2024-06-13 21:46:37

Nice interesting splintering on the web generally happening:
- The social web splitting into a hundred pieces; people used to one "home" still looking for a new one (or living between many)
- The AI web with rocks for dinner vs. the human web where it's the same ol' but the bots just feed on our interactions now

2024-04-24 16:04:09

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@npub1chs…ezjw Yep, to start off we'll only publicly show Public and Unlisted posts on Remark.as. The others (Followers-only and Private) are dropped completely, but maybe I can make those visible only to the author 🤔

2024-04-17 18:20:32

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Ah, and replies-to-replies.
Right now there's no way to directly reply to a comment on Remark.as, so I'll have to add that in the UI. Then I have to figure out how to handle replies from the fediverse to other fediverse replies.
They're ignored for now, but I'm keeping the `replies` info on the original replies so ideally we can do something there.

2024-04-17 18:00:11

Still in development, but got #ActivityPub replies working! Once it goes live, replies from the fediverse will show up on Remark.as.
Last major issue is to add some basic moderation. Already got instance-level blocking done so I can easily defederate from bad servers, but want to make sure we can handle any potential abuse from individual users too.
https://cdn.masto.host/writing/media_attachments/files/112/287/833/809/866/123/original/c11110099d483cd6.png

2024-04-11 18:42:15

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@npub1ngj…8zpu Will take a look now -- thanks for the reminder!

2024-04-11 18:06:19

Oof this Drafts business for @npub1hrl…rdwx is turning out more complicated than I thought, UI-wise. (Probably why I never built it in the first place 😅)
Want to keep the simplicity of the editor, but especially between multiple blogs and offline saving that already happens, things are getting complex.

2024-02-21 18:54:51

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@npub1qap…q5g5 how does this work?

2024-02-21 18:49:29

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@npub1vfe…93lx Absolutely! I just generally develop this stuff on our Write.as instance first so we can gather feedback and quickly improve, then bring it over to #WriteFreely.

2024-02-21 18:04:39

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Maybe we can start collecting basic stats on likes and boosts from the fediverse before getting to full comment support. That'll at least be easier -- won't have to worry about abuse and spam.
Just not sure where to show those stats. Maybe just to the author on their posts, like we do with views.

2024-02-02 09:38:48

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@npub1pg3…9a8a I'm here! 🙋‍♂️ If you have some time in the next few days, would love to meet!

2024-02-02 09:11:42

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On a similar note, FOSDEM always falls right around Feb. 2, which is the day I launched @npub1hrl…rdwx back in 2015 (before it was WriteFreely).
It's pretty wild that I've been working on this for nine years, and really amazing to see all it's grown into. I never expected any of this when I started it way back then.

2024-02-02 09:00:14

Made it to Brussels for #FOSDEM! Will be hacking on some #WriteFreely stuff today, but looking forward to seeing everyone and going to some talks tomorrow.

2024-01-30 13:44:01

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@npub1rju…j4xt nice! Are you doing any talks?

2024-01-30 10:42:23

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@npub1z6w…fvhk hah I'd love to! But unfortunately with us being on managed hosting, we can't customize our setup too much.

2023-12-30 02:26:06

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@npub1ksu…mln2 Hey, glad you're looking at our instance! Here's the current policy / plans for us: https://writing.exchange/@matt/111666991015936586

2023-12-30 02:24:21

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@npub1wu7…3d23 I'm always open to feedback, but right now the plan is to treat them as any other instance. If they're poorly moderated or go against our community standards, we'll defederate from them. But no plans to do that pre-emptively.

2023-12-30 02:24:21

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2023-11-24 17:53:05

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@npub15rq…a3rd After 6.5 years running writing.exchange, today with about 500 active users, Masto.Host costs us $239/month.
It's gone up rapidly in the last year, both with more activity in the fediverse and increased service costs.
Happy to share more details if it's helpful!
https://opencollective.com/writingexchange

2023-10-23 18:17:21

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@npub186a…3jcx @npub178l…cahs Here's a quick run through the process -- let me know if you have questions on it!
https://video.writeas.org/videos/watch/a0519445-3be6-4e1e-9e6e-b448df78f885

2023-10-23 17:16:14

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@npub186a…3jcx @npub178l…cahs I know it's definitely clunky, and I did see your email about drafts. I have some work in progress that should help, and will update you soon on that

2023-10-23 17:14:42

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@npub186a…3jcx @npub178l…cahs Do you mean when you have your personal blog selected, it doesn't upload?
The way it works right now is that when you have a team selected, photos you upload will go to that shared team instead of your personal photo space. So I'd recommend editing the post with the Mammoth team selected, then just switch to Anonymous before saving it (you won't lose progress when switching between user/team or blogs).

2023-10-23 16:35:26

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@npub186a…3jcx @npub178l…cahs Can you try switching from "Anonymous" at the top to your team's blog, and then try uploading?

2023-10-18 18:18:29

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@npub178l…cahs @npub186a…3jcx Could anyone help with this? Hope to get this fixed for you quickly!
https://writing.exchange/@matt/111252958958108390

2023-10-17 23:30:33

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@npub186a…3jcx hey! Are you familiar with the browser developer tools at all? I haven't been able to replicate, so if you could capture the server response or any browser errors that'd help me figure out what's going on. Let me know if you need me to walk you through the steps

2023-09-25 19:44:27

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@npub1v7u…agkn Thanks for sharing! Just to be sure, when did you download the release, and which OS / architecture are you on? It should be fixed as of a few days ago, but just want to be sure.

2023-09-24 14:38:29

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@npub1wc0…zqg6 @npub1nq8…l7eu @npub17ae…7h0j Thanks for sharing this! Was that still happening with the current build? I caught it and uploaded a new one, but wasn't sure if it worked.

2023-09-21 22:03:48

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The first thing I'm going to do is get the next @npub17ae…7h0j release out (v0.14). It's been almost a year since the last one (!!) and there are a ton of fixes and improvements that have been waiting too long.
Look for that tonight or tomorrow. I want to get a few more fediverse-related features in there before getting this out the door.

2023-09-21 21:58:50

This week, after 3 years of work, I finished a giant project migrating a long-running publication to @npub1hrl…rdwx. 🥳
Besides getting this site on the platform, a ton of new features and improvements came out with the whole project -- from supporting team publishing to custom layouts.
I'm really excited to see the site up and flying, but also to be freed up again to focus on Write.as, @npub17ae…7h0j, and the rest.

2023-09-19 16:37:17

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@npub1e9c…zw56 It'll happen! Just plenty of work involved with building a moderation system and preventing abuse and spam.

2023-09-19 16:28:12

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@npub1fc4…adca That would be great! I'd say you could focus on the admin side, as I've already built a user-facing one that I'll port over soon.
If you want to get that started, please start a conversation on the forum here: https://discuss.write.as/c/development/7

2023-09-19 16:23:37

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@npub1fc4…adca Thanks for submitting that! Though it looks like the repo was deleted, so I can't review / merge anymore...

2023-08-11 21:54:17

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@npub1sly…t8j7 Thanks for reaching out! It's MySQL 5.7, running as a service so getting access to the box is a little more difficult.
Slow queries are on now, but logging to a file I can't figure out how to get access to unfortunately.
I made a little progress and discussed the issue a little more here -- would be curious if you have any other input, or if you think partitioning the table might be worth it: https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/issues/741

2023-08-11 20:45:45

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@npub1n3x…f42u MySQL with innoDB

2023-08-11 20:45:26

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@npub1u8s…cwxn Yep it's MySQL. Put some more information here: https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/issues/741

2023-08-11 20:45:05

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@npub1cp5…67a2 Just put this in a GitHub issue with an idea for adding an index... would be curious of your input: https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/issues/741

2023-08-11 20:44:34

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@npub1mue…nzy5 Yeah, definitely think splitting up the table could make sense, if I can figure out what lines to do that along.
I don't have Redis in place, but am using Varnish on the frontend, which has generally helped reduce database load across the system -- it's just that this blog in particular can still run slow.

2023-08-11 20:42:21

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@npub12x7…s35y Great point -- I've just opened an issue here with some things I've tried: https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/issues/741

2023-08-11 19:53:20

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@npub1j0c…cxw5 Thanks! I haven't looked at the log, though I've pinpointed it with some logging in the app. That article is helpful though!

2023-08-11 14:28:06

I'm looking for a little help working through some database scaling issues with #WriteFreely.
On our Write.as instance, we're up to 4.25 million rows in our `posts` table, and it's causing problems for some individual blogs with 9,000+ posts.
I have an idea of what some bottleneck queries are. But wondering if there are easy db optimizations we might make (indexes, etc.), and if anyone can help identify what they might be.
Boosts appreciated!

2023-08-11 14:28:06

2023-07-07 02:33:28

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@npub1zms…7qv3 @npub16gl…syzj Agreed, and I think we have a pretty good space for it here. If anything, I think we just keep building what we want to see.
(Also just a heads up, some paragraph anchor links in this post have this at the end: ...html#aNaNNaNNaN)

2023-07-07 01:06:17

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But whatever the goal, nothing stops us from continuing to make strong communities and build new tools around the people who call the fediverse home, like we always have. /fin

2023-07-07 01:06:17

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But whatever the goal, nothing stops us from continuing to make strong communities and build new tools around the people who call the fediverse home, like we always have. /fin

2023-07-07 00:57:28

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But as fediverse admins and developers, maybe now it's worth thinking specifically about these threats to privacy posed by bad actors like Meta.
I can imagine a future where these big players coexist on the network (for those who want it) -- where we use Threads to our advantage to show off the promise of an open social network, and get more people on more humane tools that make up fedi today, while severely limiting the damage companies like Meta can bring to this space.

2023-07-07 00:48:10

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Of course, our fedi "address books" / social graphs are already public information, if we each don't enable the option to "Hide your social graph" in Mastodon (this seems to make the data inaccessible). So anyone can already do this -- it's probably just been more limited until the behemoth showed up.

2023-07-07 00:38:18

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I don't think this is the last threat Meta poses with their new product, but it's just the one I've thought through most so far.
Basically, when they join the fediverse, interacting from our non-Meta fedi might be the same as when any app asks you to upload your contacts list to "invite friends": You're giving away your social graph, which supplies the recommendation algorithm, which informs the behavioral models, which helps them target the ads.

2023-07-07 00:33:08

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Suddenly Meta can see a much wider social graph for me. They can find any alt accounts. They can recommend those to the people I know on Threads / Instagram / Facebook -- or to complete strangers.
If those strangers hate me or people like me, oh great, now I'm facing all kinds of new harassment from this poorly moderated meganetwork.
(Obviously many people in marginalized communities have already explained this to us all. All credit where it's due, I'm just walking through the mechanisms here)

2023-07-07 00:21:28

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Now if they supported ActivityPub today and I followed my Masto account from Threads, they might eventually be able to imply that these two accounts belong to the same person. Maybe I use the same URL on my profile, etc.
And of course, they can see everyone I follow. Anyone can -- it's part of the ActivityPub spec. Here ya go, if you run this command:
curl -H 'Accept: application/activity+json' https://writing.exchange/users/matt/following?page=1

2023-07-07 00:17:19

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They let you bootstrap your feed when signing up by following everyone you know on Instagram. Nice move. But then the whole app revolves around this garbage home feed filled with influencers and brands no one cares about, instead all those people you just followed.
It gets better as you mute everyone. But it's the #1 complaint as far as I can see. Still, they launched with it. So figuring out your social graph seems like a priority.

2023-07-07 00:16:29

Okay, so exploring #Threads I can start to see some surveillance vectors for them when they join the fediverse.

2023-07-06 16:04:39

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@npub1a0u…h3us Good question. I mean right now Mastodon lets you point followers to any other handle when migrating. So assuming Threads does the same, in theory you could just point them to an existing Masto handle.
If that doesn't work out, I plan on using my Threads account to boost my Mastodon posts, Pixelfed, etc. Bring the wider fediverse to the people there.

2023-07-06 00:03:56

Interesting read here, especially how they explicitly note potential shortcomings of e.g. deleting a post in the fediverse.
About Threads and the fediverse: https://help.instagram.com/169559812696339
#Threads

2023-07-05 18:22:17

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On the rumors of Meta only federating with certain large instances and compensating them for it, we will never take financial compensation from Meta.
Writing Exchange is built entirely around a model of community-based funding, and we won't compromise on that. https://opencollective.com/writingexchange
If you're on Writing Exchange and have any thoughts, questions, or concerns on this, please let me know!

2023-07-05 18:19:52

On Threads, Meta's Twitter-like product that will have ActivityPub support built-in, making it interoperable with our Writing Exchange community:
I respect and support Mastodon instances that are pre-emptively defederating -- I would never tell other admins how to run their own communities.
For Writing Exchange, we'll remain vigilant and keep an eye on Meta's actions and words in the fediverse, but we won't be defederating today.

2023-06-26 15:51:01

There was an issue with our hosting provider this morning that caused some extensive downtime, but it seems to be resolved now. https://mastodon.social/@mastohost/110610431647895382
In the future, you can always check https://status.writing.exchange to see if we're online, and get email updates for events like this.

2023-06-18 10:42:29

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@npub1k08…6xvn Yeah, commonly these spammers just create a huge number of accounts and fill them up with junk posts. Need to build spam controls into #WriteFreely but a one-size-fits-all solution is hard -- on Write.as, everything is completely custom and hard-coded.

2023-05-20 11:10:59

For the first time in several months, our hosting costs for #WritingExchange are going up again, from $89 to $189 per month.
We can comfortably support it, thanks to everyone who financially contributes to the community! If you're interested in contributing as well, you can do that here: https://opencollective.com/writingexchange

2023-04-08 19:09:32

Elmo did something again, and now Substack links are "potentially harmful" according to birdsite.
So again, #[0] remains open to new writers. If you know anyone who uses Substack and wants a place in the fediverse to share their work, please let them know we're open!

2022-11-05 18:11:10

Thanks again to everyone who's contributed to the costs of running this community! You're helping keep this space in the #[0] independent and sustainable.
If you can afford to help support it, especially as hundreds of new people join, you can donate (and see our finances) here: https://opencollective.com/writingexchange
Any amount helps, and a recurring monthly or yearly donation is very appreciated!
#[1]