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Gavin

root@parkfans.net:/# rm -r *▌
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Sep 27, 2009
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Skyland Estates, Virginia
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ParkFans has now launched a beta of our new Mastodon server over at ParkFans.Network! There are still a few kinks to be worked out, so for the time being, signups can be done through this link.


If there are any questions are issues, feel free to post them here or message me.
 
Because I know a lot of people are still very new to Mastodon, here's the basic pitch:

Mastodon is a decentralized microblogging service. In format and content, it's very similar to Twitter. On the backend though, it's comprised of thousands of individual community servers that all communicate with one another to make up the larger Mastodon landscape.

To signup for Mastodon, you have to pick a "home server" on which to make your Mastodon account. Typically people select a server that is dedicated to their hobbies or interests. As far as we're aware, ParkFans.Network is the first Mastodon server dedicated to the amusement industry.

Moderation-wise, the ParkFans.Network rules will look very familiar to anyone who has read the ParkFans Forum rules. They're not identical, but, at least for the initial launch, we're keeping them relatively inline with what you've come to expect from ParkFans.net.

Thinking long-term there's a substantial chance that Twitter could stabilize, everyone ends up content with whatever New Twitter looks like, and Mastodon fades back into obscurity. If that happens, we may want out of the Mastodon server hosting game. That said, Mastodon allows users to port their accounts from one server to another at will. If we ever do decide to pull the plug, we will attempt to give everyone ample opportunity to find a new server to move over to.

We love the open, decentralized philosophy behind Mastodon and, if a Twitter replacement is going to be necessary for a lot of folks, we'd really like to see Mastodon be the winner. That's why we're putting our money and effort where our mouths are.
 
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Sadly the website seems to be blocked on my work laptop. Which sucks, but what am I going to do? I guess they may eventually unblock it, but for now it's not 100% convenient for me.

I signed up on my phone, though, and I have the same issue with the confirmation email
 
Knowing nothing about Mastodon until this moment, my first reaction is that it sounds incredibly structurally similar to Usenet.

Off to educate myself...
 
The web page on mobile leaves a lot to be desired, but the app works well... once you figure out how the hell to sign into it. It is not intuitive. I tried searching for a "parkfans" server and it found nothing. I only got it to work by figuring what my full username was and searching for that. This thing needs work, but I'm willing to give it some time.
 
For anyone who is struggling to sign-in on the mobile app, just enter ParkFans.Network in the server search box, click on it in the listing, and then hit Next. Should be self-explanatory from there.
 
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The Local Timeline (web) and the Community tab in search (app) are a great way to browse Mastodon posts by other ParkFans.Network members. I can envision it being a novel way to get to know ParkFans folks better outside of park-centric discussions. Seems like it could be valuable (if only for sharing pet photos like @Crunchewy!).
 
I was perplexed by where this "Community" tab is in the app but then found it. You need to tap the Find icon and then it's in there. They like hiding things. Also I will be happy to provide more pet photos as they happen.
 
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There is also other apps you can use instead of the official Mastodon app, I personally prefer Meta Text.

I think I do like Metatext better. I will try it for a while and see if there's anything aggravating, but right off the bat it appears my "Community" feed is front and center? So that's better. Or it's something with parkfans posts in it.
 
I would love to believe Mastodon will take over, but it's pretty obvious Twitter will remain king. Nobody is posting Mastodon links. It's always Twitter. However Mastodon will never die. It only takes one nerd to keep it going and there's always one nerd.
 
I would love to believe Mastodon will take over, but it's pretty obvious Twitter will remain king. Nobody is posting Mastodon links. It's always Twitter. However Mastodon will never die. It only takes one nerd to keep it going and there's always one nerd.
Mastodon has got some hurdles to overcome.

Twitter is going to die a slow death. Now Elon wants to raise the character limit in tweets from 280 characters to 1000, a little under 4x the current limit. Along with all the other questionable things going on you are going to have a large percent of people join or come back because of what Elon allows, you'll have a percent who stay because they want to see it slowly die, a percent who are going to stay because it's easier, and a percent who will and have left. That's going to make it a very slow death of a platform.
 
So... I know that Mastodon is going nowhere, but our mastodon seems dead. Was it officially abandoned? For me it is showing as "offline". Except, I don't really know what is offline. Mastodon is a bit confusing. Still, with Musk destroying Twitter, maybe it will have another chance to go somewhere.
 

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It is currently offline. @Gavin had it moved seemingly-successfully the other day but a bug cropped up that requires a rebuild of the Mastodon side of the stack. It's in progress now as far as I know. @Gavin can probably give a better, more informed update though soon.
 
I get why it was moved, so it's fine, but it was relevant to the twitter discussion in pointless discussions as it's an alternative to that.
 
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