[HN Gopher] Mastodon: AGPLv3 FOSS social network server ___________________________________________________________________ Mastodon: AGPLv3 FOSS social network server Author : jeroenheijmans Score : 102 points Date : 2021-10-21 20:55 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (github.com) (TXT) w3m dump (github.com) | makeworld wrote: | Title needs a correction. It is AGPLv3, not GPLv3. | | I suspect this was posted today because Trump's new social | network was outed as using Mastodon, likely illegally. | | https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgm5k/truth-social-is-masto... | jeroenheijmans wrote: | TIL about the AGPL license, thx for the tip. | babelfish wrote: | Discussion here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28945733 | russellbeattie wrote: | I adore that the network is named "Pravda" and has a clause | that says you can't criticize the service or its founders! | Classic! | | One has to really give a shout out to Trump's Russian handlers. | They apparently have a great sense of humor and/or irony. They | also know conservative right wing Americans are too stupid to | notice or care. It's almost artistic, really. | wyager wrote: | Interesting. Is it protocol-compatible with other mastodon | instances? (I'm not very familiar with how these fediverse | sites work.) | jeroenhd wrote: | I'd think it'll just disable the federation API. | | Mastodon already has blacklists to prevent abuse from certain | servers, and given Trump's target audience, the block would | probably be mutual. | karmanyaahm wrote: | It is compatible since it's using the exact same codebase, | but practically everyone on the mainstream fediverse has | blocked them, and I suspect they probably will turn off | federation. | indig0g0 wrote: | Right after read an article on WAPO about Truth Social likely | violating Mastodon's license, I hop on HN and find this as the | first post. | PaybackTony wrote: | Admission: I've been building a growing commercial social | network. There are things about what I want to do that made that | the better option for what my target market is. | | With that said, I really like what Mastodon has done and as far | as federated and open social networks go (ActivityPub!). It's in | a class of its own IMO. | nrclark wrote: | Please tell me you're not building Truth. | | If you are, you should stop right now and consider the effects | that your actions will have. No amount of money is worth your | soul. | [deleted] | loeg wrote: | No, it seems to be "Slyde."[1] | | [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25267854 | LeoPanthera wrote: | Even if you are unconcerned about your soul, morals, or | ethics, tech workers at TMTG are surely ending their careers. | Who would employ them after that? | colesantiago wrote: | Probably Gab, did well for someone who used to work at | Facebook. | | [0] https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7abex/gabs-new-cto-is- | a-for... | JasonFruit wrote: | Not everyone in tech blacklists people based on their | politics. | rlt wrote: | The not-insignificant portion of the population that either | doesn't care about or sympathizes with such an employee's | politics? | | Maybe not in SFBA though. | colesantiago wrote: | What makes you think he is building Truth? | trutannus wrote: | Found that odd too. Jumping to conclusions, and moralizing | based on that. Not sure what the purpose was. It lead to | other users digging into the other commenter, which is | somewhat creepy. | pkulak wrote: | Well, Truth isn't so much growing as it's collapsing. | john_moscow wrote: | Hold your horses, it hasn't been launched yet. | indig0g0 wrote: | But the SPAC associated with TMTG almost quadrupled today. | karmanyaahm wrote: | That's just a stolen and license-violating Mastodon, not much | building involved | hd4 wrote: | I try and avoid any news about that person so I don't know | much about Truth other than it exists, how is it violating | any license? | LeoPanthera wrote: | Presumably because they are using modified AGPL licensed | code without releasing their modifications. | squarefoot wrote: | So the real question now is: can the FSF sue? | [deleted] | mathnmusic wrote: | How do things stand on account portability? If I sign up at a | mastodon server, build an audience and network there, but later | if the server admin changes its policies in understands | directions, can I migrate to a new server with all my contacts | and reputation intact - even without the old admin's cooperation? | mmoya wrote: | Post migration is tracked in | https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423. | commoner wrote: | Mastodon has a "profile move" feature that moves all of your | followers (on instances that support the protocol) to your new | account. However, it will not move your toots (posts). | | All of your account data can be exported, and everything except | for toots (and media) can be imported. | | https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/ | gargron wrote: | Hi, yes, you can move your followers to another account, and | export/import other contacts. Perhaps not entirely without the | old admin's cooperation though. | Zababa wrote: | There are lots of files at the root level, which means I have to | do 5/6 complete scrolls to get at the beginning of the readme. I | see this pattern a lof with Go project. I've always wondered if | it has an impact on the popularity of the project. If anybody | from Github is reading this, that could be a blog post idea. | Something like an invisible pixel at the top of the readme, and | the number of top level files + directories, and see if there's | any correlation. | crate_barre wrote: | Trump's upcoming social network app is using Mastadon. | | https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-accused-ripping-code-s... | | Not trying to get political, but this site is obviously going to | be the biggest Mastadon showcase. | riffic wrote: | Anil Dash made a great point earlier today in this tweet | thread: | | https://twitter.com/anildash/status/1451209739141066756 | | "My wish is that media gives proportionate attention to the | many thriving, interesting, well-moderated, non-fascist | Mastodon servers that are enabling healthy communities across | the web before focusing on one doddering fascist's vaporware | social network. | | Given that this is unlikely to be a request that media honors, | at the very least make sure your story gives equal emphasis to | the violent fascist agenda, and countless deaths, that the | person behind the new social network enabled, before delving | into its photo sharing features. | | And by contrast, the wonderful @tinysubversions has, for years, | been leading a movement to create healthy, supportive, pro- | human, independent social networks with efforts like | https://runyourown.social that are home to thousands of | thriving communities. Each deserves coverage." | Angostura wrote: | It's not really clear that it will be a showcase if it hides | its Mastadon roots and doesn't connect to the Fediverse. | lalaland1125 wrote: | A large segment of the Fediverse has already blocked Trump's | domain due to incompliance with the license. | commoner wrote: | Gab already forked Mastodon, and it's not clear whether Truth | Social would surpass Gab in popularity. | | Unlike Truth Social, Gab actually complies with Mastodon's | AGPLv3 license by publishing its source code, though in an | obnoxious way (password-protected archive file): | | https://code.gab.com/gab/gab-open-source | colesantiago wrote: | So basically Truth Social can do the same thing and be | compliant? | [deleted] | [deleted] | commoner wrote: | Yes. The other major requirement is that Truth Social must | also be licensed under AGPLv3. | | > c) You must license the entire work, as a whole, under | this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. | This License will therefore apply, along with any | applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the | work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are | packaged. This License gives no permission to license the | work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such | permission if you have separately received it. | | https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html | [deleted] | jordigh wrote: | Nothing obvious about it. It's only "obvious" if you get | political. | | Trump has started a couple of other alt megaphones for himself | since he got booted off Twitter and they failed. He's tried | email and he's tried blogs and he doesn't get enough attention | on them, so he quits. This one has already started ridiculed | and with poor security and moderation practices before it's | even gotten off the ground. I am not sure how Parler, which | caters to the same audience, is faring nowadays, but I don't | get the impression it's really the alt social media juggernaut | its proponents have hoped for. Gab also is for the maga crowd | and it hasn't been a large crowd. The fediverse at large isn't | that large either, for that matter. | | So, let's see how Trump does this time. | riffic wrote: | I'm one of the moderators of the /r/Mastodon subreddit, and folks | are more than welcome to stop by and share their experiences | using and operating this software. | commoner wrote: | Mastodon recently hit 1 million active users. It has about 2.89 | million total users among 3,400+ servers. | | https://fediverse.party/en/mastodon ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-10-21 23:00 UTC)