Is there a Mastodon instance for Slackware community?

Lately I've been thinking about two things:

1. Mastodon is a relatively new decentralized Twitter alternative that keeps gaining traction since I keep bumping into it more and more often while reading the daily news.

2. There was that thread about certain Slackware community members being banned on this forum. I did not post anything there because I did not have any comments worth being posted and I did not know the situation well enough to have an opinion, I did not want to add more drama by posting just for the sake of posting in a somewhat contradictory thread. Yet I'm sensitive to such community micro-splits and I notice them.

I was just thinking that the existence of a Slackware specific Mastodon instance would be something nice: it could serve as a reason for me to get motivated to start using Mastodon for a real, pragmatic reason, as in - to gain additional Slackware knowledge, and it would be nice to have just in the event of a worst case scenario in this forum in the future. I know there's also ##slackware on freenode, but I'm generally hostile towards freenode due to their stance against Tor.

So I was wondering if it makes sense to expect a Slackware Mastodon instance someday, what are the chances that a community member would be tempted to set one up and host it (by no means is this a subtle attempt to scout the moods, I won't be that guy) and other slackers would be tempted to start using it so a minimum critical mass would be reached quick and that would keep the community alive? Or Mastodon as a way of communication is not appealing to most Slackware users and it won't happen in the near future?

I am not hoping for an "official" instance (albeit that would be great), considering that Pat, the team and the wider community settled for this third party forum instead of having their own, I do understand that maintaining such an additional resource like a forum is additional work.

Thanks for this, it drove me to look into Mastodon more. I have an account but never use it. For those who also don't know much about it, here is a good introduction.

Originally Posted by FlinchX So I was wondering if it makes sense to expect a Slackware Mastodon instance someday, what are the chances that a community member would be tempted to set one up and host it (by no means is this a subtle attempt to scout the moods, I won't be that guy) and other slackers would be tempted to start using it so a minimum critical mass would be reached quick and that would keep the community alive? Or Mastodon as a way of communication is not appealing to most Slackware users and it won't happen in the near future?

It would be pretty easy to set up a server, or an 'instance'. I'd consider it, though I know next to nothing about Mastodon at present and don't have much time to research it. It may be better if someone else had a go.

EDIT: If there's already one, can someone point neophytes like myself in its direction?

Originally Posted by Lysander666 I have an account but never use it.

I believe accounts are instance specific, since it's decentralized. Yep, instances can talk to eachother though.

Originally Posted by Lysander666 For those who also don't know much about it, here is a good introduction.

It mentions https://fosstodon.org, I randomly browsed posts there a bit but I found some of them offtopic/too broad to my taste, so that wasn't enough to motivate me to sign up there and try using it. I simply don't have enough time for the whole FOSS. A Slackware centric instance would look more appealing to me.

Originally Posted by Lysander666 EDIT: If there's already one, can someone point neophytes like myself in its direction?

+1, this was the whole point of my initial post.

I don't use Mastodon. Pretty much all I know about it is that it's being used to hose the Wineconf videos.

https://peertube.mastodon.host/accou...onf2018/videos

I'm slow on uptake for most social media platforms. This is the first I remember hearing of mastodon (although, I might've heard about it other times and just dismissed it since I wasn't familiar with it).

Now, being on reddit and having been on Google+, there is a Slackware subreddit and Slackware G+ community, and neither are very big. In fact, at least with reddit (it's been a few years since I've regularly visited G+), I typically just browse the frontpage, so Slackware posts don't come up very frequently. I'm also not on freenode since I can't do IRC at work and I'm too lazy to keep it on my phone.

What would your thoughts be on what would be provided by this community? The 500 character limit would be a serious bottleneck to provide support through the community, so it seems like it might just be a place to have discussions about Slackware... but seeing posts here on some of those discussion threads, they can get pretty long as well.

But, take the above with a grain of salt... I've never understood the drive behind twitter and while I have an account, I've never really used it.

So, for me, I probably won't get a mastodon account, because I don't see myself using it.

I have a Mastodon account and use it from time to time, but mostly to chat with other NorCal locals. It's a nice enough service.

Between LQ, Reddit, MeWe, Facebook, Mastodon, IRC and ICB my attention is spread a mite thin, but the notion of a Slackware-specific Mastodon community is intriguing nonetheless. I'd definitely participate, and might be inclined to host it. Will ponder.

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal What would your thoughts be on what would be provided by this community?

When browsing the web, I randomly learn about Linux related stuff. Like some new cool software which I make myself a note to have a closer look later etc. I believe that having this kind of info coming through the Slackware community would increase its quality and usefulness. For example: "cool software X" vs "cool software X that works on Slackware, because here's the SlackBuild and how to set it up". The Skype for Linux thread would be a good example, albeit I'm not a Skype user, but I got a couple of things that I'd like to have working in Slackware, which is currently not possible due to misc reasons and limitations (sometimes self-enforced). Don't get me wrong, I like LQ for its quality of posts and the general effort to stay ontopic, but at least the Slackware forum here is not really suitable for the aforementioned kind of info. This forum feels a bit dry, it's mostly about things that don't work and casual drama like the one I mentioned in the first post.

Originally Posted by FlinchX When browsing the web, I randomly learn about Linux related stuff. Like some new cool software which I make myself a note to have a closer look later etc. I believe that having this kind of info coming through the Slackware community would increase its quality and usefulness. For example: "cool software X" vs "cool software X that works on Slackware, because here's the SlackBuild and how to set it up". The Skype for Linux thread would be a good example, albeit I'm not a Skype user, but I got a couple of things that I'd like to have working in Slackware, which is currently not possible due to misc reasons and limitations (sometimes self-enforced). Don't get me wrong, I like LQ for its quality of posts and the general effort to stay ontopic, but at least the Slackware forum here is not really suitable for the aforementioned kind of info. This forum feels a bit dry, it's mostly about things that don't work and casual drama like the one I mentioned in the first post.

That makes sense on what your vision of it would be. However, I would say that this kind of stuff could take place on reddit and could've on G+, but it doesn't seem like the user base wasn't large enough (or consistent enough when visiting) to sustain the type of community you have in mind. I'd be surprised if Mastodon would be different, but maybe it will take off and we can have a lot of Slackware engagement and I'll be compelled to create an account

It could also serve as a "rally point" in case anything happened to LQ.

I belong to another special-interest forum whose host experienced technical issues a few years ago, rendering it temporarily disabled. This led to the creation of a Facebook group where users could go when there were outages, to communicate with the forum administrators about those outages and to continue topics of interest.

That Facebook group has served as a rally point during two forum outages in the last five years, and also sees a low level of on-topic discussion in the meantime. Overall it seems like it was a good idea.

The contingencies leading to the use of a Slackware rally point could be much less dramatic than a LQ outage (when was the last time LQ suffered an outage? I can't remember one ever), and could include minor issues like being banned from LQ or simply not wanting to be around specific users.

Also, there are some people who just don't like LQ (or web forums in general). There are some regulars in the IRC channels (##slackware and ##slackware-help) who refrain from using LQ. If there are users who don't like LQ and also don't like IRC, then a Mastodon instance might be their only contact with the wider Slackware community.

Originally Posted by ttk That Facebook group has served as a rally point during two forum outages in the last five years, and also sees a low level of on-topic discussion in the meantime. Overall it seems like it was a good idea.

The issue with FB groups, at least nowadays, is that people are rather the more sceptical of them since Cambridge Analyica, and a little before. I, for instance, deleted my personal FB account in 2013. I have a research account but I honestly try to use it only as much as I have to. So the idea of a decentralised, privacy-orientated social network is much more appealing these days.

Originally Posted by Lysander666 The issue with a FB groups, at least nowadays, is that people are rather the more sceptical of them since Cambridge Analyica, and a little before. I, for instance, deleted my personal FB account in 2013. I have a research account but I honestly try to use it only as much as I have to. So the idea of a decentralised, privacy-orientated social network is much more appealing these days.

Agreed on all counts, and this is why I have a MeWe account. Their technical implementation is somewhat better than Facebook's, and protecting users' privacy is part of their charter (they make their money from corporate accounts, not by monetizing their userbase).

I still keep my Facebook account around for other reasons -- it's my only channel for regular contact with certain extended family and old highschool/college friends.

Given what we know about Facebook today, I would never consider it for hosting a new "rally point" type group. MeWe and Mastodon are much better options.

I've got to many social media accounts, not sure I want to add another.

I would be in favor of a Mastodon instance. I actually run one currently, https://cartodon.com It's not very difficult to setup, but you do need decent system resources to operate one smoothly.

Originally Posted by chrisretusn I've got to many social media accounts, not sure I want to add another.

Same here. I already have information overload.


The topic is a good idea though, a 200 character limit is good for snippets. Quick and easy.

Originally Posted by jakedp a 200 character limit is good for snippets. Quick and easy.

I believe the default is 500