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Ah, you know you’re in the UK when you start getting the weird government Reddit ads. I’d forgotten about those, to wit:

YOU’RE PROBABLY A NONCE WITH A GAMBLING ADDICTION. ALSO YOU HAVE CANCER, I BET!

in reply to Adam

@Adam I have an exit node in a country that isn’t batshit.
@Adam
in reply to Sarah Brown

yeah, but no ads are better than merely less batshit ads.


737-Max 8200 today, lads. Probably not going to die.
Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@Roche Limit well, given I was able to report back …


From elsewhere, ukpol, me on Farage

It was noted that Farage is seen as “vulgar” by the people who inhabit the Tory back rooms, and my response was, “ I mean, come on. Looking at him you just KNOW he’s walking around in 1970s nylon y-fronts that he only changes once every 4 days.

The guy is basically every Sid James character from Carry On, but unironically.”

reshared this



Oh dear god, this.

Like, it’s endemic. “My entire family just got slaughtered in a pig manure drowning accident lol”

Why would you write like that?

in reply to Sarah Brown

I have a friend that ends just about every sentence with the same emoji 🫣

It is properly weird and drives me nuts 🫣

in reply to Rachel Lawson

@Rachel Lawson Just searched for a bunch of examples on Reddit. AITA is a good source.

Stuff like, “my sister was mean to me and I’m really upset lol”

Like, I can’t be the only one imaging them on the verge of crying and then suddenly tossing their head back and laughing.



Guys, the neighbours in bsky are having discourse about literally having sex with literal human skulls.

In case you thought owt going on here was weird.

in reply to Sarah Brown

... There's context to this, but I'm scared for the context.

They're actually talking about skull fucking and not "skull fucking"?

in reply to Sarah Brown

"It's not how long it is that matters, it's where you occiput it".


Dear UK Gen X people: the chancellor of my stepson’s university is Milky Milky.

I will fucking PAY him to say “lovely” when he gets his degree.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Just missed out on getting some gardening advice from Titchmarsh then …


Breathless press: Fusion energy breakthrough!

Me: reading article “blah blah blah Lawrence Livermore blah

Me: This is nuclear bomb research. Nothing to see here. Also solar panels literally exist. Move along.


I swear, “fusion power stations” are the global death industrial complex’s fig leaf for bomb research just as “hydrogen cars” are the global death industrial complex’s fig leaf for digging oil out of the ground.

in reply to Sarah Brown

“Look at me pretending to develop fusion power for A HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS PER KILOWATT HOUR! Muhahahaha! Nobody suspects me of getting round non-proliferation treaties, which I literally admit to doing on my website!”

Solar panels: “Am I a literal fucking joke to you?”

in reply to Sarah Brown

America and France: Hi! We have world-leading programmes to develop and study high temperature deuterium-tritium plasmas, and also space programmes which use solid rocket boosters which you could hypothetically launch into a sub orbital trajectory with a payload of a few tonnes at very short notice. These are unrelated and very highly civilian normal things we are doing. Also, STAR TREK!


The right: Liberal democracy has become all the things Orwell warned us about in “1984”

Also the right: We are working to abolish the orgasm

gz reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

fascism, mental health
@A_C_McGregor hang on, this comment you made has the CW intact from its parent comment. Did you make that using different software?
in reply to Adam

fascism, mental health
@Adam @Alisdair Calder McGregor No, but these comments are confined to a subset of the places the main post went to.


Reddit “reviewed my appeal” and found out that “I wasn’t in violation of their rules”.

Sarah: 1
TERFs: 0

Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@fool presumably a TERF reported it
@fool
Unknown parent

Sarah Brown

@fool Fucked if I know. Maybe the sub mods can pass it up the chain, and one of them is some kind of arsehole or something?

Surprised my appeal did anything tbh. Stranger things have happened.

@fool


“This lettuce is a deep state trans activist” theguardian.com/us-news/2024/f…
in reply to Sarah Brown

Bit rich of her talking about Quango not caring about the average person after she wrecked everyone's mortgages.


I love the idea of getting vaccine boosters, but understand that in some places it’s basically not possible. Consider the UK, for example, which is literally throwing Covid booster doses away rather than give them to people not in their “at risk” groups who want them.
in reply to Sarah Brown

I’m now at the stage of having lost count of the number of vaccinations I’ve had — a function of the fact that they stopped filling in those little cards. I know I’ve had them at roughly six month intervals though and that, on two occasions, it’s only because I was absolutely determined to get one and not lapse. I’m preparing for another assault on the system next month, prepared to work out how to work the system again.


Watched The Marvels tonight.

Legitimately lost it when “Memory” started playing. What an excellent fun film!

in reply to Sarah Brown

"Stop running! Let the [redacted]! You will be fine!"

We howled, from beginning to end.


Unknown parent

The Crafty Miss
I don't know how it works in Portugal. Do you still have an NHS GP at all, or could register as a temporary patient? Here, you'd be eligible to get the second dose of a measles-containing vaccine (they'd give you MMR). If they argue, you can direct them to NHS guidance (nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations…) under 'When older children and adults should have the MMR vaccine'
This entry was edited (9 months ago)


“So you’ve found this website because your ADHD is flaring up to the point where deciding to boil an egg because it’s nearly midnight and you have known for the last six hours that you need to eat, might as well be designing the logistics for a manned mission to fucking Pluto. Here’s a simple 87 point plan for getting yourself out of this funk. Point 1: have you tried not having ADHD?”

Who writes this bullshit?

reshared this



Just got a three day ban from Reddit for the sentence “TERFs hate each other more than they hate trans women”. Apparently it was reviewed by a human


Hey, instance admins, if you want to deal with the current spam problem, check this out: mastodon.de/@ErikUden/11194030…

And consider sending some money to @Erik Uden 🦣🍑:coffefied: because he's doing us all a huge favour.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

Honestly, I think this is a wakeup call for the fediverse. This time it was mostly harmless spam images.

Eventually though, someone is gonna use the same trick to send seriously nasty stuff to our servers, and our timelines. The sort of stuff that you need therapy to try and unsee.

We, collectively, need to try and stop that before it happens.



Muppet be like, “look at what trans people made us do!”

dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/18…

in reply to zip

@zip (easter themed) Yeah. They're the ones I feel bad for in this. Fucker is probably gonna get them killed in a ditch in Ukraine.
@zip


TIL; there’s a bit of Sahara on the Egypt/Sudan border that no nation state recognises as part of its territory.

So if you’re looking for somewhere to do crimes…

Mark Asser reshared this.



I made a new heavy lifter in KSP. It's called the GooseGooseGo, because of course it is.

in reply to gz

@gz @Ghost of Hope All their planes have airstairs. They use both front and rear entrances (with ground steps for the rear one), and they only have two classes of boarding: priority (where you get to use the overhead bins) and non priority (where you do not, unless you’re in an exit row). You wanna use an overhead bin, you have to pay extra.


Just had a moment of panic as my little fediverse instance started throwing out error messages and refusing to load images.

Turns out, while uploading a CSV file of instances to block for posting spam, I’d managed to create a defederation rule for a server with no name.

It didn’t like that, and the federation stuff started going a bit wrong.

Managed to remove the offending entry and all is well. Phew!


Friendica Support reshared this.


Please help. My node appears to have crapped itself.


!Friendica Support

Hi everyone. I'm suddenly getting loads of php errors on lots of pages and images are no-longer loading. Stuff like this. Any ideas?

in reply to Hypolite Petovan Friendica Support reshared this.

@Hypolite Petovan OK, so the docker image doesn't have a php config file. It has two sample ones in /usr/local/etc/php/. I Just did cp php.ini-production php.ini in that directory in the docker container and restarted, and it seems to have picked up sensible defaults, including the ones you mention above.

Friendica Admins reshared this.


!Friendica Admins Has anyone found a better way to deal with these spam instances than degenerating them one by one in the "Moderation" page? It's a bit tedious.

Someone got a script for it?

in reply to Michael Vogel Friendica Admins reshared this.

@Michael Vogel No. They are all images advertising a Japanese discord server. They usually mention about 5 accounts by name.
in reply to Sarah Brown Friendica Admins reshared this.

@Sarah Brown @Michael Vogel

It looks like this. I get it via academicchatter@a.gup.pe which I do not want to block. It was way more two days ago or so. Allow Spammers for vegan steaks!



Out on the old SUP, GoPro mounted on the front, remote control shutter release on the paddle. Contre jour.

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PSA for small server admins. Spam bots are searching you out and creating accounts for spamming the fediverse.

Other admins are dealing with this by mass defederation of contaminated instances.

If you admin a small server, ensure that you have open registration turned OFF. If not, you may find yourself getting widely blocked.

I get that vetting registrations is work, but if you allow other people on your server, then this is part of what you need to do to be a good citizen.

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This entry was edited (9 months ago)

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Unknown parent

Sarah Brown

@argv minus one Their bombs are old as fuck.

And they aren’t allowed to set them off by treaty.

So they do this instead. Even if they don’t know why, it keeps the talent trained, I guess.



political rant

Thinking about UK Labour and the US Democrats, and their ideological clones across Europe.

Progressive parties seem have decided they don’t need to provide HOPE any more.

Literally the only people offering hope and the possibility for change for the better in the future are fascists.

And they’re liars, but if the only other option on the menu is “we will keep things exactly the same and stuff will slowly get worse. Fuck you, and be grey”, then I can understand the temptation to vote for ANYONE offering something different.

reshared this

in reply to Sarah Brown

political rant

It’s notable that none of the various articles on the far-right co-opting farmers seem to notice this - if the fascists are the only people offering hope to <any group>, while regular pols don’t give a toss, don’t be surprised at the outcome.

Nothing stopping Rutte or VdL saying “farmers need to be paid to apply their skills as the spearhead of better environmental management, forestry, river and flood management, etc etc ”, for example.

in reply to BashStKid

political rant

@BashStKid Exactly, but they seem to have a profound mental block about saying ANYTHING that offers ay chance of improvement in anything.

What has made them like this? They didn't used to be this way.

in reply to Sarah Brown

political rant
@Sarah Brown @BashStKid I can remember the huge sense of hope and change and relief when Blair came in in 1997. Not really anything here since.
in reply to Alexandra Lanes

political rant

@Alexandra Lanes @BashStKid They literally had "things can only get better" as their campaign song.

And now the attitude is like, "we must not make any improvements to anything ever. All the shit that the Tories did, that you're voting them out for? Not gonna change any of it. Tough titty."

in reply to Alexandra Lanes

re: political rant
@ajlanes @BashStKid Aye. I recall the scene at quarter to 10pm on 1 May 1997
My mate: I've spoilt my ballot paper. You don't actually think Tony Blair's left wing, do you?
Me: I know exactly what I've voted for. One night of excellent television. Let us now get a taxi to my flat and watch it.
in reply to Sarah Brown

political rant

it's just so *craven*

Like the facist press will savage them no matter what so fuck them and be bold and honest

Racist Uncle will vote Nazi^wReform no matter what so fuck him with a .303 and be bold and honest

And I understand that putting hard numbers on things is daft but for the love of god you can sell net zero as "yes, it's a bit up front, but you get *free* 'leccy for 6 months of the year and it fucks the Saudis and Putin with a wirebrush dipped in battery acid"



A recent interaction on the fediverse:

"This term makes no sense to me. Does anyone know the history and why it is used? Don't explain why you think it makes sense"

Me: "This is the history. Its common and established usage across many fields. Why don't you think it makes sense?"

"I mean it when I said don't explain why you think it makes sense"

So I told them that I answered their question, but had no time for miserable cunts, and blocked and eradicated all trace of them from my own server's database, because I can do that.

Fucksake though. Some of the stereotypes here are true.

Do fucking better.

in reply to Sarah Brown

The thing about the reputation that the Fediverse has for being full of "people like that" is that if you comment on it, they turn up.

Even when it's brutally obvious you're going to server block them for it. They can't seem to help themselves.

This is one of the nicest features here: with minimal effort, the tedious takes itself out.

in reply to Sarah Brown

Here's a good one:

"There are legitimate ways to conceptualise power dynamics which do not centre whatever US-specific racial category Americans have decided you belong to"

As Tom Lehrer said, they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide...

in reply to Sarah Brown

Reminds me of an old explanation of the term “trolling” as in “trolling for fish” but “trolling for newbies”.

I hope you get a bountiful catch and a full blocklist!

in reply to Sarah Brown

Great, now I'm trying to recall all the verses of the song ...
in reply to BashStKid

@BashStKid mp3s, pdfs, sheet music all here for you!

tomlehrersongs.com/poisoning-p…

Martin Vermeer FCD reshared this.

in reply to Bethan M. Jenkins

@gwenynen Not many musicians release all their copyrights into the public domain, so well done Tom!


I've defederated from most of the worst of the "Mastodon HOA", and most of what's left gives me a pleasant and constructive social media space mostly without the massive knee-jerk navel gazing.

But sometimes a bit of it breaks through and ... yeah. Let's just say that the reputation that the fediverse has amongst those who mock and caricature us isn't entirely undeserved.

Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@Uraael If I'm making main posts, I will go to the effort to add alt text. I recently did a long form blog with loads of images that didn't have it, which were all screenshots, and I don't always do it in personal or limited audience replies. Nobody gives me shit over that, possibly because of the scope of my interactions, or possibly because I've defederated from the worst offenders (especially that lot who are compiling the list of racists and trans women, but mostly trans women), or possibly because they know I'd just tell them to fuck off.
in reply to Sarah Brown

"knee-jerk navel gazing" is an excellently evocative metaphor.


Just used my full text search to search for “Bluesky” and there are lots of people having a very normal one, oh yes.


in reply to Sarah Brown

re: Discussion of attempted murder of a trans woman

@transworld

My understanding of UK prosecutions is that publicly speculating about the identity or motivation of the perpetrator can fuck up the case? It's very different law than in the US, and I'm not at all clear on it.

in reply to CharLES ☭ H

re: Discussion of attempted murder of a trans woman
@Charles "Gender Ideology" ☭ H @Transgender World I think if it's all over the press being called a transphobic attack, anything I say in a place nobody is going to read anyway isn't going to make any difference.
in reply to CharLES ☭ H

re: Discussion of attempted murder of a trans woman
@Charles "Gender Ideology" ☭ H @Transgender World In the uk a publication is in contempt of court if it creates a substantial risk that a trial will be impeded or prejudiced. I don’t think that’s the case here


Bluesky and Mastodon having a normal one, I see.

And here I am on Friendica, which already integrates both, and which has quote posting and full text search of fediverse posts, thinking that sometimes it’s good to be small.

Alaric Snell-Pym reshared this.

in reply to Sarah Brown

for every feature which would "ruin mastodon forever", there is at least one fediverse platform which already implements it (and it is typically friendica)
in reply to Sarah Brown

I've got boosts turned off, so this comment of yours is the first I've heard about any drama. Works for me.


Hey look everyone, Bluesky is a privacy shitshow!

reshared this

Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@stolas Yes. You can see who blocks anyone.


I have made myself a dirty chai latte. It’s a chai latte with a shot of espresso.

Sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does.


Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@fool Have made rooibos so far and it tastes the same. Gonna grab me some loose leaf earl grey and give it a go later today.
@fool
in reply to Sarah Brown

I love that that phrase is suddenly a meme. But also cool, finally a use for coffee equipment as a non-coffee drinker!


“We’re all trying to find the guy who did this”

torrentfreak.com/netflix-pirac…

Adrianna Pińska reshared this.



Long form - making an IoT VLAN bridge with a Raspberry Pi 4 and OpenWRT


in reply to Sarah Brown

Sometimes we forget that the IEEE defined some frame types, such as Pause, that have particularized rules regarding whether they may cross a bridge or not.
Unknown parent

Sarah Brown
@Dick Morrell I use a USB NIC on my router but figured I didn’t need the extra port for this.