russjr08
@russjr08@bitforged.space
Formerly @russjr08@outpost.zeuslink.net
- Comment on TIL blocking users on Lemmy is nothing but a placebo 3 days ago:
According to another user in here, blocking on Mastodon actually works. So seems like it is possible to do in the Fediverse.
I was not aware of this, but their implementation of how they do this does bring up the limitation I mentioned. The other user cannot see your posts only if you are on the same server:
If you and the blocked user are on the same server, the blocked user will not be able to view your posts on your profile while logged in.
I actually thought blocks were public already.
They’re not, well - the operator of your instance could go into the database and view it that way in the same way that they can see your email address. But aside from someone who has database access to your instance, blocks are not public. What is public is the list of defederated (“blocked” so to speak) instances for an entire instance (this can be viewed by going to
/instancesof any instance), which might be what you were thinking of?And personally I don’t see how it would be an issue if people that I haven’t blocked can see who I’ve blocked.
How exactly would you enforce that, though? If your blocks were public, all the person who you’ve blocked would need to do is open a private browsing window and look at your profile to see that they’ve been blocked.
If we’re looking at blocks as being a safety feature, I would think that having your blocks broadcasted to every single instance would be classified as harmful and a breach of your privacy. This is why although an instance that you register with has to have your email address that you signed up with, they don’t broadcast it to all other instances (same with the encrypted value of your password) - because otherwise it would effectively be public.
Perhaps I’ve just got the wrong stance, but considering that you can never block someone from viewing your content with an absolute guarantee (if the blocks were broadcasted, you still couldn’t prevent someone from just simply logging out, or standing up their own instance and collecting the data anyways) I would not consider that tradeoff to be worthwhile. Not that my stance has any weight since I’m not a maintainer for Lemmy (or any of the Fediverse software), but I wouldn’t be surprised if that has at least come up to those who are developing the various Fediverse software.
- Comment on TIL blocking users on Lemmy is nothing but a placebo 3 days ago:
Aside from the rest of the discussion that has already occurred here, I’m not actually sure how this would work from a technical perspective.
You and I are on two completely different instances, if I were to block you, how is your instance supposed to know this in order to stop you from reading my comment?
The only way I could see that working is if the list of users you blocked were federated too, and effectively made public (like votes currently are) - which seems counterproductive to the problem at hand.
Then what happens if you post in a community where someone you’ve blocked is a moderator? Or if you block the admin of another instance? If you can “cloak” yourself from being moderated by just blocking them, that seems like an exploit waiting to happen. As far as I’m aware, on Reddit blocking a user doesn’t hide your comments from them - but they can no longer reply to them, and I assume this is why that is the case. Unless that has very recently changed.
The biggest difference between Lemmy (and all software within the Fediverse - for example, I’m pretty sure Mastodon is this way as well), is that there is not one singular authoritative server. Actions like this need to be handled on all instances, and that’s impossible to guarantee. A bad actor running an instance could just rip out the function that handles this, and then it’s moot. I mean, they wouldn’t even need to do that - they’d have the data anyways.
You could enforce it if both users are on the same instance I suppose, but this just seems like it would only land with the blocking feature being even more inconsistent.
- Comment on Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa among artists urging British Prime Minister Starmer to rethink his AI copyright plans 1 week ago:
How is that the case? I’ve got pretty much zero experience with decompiling software, but I can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone who does say that before. I genuinely can’t imagine that it’s easier to work with say, decompiling a game to make changes to it rather than just having the source available for it.
I suppose unless the context is just regarding running software then of course it’s easier to just run a binary that’s already a binary - but then I’m not sure I see where decompiling comes into relevance.
- Comment on List of Alternatives to Adobe Programs 3 weeks ago:
I am surprised that its actually still a product they sell and seemingly update. Looking on their product page, wow it has git support - it can be yours for $22.99/month too!
(That will also require you to give your soul to them too, via a contract signed in blood)
- Comment on Microsoft CEO says up to 30% of the company's code was written by AI | TechCrunch 3 weeks ago:
No human would be stupid enough to change something’s name for zero reason.
Well, unless you’re a product manager at Google apparently… Though with them you’re lucky if its just a change of name rather than it becoming an entirely “new” thing, or just getting outright axed…
- Comment on Lemmy has the ideal number of posts for me. Just enough to have a good time but not too many that I'm scrolling forever 5 weeks ago:
And it also went open source recently too! I was happy to see that, as I know it was a blocker for a lot of people.
It’s almost crazy just how active the dev is, I feel like I’m always seeing the “Summit was updated” screen - it is very clear just how much passion the dev has for Summit and for the Fediverse.
- Comment on Online ‘Pedophile Hunters’ Are Growing More Violent — and Going Viral: With the rise of loosely moderated social media platforms, a fringe vigilante movement is experiencing a dangerous evolution. 1 month ago:
No of course not, then they’d actually face consequences for it.
(Yes, I know there are people who do this to those who aren’t rich and still face consequences but I get the feeling that’s more of “the exception rather than the rule”)
- Comment on The vast majority of "Remind Me"s notifications in Reddit will never be seen by users who set them. 1 month ago:
The last time I was on, I still saw it running (even after the API bs).
I’m willing to bet that Reddit granted them an exception because it’s a widely used utility and isn’t a client that obscures what they really want you to see (ads).
- Comment on Microsoft accidentally removed Copilot in the latest Windows 11 update. 2 months ago:
Not to my knowledge, no*. Though it’s been a while since I looked into it.
* Outside of running them inside a Windows VM on Linux, but that has its own issues. Especially if you use any of the CC apps that need GPU acceleration. It can definitely be done, but I’d argue most people are not going to want to go through the effort and rather just use Windows directly.
- Comment on Gaming chat platform Discord in early talks with banks about public listing 2 months ago:
They had another redesign this year too as well, to try to make it more “discord-y” that’s currently in beta I believe.
Though I do think they’re a little too late…
- Comment on Reddit plans to lock some content behind a paywall this year, CEO says | Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform 3 months ago:
Can confirm, I can use Boost for Reddit on my main account which is a moderator for a sub, but my second account which has no moderation abilities “breaks” the app until I switch back.
- Comment on LG monitor asking about ad tracking preferences 6 months ago:
(inb4 ethernet over HDMI: There is no implementation of the spec in the wild).
How about Thunderbolt? This looks like macOS, and while I’m not 100% sure if they utilize HDMI ports anymore, they certainly use Thunderbolt.
- Comment on The worst feeling of my life:My vacation is ending tomorrow 6 months ago:
I know the feeling, I just had a week off and returned to work on Friday a couple of days ago.
- Comment on After 11 years, Xbox One emulators are finally coming to PC - but they're not actually using emulation at all 7 months ago:
Jeez, no wonder Infinite has always had such a bad reputation then!
- Comment on After 11 years, Xbox One emulators are finally coming to PC - but they're not actually using emulation at all 7 months ago:
As far as I recall, Infinite has had online co-op, just not local/split screen co-op.
But don’t quote me on that!