Reader

On Marie Brennan's “A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir of Lady Trent”

Oftentimes there is a marked dissonance between how a book tries to sell itself and the realities of that book. I don't believe anyone in particular is to blame here; attempting to sum up a hundreds-of-pages-long novel in 2 VERY short paragraphs must be a daunting task and I do not envy those whose jobs it is to write cover blurbs, but still this fact remains. Sometimes a book is simply not what you thought it was going to be.

Such was the case for me with A Natural History of Dragons. The blurb on the back cover is ridiculously short; only 4 sentences in all (all the better to leave space for the starred reviews!), which makes it very hard to properly convey what, precisely, this book actually is. Based on the blurb and the reviews, I knew it was written in a memoir style similar to that of the Victorian Age and I gathered that the setting would be much the same (and I welcomed a chance not to read ANOTHER medieval fantasy story), but what the cover fails to mention is just how low-magic the setting actually is. It makes mention of the fact that the protagonist is a dragon naturalist, which sets certain expectations about the content of the story; one should expect a bit more of a soft sci-fi approach to the subject matter than other fantasy novels would apply as one follows Isabella, Lady Trent, on her quest to document Facts About Dragons and record them in a scientific manner. However, aside from dragons, there are no fantastical elements to the story. In many ways, this is not a fantasy novel at all, it is merely a fictional memoir from an Earth AU where dragons are real. Now, of course, there are different places and marginally different cultures from our world, but the worldbuilding is so sparse that it does almost nothing to prevent the reader from simply inserting [closest real world equivalent] into the story.

So, there wasn't much fantasy and the worldbuilding was rather lackluster. Neither of those are REALLY why I came to a book about studying dragons in the wild, I wanted to read fictionalized accounts of natural science studying dragons. The great shame is that a ridiculously small portion of the novel is actually devoted to doing natural science about dragons. There are a few chapters devoted to a small expedition into the mountains which involves killing and dissecting a dragon for study but a large part of the novel is dedicated to exploring Fantasy Victorian Times in a very unengaging way. I think the book has 3 total asides where Isabella, Lady Trent pauses everything to write a paragraph about how she feels no shame in writing about sexual topics because “it's only natural,” while also ignoring the fact that she never so much as says the word “sex” in the entire manuscript. How transgressive! Multiple times conversations are paused to apologize for “coarse language” to the lady in the company and events are put on hold to argue about whether or not it would be “proper” for a woman to go and do such-and-such.

Now, I understand the basic idea behind these interruptions about Society and a Woman's Place Therein, but the novel doesn't put in the work to make it clear that these are things being criticized. They are merely presented as The Way Things Are. Isabella, Lady Trent herself seems quite beholden to various standard Victorian hangups, going so far as to refuse to enter the sauna around local women. So it reaches a point where the reader is left to wonder whether we are meant to understand these as criticisms of Victorian social mores in the first place or whether we should simply accept them as a matter of course and not think too much about them.

The novel, as I found out near the end, is actually supposed to be a mystery story, not a fantasy story NOR a natural science field journal, but while in retrospect I can absolutely see where the seeds of the mystery were being sown, I did not, in the moment, pick up on them and say “Hm, this is an intriguing puzzle! I bet we will see it solved by the end!” Mostly I reached the end, saw the mystery solved with almost no actual legwork put in by anyone, and realized “Oh. This was a mystery story.” Not exactly the most satisfying conclusion to a 300-page mystery.

Honestly I don't have tons to say about this one. I could talk about how gross and casual the book was about colonialism, how there was a lot of casual racism and xenophobia to deal with, how frustrating it was to listen to men be very misogynistic with a woman standing in the room, but I feel like all those things get summed up when you read the phrase “Victorian Times.” Ultimately, this was a book more concerned with Victorian Times than it was with dragons.

Can't say I agree.

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Start Me Up!

It's January 2020, and in a few days Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 users. No more security fixes, no more bug fixes.

While this might be causing some anxiety to anyone still running a Windows 7 computer, here is a Good News item for you.

Microsoft is still allowing Windows 7 and 8.x users to upgrade their systems (which must be activated) for FREE to a Windows 10 of the same family or variant.

Someone running Windows 7 Home, Home Premium or Ultimate can go thru the process (it's simple and worked well in my personal experience), and have a legal and Activated Windows 10 Home digital license at the end.

If you start with a Windows 7 or 8.x Professional, you will end up with Windows 10 Professional, again fully licensed and activated. No gimmicks!

I was really surprised when RYen, a friend at Hackers.Town mentioned this when he saw my earlier Blog post about how to get OEM Windows 10 Pro license keys cheaply. I followed a link he provided, and read the article.

---

Why is Microsoft still doing this ?

A good quote from the article clarifies:

The answer to that first question is easy. Remember, Microsoft's Windows business is predicated on its partnership with PC makers, who pay a license fee for every copy of Windows they install on a new PC. Those OEMs are none too happy about the idea of extending the life of an older PC; they would much rather have you buy a brand new PC instead.

So, to mollify its OEM partners, Microsoft put a time limit on the free upgrade offer, and they simply don't speak of it now. The Windows marketing team continues to promote new models of Windows PCs, and the enterprise sales staff continues to sell volume licenses of Windows 10 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Nobody talks about upgrades.

Frankly, at this point the only people who are still interested in a free upgrade are enthusiasts, home users, and very small businesses running hardware that's at least four years old.

Makes complete sense, and thank you Ed Bott, from ZDNet!

---

What are the Requirements ?

Microsoft allowed this kind of free upgrade, officially, until July, 2016, and closed the door at that time. To qualify for this undisclosed offer (again, tested successfully with 2 systems, worked in both Win 7 and 8.1), to qualify you need to have a fully activated operating system installed.

• It will be upgraded within the same family (Home versions, or Pro versions).
• You need to use the same type of release; 32 bit installs only upgrade to 32 bit Windows 10 versions.
• Memory requirements, a 2 GB system would work better with a 32 bit version install, imo, as the 64 bit ones require more RAM for the system itself.

---

Upgrade options ?

The upgrade installation is very easy for any average user – you just need to download a small program from Microsoft, which will check your system for compatibility. Download the install program from this page.

The page has some explanations and tips, you can read those — or simply get the install tool directly from Microsoft Servers.

• The upgrade program will list any incompatible software found, and offer to uninstall it for you.
• This again without any user intervention besides accepting the offer to remove the program.

Once those preliminary checks are made, he upgrade program will ask you how you want to handle existing files and applications :

• Keep all user data only. No apps will be migrated to the new install.
• Keep all user data and apps – the easiest to keep everything as is and accessible.

---

Create Install Media or Not ?

On the next stage, you have two options about how the installation will proceed.

• download and install in this system only. No extra media is needed (USB stick, external drive, etc).
• Download the operating system package, and save it or prepare installation media (USB stick, DVD R disc, etc).

If you only have one system in the house (or office) that needs the upgrade, the simple choice is to let the installer handle it, and simply install and clean up afterwards.

If you need to upgrade more than one system, accept the option and the installer will download and later help you prepare a bootable USB drive, which can be used multiple times. Or burn the same to a DVD R disc, you will need a blank 8 GB disc.

---

Running the install ?

Very simply, you started it with the upgrade tool from within your working Windows 7 (or 8.x) system; make the choices, as described above. And relax and do something else while it goes to work

The installer will request and download the correct version from the Microsoft servers; this will be a large download, about 5 GB. (have more systems to upgrade? Save this and prepare the Boot media as offered in the installer, and reuse this. Saves another large download).

Once the download is completed, the Setup will start, and proceed to install, migrating your apps if you chose so, saving your files intact.

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What to expect ?

Although it can take some time, the process is painless and no user intervention is needed. So I would recommend this to anyone who still runs a Windows 7 or 8.x system, as long as you have at least the 2 GB minimum system RAM as required.

I have personally followed this procedure and done two complete upgrades – both without any difficulties.

• A Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bits laptop, now running Windows 10 Home 64 bits.
• A Windows 8.1 Pro 32 bits desktop, now upgraded to Windows 10 Pro, 32 bits.

Good luck and enjoy you freely upgraded and more modern O.S. Happy New Year!

---

Thank you for reading this, please feel free to comment about this post, your input is important. This page created entirely in MarkDown language.

R.G. @design_RG@Qoto.org

Endlich mal bei der RTF in Weinstadt Ende September noch mal länger aufs Rad und den Herbst begrüßen. Nach meinen vielen Radtouren im Urlaub hatte ich noch eine Veranstaltung auf dem Zettel. Die RTF in Weinstadt. Mit der S-Bahn gut zu erreichen, wollte ich dort eigentlich schon seit 2017 mal hin. Nur dauernd kam was dazwischen. Mein Plan: Mal die große Runde. 180 km auf Asphalt mit allerdings 2700 Höhenmetern erschien mir realistisch. Die erste Challenge scheiterte aber schon daheim. Früh aufstehen. 5 Uhr raus. 6 Uhr Abfahrt. 7 Uhr los radeln. Der Wecker klingelte und ich entschied das ganze um eine Stunde zu verschieben. Am Ende war ich dann um 9 am Startpunkt.

Auf dem Weg zum Start traf ich schon einige Radler und war erstaunt dass niemand so ganz genau wusste wie es dorthin geht. Ich hatte auch die Route Bahnhof-Startpunkt zusammen geklickt um nicht lang suchen zu müssen. Am Start waren noch ca. 15 Fahrer. Zettel ausfüllen und zur Anmeldung. Welche Tour? Tour A! Der Kommentar des freundlichen Herren an der Anmeldung war nur

“Den Mutigen gehört die Welt”.

War das ein Wink mit dem Zaunpfahl an meine grenzenlose Selbstüberschätzung oder könnte es das Motto des Tages werden? Ich wollte keine Zeit werlieren denn ich hatte ja große Pläne. Neben all den Rennrädern wirkte mein Breitreifenrennrad wie ein Traktor. Ich hatte fast als einziger auch noch Oberrohrtasche, Foodpouch und Fronttasche drangebaut und meinen Kram verstaut. Zunächst ging es auf die Landstraße weiter aus Beutelsbach raus. Ein paar andere Fahrer zogen vor mir weg. Hinter mir waren noch ein paar wenige. Am ersten längeren Anstieg traf ich auf weitere Teilnehmer. Ich überholte einige und fragte mich ob ich irgendwas falsch machte. Aber ich fuhr und fühlte mich gut. Das Rad war leicht. Ganz im Gegenteil zu den letzten Touren und deshalb lief es wohl auch so gut. Wir Nachzügler blieben alle relativ dicht zusammen. Immer wieder traf ich andere Fahrer die mich dann doch schnell wieder abhängten. Der Rollwiderstand.

Nach 40km die erste Kontrolle und Verpflegungstation. Die kam sehr gelegen. Hier waren jetzt richtig viele Radler*innen. Auch viele jüngere und natürlich die alten Veteranen die die RTF Geschichten auspackten. Das Los der Nachzügler: So langsam wurde das Essen knapp. Ich ergatterte eines der letzten Butterbrote. Zur nächsten Runde gab es dann nur noch Brot. Tee war auch aus. Ich probierte die beworbene Gemüsebrühe. Die Cliffbar aus der Tasche ersetzte das fehlende Butterbrot. Die Bikepackingerfahrung machte sich bezahlt. Ich hatte genug zu essen dabei um noch mehr Butterbrotengpässe zu überstehen. Hier war auch ein Karte der Route mit der Anweisung dass man die A-Schleife nur bis 11:30 ab der nächsten Kontrolle starten könnte. Hier änderte sich der Plan weil schon kurz vor halb war. Jetzt also Tour B.

Einige Ortsnamen kannte ich. Dort gewesen war ich aber noch nie. Es ging über ruhige Straßen und durch kleine Orte. Mich überholte ein langer Zug einer sehr schnellen Truppe und ganz hinten ein vielleicht 12-13 jähriger Junge der super bei den Großen dran hing. Nicht mein Tempo. Der Asphalt verhalf mir zwar zu einem schnelleren Schnitt als auf Waldwegen aber mit einer Gruppe mithalten war undenkbar. Es galten immer noch etwas mehr als 100km abzuarbeiten. Die Waldwege. Öfters mal bogen sie von der doch schönen Straße ab und ich dachte oft daran mal rechts abzubiegen und die ersten Meter zu genießen wenn die Reifen auf dem Kies greifen und man merkt wo das Rad eigentlich zuhause ist. Aber heute war Asphalt angesagt. Und ganz fern der Natur war ich ja auch nicht.

Die nächste Kontrolle kam schon 20km später in Altdorf. Es war etwas weniger los und es gab noch mehr zu essen. Die Pause wurde länger. Das Wurstbrot war so lecker, es gab sogar Kaffee und es war mehr miteinander mit den anderen Radlern und Helfern. Mit Vitamin B oder was auch immer konnte man hier sogar ein Bier abstauben. Viele kannten sich und erzählten von anderen Fahrten. Nach dem zweiten Kaffee konnte ich mich dann doch losreißen.

Weiter ging es Richtung Norden. Es wurde ländlicher. Man tauchte auch etwas mehr in Wälder ein, blieb aber auf Asphalt. Bis auf einer Abfahrt die Straße plötzlich zu einer feinen Schotterpiste wurde. Endlich ein bisschen Gravel! Am Straßenrand stand ein anderer Radler und fragte sich ob er noch richtig sei. Laut meinem Navi war alles gut. Wir fuhren gemeinsam weiter und die nächste Abfahrt kam inklusive wieder dem feine Kies. Nichts für die schmalen Reifen meines Mitfahrers. Ich kam durch den leichten Schotter auch etwas ins schwimmen. Die zwei Kies-Sektionen waren im Ziel dann das große Thema. Es stellte sich heraus dass die Stadt spontan mit den Straßenarbeiten angefangen hatte. Wir fuhren gemeinsam weiter. Auf den Asphalt Stücken war der Rennradler weit vorne. Wie verabredeten uns für den nächsten Anstieg. Irgendwann war er dann weg.

Letzte Kontrolle in Miedelbach. Mit mir waren noch ungefähr 5-6 Leute unterwegs. Ein paar traf ich dort. An der Kontrolle war das Essen ausgegangen. die Helfer hatten aber noch schnell Nachschub besorgt. Somit wurden wir Nachzügler trotzdem gut umsorgt. Mit mir war auch ein Päarchen da mit zwei schönen Bianchirädern in der klassischen Farbe. Was das Gesprächsthema war. Mein Rad sorgte nicht so für Gesprächsstoff. Ich wurde nur gefragt ob das mein Pendlerrad ist. Ansonsten wurden Rennradgeschichten ausgetauscht. Und die Orga gelobt. Bei anderen Verantaltungen sieht es wohl ganz anders aus.

Der Rest der Route verlief viel üner Radwege fernab der Straße. Es ging runter ins Remstal und ich wollte doch bis 17:00 ankommen. Die Ebene nutzte ich um ein bisschen Gas zu geben. Aber auf der anderen Seite ging es schon wieder hoch. Mit meinem Plan wurde es nichts. Als ich nach dem letzten Anstieg wieder in Beutelsbach war tröpfelte es zum ersten Mal an diesem sonst so wunderbaren Rad-Sonntag.

Angekommen am Ziel wurde schon fast abgebaut. Viele waren nicht mehr da. Ein Fahrer die ich an den Kontrollen gesehen hatten. Ich gehörte leider zu keiner Gruppe. Ich war ja auch alleine gestartet. Ich holte mir den letzten Stempel und durfte mir noch ein Fläschchen Wein aussuchen. Etwas Essen und ein Bier sollte es trotzdem sein. Es hatte sich wohl rumgesprochen dass die Nachzügler nicht mehr so viel zu essen bekommen hatten und so bekam ich Bier und einen großen Teller Nudeln geschenkt.

“Damals beim Arlberggiro gabs nix. Das geht ja nicht!”

Diese Geschichte hörte ich an dem Tag häufiger.

An dem letzten Tisch, an dem ich saß gesellten sich noch 2 Fahrer und einige Leute aus dem Verein dazu und es wurde doch noch ein nette Runde. Großes Thema: Die Schotterabschnitte.

Alles in allem war es ein schöner Sonntag auf dem Rad. Ich kam an Ecken an denen ich noch nie war. Teil eines Events zu sein ist was schönes. Man trifft doch immer mal wieder Leute und hat was verbindendes. Für einen überschaubaren Betrag wird man ausreichend verpflegt und kann unter den Voraussetzungen vielleicht auch mal ein paar Kilometer mehr fahren. Meine größte Herausforderung bleibt wohl das früh loskommen. Ich würde auch nicht von meinen Bikepacking-Erfahrungen absehen und sowohl die Route als auch ein bisschen Snacks einpacken. Das hält die gute Laune hoch und man hat keinen Stress wenn man sich mal verfährt.

Bilanz

• 134 km
• 1933 hm

Edit: Vom RTC Stuttgart waren auch ein paar Radler:innen dabei und haben einen kleinen Artikel geschrieben.

---

#fahrrad #rtf #langstrecke

Dieser Blogeintrag bezieht sich auf eine aktuelle Veröffentlichung des #KölnerWochenspiegel, die man unter dem Kurz-Link http://gleft.de/3rg auf der Webseite des Anzeigenblatt aufrufen kann. Aus dem eigentlichen Bericht möchte ich drei Punkte aufgreifen.

• “Tatsächlich konnte die Obdachlosigkeit laut Medienberichten in Finnland reduziert werden. Diese Tendenz basiert auf dem sogenannten “Housing-First-Programm””

#HousingFirst? Dazu kann man sich entweder unter https://frama.link/housingfirst-doku eine Dokumentation des Senders ARTE anschauen oder, wer es kurz und knackig mag, einen Kurz-Clip der #YsäätiöFoundation unter https://frama.link/housingfirst. Bei dem Kurz-Clip sind die Untertitel in Englisch, Original in Suomi.

• “verweist Karl-Heinz Iffland vom #KALZ” (Anmerkung: #KölnerArbeitslosenzentrum) “auf mehr als 6.000 betroffene Kölner”

Diese Aussage ist zunächst, wegen dem “mehr als”, sachlich richtig. Denn schlussendlich weiß niemand genau wie viele obdach- UND wohnungslose Menschen es in Köln gibt. #Obdachlosigkeit wird in Deutschland statistisch nicht erfasst. Weder vom Bund, noch von den Ländern, noch von den Gemeinden und Städten. In #NRW zumindest wird zwar #Wohnungslosigkeit erfasst, jedoch arbeitet hier die Verwaltung der Stadt Köln mit Zahlen die nicht korrekt sind. Weil diese nicht alle Menschen berücksichtigen die an einem Stichtag ordnungsbehördlich durch die Stadt Köln untergebracht sind.

• “Die Politik muss hier schnell ein Konzept entwickeln.”

Hier zunächst die Anmerkung dass man in #Köln entgegen der Auffassung der Verwaltung der Stadt oder mancher Freier (Kirchlicher) Träger in keiner Weise “gut aufgestellt” ist. Die Schlüsselfrage die zu klären ist? Wie will man Menschen, die zur Zeit ohne eigenen Wohnraum sind, unterbringen bis mehr bezahlbarer Wohnraum geschaffen wurde und bezugsfertig ist? Die Antwort muss lauten, #menschenwürdig, und zwar so, dass Betroffene #selbstbestimmt leben und #frei entscheiden können.

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And today we start the day with a To Do clean-up; pending things that need action. Including a recent discovery I made, surprising to me, that my home and primary instance in the Mastodon network was not visible, searchable and in fact, fully Blocked at another place.

Being active and curious, I do have accounts in maybe 10 instances or so, used in varying degrees, some frequently visited, others less so.

Very recently I made a blog post with discussions on why choosing an instance is important, what factors to consider when doing so, and a partial list with descriptions and details of some of the ones I enjoy.

That post is located here.

After creating a new blog post, I prepare a release text for announcing it in the Fediverse. About 500 characters, it also includes a good image and is posted at Qoto.org, my primary account (and the one which signs off all posts here).

Once this is ready, the text and image are posted at Qoto, and I do visit some of my other accounts, search for that Status URL, and proceed to Boost it for reaching more people if possible.

While doing this, I visited one, Mastodon.Technology, where I could not find the status on that normal search. Odd. What is going on?

A search for my user profile at Qoto did not bring ANY results either. It dawned on me that something was amiss...

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WTF ? Blocked possibly ?

Yes, that was the first thing that crossed my mind. M.T has some clear rules at their front door, the famous About-More pages. I looked there, and found a link to a Git instance, with a list.

And. We are on it. Last on the list, suggesting possibly a recent addition to his Disgraceful People List. (some are ghastly places, I would agree)

---

Why ?

Good question. I couldn't see why. Ash has provided some info :

Blocked Instances :

“Here are the instances that m.t has blocked. This list is not meant to be authoritative for other administrators. We reserve the right to silence or suspend any instance for any reason. If you are an administrator of an instance on this list, feel that you shouldn't be blocked, and have checked our Code of Conduct, you can contact Ash Furrow through email to discuss getting unblocked.”

Aha.

This happened a few days ago. What then?

---

How to Proceed :

Since it was now clear that an Instance Ban was in place, the next step was communicating with our Admin. We discussed it, and I offered to try and deal with Mr. Furrow and request a review of their decision. Dr. Freeman, our admin and domain owner, agreed, and I went about preparing a case.

• First step, read his provided link to Code of Conduct (the About-More page).
• Upon reading it, find what we could have done to be black listed.

And it seems it's the final paragraphs, shown in this snapshot.

So, Guilty by Association, I gather? Ah, yes, to protect the Free Speech of some users, I see.

Had this in my notes and on a admin Forum thread, and now took time and wrote a full, formal letter to Mr. Furrow.

Which, being a writer and a budding citizen journalist, I chose to publish here, in full as well. Text of letter follows, it is only being altered here for formatting enhancements that MarkDown and Write Freely provide.

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Full Letter Text :

January 6, 2020.

To : Ash Furrow, administrator, Mastodon.Technology via email – ash@ashfurrow.com

From : RG, staff member, Moderator at Qoto.org domain

CC : @freemo@qoto.org, Admin, Qoto.org

Re : Blocked status of Qoto.org on your instance, Mastodon.technology.

Dear Mr. Furrow,

I am a member of Qoto.org, where I am part of the domain Staff, and moderator at both the Mastodon instance and our Discourse Forums. Being an active user and a curious human being, I do have accounts in various other instances, including yours, where my handle is @rgx.

Thank you for hosting that service, it seems a nice and active community, and themed on Technology which is one of my personal interests. Being so busy with my Qoto participation, user support, starting to write my own personal Blog, I haven't had the opportunity of participating as much at M.T.

Was however surprised to discover I could not find one of my own Blog announcement posts, from the search function at M.T, where I intended to Boost it for wider audience viewing possibilities.

The Search turned out Blank, no results. A search for my own account at Qoto, @design_RG@qoto.org, also turned out blank.

My hunch that this was possibly due to an Instance Block was confirmed by viewing your Blocked instances list .

Honestly, I was appalled. I feel that we are doing a good job and providing valuable services, an active community and an instance theme that is unique, as far as I know.

As mentioned in the page above :

“If you are an administrator of an instance on this list, feel that you shouldn't be blocked, and have checked our Code of Conduct, you can contact Ash Furrow through email to discuss getting unblocked.”

I did read the referenced page for CofC, and discussed my findings in our Admin forum at Qoto with Dr. Jeff Freeman, our domain owner and Admin. Mr. Freeman agreed to my proposal of contacting you via email to discuss this, and any remediation possibilities.

From reading your CofC, and considering that we are an instance and community in good standing, preeminently listed at the head of Suggested Instances at JoinMastodon.org , I am contacting you to request your consideration of a lift on this instance ban.

I imagine your reason for such is :

“To protect the free speech of users belonging to marginalized groups, mastodon.technology does not federate with overtly fascist instances. Additionally, we will refuse to federate with instances that themselves choose to federate with fascist instances.”

Is that correct? I can't think of any other possible reason.

I would like to add that I personally dislike some of the communities which are part of the Fediverse; and exercise my user rights on blocking Gab and their peripheral instances in my own personal account. I also intend on writing, shortly, a new blog post documenting all kinds of Filtering and Content blocking that users can utilize to their own satisfaction and better enjoyment of their Fedi accounts.

But as an active user and content provider at Qoto, which is also the channel for my personal blog writing announcements, I am dismayed by our instance being blocked by M.T., specially considering it's a large community and themed in Tech, one of my main personal interests.

On behalf of myself and many other Qoto users, who daily provide good content and valuable interactions with many other instances, I am hereby, with authorization from Dr. Freeman, requesting that you please consider lifting your instance blocking of Qoto.org.

I am also happy to discuss this matter and accept any comments and suggestions on this matter, on behalf of Qoto administration staff and our user community.

I can be reached via this email, which is my Fedi accounts mainline, or via DM to my @design_RG@qoto.org account. In your own instance, my account is @rgx@mastodon.technology .

Thank you for your time, attention and considering this request.

Sincerely,

RG, for the Qoto.org administration team.

cc: QOTO@syncleus.com

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Final Thoughts :

I have sent this letter, the Image at the head of today's blog is a snapshot of my email client just after sending it. Will be waiting for a response, which I hope Mr. Furrow will provide to a courteous and carefully written inquiry.

Thank you, Mr Furrow. I will update this with any news as it develops.

---

Thank you for reading this, please feel free to comment about this post, your input is important. This page created entirely in MarkDown language.

R.G. @design_RG@Qoto.org

Casual Conversation, Interesting Tips.

Once again I had an enjoyable conversation, earlier today. From my laptop, logged into my Qoto acount via Web client, I also browsed Mastodon.social via Pinafore, and we started a chat.

Achso was there(@achso@mastodon.social), and we kind of continued a conversation from a day or two before. I enjoyed it, said a lot, and thought it would make for a nice blog post.

The full thread is online, and can be seen here. I was posting via Pinafore, and limited to 500 characters, unfortunately – which led to some choppy posts (instance there limited to 500 chars max).

We really should petition Eugen R. @gargron@mastodon.social and beg for a larger limit for the MaximumTootSize variable. Currently, it's 500 characters, larger in some instances that customized their own limits.

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Conversation Follows.

( Achso's Toots are shown in quoted form, mine are in plain text form. )

@achso : Otherwise this will stay a niche thing. And it deserves better than that. I think it is sad that many of my old contacts from abroad – US and other places – refuse to leave their old biotope.

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Some people will come and see what is going on here if it keeps growing and getting media reports.

I only joined here in November — close to 2 months now, but in that short time I went from total newbie to having 3,400 posts or so, Staff position at my main instance, and being part of maybe 10 instances of Mastodon alone.

Plus the wonderful integrated services – love Write.freely!

Insta, I stayed away, always. Dumb people, hashtag binging, bothers me, they are clueless.

---

Curiously — I found my curiosity and interest in this Fediverse due to a BBC News report about the Indian Diaspora, from TW to mastodon instances.

Saw it on my rarely visited TW timeline, read the article. Uhm, what is mastodon?

LOL, the rest is #history.... :-P

Having lots of fun, it's keeping me happy and busy thru Winter, depressive in general in our Northern latitudes.

---

This very article :

@achso : Twitter classified the famous Landmesser-photo as “hateful imagery”? Wow... I think there is no lack of antifascist people on Twitter now, but many of them act like – cough... – fascists. Intolerant, stubborn, uptight... Anyway, Mastodon is different, which is good. ;)

Yes, I like it here, it's very refreshing!

With politics and all, but like on Fidonet, we can make waves, run our own things, and have a voice.

On the algorithm driven major soc media sites, not a chance, they silence you simply by not showing your content.

Hey, if you even want to try a smaller instance, come and visit Qoto.org, it's a nice place, if I may say so.

---

But does Choosing an Instance Matter ?

@achso: Is it really important which instance some is on? Isn't it the core of the fediverse that it does not? Just asking...

I think that is an excellent question! And I am part of various ones, although lift the flag and sign my blog with my main one.

How does it differ, being in one or another?

• a very small instance will likely have a very quiet local Feed. This is sad, as the Local feed is where I find most social interaction happens; camaraderie, we see each other, all posts. And sometimes we provide support just to encourage a friend to keep going.

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• at the opposite end, a very large instance will have an extremely busy Local feed; no lack of things to look at, but like Twitter, many will fly by without any reaction, as people don't have the time to relate, read, respond before another barrage of posts land.

I visit and post somethings here in ms.soc, it's the Flagship and sometimes good for exposure. But it wouldn't work for me as a home. I find the Local feed overwhelming indeed.

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• So size is important. Theme also – there are generalist instances, and posts from all kinds; might be good to discover new things, interesting. Less good for more focused posts or interests, which sometimes a more focused instance can better take care of.

• Language, one's native one is ideal, even if we do fluent English, thankfully, bridging the divide; I still love to write and converse in other languages.

• Culture : like travel, seeing the instances in other countries, is fun.

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I love this discussion and will likely collate all of my posts above and build an article for a blog post on it. I have been enjoying doing that.

Wanted to ask you, remember our chat from yesterday, regarding Fidonet, Front Door? wanted to request if you allow me to quote you on a possible article for the blog?

If you prefer not to, I understand, but I am a learning journalist and respect my sources. Thank you for the nice conversations!

@achso: Sure, no problem.Nothing wrong with a little bit of sentimentality. :)

BTW: As a journalist (desk editor, reporter) for more than 30 years I have to help my young fellow colleagues, no? ;)

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Thanks, Achso!

This was a fun conversation, and helped me organize thoughts on why visiting, getting to know different instances is fun and important.

I enjoy traveling and choosing small cafés or restaurants in the streets of towns and cities abroad. Our mastodon instances are very much like Cafés, and the quality varies, the customer base is a big part of how nice they are, how active specially. Management can also make or break a community.

I am grateful to the administrators and staff team of the various instances which I belong to; with all of them I have learned, observed and thought about different ways things can be done. Fun. Thank you, friends. ;–)

Below I will outline a little about these instances I frequent. No specific recommendations, just notes, maybe help you know what's available and how they can vary?

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Some instances I frequent :

In no particular order, just writing from the top of my head in my text editor...

• Qoto.org – listed in my blog signature, Qoto is my primary instance; one where I spend most of my time, have made many posts and enjoy socializing with local friends which follow my work closely. I have volunteered and been elected as a Moderator there recently.

Instance Theme : STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are the theme here. Not strictly enforced in everyday posting, which can be relaxed (I do contribute a lot of Cat pictures!).

Users number : just over 6,500 now with a recent influx of Spanish Twitter migration. Registrations : open.

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• Todon.nl – A Leftwing instance, Todon has some nice people I had met over the Feeds and enjoyed conversations with. I am also aligned with the local political lean, so it's one of my favourites. Well connected, posts distribute quickly.

Instance Theme : there's a number of activists, and users who enjoy the place, where they won't meet any vociferous politically opposing people.

Users number : just over 5,300. Registrations : are via an application, explain how your personal views align with Todon's. [temporarily Closed atm]

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• Hackers.town – a community of people interested in computing, network and systems administration, security, privacy, and related topics. An interesting place for people interested in learning about those topics, which is my case, because it has experienced users in these various fields.

Instance Theme ; Technology, Computing, Security, CyberPunk.

Users number : about 200, although their total post count is astronomical. Registrations : are controlled, as the front door says “Speak friend and enter.”

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• Toot.Cafe – This is an instance frequented by programmers, web designers, etc, and administered by Nolan, the author of the brilliant Pinafore mastodon client. For many knowledgeable users, Pinafore is tops, for it's speed, streamlining and support of multiple instances – and ease of switching between them. See more information at the project's home. Not a general instance, but I enjoy visiting and chatting with Nolan when I have a suggestion for Pinafore.

Instance Theme : Web design, Mastodon, programming, UI design, Clients for Mastodon network. Users number : 2,772 Registrations : Open, via Request an Invite link at front door.

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• Nerdculture.de – This small instance is run by Ingo J., a veteran systems administrator, fellow FidoNet user and operator and host also of the Friendica node I frequent. Ingo's own description :

“All friendly creatures are welcome. Be excellent to each other, live humanism, no nazis, no hate speech. Not only for nerds, but the domain is somewhat cool. ;) No bots in general! (only with prior permission)”.

E.U. based, so European Privacy and other laws apply – an advantage for me, in any network services choice if available.

Instance Theme : A General instance, based in Germany. Posts in English and German.

Users number : 365 Registrations : Open

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• Mastodon.social – The Mothership, this instance is home to Eugene R., who is the lead developer of the Mastodon project.

For many new users, it's the only instance they know of, so it has a large influx of new people and the largest number of users in Fediverse (not counting the Gab instance and peripheral systems, as they are not widely accepted by a lot of other fediverse instances).

A very, very busy local timeline, if you get bored of waiting for some new post at any smaller instances. A good place to see what a very large Mastodon instance would feel like (and to know what kids of hardware it takes for such high numbers of users). Also a good place to boost posts from, if you want some extra spreading for a new thread.

Instance Theme : a General instance, no specific theme.

Users number : 455,000 as I write. Registrations : open.

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• Mastodon.technology – A fairly large instance, with a Tech theme and actively moderated. The administrator has clearly stated rules and isolates his instance from many others.

Some of the excluded instances (as listed in his git page here) are black balled simply for federating with other instances that Ash Furrow, the local admin, does not want connections with. Sadly this blocks a lot of info from other, more open minded instances (and I mean the ones that are not fascist dominated, but get tarred here in his extensive blocked list).

Instance Theme : Tecnnology. But selectively disconnected, see note above.

Users number : 19,500 Registrations : Open, fill in form (“Why do you want to Join us?”) to request an invite.

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Mastodon Instances in the World :

Bonus, if you read this far in the page, lol... A nice world Map showing the local concentration of Instances. Click on Image for Large Version. Map of Mastodon instances from Mastodon Network Monitoring Project, August 17, 2017.

From an interesting article At Medium.com.

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Thank you for reading this, please feel free to comment about this post, your input is important. This page created entirely in MarkDown language.

R.G. @design_RG@Qoto.org

This is an edited version of the transcript for Counter Points Media's video 'The Cost Of Cancel Culture' The information might be old or outdated, and the author might not hold the same opinion today.

The Cost Of Cancel Culture (on BitChute)

The Cost Of Cancel Culture (on YouTube)

Before we begin, this message is necessary for context.

Under no circumstance should anyone ever harass anyone for their opinion or use of free speech.

Additionally, under no circumstance should anyone, even a black person, use the n word.

I am using the names of the persons involved, since by now this information is already public and viral.

Please do not harass them in any way.

A case has been made by some that this is harassment, or doxxing, and legal charges could be in order. I will leave a link below so that you can explore the information regarding this if your wish.

If any of the persons involved in this video would like to contact me for any reason, please message me.

My Twitter handle is @thecaseyrollins, and on both Qoto and mstdn.social my handle is @realcaseyrollins.

2020 is finally upon us, and while many are excited to enter the new year, for two young teenagers, the new decade couldn’t have started on a worse note.

The controversy began two days before the dawn of 2020, when Bailee Beckett and her friend Bethany Bonar were hanging out. Bailee is white, and Bethany is black. The issues began when Bailee posted a selfie with Bethany, saying she was her white friend, and stating that she doesn’t hang out with n words. When another user, who previously went by the name Oli but now goes by Iris Hera on Twitter, recorded a direct Snapchat message created by the both of them, clarifying that Bethany had given her permission to use the n word, and explaining why, in her eyes, it was fine to use.

While the case can certainly be made that no one should be using the n word, and while it has a massive, looming history of being used to oppress African Americans, and not all black people are comfortable with white people using the n word, Bethany’s main point is right. Bethany is fine with the message in the video, and the message was shared in a private context.

However, this was not enough for Iris Hera, who took it upon herself to post their entire exchange publically on Twitter, exposing their names to her followers, leading many to slander them and call for major companies to never hire them, and for colleges to not accept them.

Bailee responded with two videos, asking Oli to take the posts down, claiming that this could ruin her life, and accusing her of harassment.

Bailee went on to reveal that her mother also wanted Oli to delete the videos.

The exchange prompted a flurry of responses, such as condemning Bethany for being an oreo, or condemning Bailee of being racist.

This, of course, is unfortunately a sign of the next generation. Raised up with figures such as Kolin Kaepernick, Jussie Smollett, and LeBron James as role models, it should be no surprise that Oli decided to immediately post the info online, is gloating over her newfound clout, and is considering making a merch line with her girlfriend. The term “social justice warrior” might be overused, but the fact is that SJWs are some of the most highly praised personalities in modern pop culture. Marry this with Cancel Culture, and the Tik Tok Generation has become a ticking time bomb, rife with infighting and just waiting for something to spark an explosion. Many in politics today are warning that there’s impending civil war. In reality, it might be necessary to merely wait for the 15 year olds to become adults.

While calling out actual racism is a noble thing to do, to point out a single mistake made early in someone’s life as something that should end any hope of them being successful, especially for a one-time use of a bad word, is anything but, and the support Oli has received is troubling.

Humans were created as flawed creatures. To demand that they be perfect and never make a mistake is certainly unreasonable. What is reasonable is to allow teens to grow up and learn from their own mistakes how to operate in the real world. After all, all of us are mere works in progress.

Written by Casey Rollins.

@realcaseyrollins@qoto.org

@realcaseyrollins@mstdn.social

@thecaseyrollins on Twitter