Mostafa Hussein Omar @moftasa@mastodon.online

The intent of the GDPR was to improve people's privacy online but the effect of it was every website now just has an annoying pop-up asking you to accept all cookies, and you have to click manage my cookies and uncheck everything and then click ok, and you have to do this every time because websites for some reason refuse to remember your preferences

This barbaric behaviour by Russian forces is… oh, wait, no, it’s just Israeli police. Oops, my bad! Nothing to see here…

https://nitter.net/khadljasays/status/1525068306251644930

#israel #palestine #barbarism

This is one of the most spectacular sunsets I ever saw while working at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile.

The Atacama Desert is extremely dry, but clouds do show up sometimes. That day there were several dark clouds releasing very light rain that vaporised before reaching the ground. These wispy veils (called "virga") were lit by the golden sunset light, creating a lovely contrast with the blue sky above.

#astronomy #astrophotography

Hi cycling people :) I installed and maintain a free bicycle repair station on a cycle lane near were we live (rural Denmark).

Am always interested in what cycling service infrastructure is available elsewhere, so if you have something: share it here! :-)

#bicycle #cycling @mastobikes

“Algospeak” is a new English dialect that emerged from the desperate attempts of social media users to “please the algorithm”: that is, to avoid words and phrases that cause social media platforms’ algorithms to suppress or block their communication.

#Algospeak is practiced by all types of social media users, from individuals addressing their friends to science communicators and activists hoping to reach a broader public. But the most ardent practitioners of algospeak are social media creators, who rely—directly or indirectly—on social media to earn a living.

the article ⬆️ posted by @pluralistic also links to this explainer: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/04/08/algospeak-tiktok-le-dollar-bean/

صح قهوتكم و صح عيدكم
و الله يطلق سراح كل مظلوم و يضرب على يد كل ظالم.

2 years ago, we observed Grindr sharing exact location data with 8 data brokers in the 'advertising' space, including MoPub, back then owned by Twitter.

Now the WSJ found that this data has actually been available for sale, via MoPub, since at least 2017:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/grindr-user-data-has-been-for-sale-for-years-11651492800

Mastodon's monthly active user numbers have risen by 84,579 since the Twitter buyout story broke on Monday (and I do mean across the Mastodon network, not this server)

Another tip: Every Mastodon account has RSS built in. Just add .rss to the end of the URL for your account, e.g. merveilles.town/@lrhodes.rss

That lets people follow your public posts from an RSS reader, but it's also useful if you wanted to use IFTTT to crosspost your public posts to another platform.

If you're coming from Twitter, you might not recognize the "post privacy" option.

Basically, each post you send on Mastodon can have 1 of 4 privacy settings: Public, Unlisted, Followers-only, or Direct.

Basically, Public goes far and wide, Followers-only is nice for more personal stuff (and can't be boosted -- retweeted), and Direct means it's like a Direct Message to any and all users you mention (tag) in your post.