Today we're sharing the first in a series of three posts from our leadership team, starting with @mellifluousbox discussing our mission, and priorities for 2026.
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
what do you think about my post above asking for a credit card?
it achieves the same effect, and no one is getting a credit card without id. no server is getting your id and the security hassle with that, and you're not revealing your id anymore than it already has been
the big benefit: with your cc already attached to your profile, donating to your server becomes a breeze. and more people should be doing that
@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Some do not have or want credit cards and will simply use other servers.
There is no way any regime can shut down access to every non-agr verification compliant server. Limits on federation woulf just split the fediverse into two networks which would inevitanly be bridged back together.
FL cannot even stop Pornhub: they just block conmections from FL IP addresses and gladly take Tor and VPN traffic
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@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic The PR only adds an option to ask age, not to use a 3ed party AI verificstion "service" or read an ID. By itsrlf that's a nothingburger but I would still turn it off legal or otherwise on any server I ran.
Note that birthdays are dangerous in the hands of an atacker, so never enter your real one for any account anywhere. Let the account go if challenged
@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
i yearly enjoy the services that sometimes say happy birthday to me...
on the fake birthday i've been entering since forever
π€
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@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
No, I would attack the government and steer people to servers out of their reach. An admin hassled one too many times by cops might even need to move their own account to one if the cops go after their hosting
@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
again that's all fine and good
but if you're asking a server to shut down with thousands of accounts when people can just enter a fake birthday it's far too dramatic
effective resistance is not about purity
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@Mastodon @mellifluousbox If Mastodon implements age verification, we leave.
@ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox There will ALWAYS be noncompliant servers run by people who never travel to the US , the EU, the UK, or Austrailai. Also ones run by crews who know how to obfuscate ownerahip and get offshore hosting.
That's where you will also find me-on noncompliant servers
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@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Some do not have or want credit cards and will simply use other servers.
There is no way any regime can shut down access to every non-agr verification compliant server. Limits on federation woulf just split the fediverse into two networks which would inevitanly be bridged back together.
FL cannot even stop Pornhub: they just block conmections from FL IP addresses and gladly take Tor and VPN traffic
@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
you mean tor and VPN providers that spy on the people who use it because anyone using that it is flagging their activity as sensitive?
tor was started at the us naval research laboratory for dissidents in countries unfriendly to the usa
you think they don't have enough exit nodes to see what is going on?
and mastodon needs support
i'd almost (i said almost) support the idea of mandatory ccs on sign up with or without id laws
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@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
again that's all fine and good
but if you're asking a server to shut down with thousands of accounts when people can just enter a fake birthday it's far too dramatic
effective resistance is not about purity
@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron Some servers are much smaller and can provide their users wirh migration tips.
This is what blackblogs.org did when running a US based anarchist wordpress hosting server got too dangerous: they shut doen, and steered people like myself to noblogs.org and other non-US alternatives, plus guides to moving content over. I didn't lose any content at all
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@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron Some servers are much smaller and can provide their users wirh migration tips.
This is what blackblogs.org did when running a US based anarchist wordpress hosting server got too dangerous: they shut doen, and steered people like myself to noblogs.org and other non-US alternatives, plus guides to moving content over. I didn't lose any content at all
@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
great
would you characterize yourself as the average mastodon user? or more broadly, the average social media user?
most people want to sign onto a server, browse, and post
that's it
you can't go after them for that, people don't have the bandwidth or time for the hassles
and we can't become a tiny whisper of a cryptic fringe to adhere to some unnecessary purity test
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
you mean tor and VPN providers that spy on the people who use it because anyone using that it is flagging their activity as sensitive?
tor was started at the us naval research laboratory for dissidents in countries unfriendly to the usa
you think they don't have enough exit nodes to see what is going on?
and mastodon needs support
i'd almost (i said almost) support the idea of mandatory ccs on sign up with or without id laws
@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic .onion access bypasses exit nodes enrirely. If Tor gets compromised dozens of nations find their intelligence services lose covert communication except by direct radio or sattelite. If civilian traffic is blocked or driven off, spy traffic then instantly stands out.
Too many armies need Tor to kill it
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@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic .onion access bypasses exit nodes enrirely. If Tor gets compromised dozens of nations find their intelligence services lose covert communication except by direct radio or sattelite. If civilian traffic is blocked or driven off, spy traffic then instantly stands out.
Too many armies need Tor to kill it
@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
.onion doesn't use exit nodes but it uses rendezvous nodes
and nobody wants to kill tor, the intelligence services love it
the foolishness is people who think something built by the us govt is perfectly anonymous
it *is* anonymous. to most every other entity
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@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
great
would you characterize yourself as the average mastodon user? or more broadly, the average social media user?
most people want to sign onto a server, browse, and post
that's it
you can't go after them for that, people don't have the bandwidth or time for the hassles
and we can't become a tiny whisper of a cryptic fringe to adhere to some unnecessary purity test
@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
That means they will find servers that fit their needs, just as folks in my position find servers that fit our needs. Mastodon is NOT like Twitter or FB wirh a single server farm and one set of rules for all.
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@benroyce @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
That means they will find servers that fit their needs, just as folks in my position find servers that fit our needs. Mastodon is NOT like Twitter or FB wirh a single server farm and one set of rules for all.
@LukefromDC @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic @mellifluousbox @Mastodon @MastodonEngineering @Gargron
zero argument
and if you make the services you talk about user friendly enough that the average social media user can point and click and zero hassle, even better
until then, some servers are stuck in unfriendly districts
and that's not their fault
the govt is at fault
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
.onion doesn't use exit nodes but it uses rendezvous nodes
and nobody wants to kill tor, the intelligence services love it
the foolishness is people who think something built by the us govt is perfectly anonymous
it *is* anonymous. to most every other entity
@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Perfect security would require our own hardware down to our own fabs making our own silicon. Then we'd have to bridge a new protocol we own over clearnet on the model of the US Government's own SIPRNET classified comms network.
It's easy enough to tell who I am by my writing style. Things like Tor let my bypass censors more than hide who I am.
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@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Perfect security would require our own hardware down to our own fabs making our own silicon. Then we'd have to bridge a new protocol we own over clearnet on the model of the US Government's own SIPRNET classified comms network.
It's easy enough to tell who I am by my writing style. Things like Tor let my bypass censors more than hide who I am.
@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
understood
but we're now very far away from your average normie who just wants to see cat pictures
and that's where this topic truly lies
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
understood
but we're now very far away from your average normie who just wants to see cat pictures
and that's where this topic truly lies
@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Indeed so. Totally different needs and it goes both ways. An activist video server for instance could not handle doing 10x its bandwidth in cat videos, a server optimized for easy use to poat cat videos might not be safe going forward for posting videos of police brutality.
As different as a cruise ship and a destroyer, a Cessna and a Spitfire.
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@benroyce @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic Indeed so. Totally different needs and it goes both ways. An activist video server for instance could not handle doing 10x its bandwidth in cat videos, a server optimized for easy use to poat cat videos might not be safe going forward for posting videos of police brutality.
As different as a cruise ship and a destroyer, a Cessna and a Spitfire.
@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
100%
and that's why we can't do purity tests on resistance
purity tests destroy effective resistance
effective resistance that isn't pure is not a betrayal
we resist how we can, in the ways we can
this isn't an argument against your words, i'm just harking back to the argument up higher
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@ariarhythmic @benroyce @starlily Great, fascism will make good Mastodon instances have the same status as BitTorrent trackers and pirate streaming websites!
Well, the tracker I used to contribute for is still up even today, thus we may think disobedience is fine, they will not go for small instances. On the other hand, it's a false correlation: one thing is Crunchyroll, Netflix and other companies choosing not to go against small groups because they may die out of just from not getting enough donations, other thing is fascist governments. They are already going against individuals, people fear ICE, as an example.
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
i yearly enjoy the services that sometimes say happy birthday to me...
on the fake birthday i've been entering since forever
π€
@benroyce @LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic LOL, yes. I am so used to fake birthdays that I have to make an extra effort to enter the correct one if needed.
I oopsied my birthday for an online plane ticket booking after 9/11. No issue. Got to fly as booked.
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
100%
and that's why we can't do purity tests on resistance
purity tests destroy effective resistance
effective resistance that isn't pure is not a betrayal
we resist how we can, in the ways we can
this isn't an argument against your words, i'm just harking back to the argument up higher
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@LukefromDC @mark @nitrml @meowki @iju @ariarhythmic
well yeah
and new gang recruits are asked to shoot someone in the head as they watch for much the same reason
neither of which tell us much about the topic here
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@ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox
the problem isn't mastodon it's your govt
if mastodon servers don't implement age verification in those jurisdictions that make it law, those servers get shut down by that govt
so you're blaming the wrong entity
are you really asking servers to face legal punishment and then get shut down anyway?
don't get me wrong: be angry
*at your govt*
not mastodon
@benroyce @ariarhythmic @Mastodon @mellifluousbox No, they cannot get shut down by a government they're not operating under. If there's a threat, move legal operations & hosting out of the jurisdiction and obfuscate physical location of servers behind VPNs. Don't fucking comply.
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