For my German-speaking friends 🇩🇪 Happy #DiDay everyone! ⛓️‍💥✊

Sascha Pallenberg@palle.eurosky.social · 3d ago

Vorab als Podcast 👉 share.transistor.fm/s/0048cc7b - Warum ich via @eurosky.social wieder im #Bluesky Kosmos aufgeschlagen bin - Warum ihr ebenfalls dahin wechselt solltet Und wieso #Wsocial eine absolute Geisterstadt und zum Scheitern verurteilt ist. Gerne teilen. Danke fuer euren Support 🙏

I am positively fuming over the new #AgeVerification laws being introduced in France. How convenient that this way Big Tech behemoths like Meta, X and TikTok won't have to change a thing. (Don't get me started about Grok, which should have been banned MONTHS ago)...

#YunoHost could get some love on here: it's a system that you can install on a home server / VPS / Raspberry Pi that empowers anyone to self-host essential internet services - no dev skills necessary. I've been writing a blog series about it: blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-gu... ❤️ #SelfHosting

A newbie's guide to self-hosting with YunoHost

Here is a 5-part guide about how to get started self-hosting essential internet services with the YunoHost system

blog.elenarossini.com

Dear @wsocial.eu, I found evidence of a spam account posting on your network: @tiktok.wsocial.eu (which is also doing brand impersonation). This account has been verified by a government ID (otherwise it would not have been able to post); it has been labeled as "spam" by @bsky.app. #WSocial

Today's goal: setting up my first #MeshCore repeater for better connectivity 🚀

⚠️ A couple of #WSocial article updates ‼️ My article about their deceptive "engagement" metric is now updated to clarify that the issue has been fixed (after I had email exchanges with them about it): 🔗 : blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fic... (cont')

W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data

W Social's tagline is "Trust Your Feed" but the company's landing page displays inflated engagement metrics - a misrepresentation that contradicts its own promise.

blog.elenarossini.com

It’s here! Today, we’re announcing the launch of Blacksky-Only Posts! Now, anyone with a blacksky.app handle or anyone on the Blacksky feed can make a private post on blacksky.community. This marks a significant step forward in advancing permissioned data on the open social web.

What happened to the fight for the Internet? dustycloud.org/blog/what-ha... As the internet has become centralized, it's felt less like ours. But it can be ours, if we fight for it. And the fight has never been more critical or dire.

I'm glad that my article helped bring attention to this problem - which had bricked your network for all new users who had joined starting on June 22 (3000+ accounts, for 7+ days - I've got .csv records to prove it). Happy that my proposed solution worked 🫡

W Social@wsocial.eu · last mo.

Some W users may experience temporary profile issues (e.g. "Profile not found" or "Invalid handle"). We’re actively resolving a minor AT Protocol issue and will update you shortly. Thank you for your patience - and for helping shape the future of European digital infrastructure.

Reminds me of that time I found a gigantic security hole in eYou Social and helped them to fix it by telling them how to configure their cloud services. Interesting how the commercial closed source operators depend on actually informed users of open platforms to tell them how it should be done.

SCOOP: #WSocial: a Broken Ghost Town? W Social has been experiencing major technical issues for over a week: it is effectively a ghost town, filled with thousands of new accounts that cannot use the platform. I discuss the problem and a possible solution here: blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-b...

W Social: a Broken Ghost Town?

W Social has been experiencing major technical problems for over a week: it is effectively a ghost town, filled with thousands of new accounts that cannot use the platform.

blog.elenarossini.com

LATEST: on #WSocial's website, comment counts for posts by prominent users are incorrectly displayed, showing artificially elevated numbers. @opfuchs.gay came up with an interesting theory for it. "W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data": blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fic...

W Social, Fictional Metrics and the Beauty of Open Data

W Social's tagline is "Trust Your Feed" but the company's landing page displays inflated engagement metrics - a misrepresentation that contradicts its own promise.

blog.elenarossini.com

Most people getting into social do not do it for the benefit of society, but rather to control & own the social fabric that supports society. If you control the social platform, you can control the conversation. You then have enormous political power.

Interesting approach by the @ec.europa.eu to just ignore their own scientific service (JRC), which only 8w ago explicitly recommended to support @eurosky.social in this paper: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC144603

European Commission@ec.europa.eu · 2mo ago

We have now joined W, a new European social media network. We’re present on 15+ platforms, and are especially happy to join one based in Europe and with the ambition to foster open and safer online conversations. Keep the conversation going - whether from W, Bluesky or other compatible apps.

Hey @wsocial.eu where's the public repo of your app? github.com/w-social-eu/... And where's the video of the @anna.wsocial.eu keynote at the Monaco AI conference? Seems like the event org took it down! Why's that? Looking forward to your explanation 😎 #Closedsky

W Social@wsocial.eu · 2mo ago

"We said this months ago. Tomorrow we back it up. Public Beta launches in Brussels." Join the waitlist: Wsocial.eu #Strategy #Europe #DigitalPlatform

This was definitely NOT on my bingo card for this year: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen taking a moment between G7 meetings to promote the launch of the closed-source, for-profit network #WSocial. 🔗 : web.archive.org/web/20260617... It may be a harbinger of things to come

SCOOP: In early June the European Commission unveiled its Tech Sovereignty Plan, which emphasized their commitment to #OpenSource. Just recently, they migrated their main ATproto accounts to #WSocial, a for-profit network that has quietly gone closed-source. blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-pub...

W Social, Public Institutions and the Theater of European Digital Sovereignty

European public institutions are betting big on digital sovereignty and open source software. And yet they recently moved their Bluesky accounts to W Social, a private, for profit network owned by Swe...

blog.elenarossini.com

“Brussels fails to recognise that digital sovereignty isn’t just about who owns or controls your technology. It’s also about having an independent vision for how that technology is designed, developed and deployed.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Europe is starting to break up with US big tech. But it’s still abiding by the Silicon Valley rulebook | Max von Thun

The European Commission has unveiled its plans for digital sovereignty. Its proposals betray a disappointing lack of vision, says Max von Thun of the Open Markets Institute Europe

theguardian.com

Excited to hear @rude1.blacksky.team kick off the Open Social Awards - talking about building movements and everything he’s doing at @blackskyweb.xyz. “If you want to build for community, you should first have one.”

I just published a deep dive about #WSocial - the upcoming European fork of Bluesky, with mandatory age verification. Tech journalists have a habit of rehashing press releases and company talking points. Not me. I dug deeper and found really interesting things: blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-s...

The Untold Story About W Social: Unconventional Beginnings, Strategic Pitches and Conflicting Signals

A deep dive into the origin story of W Social, an analysis of the strategic arguments they have been using to appeal to government officials, media companies and advertisers... and the discussion of c...

blog.elenarossini.com

connect the dots

It's here! ‪An amazing Fediverse explainer video by @elenarossini.com‬ 🙌 If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here: news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-vi... A huge thank you to Elena, her team, and everyone involved for building something brilliant to help Fediverse awareness and advocacy.

📺 Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media

A 4 minute video that aims to introduce the Fediverse to people not familiar with it

news.elenarossini.com

🌟 This week, we’re spotlighting voices in #tech and #media in the Community tab on Flipboard. @zackwhittaker.bsky.social @oliverdarcy.bsky.social @karaswisher.bsky.social @joanwestenberg.bsky.social @elenarossini.com @werd.io This is what makes the social web so awesome!

Front pages of Bluesky, Threads, and Twitter rn

I know you’re being sardonic but there was an old game for the Apple II called “Car Builder” and the “ideal” chassis design that would get highest marks in the wind tunnel test looked almost EXACTLY like the Cybertruck