@evan I would not, primarily because I enjoy my own instance and being in control of my own infrastructure and online presence.

@Edent And, it's not Mastodon---it's the "Fediverse". Mastodon is just 1 piece of popular software interoperable with the protocol the Fediverse is built upon.

@ricmac It will be interesting to see how Threads ventures into the Fediverse. I have no Threads account, nor anticipate making one, so, I cannot really test things or see if, for example, my profile on my instance is accessible or not.

I wonder if Threads will ever really permit open, bi-directional federation with the Fediverse considering moderation concerns within a centralized platform such as their own. It could be that Meta only permits open federation with a few larger Mastodon instances and otherwise blocks out the wider Fediverse, either via purposeful intention or through ignorant naivety adopting Mastodon's #fediblock lists (either would deliver essentially the same end-result). @evan

@steter (That's because democracy doesn't really "work" and is kinda dumb, child-like bullshit. But, I think @evan is using it in a less sociopolitical kinda way and in more of a metaphorical or philosophical kinda way within the context of software and sorts of anarchistic distributed governance not existing under a central order or singular system.)

One of Misskey's best features is the user drive functionality. The ability to manage uploads directly therein, like a form of cloud storage, and to reutilize already-uploaded files in subsequent posts, meaning no file duplication.

@silverpill As far as blocking out instances entirely from federation whatsoever, I think I will probably follow @mischievoustomato 's advice and configure /etc/hosts to do that. Honestly, it's kind of like that functionality doesn't even need to be in Mitra if it's already included within Linux itself.

@silverpill Ah, very cool! I had no idea. Yeah, it sounds a lot more powerful. I will definitely have to get mitractl configured and setup to begin doing that and utilizing it. Being able to backup or load rules from a CSV also sounds huge! This is powerful, really straightforward and reliable kind of implementation vs. what a lot of other instance softwares do. Thanks for taking the time to better explain this stuff! I'm really excited to see the future of Mitra's evolution. @mischievoustomato

@adiz @silverpill Also, really good documentation about mitractl add-filter-rule! I didn't see these docs on the repo. Looks like it functions very similar to ufw, which is quite intuitive and straightforward. Might I ask why you recommend using mitractl vs. directly modifying the config? Does it do the same thing ultimately? @mischievoustomato

@silverpill
> The ability to block outgoing requests will be added later. Let me know if this is important.

Blocking outgoing requests is important to me since most of those instances I have "blocked" were meant to block outgoing requests, primarily, vs. incoming. Because most of those instances are known bad-actor #fediblock bandwagon instances who get off on dog-piling and sabotaging other instances for the most minor of transgressions or ideological heresy. I've found it best practice to simply block those instances outright from the outset so that no federation takes place and one remains entirely off their "radar"---everyone's happy. One doesn't receive activities from them (they've nothing I want to see or hear) and the don't receive any activities from you (they've noting to complain about or disparage and attack you over). Otherwise, they'll go out of their way to look for problems and will then publicly crucify your instance and you'll end up on a list from which hundreds of instances will blindly follow. @mischievoustomato

@mischievoustomato I changed my config closer to what you've got both in syntax and organization. Restarted Mitra and it's running fine. We shall see, I guess? @silverpill

@mischievoustomato I always restart Mitra as well. Maybe I need to move the ending bracket down a line and the top entry under the opening bracket? I didn't know it would accept comments inside the list, either. That's great for organizational purposes. I'll try doing that and restarting the service. @silverpill

I've added certain instances (e.g., pawoo.net) to my Mitra's blocked instance list within the .yaml config---however, I'm still receiving content from those instances? @silverpill, am I doing something wrong here with the config? I thought I'd done the appropriate syntax for lists in .yaml like this, per my searching online. And, the config loads fine (whereas, I've found other syntax errors result in Mitra failing to start). I am certain it's probably user error on my part...

Added a bunch of instances to the blocklist here. So easy to do with the Mitra .yaml config! Much prefer this to some admin GUI. Also, a lot easier to save and backup if you need to do a rebuild of the instance! ️ing Mitra!

@mischievoustomato I'm sure. But, just nothing like a nice comfy .deb. Running Mitra on Debian with a dedicated .deb just makes it so fast and nice and easy. I wish more software shipped this way. @silverpill

Mitra being packaged as a .deb is a massive game-changer when it comes to deploying Fediverse instance software. It's so nice and easy to just spin up a database, install the .deb, connect the two via config and then setup Nginx and voila: being fully online and working and ready to go! (Instead of like 20 different moving parts all contingent on one another with various update schedules and bla bla bla 1 thing borks and the whole instance goes to hell.)

It's been so so so so nice to install and get working + it's very fast and lightweight and easy to manage/maintain. I think it's now my absolute favorite Fediverse software! I want to give a massive thanks to @silverpill for making and maintaining this phenomenal software!

@silverpill So, for updating, just wget the newest .deb from the repo and run dpkg -i <mitra .deb>? Then, restart? Nice!

I'll read up on cache management and how Mitra handles files on the system. Is it cool if I message you with any follow up questions? @mischievoustomato

Maybe @mischievoustomato has some insider scoops towards this.

Mitra runs great and was super (emphasize: super) easy to get setup and running.

Now, I just need to figure out:

- How to update Mitra (I installed from the .deb package).
- How to manage storage (I previously had Nginx temporarily caching remote files on Misskey and Pleroma whereas locally-uploaded files were stored to a directory).
- How to setup custom emojis/reacts.