I used to write my Computer Science assignments in DocBook (XML). It would amaze the assessor’s when they said they wanted a PDF or PostScript or HTML or whatever and I would spit out a document custom formatted for whichever platform they wanted.

Then they would ask for it in Word DOC and I would be screwed.

Well actually, You can heat things up to a temperature where they do sublimate, without there being an ignition source.

“No smoke without fire” is a misnomer.

I had Corel WordPerfect for Linux.

You could modify the SGML codes to create documents that were compatible with all other versions of WordPerfect and MS Word, but he features that were supported in the document format, but not in the software.

For instance, I could change use more than the 16 colours that the Word for Windows UI allowed you to use, even though the displayed correctly in the WYSIWYG editor and printed correctly.

The only thing complicated about signing up for Mastodon (and Lemmy) is choice of instance.

Some people need that choice made for them, even though it does not practically matter. Most instances federate with content on other instances and it is possible to migrate your content to an new instance if you change your mind in the future.

Fortunately there are regional instances for both for me so it was pretty much a no-brainer for me to use aus.social and aussie.zone

The instance that someone is hosted on is (almost) completely irrelevant to which communities they can join.

I am in a local region instance but can still access any communities on Lemmy.world, Lemmy.ml and even other federated platforms like kbin.social

I may be restricted on what I can do in each of those instances; it there is some disagreement between Aussie.zone and sh.itjust.works I may not be able to post about camping to my preferred community.

I would love to use it as a conduit to drag those I love out of the Facebook/Instagram microcosms.

Adam Mosseri appears to be embracing the idea of Open Federation for Threads; https://www.threads.net/t/CuRtcYTNY3J

“ If you’re wondering why this matters, here’s a reason: you may one day end up leaving Threads, or, hopefully not, end up de-platformed. If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience with you to another server. Being open can enable that.”

Email and Usenet used to have the same barrier to entry, you needed someone to host and provide NNTP, POP3 and SMTP servers for you to access them. This was usually your ISP or IT department.

Modern internet users have become so conditioned by FB, Gmail, etc to think that the only way you can access content is though one of these monolithic providers. There are some users who think that FaceBook is the internet (just like Early AOL, MSN and CompuServe users of the 90’s).

I would like to see small ISPs provide federated instances for their subscribers, just like their email servers and the NNTP servers from days of yore. Since most independent ISP churn is triggered by word-of-mouth, it would be a great marketing platform.

Great post on the mastodon blog, clearing things up;

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/07/what-to-know-about-threads/

In a nutshell, Zuck may want to EEE, but ActivityPub already has enough of a user graph and is structured in such a way that it would not be possible.

100%, and their advertisers don’t either, however do their users have a place in the Fediverse?

We used to say the same thing about GNU/Linux on the desktop, and we were/are ridiculed constantly. The fact is that it is. While Android isn’t the same as Linux, it (and every other consumer platform besides MacOS, iOS and Windows) is based on Linux.

When Instagram Threads is released in a day-and-a-half, (and if it lives upto it’s potential and isn’t just a case of Embrace-Extend-Extinguish), ActivityPub and the Fediverse will be mainstream.

Lemmy us only superficially similar to Reddit. In fact it is much more, or so much less, depending on what you need in your social networking.

That level of control makes it more complicated for some people.