#gmail server settings

[needtricks-blog]

Imap Account Settings for Gmail | Need Tricks

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a protocol used by email clients to access email messages from a mail server. Here are the basic settings for configuring an IMAP email account. (more…) “”

[r0semultiverse]

Hello sorry for tagging. I am very sick, my asthma is at its maximum level, my nose freezes, I have no medicine or food. I am in bad shape financially, I am a black disabled, who uses multiple medications, I pay for my food and lodging

Unfortunately I do not have all the resources to keep me safe, that is why I need your help, whatever you can contribute to me will be of great help.

Y’all, the nose freezes scam bot prompt is back! Going to go ahead & guess that this is different from the Palestine donations scam set of bots that steal actual current fundraiser info. Different people running different scams, I imagine. This one seems to function on a more random pattern. These also usually get deleted within a few hours to a day.

Sometimes you’ll see these more random bots follow you first half the time as a means to try to convince you that they’re legit. They’re all just annoying social bots, but documenting this should prove helpful to someone out there.

[reelmegabyte]

ever wonder why spotify/discord/teams desktop apps kind of suck?

i don't do a lot of long form posts but. I realized that so many people aren't aware that a lot of the enshittification of using computers in the past decade or so has a lot to do with embedded webapps becoming so frequently used instead of creating native programs. and boy do i have some thoughts about this.

for those who are not blessed/cursed with computers knowledge Basically most (graphical) programs used to be native programs (ever since we started widely using a graphical interface instead of just a text-based terminal). these are apps that feel like when you open up the settings on your computer, and one of the factors that make windows and mac programs look different (bc they use a different design language!) this was the standard for a long long time - your emails were served to you in a special email application like thunderbird or outlook, your documents were processed in something like microsoft word (again. On your own computer!). same goes for calendars, calculators, spreadsheets, and a whole bunch more - crucially, your computer didn't depend on the internet to do basic things, but being connected to the web was very much an appreciated luxury!

that leads us to the eventual rise of webapps that we are all so painfully familiar with today - gmail dot com/outlook, google docs, google/microsoft calendar, and so on. as html/css/js technology grew beyond just displaying text images and such, it became clear that it could be a lot more convenient to just run programs on some server somewhere, and serve the front end on a web interface for anyone to use. this is really very convenient!!!! it Also means a huge concentration of power (notice how suddenly google is one company providing you the SERVICE) - you're renting instead of owning. which means google is your landlord - the services you use every day are first and foremost means of hitting the year over year profit quota. its a pretty sweet deal to have a free email account in exchange for ads! email accounts used to be paid (simply because the provider had to store your emails somewhere. which takes up storage space which is physical hard drives), but now the standard as of hotmail/yahoo/gmail is to just provide a free service and shove ads in as much as you need to.

webapps can do a lot of things, but they didn't immediately replace software like skype or code editors or music players - software that requires more heavy system interaction or snappy audio/visual responses. in 2013, the electron framework came out - a way of packaging up a bundle of html/css/js into a neat little crossplatform application that could be downloaded and run like any other native application. there were significant upsides to this - web developers could suddenly use their webapp skills to build desktop applications that ran on any computer as long as it could support chrome*! the first applications to be built on electron were the late code editor atom (rest in peace), but soon a whole lot of companies took note! some notable contemporary applications that use electron, or a similar webapp-embedded-in-a-little-chrome as a base are:

microsoft teams

notion

vscode

discord

spotify

anyone! who has paid even a little bit of attention to their computer - especially when using older/budget computers - know just how much having chrome open can slow down your computer (firefox as well to a lesser extent. because its just built better <3)

whenever you have one of these programs open on your computer, it's running in a one-tab chrome browser. there is a whole extra chrome open just to run your discord. if you have discord, spotify, and notion open all at once, along with chrome itself, that's four chromes. needless to say, this uses a LOT of resources to deliver applications that are often much less polished and less integrated with the rest of the operating system. it also means that if you have no internet connection, sometimes the apps straight up do not work, since much of them rely heavily on being connected to their servers, where the heavy lifting is done.

taking this idea to the very furthest is the concept of chromebooks - dinky little laptops that were created to only run a web browser and webapps - simply a vessel to access the google dot com mothership. they have gotten better at running offline android/linux applications, but often the $200 chromebooks that are bought in bulk have almost no processing power of their own - why would you even need it? you have everything you could possibly need in the warm embrace of google!

all in all the average person in the modern age, using computers in the mainstream way, owns very little of their means of computing.

i started this post as a rant about the electron/webapp framework because i think that it sucks and it displaces proper programs. and now ive swiveled into getting pissed off at software services which is in honestly the core issue. and i think things can be better!!!!!!!!!!! but to think about better computing culture one has to imagine living outside of capitalism.

i'm not the one to try to explain permacomputing specifically because there's already wonderful literature ^ but if anything here interested you, read this!!!!!!!!!! there is a beautiful world where computers live for decades and do less but do it well. and you just own it. come frolic with me Okay ? :]

*when i say chrome i technically mean chromium. but functionally it's same thing

[duckprintspress]

So, y'all who use Gmail...do you realize Google is just. Not showing you e-mails?

We're having increasing trouble with Google receiving e-mails from our server, despite having everything set up correctly - and this isn't about being sent to spam, this is about them full-on just not putting the message through.

If it's happening to us, it's happening to others.

If you use gmail and interact with people who use private domain e-mails, and you're like "why haven't I heard from them?!" you might want to follow-up.

It might also be a good time to start considering moving away from gmail, because yes, as far as I can tell, Google is just. deciding not to deliver e-mails. without notifying people on either end that the e-mail hasn't been received.

[shepherds-of-haven]

Unsolicited Writing Advice

Completely random reminder to back up your work, especially if you're a writer, IF or game developer, coder, or creator of any kind. People sometimes ask me what my advice for other writers is, and I always forget to include this one, but it's one of the most important things, especially if your career, livelihood, or long-form projects hinge on writing in any way! Take it from someone who just had two backup methods fail unexpectedly and only the third backup prevented me from losing a solid month of work, you need to back up your work in as many ways as you possibly can. It may seem like a pain in the ass at the time, but I've seen a lot of games or stories stall or fail completely due to a catastrophic loss of data that utterly kills any drive to keep going with the project because of the need to start over. I'M BEGGING YOU, BACK UP YOUR DATA.

I recommend having at least 2, ideally 3 methods of backup:

Automatic cloud storage. I personally prefer working with Dropbox, where every change I save is automatically synced and backed up to a cloud server as well as natively saved on my own device. It also has robust version history, so if you figure out you've done something horrific and unknowingly saved over something important or rewritten a section you weren't supposed to, you can rewind everything in a folder down to a specific minute (over the last 30 days): a feature that has saved my hide just a few too many times for comfort. A free Dropbox account gives you 2 GB of storage to work with. Working within Google Drive works just as well, and the free version gives you 15 GB of storage (though that's shared between your email account and other Google apps, as well)! However, I don't believe it provides automatic syncing and backup the same way Dropbox does: you either have to work directly within a Google doc for your work to be automatically saved to the server, or you have to manually upload the files to your Google Drive to back them up each time.

Physical storage. Every few weeks or months, I also take the time to back up my important files to an external hard drive or thumb drive. Again, it's kind of a hassle, but if the day ever comes that you lose your passwords or find that they've been changed, a company's servers go down or they go bankrupt, they decide to start charging you to access your data, or whatever crazy circumstance you can think of, it's always good to have a physical backup somewhere. A basic 1 TB thumb drive is somewhere around 20$ USD (though it can be slower at that price point if you're transferring a large amount of data each time), and it's even less if you don't need that much storage. A 1 TB external hard drive (which has a much quicker transfer rate) is around 40-50$.

If all else fails, email. If you can't get access to physical storage devices and cloud storage services don't work for you, consider setting up a free Gmail or what-have-you account specifically for backup purposes, then email a copy of your most important files to it every time you make a significant change to them. This may seem sort of primitive and simplistic, but it works, and you can even use it as a little journal or diary of your progress!

Again, you may think this is overkill, but I am convinced that writers are especially prone to proving Murphy's Law and have seen way too many projects, friends, and colleagues fall prey to this oft-overlooked issue. I can count at least half a dozen times where -> my primary device like my laptop broke, failed, became corrupted, had water spilled on it, etc. -> I then turned to my secondary device (hard drive or thumb drive) only to find something was wrong with THAT (broken, outdated, incompatible with currently-owned tech, corrupted, not up-to-date backups) OR I turned to my cloud storage and found something wrong with THAT (unknowingly saved over data and didn't realize it until 3 months later, meaning not even version history could save me) -> and it was only the THIRD method of backing up that saved my ass.

Anyway, this is just your friendly neighborhood writer reminding you to back your work up! It's a necessary part of the job! Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk!

[bobacupcake]

Would suggest lowering bluesky on your ranking because of their whole 'political hate group notification' taht you can turn off

so i have seen this and from my understanding hate groups Are 100% banned on bluesky explicitly in their TOS. ppl are confused why the option is there, theres 3 leading theories

it means blocking discussion of hate groups

its put there for when bluesky eventually goes federated and people have access to other servers that use their protocol but the original bluesky team doesnt have moderation over (so for example if gmail had an option to block emails from hate groups. they dont let hate groups make a gmail, but they cant delete the account of a hate group with a yahoo email because they dont own yahoo. obviously they could be like "we will not connect to any instances that dont have a tos banning hate groups" but i dont see this happening)

they have something that "auto-flags" things that might be from hate groups and hide those before they can ban them with actual content moderators

anyways as far as ive seen there hasnt been an answer so this is all speculation so im gonna set reblogs off on this one in case i accidentally spread misinformation on the internet. if anyone knows more let me know

edit: ok looking more into it it does seem like the second one

[msexcelfractal]

The whole workplace is upgrading from Gmail to Outlook.

The old Gmail server will deliver only some of your messages

The new 365 server will deliver all of your messages

When you set up the Outlook app on iOS, it silently defaults to the old Gmail server

And you miss 180 messages

some of which are very important

You discover this at 1 AM on a Saturday

And you scream

And you scream

And you scream 

[thedragonagebigbang]

could you add a second pitch example that doesn't contain spoilers for tevinter night or the other books? not everyone's read them, including me, so it was a kinda unpleasant surprise :( otherwise love how yall have been managing this event <3

Hello! Thank you for reaching out.

We're sorry you were surprised by the mention of Tevinter Nights! The good news is that the pitch example is a transformative work inspired by characters in Tevinter Nights but DOES NOT include spoilers for the book itself, though it makes brief reference to one of the publicly available short stories published in 2020.

Out of consideration to people who would like to avoid all mentions of Tevinter Nights, we already listed the Major Fandoms: Tevinter Nights tag at the top of the pitch so that they could stop reading then and there, and it would be filtered out by Tumblr's content filters for those who have it set up. Since both Tevinter Nights and the short story were published four years ago we do not moderate spoilers on them. We do moderate any sensitive topics as well as for potential DA4 spoilers since the game hasn't released.

The pitch requirements are described in detail in the Event Guidebook for those who do not want to view the example at all. It is a difficult thing to come up with an entire pitch for a story that no one is currently writing, so we will not be coming up with another for this year's event.

If you are in need of help with your pitch, you are welcome to join other writers who are workshopping them in the discord server, as that is a great way to get a sense of what other pitches may look like.

Full Event Documents:Rules | Code of Conduct | Event Guidebook Important Highlights: Timeline | Writer Sign Ups Contact The Mods: ask | discord | email: thedragonagebigbang@gmail

[leam1983]

Remnants

If I dig in some of my employees' files, I'm struck by the fact that even my fellow Old Millennials tend not to have any understanding of what it means to have a professional email address.

I mean, you might be the best goddang Lists Integration specialist we've got on the payroll, if I have to constantly send briefs to spoogemeister (at) gmail (dot) com, there's a point where you sort of want to take the guy aside and remind him that we actually have a dedicated email server... It's even funnier when you can tell that address is some vestigial remnant of a former teenage self, and the person in question is only using that address because Google is more convenient than setting up an email with your ISP...

[prajna-alva]

Gophish Setup Guide: Launching Phishing Campaigns

Phishing Scenario : CASE 1 - Breaking news

Objective: The objective of this phishing campaign is to lure employees into clicking a malicious link disguised as breaking news from the company. The landing page masqueraded as a Gmail sign-in page, prompting users to enter their login credentials. This page was designed to steal users' email account credentials.

Install Gophish framework

Make the required changes in the config.json file

Launch Gophish and our first step would be to set up the sending profile by which we will send out phishing emails. 

Let’s assume that the target company is using Gmail server

(When setting up the sending profile in Gophish using a Gmail account, you have to enable 2FA and give app access to Gophish)

Since our target company is using Gmail server, we will use Gmail email on our phishing campaign so we have set host as smtp.gmail.com:587. After creating the sending profile, we have to test if the sending profile works by sending a test email.

We're using the email address adster.matrix@gmail.com as our designated Gmail account for sending phishing emails. Make sure to include the password that was generated when granting Gophish access to this Gmail account. After configuring the sending profile, we can test it by sending a test mail.

This is what the test mail will look like:

Email Template

The next step involves integrating an email template for the phishing campaign. We can opt for a pre-made template, for example, here we use a Breaking News email template, for initial testing. We can incorporate a tracking image within the emails to monitor various engagement metrics, including email opens, clicks, and receipt statuses. It also has an option where we can add a link which will redirect the victim to the landing page. On the landing page we can proceed to request for more valuable information from the user.

Landing Page

In the third step, set up a landing page where targets will be directed after clicking a link in the email. This landing page plays a crucial role in the phishing campaign, as it's where you can capture sensitive information like passwords. Gophish defaults to using http://0.0.0.0:80 for the landing page, but we can customize it to look like a legitimate login page or other enticing content to attract targets. We'll need to specify a redirect page where users will be sent after submitting their credentials.

In the User & Groups section, you'll need to input the email addresses of your targets. Gophish framework requires you to provide the first name, last name, email address, and the rank of each target individual on the user groups page. You can also upload target details from a CSV file stored on your local system using import feature.

Install and set up Ngrok:

Install ngrok via Apt with the following command:

curl -s https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com/ngrok.asc \

 | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/ngrok.asc >/dev/null && echo "deb https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com buster main" \

  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ngrok.list && sudo apt update && sudo apt install ngrok

Run the following command to add your authtoken to the default ngrok.yml configuration file.

ngrok config add-authtoken 2crm6P5lWlbTm4rwoGqn0QSHhPA_6nf7WmMJFKXVSD2SgBohF

Create an index.html page for the landing page and launch python http server in the port 8001

               • python3 -m http.server 8001

               Note: Verify in the browser if it's actually accessible.

We can also use other login page cloning techniques like built in gophish cloner, or Github projects (we used), Custom or by using third party clones (ex-goclone).

If it's a php file use the following command instead:

               • php -S localhost:8001 -t . 

Launch ngrok :

ngrok http http://localhost:8001/

Use the URL under forwarding and paste it on the Gophish URL section in the campaign page shown below:

Creating Gophish Campaign:

Go to the Campaigns section.

Choose the right email and landing page templates.

Enter the landing page server URL.

Select the target group.

Start the campaign and monitor its progress.

Once we click on the link we are directed to the landing page, where we can enter our credentials.

You can find all the phishing reports related to a specific campaign on the Dashboard in the Gophish framework. Here, you can see details such as sent emails, opened emails, clicked links, submitted data, and any emails reported as phishing by the targets. This page provides a comprehensive overview of the ongoing phishing campaign.

Phishing scenario: Case 2 - Password Reset Campaign

The aim of this phishing campaign is to trick users into divulging their login credentials by pretending to offer account protection in response to a fake mailbox compromise.

Users received an urgent email claiming their mailbox was compromised. They were directed to a phishing landing page disguised as a password reset portal.

Upon clicking the link, Users were redirected to a fake password reset page resembling the email service provider's design, where they were prompted to enter their login credentials.

[mdabutaleb]

ProfitMarc Review – Email Marketing

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[ukagakadreamteam]

Hey, it says the servers are blocking it, but my email is set to allow POP

Hmm. Unfortunately, this is where it gets more tricky for me to help. I don't use hotmail myself, so I'm not actually sure what your settings would need to be.

In Gmail, these are the settings I have access to, and how I have it configured.

Do you have settings like these? And if so, are you able to show what they are so I can see what we're working with?

(If anyone else has experience setting up POP with hotmail, advice would be welcome!)

[cea-tide]

So I have been using Windows mail for ages—mostly because I never looked into e-mail clients before. I probably should have long ago, given it is owned by Microsoft. (I still need to switch to Linux, but haven't had time to really look into it. You'll probably see another post about that when I finally do.)

Anyhow, Microsoft is forcefully migrating all Windows Mail (and Calendar) users to Outlook right now, to retire the aforementioned programs before the end of the year. Apparently Outlook is showing ads in the inbox though, which I do not look like at all, so I started hunting for other e-mail clients.

I stumbled upon Thunderbird, a free donation-based e-mail client that is part of the Mozilla Foundation (the same non-profit that owns Firefox). It is for all major OS's, so I can use it on Linux too when I switch. That also means it is mostly a similar privacy policy as you are used to with Firefox. It does share your IP address with AWS (Amazon), as it uses that for its CDN. And it also shares some info with Gandi.net and Mailfence if you create an e-mail address via Thunderbird, as those two are the mail server hosts it is partnered with. It is also most notably open source, so you can look at the code yourself if you want.

So I set that up on my desktop computer and laptop, and took a little while to import all my e-mail accounts, mails, and set all settings to my preferences. I won't bore you with the details unless you want them, so I will put those under the cut. I did not succeed in importing my Gmail account, but all my other accounts are linked. There's not much of importance on my Gmail account anyway—only Facebook spamming my inbox; I need to delete that account again, hopefully for good this time...

I digress. So what's next? It is one less link to Microsoft, but I still own 2 hotmail (Microsoft) accounts, which means I am still using their servers for all my e-mail traffic. The next step would thus be to use a different e-mail domain. I could use some other mail hosting server (I heard ProtonMail was decent? There's a free tier too.), but there's another option for me too.

Now I do have a Arduino Uno that I still haven't used, so I theoretically could link a subdomain of mine (like mail.<domain> or something) to that device with some port forwarding sprinkled in, and have it function as my own e-mail hosting. Almost no extra costs involved as I am already paying for the domain name. Since I then own the mail server, I could also have unlimited e-mail accounts link to the same inbox. E.g. etsy.<user>@<domain> and patreon.<user>@<domain> would both go to the <user>@<domain> inbox. It's useful when you want to know which company leaked your e-mail to scammers. That's all for a later follow-up though, as that's a distant goal for now.

So you want the details?

Here are some preferences and settings you'll likely want to set when setting up Thunderbird.

First of all, some settings are hidden in the menu bar (made visible with the alt key), that is hidden by default. To make it visible at all times, right click in the empty space at the top and enable "Menu bar" in the context menu that appears.

Privacy settings

Go to the settings under the Privacy & Security tab. For starters, you'll probably want to disable allowing remote content by default (used as read receipts by certain websites), disable allowing cookies, enable sending the DNT signal, and enable the scam alert. The rest can be changed as you see fit; I mostly left that alone.

Dark mode & addons

If you're like me and want that sweet dark mode for your e-mails, you can add an add-on (just like you would in Firefox). To do that, go to settings and click on the "Add-ons and Themes" button in the bottom left. For dark mode I use the add on Dark Reader, but you can use whatever you want. You can copy that link into the address bar of Thunderbird.

Adding another account

To add another account, click on "File" in your menu bar (see above for how to make that appear), and then "New > Existing Email Account". Follow the instructions where needed.

There are other settings and things, but you'll probably want to explore those yourself.

[khaysvelle]

"EMPOWERMENT TECHNOLOGIES"

TRENDS IN ICT_

1. CONVERGENCE

-Technological convergence is the combination of two or more different entities of technologies to create a new single device.

2. SOCIAL MEDIA

-is a website, application, or online channel that enables web users web users to create , co-create, discuss modify, and exchange user generated content.

SIX TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA:

a. SOCIAL NETWORKS

- These are sites that allows you to connect with other people with the same interests or background. Once the user creates his/her account, he/she can set up a profile, add people, share content, etc.

b. BOOKMARKING SITES

- Sites that allow you to store and manage links to various website and resources. Most of the sites allow you to create a tag to others.

c. SOCIAL NEWS

– Sites that allow users to post their own news items or links to other news sources. The users can also comment on the post and comments may also be rank.

d. MEDIA SHARING

– sites that allow you to upload and share media content like images, music and video.

e. MICROBLOGGING

- focus on short updates from the user. Those that subscribed to the user will be able to receive these updates.

f. BLOGS AND FORUMS

- allow user to post their content. Other users are able to comment on the said topic.

3. MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

- The popularity of smartphones and tablets has taken a major rise over the years. This is largely because of the devices capability to do the tasks that were originally found in PCs. Several of these devices are capable of using a high-speed internet. Today the latest model devices use 4G Networking (LTE), which is currently the fastest.

MOBILE OS

•iOS

- use in apple devices such as iPhone and iPad.

•ANDROID

- an open source OS developed by Google. Being open source means mobile phone companies use this OS for free.

•BLACKBERRY OS

- use in blackberry devices

•WINDOWS PHONE OS

- A closed source and proprietary operating system developed by Microsoft.

=Symbian - the original smartphone OS. Used by Nokia devices

= Web OS- originally used in smartphone; now in smart TVs.

= Windows Mobile - developed by Microsoft for smartphones and pocket PCs

4. ASSISTIVE MEDIA

- is a non- profit service designed to help people who have visual and reading impairments. A database of audio recordings is used to read to the user.

CLOUD COMPUTING

- distributed computing on internet or delivery of computing service over the internet. e.g. Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail

-Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer – it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

It has three components ;

1. Client computers

– clients are the device that the end user interact with cloud.

2. Distributed Servers

– Often servers are in geographically different places, but server acts as if they are working next to each other.

3. Datacenters

– It is collection of servers where application is placed and is accessed via Internet.

TYPES OF CLOUDS

PUBLIC CLOUD

-allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public. Public cloud may be less secured because of its openness, e.g. e-mail

PRIVATE CLOUD

-allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It offers increased security because of its private nature.

COMMUNITY CLOUD

- allows systems and services to be accessible by group of organizations.

HYBRID CLOUD

-is a mixture of public and private cloud. However, the critical activities are performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using public cloud.

—Khaysvelle C. Taborada

#TrendsinICT

#ICT

#EmpowermentTechnologies

[corbindavenport]

Taking another look at Mastodon

I talked a bit about Mastodon last year, right as the big migration from Twitter was underway. There's a lot that has changed since then, including some of my own opinions.

First, I'm getting the definitions out of the way. Mastodon is an open-source and federated social media network. "Federated" means it's made up of a bunch of independent but interconnected servers. Those servers use a protocol called ActivityPub to talk to each other, like how Gmail and Yahoo can send and receive emails between each other with IMAP. Other social media platforms use ActivityPub too, like PixelFed, which are collectively referred to as "the Fediverse."

According to FediDB, a service set up by PixelFed developer Daniel Supernault (dansup), there are somewhere around 7.5 million Mastodon accounts spread across over 12,000 servers. Roughly 1.2 million of those accounts are active users (have posted in the past month), which is down slightly from the start of the year. The last peak was in February 2023, when the platform was around 1.68 million active users.

That's only part of the puzzle, though. Other software like Misskey, PeerTube, Calckey, and PixelFed are part of the same larger Fediverse network, adding more users into the mix.

The most significant event this year so far for Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms has been Reddit's collapse, as it pushed through similar API lockdowns as Twitter. Reddit isn't quite as terrible as Twitter yet, but Reddit's CEO continuously saying the dumbest shit possible is not helping. Several Reddit communities are migrating to Lemmy and Kbin, both of which support ActivityPub, which means they are intercompatible with Mastodon and other Fediverse software.

If we look at FediDB again, Lemmy and Kbin are getting close to 100,000 active users, an increase of roughly 10x since the start of the month. That's pretty remarkable, especially considering both projects are far less mature than Mastodon and options for mobile apps are limited. It remains to be seen if we'll see Reddit app developers embrace these new platforms in the same way that some popular Twitter client developers did -- the only example I've seen so far is the Sync for Reddit developer working on a Lemmy client.

The next big event will likely be the launch of Meta's Twitter clone, which will probably be called "Threads," and is expected to use ActivityPub at some point. Whenever that happens, Meta's service will probably very quickly become the top server in the Fediverse ecosystem. Most of the responses to this have been in one of three camps: "this is a good thing because the Fediverse will have more users", "we should be cautious about this", and "Meta will ruin everything we've built and we're blocking them."

To be clear, that last option is usually referring to defederation: when a Mastodon/Fediverse server completely blocks all communication with a specific other server. If you're following someone on a server, and your admin defederates the server, you don't follow them anymore and can't re-follow them. This is a pretty frequent action with servers hosting illegal content or no user moderation. When the far-right social media platform Gab introduced ActivityPub support, pretty much every Mastodon server defederated with it.

I don't really know where I stand on defederating Meta's service, because we don't have all the details yet, but I can understand where people are coming from with an outright block. The Fediverse is full of people who have been pushed away or suddenly banned from Meta-owned platforms or other big social networks (LGBTQ+ people, journalists, sex workers, etc.), and those companies generally have moderation policies that are farther to the right of most Mastodon servers. It's not difficult to see a reality where user reports about posts and users on Meta's server might overwhelm Mastodon moderators, who then simply ban Meta's server instead of continuing to deal with its users. Meta also now officially allows COVID-19 misinformation, and isn't pushing back on election interference lies.

The discourse around Meta's platform, some other Fediverse drama, and the continued onboarding issues with Mastodon do make me think that Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms probably won't ever "go mainstream," which seemed more likely to me at the end of last year. There's a lot of people who completely zone out when you have to explain how servers work, or why you can't favorite a post without copying and pasting a link, or something else like that. I do still think a lot of the people raising those points are being disingenuous, and they aren't entirely the fault of the projects (you're working against years of learned behavior about centralized platforms), but that doesn't make them invalid.

However, I do think Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms are now set up for long-term success. The big migration from Twitter gave it more name recognition, a lot more apps, and support from mainstream social media tools like Buffer and WordPress Jetpack. If I'm a big company, organization, or news site, it's now so much easier to maintain a presence on Mastodon (and thus, the rest of the Fediverse) than it was a year ago. With tools like Buffer, Mastodon is just another button you click, right next to the Twitter and Facebook buttons. That's huge.

Right now, the Fediverse is basically the desktop Linux of social media. It's not mainstream, and probably won't ever be, but it's grown enough now that it can't be completely ignored anymore. Just like the Linux userbase, the Fediverse community leans more towards tech people, but there are also a lot of guys, gals, and non-binary pals on Mastodon who have other interests and are there because they just like the experience.

I'll miss the Twitter of the past, and I will miss a few very specific and small parts of Reddit, but it's so exciting to watch Mastodon and other federated social media adapt to the failure of centralized platforms. There's still a lot more work to be done, but if Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook are any indication, "going mainstream" isn't the right goal.

[rajubhadra]

VidProposals 2.0 Review - Truth Exposed! (Neil Napier)

VidProposals 2.0 Review - Truth Exposed! (Neil Napier) Welcome to my review blog and VidProposals 2.0 Review. Neil Napier is the author of this VidProposals 2.0 App. VidProposals 2.0 is the world’s #1 platform for creating engaging and professional video proposals designed for newbies and business owners alike. A built-in email-sending platform for creating and sending cold emails. Then you can add graphics, text, and video that can be recorded right in the app. In just 3 steps you can apply this App. Why Do People Love VidProposals 2.0? – Create Professional, Persuasive, Custom Video Proposals In Minutes, With A Legally Binding Contract Ready For Them To E-Sign, And Close Clients Fast On Any Device. – Host All Your Proposal Videos On VidProposals’ Servers For Super-Fast Delivery – Create Custom Thank You Pages To Celebrate The New Deal – 100% Beginner Friendly. Fully Cloud Based – 24 Ready-To-Go Professionally Designed Proposals Included ​​​​​ – Use This Built-In Video Creator To Record & Create A Stunning Video That Can Be Then Included Right Inside Your Proposal – Engage Your Customers And Make Them Take The Action You Want By Adding A Persuasive Call-to-action Right Inside Your Videos – Generate Your Proposal Super-fast Using Vidproposal’s Built-In Content Generation And Reuse Tools – Automated E-Signature Tracking Offers An Added Layer Of Security – Providing Proof Of Who Signed The Document And When it was Opened, Viewed, Or Completed. – Send One Email With The One Link To Give Your Client All The Relevant Information – VidProposals Doesn’t Allow Signed Proposals To Be Deleted, Keeping Them Secure And Legal VidProposals 2.0 Exciting Features EMAIL SENDER (NEW!) ​ Send Proposals in BULK using our integrated Email sender. Connect as many Gmail & Outlook accounts as you want. ✔ Set up Email campaigns ✔ Use advanced email composer. ✔Email templates library with 100s of cold outreach scripts. EXPERTS MARKETPLACE (NEW!) ​ If you don’t know how to provide a particular service, don’t worry. Their Expert Marketplace makes service arbitrage a breeze. We help you connect with service providers and you both make money. LEAD GEN TOOL (NEW!) ​ Looking for more clients. They’ve got you covered with this new feature in VidProposals 2.0. HOSTING ​ Host All Your Proposals On VidProposal Servers For Super-Fast Delivery – NO NEED To Host Any Proposals On Your Own CUSTOM THANK YOU PAGES ​ Create Custom Thank You Pages To Celebrate The New Deal RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS ​ Get Instantly Informed When The Client Views The Contract. DOWNLOAD PDFs Of The SIGNED CONTRACT ​ The Best Way To Keep Things Moving Forward Is To Have Both Parties Under Control Of The Situation. CAPTURE TIME AND DATE STAMPS ​ For better accountability, both the client and vendor are fully aware of when the deal was signed. INTERACTIVE VIDEOS ​ Add CTAs right in the video BRENDABLE PROPOSALS ​ Add Your Colors and Logo To Each Offer To Keep That Consistent, Professional Look. CAMERA, SCREEN, OR CAMERA & SCREEN RECORDING ​ Chrome Extension Makes Recording Your Own Video Super Simple – No DOWNLOAD REQUIRED In Order To Create Your Proposals PROTECTED PROPOSALS ​ Signed proposals cannot be deleted – We Are Not Giving An Inch To Anyone Willing To Game The System Or Cause Chaos Within Your Account. Signed. Sealed. Delivered. Securely. Get Access VidProposals 2.0 + Huge Bonuses >> Who Is Perfect for VidProposals 2.0 Video marketers – Showcase video creation skills directly within proposals, giving potential clients a taste of their work. Digital marketing agencies – Streamline the proposal process, impress clients with video proposals, and close deals faster. Freelancers and consultants – Provide a professional and personalized experience to potential clients, helping to secure more contracts. Web design and development agencies – Utilize video proposals to explain complex concepts and present design mockups, making it easier to close deals. Social media management firms – Offer potential clients a glimpse into their social media strategy and show the value of their services through video proposals. SEO and content marketing agencies – Effectively communicate their strategies and showcase past successes to win clients over with video proposals. PR agencies – Use video proposals to demonstrate their ability to craft compelling narratives and manage brand reputation. E-commerce businesses – Connect with potential partners, suppliers, or even investors, using professional video proposals. Coaches and trainers – Present their programs and services in a compelling way, making it easier for potential clients to understand the value they provide. Final Opinion: VidProposals 2.0 Review In conclusion, I want tot to say VidProposals 2.0 is Highly Recommended! VidProposals 2.0 lets you create, send, sign, and profit with video proposals like never before – all from one dashboard. VidProposals 2.0 Next-Gen Technology to create, send, sign & profit professional and convenient video proposals in just minutes! With VidProposals 2.0 you get a high-converting solution for your business that makes it easy for you to secure regular, paying clients month after month after month… for years and years. LOOK… VidProposals 2.0 is a full-blown video proposal app (with a LeadGen app too) that will make you the first agency to connect with your prospects like no one else has before. This will, of course, lead to a dramatic increase in sales & profit. Get Instant Access Here >>