Groups > alt.folklore.computers > #234930

Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse)

From	Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	alt.folklore.computers
Subject	Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse)
Date	2026-06-07 00:11 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<11029f9$25b4p$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(7 earlier) <10vu2q8$viq0$1@dont-email.me> <10vu3dp$16jm$2@nntp.sonologic.net> <20260605172808.cd2587c4015a0bac2f5d83ee@127.0.0.1> <1780678020-14325@newsgrouper.org> <874ijfebv5.fsf@posteo.de>

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On 2026-06-06, Jonathan Lamothe wrote:

> SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> writes:
>
>> "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> posted:
>>
>>
>>  
>>> What's wanted is a platform with a threaded heirarchal message
>>> system^w^w^w^w an exact clone of Usenet that's fast and has lots of
>>> intelligent traffic, that attracts well behaved folk, yet keeps out the
>>> troll idiots.
>>> One can dream.
>>
>>
>> If I can add to that: text only too. No emoji, no images. Keep it about 
>> the message, not the fluff.
>>
>> (I'm on the fence with stuff like text-effects like bold and italics. We 
>> can discuss hyperlinking. ;-)
>>
>> Or is that too old-school?
>>
>>
>> (More importantly though: the ideal system would have to be decentralized. 
>> Usenet wouldn't survived as long as it did if it were dependent on a single
>> provider.)
>
> I would push back slightly on the no emoji thing, not because I feel any
> particular way about emoji themselves, but if you want this system to be
> able to serve non English-speaking users, Unicode support would be the
> best (though admittedly imperfect) tool we've currently got for that
> purpose.

Emojis are still an accessibility problem. Having them handled
via UCS *should* be good from a point of view of ensuring some
consistency and well-defined meaning, that could be exploited to either
show these as text or provide descriptions somehow. But the usual
approach of cramming a bunch of stuff in a single glyph *is* a huge
downgrade compared to ASCII smileys and the like.

... but don't forget this: there are glyphs in wide use that aren't
really consistent or adequate, there's widespread usage of a "no 18"
sign with the meaning and name of "no one under eighteen" (0x1F51E) -
which was even submitted to UCS with the bogus "no 18" rendering some
fonts use.

I've been told this is because the source fonts did not have room for
more [1], which both points to possible issues regarding what is shown
v. the meaning even with UCS, and to the problem of readability and
accessibility itself.

[1] <https://mastodon.social/@CharlotteBuff/112806149720738139> - which
is in a thread about another issue with sign coverage in UCS, for some
reason there are (or at least that was the case when the posts were
made?) a bunch of prohibition signs... but not C3a.

But I digress: the point I wanted to make is that emojis in general end
up being a downgrade IMHO, but that I'd hope at least UCS or, in
image-based add-ons to systems like Mastodon, proper metadata, would
make it possible to provide better readability, and possibly fully ASCII
replacements.

At least for stuff close enough to ASCII, like the UCS equivalent of
Microsoft Dumb Quotes™ and some mathematical signs, it's even possible
to add //TRANSLIT to the iconv(1) encoding specification to get
e.g. ASCII or latin1 versions. But of course this isn't any good for
emojis. I merely mean something similar should be, in theory, possible.

I have some Gnus settings to convert some of the glyphs of the kind
//TRANSLIT can handle to something more capable of being displayed in a
latin1 terminal, I should check if that could be useful for emojis.

-- 
Nuno Silva

Thread

SDF Public Access Unix System rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-02-14 21:09 +0000
  Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Rich Alderson <news@alderson.users.panix.com> - 2026-02-14 17:31 -0500
  Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-02-15 11:12 -0800
  Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Beej Jorgensen <beej@beej.us> - 2026-02-17 19:07 +0000
    Re: SDF Public Access Unix System "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-oru-this> - 2026-02-18 07:50 -0800
      Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-02-18 09:45 -0800
      Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Beej Jorgensen <beej@beej.us> - 2026-02-19 03:15 +0000
        Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-02-19 03:49 +0000
        Re: SDF Public Access Unix System "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-d7b-this> - 2026-02-19 07:16 -0800
          Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Juancho <eternal@notreally.com> - 2026-05-31 06:57 +0200
            Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-05-31 08:46 +0100
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Peter Flass <Peter@Iron-Spring.com> - 2026-05-31 08:11 -0700
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-05-31 17:58 +0000
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-04 11:49 +0100
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-04 16:09 +0000
                Mastodon (and the fediverse) (was: Re: SDF Public Access Unix System) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-05 09:53 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) gmc@metro.cx (Koen Martens) - 2026-06-05 09:03 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1> - 2026-06-05 17:28 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) SpallsHurgenson(NG) <user14325@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-06-05 16:47 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-05 23:57 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-06-06 07:07 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-06 14:59 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-06 21:16 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-07 00:23 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-07 09:28 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-07 16:15 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) drb@ihatespam.msu.edu (Dennis Boone) - 2026-06-07 16:42 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-07 23:11 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-08 00:58 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-06-08 00:21 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-06 14:56 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-07 00:11 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-06-07 00:17 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-07 02:33 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-07 09:25 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> - 2026-06-07 12:24 -0400
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Daniel Cerqueira <dan.list@lispclub.com> - 2026-06-07 07:05 +0100
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-07 08:04 +0000
                Re: Mastodon (and the fediverse) Root Badger <admin@rootbadger.com> - 2026-06-07 18:43 +0000
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-06-01 12:34 -0400
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Daniel Cerqueira <dan.list@lispclub.com> - 2026-06-01 20:11 +0100
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-06-04 11:52 +0100
            Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-06-01 14:06 -0700
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-06-02 01:46 +0000
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-06-02 11:01 +0000
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2026-06-02 09:17 -0700
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) - 2026-06-02 17:30 +0000
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System "Kurt Weiske" <kurt.weiske@realitycheckbbs.org.remove-9jk-this> - 2026-06-02 07:25 -0700
                Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-06-02 22:00 +0000
              Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Juancho <eternal@notreally.com> - 2026-06-03 19:50 +0200
      Re: SDF Public Access Unix System Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-02-21 10:11 +0000

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