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Mastodon's Founder Says Trump's New Social Network Is Just Mastodon

53 points by M2Ys4U 5y ago

riffic 5y ago
just because the mastodon software exists doesn't mean that operating the software is going to be a breeze, especially at the sort of scale this site is going to see. They better have some ace devops folks working on this. Somehow I don't think they do though, and would expect to see some high-profile incidents pop up in the future.
h2odragon 5y ago
I hope they're giving their IT on this "hazard pay" rates. Imagine the thrill of owning the server(s) that the entire (technically able to put a stick in your spokes) Internet hates. Keeping that shit running will be a badge of sysadmin honor.
- riffic 5y ago
  question: would you yourself want that "badge of sysadmin honor" on your resume? I feel that if it were to be known that I was involved with this in any way, it'd kill every future job prospect I'd be willing to take. And you'd better keep your resume up to date considering how quick the employer here is known to be in issuing pink slips and other forms of workplace hostility.
  - h2odragon 5y ago
    Good point. Depends on your goals. If you wanted to be generally employable, no; no matter your actual ideology associating with the wrong tribe can be lethal now. If you're comfortable phrasing it as "maintained high load servers in extremely adversarial circumstances" it might be worth it... If you can find an employer who can value that without judging why you might choose to do it.
    - krapp 5y ago
      >If you can find an employer who can value that without judging why you might choose to do it. I've seen job boards posted here for employers to exclusively filter for conservative and right-wing employees. Half the US would not only hire such a person, they'd probably give them a raise for the cause.
      - riffic 5y ago
        politics aside, these are red flags for hostile working environments and will repel anyone with competence.
        maccolgan 5y ago
        What do you do when the only non-hostile working environments hire people not of your tribe?
        riffic 5y ago
        consult.
  - brigandish 5y ago
    > I feel that if it were to be known that I was involved with this in any way, it'd kill every future job prospect I'd be willing to take. If true, and I agree with you that I think it is, it's a sad indictment on the industry and the polarisation of society in general.
aww_dang 5y ago
Good for him and OpenSrc. I won't be signing up, but I wish them the best. The part about Truth.social claiming all src beining proprietary sounds disappointing, but then this is Vice covering Trump so who knows? The outrage over Trump evading book burnings is more interesting than the event.
- mousepilot 5y ago
  I don't doubt Vice is covering this accurately. I feel sorry for trump and I hope he at least has some fun with this project, I mean its not every day that you get the chance for a term or two in the highest office of the USA and then to be ridiculed for the dumpster fires that resulted has to grate on the guy. Think of it, he's not getting any younger and it has to be pretty clear even to him that he's generally considered to be a failure, especially given his embarrassing behavior post election. I hope enough folks join up that it becomes a positive experience for him, with his last attempt it was obvious even to him nobody was interested. Really, the story of trump is just all around sad and I'm not so mean I can't feel sorry for the guy.
clarge1120 5y ago
Not sure what to think about this. The title has a negative connotation, which is surprising coming from the founder. But, if they pull it off it puts Mastadon squarely on the map.
- weare138 5y ago
  The issue is Truth Social is using Mastodon without attribution and claiming in it's terms of use that Truth Social's code is proprietary which is probably in violation of Mastodon's AGPLv3 license.
  - danillonunes 5y ago
    I don't think their claim is that accurate. The complete paragraph in their terms reads like this: > Unless otherwise indicated, the Site is our proprietary property and all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics on the Site (collectively, the “Content”) and the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the “Marks”) are owned or controlled by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark laws and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws of the United States, foreign jurisdictions, and international conventions. They are talking about the proprietary property of the site (which is correct), and for the source code they are saying it's "owned or controlled by us or licensed to us". So in my understanding this part is correct. The only issue is they doesn't display the notice that the code is based on Mastodon and doesn't share the modified source code. This is in fact against AGPL. The problem with this accusation is they never launched the service officialy in the first, some people who got access to an URL which wasn't supposed to be released to the public (and apparently this URL is unacessible already), so I think a legal dispute is a hard case right now. Now they can get away by just fixing it before the launch.
    - aww_dang 5y ago
      Maybe they haven't modified the source at all?
commoner 5y ago
Truth Social should publish its source code. Gab has published its code ever since it switched to being based on Mastodon. There is no justification for Truth Social to continue violating Mastodon's AGPLv3 license. https://code.gab.com/gab/gab-open-source https://code.gab.com/gab/gab-open-source
- aaron695 5y ago
  > There is no justification for Truth Social to continue violating Mastodon's AGPLv3 license. What proof do you have of this? Personally the fact hackers have become copyright police ready to jump on people any chance they can get is quite embarrassing, but how have they broken the licence anyway?
- TheFreim 5y ago
  Last updated 7 months ago? There is no way they've gone that long without updating anything in their codebase, does this imply that they are no longer following the license (or does the license allow delays of this sort)? Also I seem to recall in the past being able to access their codebase but it was just a normal repo with recent commits (I can't remember how long ago this was, I believe it was shortly before/after they got hacked).
  - commoner 5y ago
    If Gab really has updated its production code since then, then that's a license violation and they should update their repo. But, I don't know if this is the case. Yes, it's disappointing that they switched from having all files tracked in version control to this password-protected archive. However, it is good that they released the code and Truth Social should try to meet or preferably surpass the standard that Gab is setting.
- papito 5y ago
  Trump, looking for justification to do something that adheres to the norms? Are you joking? Who is going to stop him? "Society"?

53 points by M2Ys4U 5y ago

just because the mastodon software exists doesn't mean that operating the software is going to be a breeze, especially at the sort of scale this site is going to see. They better have some ace devops folks working on this. Somehow I don't think they do though, and would expect to see some high-profile incidents pop up in the future.

h2odragon 5y ago

I hope they're giving their IT on this "hazard pay" rates. Imagine the thrill of owning the server(s) that the entire (technically able to put a stick in your spokes) Internet hates. Keeping that shit running will be a badge of sysadmin honor.

riffic 5y ago
question: would you yourself want that "badge of sysadmin honor" on your resume? I feel that if it were to be known that I was involved with this in any way, it'd kill every future job prospect I'd be willing to take. And you'd better keep your resume up to date considering how quick the employer here is known to be in issuing pink slips and other forms of workplace hostility.
- h2odragon 5y ago
  Good point. Depends on your goals. If you wanted to be generally employable, no; no matter your actual ideology associating with the wrong tribe can be lethal now. If you're comfortable phrasing it as "maintained high load servers in extremely adversarial circumstances" it might be worth it... If you can find an employer who can value that without judging why you might choose to do it.
  - krapp 5y ago
    >If you can find an employer who can value that without judging why you might choose to do it. I've seen job boards posted here for employers to exclusively filter for conservative and right-wing employees. Half the US would not only hire such a person, they'd probably give them a raise for the cause.
    - riffic 5y ago
      politics aside, these are red flags for hostile working environments and will repel anyone with competence.
      - maccolgan 5y ago
        What do you do when the only non-hostile working environments hire people not of your tribe?
        riffic 5y ago
        consult.
- brigandish 5y ago
  > I feel that if it were to be known that I was involved with this in any way, it'd kill every future job prospect I'd be willing to take. If true, and I agree with you that I think it is, it's a sad indictment on the industry and the polarisation of society in general.

aww_dang 5y ago

Good for him and OpenSrc. I won't be signing up, but I wish them the best. The part about Truth.social claiming all src beining proprietary sounds disappointing, but then this is Vice covering Trump so who knows? The outrage over Trump evading book burnings is more interesting than the event.

mousepilot 5y ago
I don't doubt Vice is covering this accurately. I feel sorry for trump and I hope he at least has some fun with this project, I mean its not every day that you get the chance for a term or two in the highest office of the USA and then to be ridiculed for the dumpster fires that resulted has to grate on the guy. Think of it, he's not getting any younger and it has to be pretty clear even to him that he's generally considered to be a failure, especially given his embarrassing behavior post election. I hope enough folks join up that it becomes a positive experience for him, with his last attempt it was obvious even to him nobody was interested. Really, the story of trump is just all around sad and I'm not so mean I can't feel sorry for the guy.

clarge1120 5y ago

Not sure what to think about this. The title has a negative connotation, which is surprising coming from the founder. But, if they pull it off it puts Mastadon squarely on the map.

weare138 5y ago
The issue is Truth Social is using Mastodon without attribution and claiming in it's terms of use that Truth Social's code is proprietary which is probably in violation of Mastodon's AGPLv3 license.
- danillonunes 5y ago
  I don't think their claim is that accurate. The complete paragraph in their terms reads like this: > Unless otherwise indicated, the Site is our proprietary property and all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics on the Site (collectively, the “Content”) and the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the “Marks”) are owned or controlled by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark laws and various other intellectual property rights and unfair competition laws of the United States, foreign jurisdictions, and international conventions. They are talking about the proprietary property of the site (which is correct), and for the source code they are saying it's "owned or controlled by us or licensed to us". So in my understanding this part is correct. The only issue is they doesn't display the notice that the code is based on Mastodon and doesn't share the modified source code. This is in fact against AGPL. The problem with this accusation is they never launched the service officialy in the first, some people who got access to an URL which wasn't supposed to be released to the public (and apparently this URL is unacessible already), so I think a legal dispute is a hard case right now. Now they can get away by just fixing it before the launch.
  - aww_dang 5y ago
    Maybe they haven't modified the source at all?

commoner 5y ago

Truth Social should publish its source code. Gab has published its code ever since it switched to being based on Mastodon. There is no justification for Truth Social to continue violating Mastodon's AGPLv3 license. https://code.gab.com/gab/gab-open-source https://code.gab.com/gab/gab-open-source

aaron695 5y ago
> There is no justification for Truth Social to continue violating Mastodon's AGPLv3 license. What proof do you have of this? Personally the fact hackers have become copyright police ready to jump on people any chance they can get is quite embarrassing, but how have they broken the licence anyway?
TheFreim 5y ago
Last updated 7 months ago? There is no way they've gone that long without updating anything in their codebase, does this imply that they are no longer following the license (or does the license allow delays of this sort)? Also I seem to recall in the past being able to access their codebase but it was just a normal repo with recent commits (I can't remember how long ago this was, I believe it was shortly before/after they got hacked).
- commoner 5y ago
  If Gab really has updated its production code since then, then that's a license violation and they should update their repo. But, I don't know if this is the case. Yes, it's disappointing that they switched from having all files tracked in version control to this password-protected archive. However, it is good that they released the code and Truth Social should try to meet or preferably surpass the standard that Gab is setting.
papito 5y ago
Trump, looking for justification to do something that adheres to the norms? Are you joking? Who is going to stop him? "Society"?