Mastodon for the RIPE Community
Dear all, At the last RIPE Meeting, I presented at the RIPE Community Plenary on Mastodon, asking if the RIPE NCC should run a server that would be open to community members. The presentation is at: https://ripe87.ripe.net/archives/video/1251/ The feedback we got was that this was not something we should do, or at least not right away. The main concerns were about the work involved and the difficulties in moderating a public server. Given this feedback, and considering the costs and maintenance required from our technical staff, we will not provide a server this year. However, there were also suggestions that we should dip our toe in the water. So we have started a RIPE NCC account on Mastodon that community members can follow. We hope to connect with people and also learn more about the Mastodon ecosystem. We can then revisit this question at a later date once we are familiar with the platform and we can better assess whether there is appetite for us to provide a server for the community. If you’re already on Mastodon, you can follow us at: https://mastodon.social/@ripencc. See you there! Best regards, Ulka Athale RIPE NCC
Ulka Athale <uathale@ripe.net> wrote: > Dear all, > At the last RIPE Meeting, I presented at the RIPE Community Plenary on > Mastodon, asking if the RIPE NCC should run a server that would be open > to community members. The presentation is at: > https://ripe87.ripe.net/archives/video/1251/ > The feedback we got was that this was not something we should do, or at > least not right away. The main concerns were about the work involved > and the difficulties in moderating a public server. > Given this > feedback, and considering the costs and maintenance required from our > technical staff, we will not provide a server this year. Good. I see no reason for RIPE to run a server accessible to members. (RIPE doesn't offer SMTP/IMAP either) > However, there were also suggestions that we should dip our toe in the > water. So we have started a RIPE NCC account on Mastodon that community > members can follow. We hope to connect with people and also learn more Good, but there was also a suggestion that RIPE operate a server that was restricted to staff/management only. RIPE does operate SMTP for ripe.net. (SMTP is ultimate original decentralized system) > about the Mastodon ecosystem. We can then revisit this question at a > later date once we are familiar with the platform and we can better > assess whether there is appetite for us to provide a server for the > community. > If you’re already on Mastodon, you can follow us at: > https://mastodon.social/@ripencc. I've followed. I would RIPE to consider if continued presence on twitter is ethical. What criteria would you consider in this decision? -- Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF@sandelman.ca> . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting ) Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide
Dear Michael, all, We had two main questions with setting up our presence on Mastodon - whether we should run our own server, and whether this should be open to the community. Running our own server offers some benefits like greater control and the ability to set our own moderation policies. This, of course, comes with the need for RIPE NCC staff to invest time and effort in maintaining this server, regardless of whether we restrict it to staff or open it to the RIPE community. Having looked into this in more detail, we felt that having a verified RIPE NCC presence on Mastodon was more important than waiting for the right moment to launch our own server, even if we were to restrict it to RIPE NCC staff. Regarding the ethics of being on Twitter, or any other social media platform, we need to consider the risk of our absence. The official RIPE NCC accounts have nearly 20,000 followers and social media remains an important way for us to reach people who might not be reading our emails. No longer maintaining an active presence leaves us open to the risk of copycat accounts (which has been a concern ever since Twitter changed its verification system), and might make us less accessible to the many people and organisations who continue to use it. We have a responsibility to remain open and reachable. By launching a Mastodon server, we are trying to develop alternative channels for people in our community who no longer want to use Twitter. If and when the balance of followers shifts, we can revisit which platforms we choose to put our efforts into. Regards, Ulka --------- Ulka Athale RIPE NCC
Ulka Running your own Mastodon (or any other) server is an extra overhead and burden, which takes resources. Joining an existing one makes perfect sense. I also agree 100% about maintaining a presence on Twitter / X. Are there other social networks that the NCC is considering? Regards Michele -- Mr Michele Neylon Blacknight Solutions Hosting, Colocation & Domains https://www.blacknight.com/ https://blacknight.blog/ Intl. +353 (0) 59 9183072 Direct Dial: +353 (0)59 9183090 Personal blog: https://michele.blog/ Some thoughts: https://ceo.hosting/ ------------------------------- Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd, Unit 12A,Barrowside Business Park,Sleaty Road,Graiguecullen,Carlow,R93 X265,Ireland Company No.: 370845 I have sent this email at a time that is convenient for me. I do not expect you to respond to it outside of your usual working hours.
On 4/29/24 05:57, Ulka Athale wrote:
We had two main questions with setting up our presence on Mastodon - whether we should run our own server, and whether this should be open to the community. Running our own server offers some benefits like greater control and the ability to set our own moderation policies. This, of course, comes with the need for RIPE NCC staff to invest time and effort in maintaining this server
We set up our own community/open Mastodon instance <https://mastodns.net> at DNS-OARC, and found both that running this is fairly low-maintenance, and also that there are readily available mastodon-as-a-service providers out there that can make it easier. The OARC community is rather smaller than the RIPE one, however, so it's possible that moderation and AUP etc issues may be more significant than ours. Overall we've found running our own server to be a positive so far, and it's good to see RIPE having a Fediverse presence. Keith
This is just datapoint... https://connect.geant.org/2024/04/29/geant-is-ceasing-activities-on-x-fka-tw... This also have links to other NRENs and Universities that did the same... Also regarding the "20,000 followers" - I think this wrong metric, but I am not a social media expert, so I don't know how to cleanup this list to remove dead accounts (like GÉANT above) and bots to understand what's the actual number of people you are reaching this way. Cheers, -- Ondřej Surý (He/Him) ondrej@sury.org
On 29. 4. 2024, at 11:57, Ulka Athale <uathale@ripe.net> wrote:
Regarding the ethics of being on Twitter, or any other social media platform, we need to consider the risk of our absence. The official RIPE NCC accounts have nearly 20,000 followers and social media remains an important way for us to reach people who might not be reading our emails. No longer maintaining an active presence leaves us open to the risk of copycat accounts (which has been a concern ever since Twitter changed its verification system), and might make us less accessible to the many people and organisations who continue to use it. We have a responsibility to remain open and reachable.
On 2 May 2024, at 09:48, Ondřej Surý <ondrej@sury.org> wrote:
This is just datapoint...
https://connect.geant.org/2024/04/29/geant-is-ceasing-activities-on-x-fka-tw...
This also have links to other NRENs and Universities that did the same...
I was going to share the same news, yesterday. It seems that GEANT is going to stay with two active channels, LinkedIn and Mastodon. In my opinion, Mastodon's architecture is more suitable for diverse communities, and it seems like LinkedIn is slowly turning into a Facebook clone. I believe that Meta Threads' fediverse promise should also be considered as an option. Just like GEANT, which is keeping their X/Twitter accounts and occasionally posting there, I suggest that NCC should consider doing the same. It is nice to explore more platforms, but these three should definitely be considered.
Also regarding the "20,000 followers" - I think this wrong metric, but I am not a social media expert, so I don't know how to cleanup this list to remove dead accounts (like GÉANT above) and bots to understand what's the actual number of people you are reaching this way.
True, that. If we can measure engagement (likes, saves, and retweets) then its a better metric.
Cheers, -- Ondřej Surý (He/Him) ondrej@sury.org
On 29. 4. 2024, at 11:57, Ulka Athale <uathale@ripe.net> wrote:
Regarding the ethics of being on Twitter, or any other social media platform, we need to consider the risk of our absence. The official RIPE NCC accounts have nearly 20,000 followers and social media remains an important way for us to reach people who might not be reading our emails. No longer maintaining an active presence leaves us open to the risk of copycat accounts (which has been a concern ever since Twitter changed its verification system), and might make us less accessible to the many people and organisations who continue to use it. We have a responsibility to remain open and reachable.
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Hello Ulka, On 25 Apr 2024, at 15:26, Ulka Athale wrote:
However, there were also suggestions that we should dip our toe in the water. So we have started a RIPE NCC account on Mastodon that community members can follow. We hope to connect with people and also learn more about the Mastodon ecosystem. We can then revisit this question at a later date once we are familiar with the platform and we can better assess whether there is appetite for us to provide a server for the community.
Great to see RIPE NCC on Mastodon! I don’t think I commented in the community plenary, but I strongly feel that while a server for RIPE NCC’s own accounts or NCC staff can make sense, RIPE NCC should definitely not run a general Mastodon server for RIPE community members. In this way, Mastodon is in my opinion similar to mail or web hosting here: the NCC runs those things for their own operations and for things like RIPE mailing lists, but does not offer them to RIPE community members for general use. There are many other service providers that do this already, and having RIPE NCC run this adds many headaches at very little added value. Sasha
participants (7)
-
Dmitry Kohmanyuk -
Keith Mitchell -
Michael Richardson -
Michele Neylon - Blacknight -
Ondřej Surý -
Sasha Romijn -
Ulka Athale