📣​ New post 📝​

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting: GoToSocial part 1 (installation and set-up)"

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-gotosocial-part-1-installation-and-set-up/

Basically a visual guide showing how to install #GoToSocial via #YunoHost and set it up with some basic security.

⏱️​ From start to finish, it should take about 25-30 minutes.

It's my act of resistance against tech bros... I love the idea of teaching people how to self-host their own social media instance, connected to the fediverse ✌️​❤️​ :GoToSocial:​

Thank you @nprofile1q...  and @nprofile1q... for empowering us all!

#SelfHosting #Fediverse #newbie #MySoCalledSudoLife #blog #resist

Dear Fedi friends,

I know I had promised you a step-by-step tutorial for the installation of #GoToSocial on YunoHost... well, chapter one is 99% written.

Thing is, I just discovered a potential little bug and I gave a heads-up to the YunoHost folks (something related to open registrations).

If I don't hear back by tomorrow I may use CLI to go look into it in Terminal and try to change the setting that way (even if by default it's set to "false", I found that in reality the latest version does allow signups).

I never changed GoToSocial settings in Terminal and it could be fuuuun.

All this to say: thank you for your patience and the article will come as soon as I get an answer about the open registration issue.

Wishing you all a great day, wherever you are 🌈​

#Signal troubleshooting - very odd support conversation

Yesterday afternoon I had a quick video call with someone using Signal and then I went to pick up my child from an afternoon summer program.

When I got home I realized that my phone wasn't receiving any new messages on Signal... but my computer was. Signal on my phone was completely frozen.

I followed a prompt and sent the most recent log to their support email. Then carried on with my life.

At some point, 2 hours later, I had a eureka moment: the last thing that worked was a call. Let's try the same thing.

So I called my mom and hung up (she was in the same room as me). After the call, all the Signal messages that had accumulated during the afternoon magically synched. Everything worked again! And then I found a new message by Signal saying "Welcome to the official Signal release chat!" Ok.

Glad I was distracted by my child and dinner because when I checked my email, I found a response from Signal support: "It appears the database is irrecoverably damaged. Unfortunately you will need to completely uninstall and then reinstall Signal. This will delete your message history. It cannot be recovered."

Say what? 😳​

So I wrote back to Signal that I had fixed my issue by simply starting a call and then all the messages started synching again. I thanked them for their speedy reply and said everything was ok.

I did the bedtime routine for my child and before bed I checked my email again.

Two identical emails from Signal:

"Hello. We understand your frustration. We feel it too" HUH?

"There is no specific timeline for a resolution at this moment." WHAT RESOLUTION, I SAID I FIXED THE PROBLEM?

"Please keep in mind we are a small team and have limitations as a non-profit organization. Uninstalling and reinstalling is the only action available."

I feel for you Signal and I'm super grateful for all you do, but maybe your LLM support system needs some tweaking. Because this has got to be some LLM that misunderstood my reply.

Thank goodness I didn't wipe 6 years' worth of messages, gaaah.

Signal has been working perfectly ever since. Still, I'm now compiling a list of people I message on there as a contingency plan, should thing go awry again.

I've been using #DeltaChat more lately and more and really love it.

one more tale for #MySoCalledSudoLife

#NoAI #LLM

Peak #MySoCalledSudoLife today:

📡​ I set up my first #MeshCore repeater (and it's working splendidly)

🧱​ I created a custom-built case for it with LEGO (see: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116912226996146067)

👩‍💻​ I installed #HomeBrew on my Macbook Air this morning and I'm currently installing #Meshy

🙌​ endless gratitude towards my Mesh guide @nprofile1q... who has the patience of a zen master and helped me through all this #GratefulForYou

Good morning Fedi friends!

On the agenda today: writing a first draft explaining to newbies how to self-host #GoToSocial with the help of #YunoHost.

Now, to do a step-by-step installation guide I need to create a brand new account, so I can document everything.

I'm a little stressed out thinking of which domain name to use and the fact it would be something like my 20th - yes TWENTIETH - ActivityPub account!!! 🫠

The things you do for the love of the fediverse 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

European institutions seem to be all in when it comes to introducing age verification mandates for citizens in member states: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/commission-sets-out-common-approach-eu-wide-age-verification-technologies

I now have daily anxiety thinking about the future of the fediverse.

So how do I channel this fear and turn it into something constructive? I'm going back to writing #selfhosting guides for newbies.

It's a great distraction, which gives me a bit of hope. Especially the next guide, which will cover my favorite fediverse software - #GoToSocial (which is powering this instance) - and how to install and configure it. Your own little home on the fediverse! Lightweight and features-packed.

Surely something like this would fall outside the scope of regulation. Right? Right?

#MySoCalledSudoLife #YunoHost #VPS #AgeVerification #privacy #EUBigTech

Dear Fedi friends,

It may be time for a re-introduction: I'm Elena, an Italian creative (writer, photographer, filmmaker) living in Paris, France.

You may have initially gotten to know me for my advocacy for the Fediverse (like my Fedi intro video: https://blog.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/ or my blog or my Fediverse stock photo). So, you may have been a bit confused lately, over all my critical posts about the new network W Social. Why do I keep bringing it up?

I believe that W Social - and its required, companion app W Identity - are an existential threat to the Fediverse. So I'm fighting tooth and nail to oppose and resist them.

Why? The European Commission has enthusiastically embraced this new hard fork of Bluesky that requires age verification. Even Ursula von der Leyen advertised the launch of W Social in between G7 meetings last week.

I have MOUNTAINS of evidence of poor planning, extremely lax security, use of U.S. Big Tech platforms for something that purports to be "based in Europe, for the world."

Why is it a threat for the Fediverse? The only way to make sense of the European Commission's embrace of this platform is that maybe it sees it as a trial run for MANDATORY age verification for social media across the European Union.

No Fediverse app has infrastructure in place to comply. And if a mandate is introduced, it would spell the end of the open social web and internet anonymity... like Chat Control, but basically killing the Fediverse.

I find it EXTREMELY disturbing to see the enthusiastic embrace of W Social by the European Commission. It took them YEARS to change their website footer and add Mastodon and Bluesky instead of X. In the span of 5 weeks, they replaced the Bluesky logo (a butterfly) with the "W" from W Social.

All my posts about W Social from last week went viral. My articles have been quoted in articles in French, Dutch and German news sites (https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/).

I have held back from sharing more evidence I found because I don't want to appear like a bully who promotes pile-ons. I'm a nice, sweet person, I promise! I take ZERO pleasure in writing about W Social, but I have unwittingly become an expert on them - after researching them for 5 months. So here I am.

I will keep investigating them. If you don't want to hear about this topic anymore - I would understand - you can mute the hashtags #Wsocial and #DubyaSocial (that's a pretty apt way to describe them IMHO).

Peace out.

#introduction #reintroduction

How to create an account on #WSocial in 13 easy steps:

choose a username
choose a password
choose your interests
download the #WIdentity app to your phone (two options: Apple AppStore or Google Play Store)
scan a QR code
create a PIN code
optional: enable biometrics; re-enter PIN
choose whether you simply want to verify that you're human or if you also want to verify your name
choose the verification method (automatic photo review, request a manual review or scan your passport chip)
scan your passport's picture page
scan your passport's chip
take a selfie
scan a QR code to link the W Identity to your W Social account
enter your PIN code

Congratulations, you're verified*!

(* for two years)

Demonstration in all its simple glory here:

📺​: https://inv.nadeko.net/Vcq4MiabpEQ

Please save this toot as reference if you ever hear somebody say that IT'S TOO COMPLICATED TO JOIN THE FEDIVERSE BECAUSE YOU NEED TO PICK A SERVER 🤡​

#SocialMedia

I'm officially one of you. Whenever I see graphics about digital sovereignty and moving away from Big Tech, I go: "well, actually" - especially when I see Signal suggested as an alternative to WhatsApp.

My first thought: Signal is pretty centralized, #DeltaChat would be a far superior alternative 🙈​🙉​🙊​

Disclaimer: I use both (Signal and DeltaChat) but I really wish I could move all my convos to @[email protected]. Slowly convincing one person at a time...

#MySoCalledSudoLife #BigTech

The sheer ignorance of some tech "journalists" INFURIATES me.

Today the NYTimes featured on its homepage an article about how "The Netherlands blocked a U.S. company from buying a Dutch firm that handles its national ID system."

🔗​: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/technology/solvinity-kyndryl-blocked-deal-us-europe-rift.html

So far, so good.

But the journalist behind the article wrote in the comments section:

"More and more, countries in Europe want to disentangle themselves from American tech. What's less clear is what exactly they can replace it with."

EXCUSE ME ADAM SATARIANO, THERE IS A GALAXY OF EXCELLENT FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT MANY EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS ARE ALREADY USING.... OR EVEN BUILDING AT THE MOMENT.

Maybe I should have gone into journalism after all #lesigh

#rants