Social Media – Page 2 – David Bradley

Hacking your own link shortener

TL:DR – If you run your own website, it’s relatively easy to set redirects so that you can share a shortened URL that takes someone to a resource with a much longer address.

Many people are familiar with the various link shorteners that have been with us for well over twenty years now. I think tinyurl was the first one I used, but there are many more like ow.ly, bit.ly, goo.gl, t.co etc. Some of them are hard-coded into websites and apps so that any link (URL, uniform resource locator) you post gets shortened to save resources and allow the app to track.

To hack your own link shortener, you need your own domain name. That can be your website domain, of course, but you could find a tiny little domain like those above and pay to register that and then use it to do the conversions. I am sure lots of people do that and lots of people have code running on their server or whatever to redirect anyone who has the shortened link to the proper page.

Personally, I haven’t bothered with an alternative, so my shortened links are basically of the form “sciencebase.com/someword”.* For example, I have set up the following URL on my domain sciencebase.com/music to redirect to a detailed blog post about my music activities which automatically redirects to the full URL for the page https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/sciencebase-to-sciencebass.html which as you can see is far more unwieldy than sciencebase.com/music

I use the so-called .htaccess file on my server to do the redirect which involves editing the file and adding a line. If your website is on a server that doesn’t use .htaccess there are usually configuration files and server scripts that let you do redirects, or WordPress or Drupal plugins and such, check with your webhost.

redirect 301 /music https://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/sciencebase-to-sciencebass.html

Of course, the neat thing about a redirect is that it doesn’t have to redirect to something on the same domain, it can take visitors elsewhere, so for example, I have my social media links all setup as simple sciencebase.com links but they redirect almost instantaneously to the actual page. For example sciencebase.com/mastodon takes you straight to my mastodon page https://mastodon.social/@sciencebase.

Indeed, if I’m on some social media platform, then you should be able to find me by using a URL of the format sciencebase.com/social and substituting the word social for your platform of choice, it works for with twitter, spoutible, facebook, linkedin, instagram, bandcamp, soundcloud, youtube, pixelfed, and hopefully any of the other common sites and apps. I’m sure there are a few I’m not using and haven’t linked. There are various other redirects I’ve set up so that I could share the short link sciencebase.com/photos or sciencebase.com/book or similar and take people to a particular page with a much longer URL.

One extra advantage to this method of link shortening is that I can change the destination, so the “/music” link could take people straight to my BandCamp page or the “/book” link could take them to the info page for my new book rather than my old one.

Anyway, that’s how I hack my own link shortener to direct people to particular resources without having to share a long URL or use an external app to do the shortening for me.

*Some visitors tried to access the link where I’d used someword, it didn’t go anywhere, so I set a redirect for it to send people to the blog homepage.

Search engine market share

TL:DR – The final launch of Google was in 1997 after it was prototyped in 1995 (the year I launched my first website). It remains the dominant search engine to this day having pretty much seen off all of the competition at the time and pushed down any recent upstarts.

Back in the 1990s, long before Google existed as an official tool, there were several search engines that were my go-to search engines, AltaVista, AllTheWeb, a couple of others. Then along came Google proper in 1997 and changed everything. Everything. If you had a website, which I had done since 1995, you had to rank on Google or nobody would find you.

There was a point in time, when my website did indeed rank. It had a Google PageRank of 9 (out of 10). This ranking was on a par with the BBC and CNN for a time. I ranked on page one of the SERPs (search engine results pages) for almost every key phrase I could’ve wanted to be on page one for and was number one on those pages for a lot of key terms. I used to get a lot of traffic, a lot of unique visitors. But, as the web became increasingly crowded and Google tweaked its algorithms, my site slipped a bit, then a lot. Then along came social media and that changed everything again. Well, not quite everything.

Today, Google remains the dominant force in search. Check the stats, its market share is commonly reported as more than 90 percent. All of the other search engines take a slice of a lot less than 10 percent of the search pie between them. When I look at my site’s stats, visitors from search engines are mainly from google.com and then a load from the various national Googles. Bing gives me less than 2% of my page views, Baidu about 1.5%, and everything else, like Yandex, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, just 1% or less. Google delivers over 90%.

Fundamentally, Google has sustained its reputation for being a reliable and trustworthy search engine. It continually innovates and improves. Morever, it’s made so much money over the years it can continue to invest in itself and move forward where smaller companies might falter and fail. In addition, it has diversified successfully. Even while some of its projects have failed and been shuttered, there are important tools that almost everyone continues to use to this day.

I should point out that I use DuckDuckGo as my go-to search engine these days.

More on choosing the best Mastodon server

TL:DR – Mastodon is a decentralized social network. It consists of thousands of different sites, or instances, all running the Mastodon software but each with its own character, community, and rules. When choosing an instance to join, you are best served by choosing one that aligns with your interests and values.

You should consider the following when choosing your first Mastodon instance. Remember, you can always switch later and take any followers you gain with you.

Community: The first thing to consider when choosing an instance is the community that it represents. Each instance has its own set of users with their own interests and opinions. Unless you wish to see conflicting opinions, it is worth seeking out an instance with which you share values. Some instances focus on specific topics such as technology, science, art, or politics, others are more general.

Moderation: Mastodon instances are self-moderated with their own set of rules. Some are strict, others more permissive in terms of the content they allow. You need to find an instance with moderation policies that you are comfortable with.

Size: Size matters. Larger instances can be more active, which can be better but can be overwhelming. Smaller instances may have a tighter-knit community with more focused discussions, but you might find them less engaging.

Administration: It is worth knowing who owns and runs an instance. Often it is an individual but it can be a group or even an organisation.

Availability: Some instances are more prone to downtime or server issues. There is also the issue that for some instances, an admin may not have the finances to sustain it or even make a decision to close the instance at any time. It’s worth looking at the instance’s track record, how well it is supported, and also whether there is a notice period for closure.

If you have questions about a given instance, you can look at its public timeline and documentation, you can even post questions about it in the wider community. As a Sciencebase reader, you might like to consider the more popular instances that are used by the people I follow. You can find that list here.

Choosing the best Mastodon server

TL:DR – There are lots of Mastodon servers, choosing the best is down to personal needs. Choose one in your niche that has a good number of users, more than one admin, and a good financial base.

If you’re new to Mastodon, then have a quick read of my Mastodon FAQ to get an idea of what it’s all about.

Social media tool Mastodon is essentially a network of connected websites all running the same software. Users refer to these websites as instances. You can think of an instance as being a specialist group on another famous social media system. But each instance or server is owned and managed independently rather than being controlled for the benefit of a billionaire and shareholders.

Once you’re ready to grab Mastodon by the tusks you will need to choose a server or instance with which to sign up. The following list are the servers most commonly used by the people I follow.

This list is substantially the same as when I last did an analysis of the most popular Mastodon servers, but with a few important exceptions.

Some additional “thoughts” via ChatGPT about Mastodon:

Mastodon is a decentralized social network that is part of a larger network of federated social media platforms known as the Fediverse. As a newcomer to Mastodon, choosing the right instance is an important decision, as it can impact the quality of your experience on the platform. Here are some tips for choosing a Mastodon instance:

Identify your interests and values: One of the advantages of Mastodon is the ability to join instances that cater to specific interests or values. Before selecting an instance, identify what you are looking for in a community. For example, if you are interested in technology, you may want to join an instance that focuses on tech discussions.

Research the instance: Once you have identified your interests, research the Mastodon instances that cater to those interests. Look for information on the instance’s rules, moderation policies, and user demographics. It’s also a good idea to check out the instance’s timeline to get a sense of the content that is shared.

Consider the size of the instance: Mastodon instances can vary in size, from small communities to large ones. Larger instances may have a wider range of users and content, but they can also be overwhelming for newcomers. Smaller instances may offer a more intimate experience, but the content may be limited.

Check the instance’s uptime: As a decentralized network, Mastodon instances can experience downtime or technical issues. Before joining an instance, check its uptime record to ensure that it is reliable.

Look for a welcoming community: Mastodon is known for its friendly and inclusive communities. Look for instances that prioritize inclusivity and have policies in place to prevent harassment and hate speech.

Try multiple instances: Mastodon allows users to have accounts on multiple instances. If you are unsure which instance to join, try a few and see which ones feel like the best fit for you.

Overall, choosing a Mastodon instance requires some research and consideration of your interests and values. By selecting the right instance, you can join a welcoming community that shares your passions and engage in meaningful discussions.

How to add an emoji to your Mastodon username and why you shouldn’t

TL:DR – It is relatively easy to add an emoji to your username on some Mastodon instances, but such silliness reduces the experience for some people who use screen readers.

UPDATE: It’s worth considering the fact that many people use screen readers and that emoji and other such silliness are “read” out sequentially be this type of software. So, pretty as the emoji might look, you have to also consider how it will sound. See also hashtags (which should always be put at the end of any text so that the person using the screen readers gets them after the main point rather than within a block of text).

If you’re on Mastodon and noticed that several people you follow have an emoji next to their username when you view their profile or their updates, you might be wondering how to add one yourself. At the time of writing, I have the Mastodon icon next to my username on my account.

Well, to make this work you need to check what emoji are enabled on your instance/server. On mine, mastodon.social, I can open the following URL in a browser – https://emojos.in/mastodon.social – and it displays all the available emoji. Alongside each emoji is a keyword flanked by two colons. It is this bit of code that you need to add next to your username in your profile settings. If you’re on scicomm.xyz the link to use would obviously be https://emojos.in/scicomm.xyz to display the available emoji code.

Once you have your chosen code, go to the edit profile page for your account and paste or type the appropriate bit of code to display the emoji you want, and save your settings.

Some Mastodon instances allow more emoji than others, and their lists do vary. mastodon.science does not make any available. Some instances, such as med-mastodon.com allow you to use past the following – :verified: – next to your name and it then displays a “blue tick” next to your name to show you’re verified. Of course, you’re not actually verified, there is no verification of this sort on Mastodon. The only genuine verification is to include a link to your own website where you have pasted the appropriate html code to prove that you have access to the back-end of the website and so can edit it.

You can find other Mastodon instances ranked by popularity in my sphere here.

Graze for Mastodon

TL:DR – A few thoughts on Mastodon written just after the second big migration from the bird place.

If you’re active on social media and even just vaguely interested in tech stuff, then you will almost certainly have heard about the changes at twitter and how a lot of users of that platform have switched allegiance to another, Mastodon. I’ve written a Mastodon FAQ by way of introduction to the platform.

Mastodon was originally launched in 2016 and I seem to have a record of a login from August that year, but I joined “Mastodon.Social” properly in November 2019. I must admit I didn’t use it much until April 2022, and then again in late October 2022 after which I have been a lot more active there than on Twitter. You can find me on Mastodon here:

@[email protected]

Anyway, one of the things that people new to Mastodon often struggle with is how to take action on an update on one server/instance when they’re signed up with another. I’ve put together a Top 20 of popular servers/instances used by Sciencebase readers and others here.

Some features work between servers, but favouriting and boosting and other functions don’t. At least they didn’t until programmer Jared Zimmerman came up with Graze for Mastodon. This is an extension for the Chrome desktop browser that makes inter-server actions, like favouriting or boosting an update on a different server transparent. A Firefox version of Graze is on the way, apparently. Zimmerman is also looking at other features to make the desktop Mastodon experience even better.

I’m on Mastodon.Social as I said, but I like to visit the more sciencey servers and the photography ones and the music ones and a load of others…Graze makes it much simpler to engage with those.

Incidentally, Mastodons were megafauna in the family Mammutidae, but unlike the perhaps slightly better-known Mammoths, Mastodons were probably not woolly nor were they grazers, more likely browsers.