Mastodon - Coming in Vivaldi

WetGeek

Have you heard of this? It's new, in the 5.6 version of Vivaldi. (On the panel on the left, where you can optionally access mail, feeds, and calendar.) I just got the email today, and thought I should share the news.

Solarmass

Yea, sure 😉
I'm following Vivaldi media too.

WetGeek

Solarmass I'm following Vivaldi media too.

I have yet to actually see how Mastodon works, like are there private groups? But there have been posts here recently lamenting the lack of communication about Solus, and it occurred to me that this might be our best solution.

Mastodon is based in Iceland, so European privacy laws apply. And just because Vivaldi will provide a portal to it, doesn't mean that everyone using Mastodon must use Vivaldi to access it. It's like Vivaldi mail, in a sense, or Vivaldi feeds. Vivaldi won't be the only way to participate in Mastodon, just as Vivaldi mail isn't the only way to send and receive email.

I, for one, am very interested in finding out more. I hope Vivaldi 5.6 shows up soon in our sync. I've seen it recently when I've added Vivaldi to the VMs I've been creating to explore other interesting distros, but I didn't know about Mastodon until this morning. Version 5.6 is readily available from Vivaldi.com, but I'd much prefer to get it from Solus.

stalebrim

Solarmass Haven't kept track on Vivaldi since The Four Seasons

WetGeek

WetGeek I've seen it recently when I've added Vivaldi to the VMs I've been creating to explore other interesting distros, but I didn't know about Mastodon until this morning.

Here's what Vivaldi Social looks like, from my Kubuntu VM. I signed on using the same credentials I use to do a sync with Vivaldi:

I see from the list on the right, that direct messages are available, but I'm going to research groups as well. Keep in mind again, this is called Vivaldi Social here, but it's like Vivadi Mail. It's actually a portal to Mastodon, hence the icon you see.

If you happen to have a Vivaldi user name and password, you can use those to log on. Mastodon, however, is available by other means. Vivaldi just makes it easy.

alfisya

WetGeek Mastodon is based in Iceland, so European privacy laws apply.

This is not exactly true. As Mastodon is decentralized, its instances can be hosted anywhere in the world. "Instance" here mean something like vivaldi social , mastodon.social , fosstodon.org . For example vivaldi.social probably hosted on vivaldi server in Norway.
You can lear more here

WetGeek

Doing my research.

WetGeek

Heh ... I have my first follower on Mastodon! It's definitely a real thing. 😃

I have 3,000+ followers on Parler, another social medium that's dedicated to free speech. I wonder where this will go?

WetGeek

Huh! Vivaldi users, did you realize that you may actually have a Vivaldi.net email account? I didn't realize that until I joined Mastodon, and found it associated with my profile there. Apparently by having a Vivaldi account (for doing syncs, etc.) I also have a WetGeek@vivaldi.net email account.

I just added it to Thunderbird, using the password I use to do Vivaldi syncs, and was able to confirm that. If anyone in the forum here wants to contact me personally, that would be the address to use.

Solarmass

WetGeek Vivaldi users, did you realize that you may actually have a Vivaldi.net email account? I didn't realize that until I joined Mastodon, and found it associated with my profile there.

IIRC when you join Vivaldi forum you would automatically get Vivladi mail, but not sure about Mastodon account, I saw a discussion about that on their forum. BTW I don't have Mastodon account at the moment.

WetGeek

Thanks for the correction. I believe I conflated it with another service I'd read about recently.

WetGeek

Solarmass BTW I don't have Mastodon account at the moment.

I believe that as a forum member, you automatically have access to Vivaldi Social, which is powered by Mastodon. Just use the same user name and password that you use for the forum. That's what I do. The same goes for using Vivaldi's "sync" feature. In both cases, my user name is simply WetGeek.

For new users who have never created an identity for any aspect of Vivaldi, the process is very simple. When the feature (forum, sync, social, etc.) is first accessed, a dialog is displayed with a choice of "Log on" or "Register." Choosing "Register" lets you define a user name and password to use for future sessions.

I was pleased to see that Vivaldi was updated to version 5.6 with todays sync. The Mastodon icon is now on the panel to the left. At first, reading the timeline is a bit like drinking from a firehose, but the Preferences allow you to select the languages you want. It defaults to all languages, but if you select one or more, you'll see only messages written in that (or those) language (or languages).

And the "Local" tab will show you only those messages from Vivaldi Social users, whereas the "Federated" tab shows you content from Mastodon servers all over the world. If you don't select your preferred lanauage or languages in Preferences, that's where you'll be "drinking from a fire hose," so to speak.

I'm slowly learning my way around Mastodon. I don't use Facebook or Twitter, because of their policies and biases, so it felt good to discover a social medium that's without those drawbacks.

brent

WetGeek For new users who have never created an identity for any aspect of Vivaldi, the process is very simple. When the feature (forum, sync, social, etc.) is first accessed, a dialog is displayed with a choice of "Log on" or "Register." Choosing "Register" lets you define a user name and password to use for future sessions.

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."
Groucho Marx

alfisya

WetGeek it felt good to discover a social medium that's without those drawbacks.

Yeah its pretty cool. It is just that I need for those "blue checkmark" people on mastodon before I can ditch twitter totally. Nowadays I just use fritter and nitter to check twitter without account.