PSA - Link previews have been disabled while I investigate an issue with pulling them from their external source.

Don't freak out.

@susankitchens
Quick summary: There is a social media open source software called Mastodon. Site owners create their own "instances," places like this, but the software creates an additional column called the fediverse to see what's going on in other instances.

There was a kerfluffle because Coso blocks several countries that don't respond to complaints about bots and forum spamming. Mastondon's creator responded by cutting off our interaction with the fediverse.

@ArcturusSaDiablo @misterfrumble

The API is currently locked down (not forever) since the last 24 hours as it was being abused in order to create a DoS condition.

~

It’s also important for folks to know that you can shape and manage your experience.

Over the years, J has added a bunch of fancy capabilities but I am almost exclusively a simple chat kind of gal.

So ignore what overwhelms you, tailor it to fit your needs.

This place offers exceptional capacity to curate your experience.

💛

#welcome #CoSoRocks

Here, in this season, the Northern Hemisphere experiences…

Autumn

Played live by it’s creator. The breathtakingly talented Matteo Palmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQt7IxJpeZo

This was the first song I ever heard of his creation, he even mentions the compilation album I heard it on at this live performance.

As soon as I heard it, I went to buy everything I could find of his works.

My life has been blessed by that discovery

#CoSoMusic

@CherNohio That's like a 35% increase of the total user number over 8 days... insane! 💛

@th3j35t3r I really hope you are accounting for this with your budgeting for the site support percentage bar, we really don't want you to be underselling the increasing cost of site maintenance.

My sub is going to be staying, all I need now is a merch store to support the site some more. 😅

And it wouldn't surprise me if it keeps going! 👀

Twitter is like that huge crazy party I somehow ended up at where too many obnoxious people are totally sloshed, talking too loud and breaking into fights…

…and CoSo is that cool, quieter but more interesting room that I ducked into to retreat from the noise and just talk and laugh with friends…😅 🙏🏽💙💚🐬

I'm hearing this from someone I trust so keep your ear to the ground about this:
"I'm hearing this:
"Kremlin backed hacking group "Killnet"claimed responsibility for today's attacks on US Airports
Philadelphia, Jacksonville, Grand Forks, Portland, Missouri, Long Beach, Durango, Bismarck.

Also, taking down some other government websites."

#CoSoTips

Point of order:
We call what we do here posts, not "toots".

The word “toot” is the archaic term, it’s the word mastodon uses, and in the very early life of CoSo, we used to be federated with them. Not anymore.
The documentation has not yet been updated. It will but we’re kind of busy right now..

A brand new set of how to's, and help files are being written, and this will be corrected.

Common story: Someone comes here from over there and discovers the difference. They start to think about how social media impacts the rest of their lives. How that vitriol and hatred never stays online, how it spills over into bad feelings and short fuses and needless arguments in the real world, how it impacts them and theirs in ways they never realized.

They see that they're better here.

That's what makes this place so special. Spend some time here, and you'll see for yourself. ✌️#CoSoRocks

"I wasn't very good at Twitter."

It probably wasn't you. To "succeed" at Twitter, you had to battle a malicious algorithm that worked overtime to suppress you while elevating malicious accounts.

CounterSocial has no algorithms and no malicious accounts, so you're free to be yourself. Spend some time here merely being you, and you'll quickly see the difference. #CoSoTips

Mastodon isn't CounterSocial. I'm biased, but we are *way* better in at least a dozen very significant ways. Their success doesn't affect ours in the slightest.

Maybe you like it better over there? Godspeed. We're happy with what we've got, and that's all that matters to me.

Want the history? Here you go. #CoSoRocks

https://countersocial.documize.com/s/c30dhakp0nhtab60utag/countersocial-blog/d/c5piofvuaqg133k3is90/the-short-history-of-countersocial-and-mastodon

Hey #CoSo! 👋 For my upcoming article at #OnlySky about my first week here, I've put together a visual guide for the new free-account user, to help them make sense of the maybe-new-to-them layout.

I thought it might be a good shareable resource right away for the #CoSoTips crowd, too, though, so I hope this is useful for others just getting started.🤞 If you see someone confused, please feel free to send this image along!

Hooray! We're back in business! Poor J has been working overtime on this one! Thank you for all the headaches, sleepless nights, asshole hunting, and bug squashing you wade through to keep this haven afloat. 🧡 ( also for the amount of snark and clapback entertainment we get while it happens!)

If you can folks, consider going pro, or dropping a few dubloons into the donor box to keep the ship sailing smoothly!

It's kinda nice to not be manipulated by an algorithm, isn't it? #CoSoTips

Now Playing: Sweet Tides - Thievery Corporation #CoSoMusic

https://youtu.be/sRbKzumSPVw

Just saying, but if your coming in from twitter expecting ratio's, follow for follows, likes, and retweets, that's not what this place is all about. Yeah we share each others posts from time to time, but it's really about community and looking after one another.
It's a safe place here, we look out for each other, and we don't tolerate hate speech, bullying, or any of that nonsense passive aggressive crude either. #CoSoFamily #CoSoLove