denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
Denise ([staff profile] denise) wrote in [site community profile] dw_maintenance2024-09-04 05:09 pm
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Offsite status page

We've been looking for an alternative to Twitter (excuse me, "X") for our offsite status announcements of the "shit's fucked enough that the site won't load; we're working on it" variety, and have finally settled on Bluesky as the correct choice for that purpose! If you are a Bluesky user, please follow https://bsky.app/profile/dreamwidth.org; if you aren't a Bluesky user, please bookmark that page.

(Side note because I know people are going to ask: yes, we'd like to add Bluesky (and Mastodon) to the username shortcuts, but the way they construct usernames and profiles is complicated enough that we have to give it some extra thought on how we're going to be able to do it!)
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denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2024-09-04 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
The issue with using Mastodon for an offsite status page is that it's hard to find an individual instance with a strong record of uptime -- the purpose of using a microblogging site as an offsite status page is not necessarily to reach the users of the service itself, it's because it's incredibly quick and easy to update during an outage, and the easier you make it to update during an outage, the more likely you are to actually do it. So for an offsite status page you want

1. a service with a really strong uptime record
2. that has memorable and easy to reach URLs
3. that allows outside people to view posts without an account
4. that shows the most recent posts first
5. and doesn't hide posts or require a few clicks to see them
6. and is as easy as possible for the person who's working on fixing the busted shit to update really really fast

Mastodon instances fail 1 and 2, Xwitter now fails 3 and 4, Facebook fails 4, 5, and 6, etc, etc, etc. Up until recentlyish, Bluesky failed 3 (and is still a little iffy on 2, but we did our best) but they changed that, and I'm satisfied enough with their uptime record now that it crossed my "okay, make the switch" threshold.

There is a bridge service that bridges posts from Bluesky to Mastodon if your instance admin hasn't blocked it! But this isn't a thing where we're going to be posting regularly or anything: it's just a location for "yeah, we know shit's broken, we're working on it" announcements if we or you can't reach [site community profile] dw_maintenance to see them.
solarbird: (Default)

[personal profile] solarbird 2024-09-05 06:22 am (UTC)(link)
mastodon.social's uptime is as good as anywhere else's, but if you wanted to set up your own instance, the uptime would be up to you, of course.

(My instance's uptime is excellent. For example. ^_^)

But!

If you follow @ ap.brid.gy on Bluesky, that will opt you in to the Bluesky-Federation bridge, letting Mastodon (and all other Federated system users) follow you from their accounts.
Edited 2024-09-05 06:23 (UTC)
kitarella_imagines: Profile photo (Default)

[personal profile] kitarella_imagines 2024-09-05 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
I agree about Mastodon.Social's uptime 😊

However, when new users join Mastodon, they tend to join Mastodon.Social and it slows the instance immensely.

e.g. recently, Brazil blocked Twitter/X and so there was a huge influx of Brazilian newbies, which slowed the instance to the point of stopping. It was only for 3 days though.

I'd love Dreamwidth to have a Mastodon instance though! It's a wonderful place, it feels like the rebels fighting the Empire.
groovesinorbit: (Default)

[personal profile] groovesinorbit 2024-09-05 12:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Plus mastodon.social has become a spam factory, which also probably slows the instance down.
momijizukamori: Green icon with white text - 'I do believe in phosphorylation! I do!' with a string of DNA basepairs on the bottom (Default)

[personal profile] momijizukamori 2024-09-05 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
It's pretty popular on other instance blocklists for that same reason, I think, which is also a problem with the 'picking an instance' issue.
groovesinorbit: closeup of a mastodon's face (mastodon)

[personal profile] groovesinorbit 2024-09-05 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't find picking an instance to be a problem. I'm still with the instance I started with almost two years ago, but it's a pretty tiny one and well-moderated. Other folks I know have had to move around, but their moves seem to have gone pretty easily.
kitarella_imagines: Profile photo (Default)

[personal profile] kitarella_imagines 2024-09-05 03:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't noticed the spam, I'm on Mastodon.Social but then again I have my profile locked, maybe that's what saves me.

I keep meaning to move instance but I'm not sure which to choose. I really must get round to it. I've got friends on other instances, I suppose I should choose one of theirs...
groovesinorbit: (Default)

[personal profile] groovesinorbit 2024-09-05 05:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Spam accounts from that instance show up daily on conversation threads that I see. Not as bad as the Nazis that show up from other infamous instances, but still, a little annoying.

I ended up going with a local instance, but other friends have gone with other instances for various reasons (hobbies, communities, etc.). For what it's worth, I hear beige.party is pretty good. And if you're a writer, wandering.shop is another good one.
kitarella_imagines: Profile photo (Default)

[personal profile] kitarella_imagines 2024-09-05 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh really, I had no idea! I live in my own little world, I think locking my account keeps a lot of that spam out.

I have friends on beige.party and mstdn.social - those do seem good. One day I'll get my act together and change.
groovesinorbit: (Default)

[personal profile] groovesinorbit 2024-09-06 12:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Locking your account definitely helps. :)
kitarella_imagines: Profile photo (Default)

[personal profile] kitarella_imagines 2024-09-06 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
It does indeed 😊

I did that on (dare I mention it) Twitter and it helped there so I learned my lesson.
eggsbenedict: (Bird bath)

[personal profile] eggsbenedict 2024-09-05 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Yesss, please bridge the account. I spend so much more time on fedi and the cozy fandom instance I'm on hasn't blocked it.
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2024-09-05 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I did go ahead and follow the bridge account, but as the owner of the bridge account notes, it's vulnerable to backlog during periods of high usage. You should probably bookmark the canonical location so you have it available to check if you can't reach the site!
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2024-09-05 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
If we set up our own instance it would be down when the site is down, and thus useless for the purpose of an offsite status page. We are also not taking on the additional T&S burden of running a Mastodon instance: Mastodon's T&S tools are woefully inadequate.
tennoseremel: (Default)

[personal profile] tennoseremel 2024-09-05 11:47 am (UTC)(link)
[staff profile] denise, TBH, I don’t think bsky.app/profile/dreamwidth.org is in any way more “memorable and easy to reach” than, say, mastodon.social/@dreamwidth 🤷
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2024-09-05 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Please reread the comment you are replying to, where I acknowledge that. The uptime record is far more important.
mellowtigger: (penguin coder)

[personal profile] mellowtigger 2024-09-05 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a very good list of requirements. Would it help to see what other news and network organizations have done? Here are a few well-known names and their server choices. Looking at these sites, even the smaller ones might be amenable to hosting an account for Dreamwidth notifications.

https://newsie.social/@ProPublica
https://mastodon.social/@UnicornRiot and https://mastodon.social/@netblocks
https://techpolicy.social/@internetsociety
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2024-09-05 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
We will not be maintaining more than one service as an offsite notification location; having more than one place to update also drastically decreases the likelihood someone will do it in a crisis.

We are talking "several posts a year" volume here; this is not a "we will be posting every day and it doesn't matter when people see it" volume level like your examples. It's purely an offsite status page for if the site is down and people will need to be able to see it if the site is down. "Good enough" uptime isn't for that purpose.
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