Notices by switching.social (switchingsocial@mastodon.at), page 11

Do you want to help translate the Fediverse into your language? 🌍

Even translating one phrase helps 👍

Friendica
https://www.transifex.com/Friendica/friendica/

Funkwhale
https://docs.funkwhale.audio/translators.html

Hubzilla
https://www.transifex.com/Friendica/hubzilla/

Mastodon
https://crowdin.com/project/mastodon

PeerTube
https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/support/doc/translation.md

Plume
https://docs.joinplu.me/contribute/translations/

Write Freely
https://poeditor.com/join/project/TIZ6HFRFdE

#Fediverse #Localisation #Internationalisation #l10n #i18n #FLOSS #FOSS

Fediverse admins,

Please block "freefedifollowers.ga", they are spamming massive numbers of fake followers (I've just had 2000 fake followers for example).

#Fediverse #Spam

NextCloud is a really good privacy-friendly alternative to Google Drive, Dropbox, Google Calendar and many other online services.

You don't need any tech knowledge to use it!

The easiest way to sign up for Nextcloud is to use their official "Simple sign-up" page, which directs people to their preferred providers:

https://nextcloud.com/signup

(Of course, if you are good with tech you can self-host if you prefer 👍)

You can follow them on here at:

@nextcloud

#Nextcloud #GoogleDrive #Alternatives

Many thanks to everyone who collaborated on the "alternatives to recaptcha" thread a couple of weeks ago.

I've now added a recaptcha alternatives page based on people's suggestions in the thread:

https://switching.social/ethical-alternatives-to-google-recaptcha/

Feedback welcome 👍

#Google #recaptcha #captcha #Alternatives #DeleteGoogle

If you have Facebook "like" buttons embedded on your website, it could make you liable for breaking GDPR privacy laws, even if it's Facebook doing the illegal stuff:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/29/eu_gdpr_facebook_like_button/

You can protect your site from legal liability (and protect your users' privacy) by removing all Facebook like buttons.

Please tell your employers/organisations about this ruling, it may help convince them that Facebook is toxic (or at least that embedded like buttons are toxic).

#Facebook #DeleteFacebook

Did you know you can subscribe to #PeerTube channels from #Mastodon?

Just paste the PeerTube channel's address into the search box on Mastodon, click search, then click follow.

Here are some examples:

@chrisweredigital - Popular tech-themed video blog by Chris Were

@animation - Creative Commons Animations

@documentaries - Creative Commons Documentaries

@blender - Official Blender channel

@ajroach42 - Old public domain films and serials

More #MastoTips:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

If you want people to find your public posts on Mastodon or the rest of the Fediverse, there's something important you need to know:

📣 USE HASHTAGS!

For privacy reasons, the only way to search for posts on here is by hashtag. If you don't include tags, no one will see your post in searches.

Hashtags have to be spelt exactly, so #MastoTip and #MastoTips would bring up two separate sets of results. Include multiple tags if you're not sure.

More MastoTips:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

#Mastodon

@asko @dansup @mastohost

Spacebear do managed hosting for pixelfed instances:

https://app.spacebear.ee

They're on the fediverse at:

@support

@badrihippo @jrt @msh

There's a hobbyst Snips site here:
https://makers.snips.ai

Just working on the Google Fonts alternatives page.

-Does anyone know a good tutorial on using system fonts on a website?

-Also, can you recommend a website for downloading free open licensed fonts?

#GoogleFonts #Alternatives

Did you know you can follow Pixelfed accounts from Mastodon?

Just paste the Pixelfed account's address into the Mastodon search box, click search, then click on the follow button.

Alternatively, if an account is already connected to your instance you can @ it directly.

A couple of days ago Paula shared her excellent #Pixelfed account:

@paulakreuzer

Are there other nice Pixelfed accounts people would recommend following?

More #MastoTips:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

#Mastodon #PixelFed

If you're using Mastodon on a computer, did you know you can drag and drop files to attach them?

Start writing the toot, then drag a file into the box to attach it.

More #MastoTips:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

#Mastodon

On the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11's Moon landing today, a reminder that pretty much all of NASA's photo/video/audio archive is public domain:

https://images.nasa.gov

#Apollo50th 🚀 🌔 #Apollo11 #MoonLandings #PublicDomain #NASA

#Inventaire is a free open site which lets you easily catalogue, borrow and lend physical books:

https://inventaire.io

You can follow them on here:

@inventaire

It's useful for cataloguing collections, sharing books and keeping track of private libraries.

Inventaire's title database uses Wikidata to help find a book's details automatically.

#Inventaire #Alternatives #Books #Libraries #Wikidata

Do you like Mario Kart? Do you like Libre software?

Then you might like #SuperTuxKart, which lets you race as various FLOSS mascots:

https://supertuxkart.net

It includes story mode, time trial, local multiplayer, online multiplayer and lots of mods too.

It's available for Linux, Mac, Windows and Android.

#MarioKart #Alternatives #Gaming #FLOSS

By far the most common request I get is for alternatives to Google's Re-Captcha.

The situation is so unclear that I haven't done an alternatives section on the site.

Do you have suggestions for re-captcha alternatives?

(I know this has come up before, but the discussions are scattered across many threads which people are failing to find.)

#Google #Captcha #ReCaptcha #Alternatives #DeleteGoogle

Adobe Creative Cloud holds creative works hostage: if you stop paying the monthly fee or if Adobe's servers go down, you can't edit your work. Once you buy into the Adobe ecosystem, you're stuck there and forced to pay rent.

There are many free open alternatives which give you full control over your work without locking you down:

https://switching.social/ethical-alternatives-to-adobe-creative-cloud/

#Adobe #CreativeCloud #Alternatives

Mastodon doesn't have a direct system to verify users' identities.

However, if you own a website you can verify your identity as its owner 👍

1. Go to Preferences > Profile > Appearance

2. Scroll down to "Verification", copy the code and paste it onto the front page of your website

3. Add your website to "Profile Metadata"

4. Click "Save Changes"

That's it!

Your website address should now be verified in green on your profile 🎉

Previous #MastoTips:
https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

The save-an-article service Pocket is useful, but it's also proprietary and tracks you.

There's a privacy-friendly free open alternative called #Wallabag you can use instead.

They have an official instance where you can sign up, suitable for non-technical users:

https://www.wallabag.it/en

There's also a project website which tells tech users how to self-host their own instance:

https://www.wallabag.org/en

You can follow Wallabag on here at:

@wallabag

#Pocket #Alternatives

You can view all of a person's posts filtered by hashtag by adding "/tagged/" to the end of their public profile address, then adding the hashtag.

For example, here is a link to all of switching.social's posts tagged #MastoTips:

https://mastodon.at/@switchingsocial/tagged/mastotips

This can be very useful for artists wanting to link to a portfolio, or writers wanting to link to articles about a topic.

You can also add these to your public profile page by going to Preferences > Edit Profile > Featured Hashtags

#Mastodon