Notices by Eliot: unleashed (eliotberriot@mastodon.eliotberriot.com)

@ginny has been working with #Funkwhale for more than 6 months now.

She helped designing new features, spin up our collective, maintaining our blog, ensuring our community is welcoming and safe, and plenty other things.

If you value the work we're doing with Funkwhale, please, please, consider subscribing to her Patreon. Any amount helps!

Thank you ❤️

http://patreon.com/ginnymcqueen

Du coup avec les retours de certaines personnes, je réalise qu'il manque peut-être une seconde partie à ce post.

Une partie sur tout ce qui a fait de moi un meilleur dev' mais dont personne ne parle jamais ?

J'ai déjà évoqué plusieurs fois du fait que je suis autodidacte.J'ai commencé le dev' vers 18-20 ans. En plein cursus pro pour devenir libraire. J'ai un bac L, un DUT de librairie/bibliothèque et une license pro en documentation.

Je n'ai quasiment pas bossé dans ce domaine là (hormis quelques stages / boulots d'été).

A priori, y'avait AUCUNE raison que je bosse dans l'info avec un parcours comme ça.

Et pourtant…

Funkwhale, c'est un logiciel qui gère une *bibliothèque* musicale. Je vous raconte pas le nombre de pièges que j'ai pu éviter dans le design et l'implémentation de certaines fonctionnalités grâce à mon cursus initial.

Et pourtant…

Le métier de dev, c'est avant tout un métier ou on lit, on écrit et on communique. Je ne parle pas de l'écriture du code, qui est généralement minoritaire dans ce que j'ai pu observer par rapport à tout le reste.

L'apprentissage, la recherche, les spécifications, le support, les demandes d'aide, la documentation (la lire ou l'écrire ;), les échanges, les rapports de bug… Tout ça, ça constitue 80% du boulot de dev', et ça demande avant tout de savoir s'exprimer, de communiquer avec les autres et de comprendre ce qu'on lit.

Autant de choses qui sont généralement plus mis en avant dans les cursus littéraires que scientifiques.

Et pourtant…

Si on mets de côté la partie produit et développement pure, Funkwhale c'est aussi une communauté, une entité juridique au dessus, des valeurs, des choix politiques.

Pour construire tout ça, il a fallu discuter, se réunir, écrire, parler finances, administratif, droit, community management, modération, communication, prise de décision…

Je vous laisse deviner si ma capacité à écrire des tests unitaires en Python ou à utiliser les métaclasses a été d'une quelconque utilité dans ce processus, par rapport à, disons, mes courts de droit, d'éco, de gestion, de communication, de marketing…

Certes, on pourrait considérer que je pinaille et que ce n'est pas du travail de dev à properement parler.

Pour moi, ça fait partie de mon boulot de dev', de faire en sorte que mon environnement de travail soit adapté à mes besoins, à à ceux des autres, et à ceux du projet.

Un peux comme le fait de choisir ses fournisseurs, ses outils, ses tarifs, ses CGU quand on bosse, mettons, dans la construction fait partie du boulot.

Formulé autrement, si tu as envie de développer un logiciel, tu ne peux pas juste ignorer ces questions. Donc ça fait partie du boulot (même si c'est une autre personne qui s'en occupe).

Le corollaire, c'est que si vous avez ces compétences là, vous pouvez acquérir celles qui vous manquent (genre la programmation) *après*.

Ça fera pas de vous un·e moins bon·ne dev !

Tiens je parle souvent des trucs que je fais en dev, mais rarement des trucs que je fais pas ou connais pas.

Je me dis que ça pourra peut-être faire relativiser d'autres personnes qui doutent de leurs compétences/connaissances.

Alors, du coup.

J'ai jamais appris la différence entre les bits, les bytes, les octets et tout.

J'ai jamais fait language plus bas niveau que PHP ou Python.

J'ai amais touché vraiment au hardware (j'ai changé un disque une fois je crois)

J'ai jamais appris les notations CIDR. D'une manière générale, la couche réseau est très obscure pour moi. Les interfaces, les routes, les couches, les routeurs, les switchs, les masques de sous-réseau, les gateway ? Je sais que ça existe :D

La crytographie ? Ahaha. Ah. Ahah.

J'ai jamais vraiment réussi à utiliser IRC.

Jusqu'à y'a deux semaines, j'étais incapable d'écrire une condition en bash sans regarder une doc.

Je fais pas de maths plus poussées que des moyennes ou des produits en croix. Quand je vois des gens parler de matrices, de vecteurs, de fonctions, ou autre, mon cerveau est en PLS.

Profitons-en pour faire un don aux gentilles admins et à la sysadmin tiens.

Je dois être la seule personne à donner quand les trucs plantent, mais c'est souvent dans ces moments là que je me rappelle du taf qu'il y a derrière.

Un jour y'aura #Retribute pour m'y faire penser !

@vitria

> No help available. In this universe, you are alone.

ah oui quand même

This is a copy of https://eliotberriot.com/2019/07/11/we-need-to-talk-about-dashequals.html meant for reading/sharing on fedi.

However, I'd recommend reading it on the blog if you can, because it's lengthy and may be updated in the future. The blog version also has proper markup and is more readable.

3/3

---

*Content warning: call-out, harasser, violent language.*

I didn't wanted to do this but there's a limit to what people should be able to do and say without consequences. And DashEquals went far, far beyond.

Maybe you now him, alrealy. If you're on fediverse, his main account is <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals>, but he has at least an alternative account on <https://ap.torlipen.net/DashEquals>.

He's also using a short notation for his name, `-=` (dash and equals signs) on other platforms, like Matrix.

Now that the most basic presentation is done, let me formerly introduce you.

Meet DashEquals…

## The creepy archivist

DashEquals was the person who archived the now down Berries.Space Mastodon instance. Without user consent. Thousands of post made by teenagers, lots of them from LGBTQI groups.

He never apologized, despite being repeated over and over than doing so was creepy, dangerous, unethical, borderline illegal and formerly rejected by the Archive.org team itself.

He just doesn't see the issue and use other people/company bad actions as a justification <https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kWpvMl6psJjqCn1EW>

It was documented better than I could do by other people, so check <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Berries.space> and <https://bune.city/2019/05/archive-team-and-the-fediverse/> for more info.

## The toxic techbro

Unsollicited advice, elitism, bad faith, mansplaining, just pick your poison.

- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102128870406165515>
- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102128897322110086>
- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102300247189930641>

---

About blocks:

> It looks like I didn't respond to their post because they were right.
>
> <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102301272847642809>

So he's concerned by people blocking him because it could make it look like he's wrong.

---

> ze/zem pronouns are stupid because they undermine the point of pronouns.
>
> <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102237126811412787>

Thanks dude!

## The nazi and fascist enabler (at best)

- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102328659143188156>
- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102288955725480797>
- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102401968565257964>

---

To quote his words:

> Therefore, it's best to assume good faith, and NO MATTER WHAT, do not treat someone badly.
>
> <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102328658821768268>

The caps are from the original post.

---

> Let's do a test: I'll make a profile claiming to be in one of the groups that Nazis often target, and see how many Nazis actually target me (cause I see the argument "if you're in one of their targeted groups you'd see more of them" but I kind of doubt it).
>
> <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102288955725480797>

Not going to comment on this one. This is sick.

---

He regularly boost this kind of content:

- <https://linuxrocks.online/@omnipotens/102413781983979638>
- <https://mstdn.io/@one/102405722897691953>

## The oppressor

Because why not? This has been running for a while. Against women, obviously, but also against every marginalized group in general:

- <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102324197580669537>

---

He want to be able to use the n-word.

<https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kY7D2b0QsQOtk2ORc>
<https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kY94NgEs6bramU2uO>

---

He's not happy about blocks, because it prevents him from harassing whoever he wants.

> Blocks on Mastodon shouldn't exist, mutes and forced unfollows are enough. Blocking someone at all is a total dick move and I lose all respect for anyone who does it.
>
> <https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102276636811862698>

Of course that means that blocking Gab is bad somehow and we should just welcome those nazis for the sake of free speech or whatever. Cf previous part.

---

More recently, he also shared a huge list of filters he's applying to his timeline, to ensure he's not bothered with unwanted discourse. Sexism, violence, minorities, nazis…

It would be funny, coming from someone who constantly assimilates blocking and censorship, but it also reduce the chance he'll ever be confronted to the consequences of his actions.

<https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102410292316878359>

---

He's constantly discussing and mocking moderation choices of other people that are trying to protect themselves.

- <https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kj3FTkM11Jgfl1N7g>
- <https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9ki6kywYBMIR6oTmbI>

## The harasser

I have to elaborate a little bit about this one, and things will get personal, because DashEquals was a member of the Funkwhale community.

On June 24th, we wrote together with the Funkwhale core team a statement to formerly support people blocking Gab (a nazi server) on the fediverse (<https://mastodon.eliotberriot.com/@funkwhale/102326269307126709>).

We explicitely stated that this wasn't up to discussion and debate in the comments, yet, he just couldn't help it (<https://linuxrocks.online/@DashEquals/102326804453476748>).

So he end up being blocked on fedi by the Funkwhale account for this reason. It could've end up here, but the day later, he asked on Matrix if he was still welcome in the community.

At the time, he was also targeting one of our mods, Ginny, and when put all the pieces together, including some mentioned in that post, we decided we wanted him gone.

I talked to him in private, in an attempt to prevent some unwanted discourse, both for him and for us. Obviously, it was a mistake, because it mainly protected him. I'm deeply sorry about that.

## Why today?

Of course, harassment against Ginny continued after he was kicked, and DashEquals even contacted me today because she was supposedly infringing our Code of Conduct. Read below, I'm speechless:

> Hello,
>
> I’m not trying to appeal my ban from the Funkwhale project, as it is ultimately your choice whether I’m allowed to be part of it, and I understand that the behavior that I have exhibited could reasonably be considered unacceptable.
>
> However, I encourage you to check this out: <https://kitty.town/@GinnyMcQueen/102411860344968494>
>
> I feel like the behavior exhibited there is definitely a violation of the Code of Conduct, in particular:
>
> Continuing to engage in conversation or inciting users to engage another user in continued interaction or discussion after a user has requested for said engagement to cease may be considered harassment, regardless of platform-specific privacy tools employed.
>
> (I requested that she stop talking about me here: <https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kgTjJF5eJXa7EP2HY>, she mocked my request)
>
> Intentionally posting or disseminating libel, slander, or other disinformation.
>
> Claiming I’m “obsessed” with her, I won’t stop harassing women, and that I “lost my absolute shit”
>
> Thank you for reviewing

What's going on is that DashEquals is trying to make Ginny looks like she's crazy. He's referring to a thread by her, posted yesterday: <https://kitty.town/@GinnyMcQueen/102411860344968494>. He says that, by doing so, she's not respecting his boundaries, blocks, etc.

What's going on is that DashEquals has been spreading lies and slander about her *for months*. Have a look at <https://ap.torlipen.net/notice/9kUFt1oqnrFDPZcITI>. Everything that DashEquals blames Ginny for, he's been doing *for months*.

What's going on is that DashEquals wants to isolate Ginny, and cut her from her friends. At the same time, by posting about her in public, he's making her a target for harassment and worse. This is disgusting.

Ironically, what's going on is that this person, who didn't care about user privacy when archiving berries.space, who can't live knowing someone blocked him, who don't care about nazis being there, now want to be protected from the consequences of his actions.

## So, what now?

This person is never wrong and never apologizes. He won't stop harassing Ginny, he's spreading dangerous ideas, he's acting as an enabler for even more toxic people and behaviours…

Ginny is in danger because of him. I assume this is possibly also the case for other marginalized people.

Telling him to stop didn't work. Kicking him out didn't work.

At this point, the only recourse we have is to cut *him* from his community, friends and networks. This is just damage control, to reduce his impact:
If he can't spread his shit, he'll be less harmful.

The only actual way to solve the issue would be for him to do some introspection and change, but I have a feeling this is not going to happen anytime soon.

If you want to help with this, here is a couple of ideas.

Are you working with him? Interacting with him? Following him? Is he a member of your communities?

Then please, confront him. Kick him from your communities if you can, or report him to mods and project managers otherwise. Ensure he's not welcome in your spaces. Report him.

Ensure he's blocked by you or, better, by your instance. This will protect you from him, reduce his visibility and make the fediverse a worse place for him.

Please, do this, and spread the word.

Thanks.

*Oh and, DashEquals, if you read this: don't bother contacting me, or Ginny. We're way past this point. You know what to do, and not to do.*

So, we need to talk about DashEquals.

His behaviour is ranging from creepy to dangerous and abusive, with all the shitty variations in the middle.

One could write a book on him, but I lacked the time and will, so what I will share instead is a blog post documenting some known issues with him:

https://eliotberriot.com/2019/07/11/we-need-to-talk-about-dashequals.html

I'm sure you can share more.

Some people already called him out in the past, fought him, dealt with him and the consequences of his actions. Gathering evidences of his behaviour. Thanks, to all of you, because it made writing this easier.

In the next message, I'll include a full copy of the blog post linked above, so you can read/share it on fedi.

Thank you for spreading the word, and please, please, do not let this person (or anyone like him) in your communities.

2/

Hey Fedi.

I need to call out someone for their arm length history of shitty and toxic behaviour.

The thread will be under CW, but it may generate some discourse outside my control.

So, if you're fragile, tired, if this kind of topics is draining for you, you may want to add a filter for the terms "DashEquals", to avoid being exposed to this.

[Thread]

1/

If you have some knowledge in web security and Content Security Policy, would you mind having a look at https://dev.funkwhale.audio/funkwhale/funkwhale/merge_requests/826 ?

This is an attempt to harden the security of the web UI via a CSP (and some additional HTTP headers) and to reduce the attack surface in case of exploits.

#security #funkwhale #helpwanted

Currentily, #Retribute extract the list of contribution platforms (patreon, etc.) from Mastodon bios and profile metadata.

I'm thinking about extending this to pinned toots, because I've seen people using them for such info too.

What's your opinion on this? If you think this is a bad idea, can you please elaborate a bit in the comments?

We did a lot of progress to reduce the bus factor lately, but most of the code is still owned and maintained by me.

I think one way to improve that situation would be to have some reviewers before I merge my contributions, to distribute ownership of the codebase on other people.

If you have some interest in HTML/JS/Python/CSS/Design/Docs, and want to help, do you mind adding your name here so I can ping you when relevant?

https://pad.funkwhale.audio/reviewers

The Django Software Foundation is looking for an advances beginner Python/Django developper for a 4 to 6 weeks paid internship.

This looks really interesting, you should have a look if you need to acquire experience, while contributing to free software (meaning you'll incidentally help Funkwhale too ;)
https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2019/apr/24/internship-opportunity-dsf-app/

So, I just published "Building software together with Git" on my #blog: https://eliotberriot.com/blog/2019/03/05/building-sotfware-together-with-git/ 🎉

It's a rather high-level, non-technical overview explaining what is software collaboration and how tools like #Git and #GitHub actually help with that.

It assumes little prior knowlegde from the reader, and attempts to explain the technical concepts in accessible ways.

Many thanks to @GinnyMcQueen for the initial idea, @y6nH for proofreading and everyone for the feedback!

After reading https://kitty.town/@GinnyMcQueen/101688023906508502, I realized I did not know of any complete, non-technical and debutant friendly overview explaining what is git, a pull request, a fork, an issue, a release...

I've spend the last few hours writing soemthing to, hopefully help with that.

What do you think of it? I'd really appreciate your feedback!

https://pad.funkwhale.audio/s/rJAeAstL4#

#Git #Development #Guide #Explanation

@shiro moi non, je pèse pas assez lourd
.
.
.
.
J'ai le poids chiche

J'ai jamais vu un questionnaire aussi pêté. Ça ferait un bon sujet d'étude pour apprendre à en faire un correct.

Quick fediverse moderation question: do you think it's useful to have an option to filter what kind of content you will send out to other instances / actors ? Would you use that ? How ?

For instance, in such a system, you could prevent follows or media files send by your instance from reaching other instances.

Or is it completely useless ? :D

TIL: Google possède le TLD .new

(tous les domaines qui finissent par .new).

Pour que quand vous tapez doc.new dans votre nav, ça vous ouvre un Google Doc.

Si vous savez vraiment pas quoi faire de vos sous, payez vos impôts non ?

The whole thing is now deployed at https://contribute.funkwhale.audio/ (and will be automatically updated with future improvements).

For people interested, the source code is available here: https://code.eliotberriot.com/funkwhale/contribute/tree/master/front (as well as really basic instructions to run it)

The app is relatively small and can proabably be hacked for other projects.

The whole thing may be coupled with a backend at some point, hence the big repo with python files ;) (but what is deployed now is purely static)

cc @Phyks

Okay, I'm actually quite happy with this and I'd like your opinion.

This first guide explains how to translate #Funkwhale using weblate, with small, easy steps and lots of screenshots.

I did my best to provide lot of context and to have an easy to follow structure.