Jeff (@box464.com) Bsky

A giant troll in the woods

A giant troll with an offering plate

Went to Pease Park to visit Mavin the troll this weekend! We offered some berries in hopes of more rain.

This is the third troll by artist Thomas Dhambo we’ve been able to see, hope to find many more.

www.thomasdambo.com

1 day ago 1 0 0 0

Let’s help Mike defeat Google!

Revenge of the little guys! Your support only counts today — so don’t wait!

2 days ago 34 7 3 0

A Redesign for Profiles Profiles are the primary way for people using Mastodon to ‘meet’ one another on a deeper level – beyond a threaded conversation or search results. You might have noticed that the overall design of Profiles hasn’t been explored in a while, and in the meantime, we’ve heard requests and challenges from people who use Mastodon every day. The profile redesign supports some of our current priorities: * **Make the Fediverse Intuitive.** We want people who are new to Mastodon and the Fediverse to be able to discover and connect with interesting accounts, without having to understand the details of decentralisation. The new Profiles view includes an updated handle explainer, and a new editing experience delivers a more consistent, unified experience across web and native mobile apps. * **A Home for Everyone.** As well as individuals, Mastodon is also home to organisations (NGOs, local governments, software projects, etc) that want to share news and interact with their communities. The layout changes offer us a solid starting point from which to explore features that will help these “institutional users” to make their most out of their presence in the Fediverse. ## Our approach ### Learning from the community In addition to reviewing community requests related to profiles, we surveyed more than 500 people across over 300 servers, to understand what profile information they prioritise when it comes to identifying whether an account is trustworthy (and therefore, worth following). We also analysed patterns from other apps that respondents mentioned they frequently use. ### Technical constraints We’re currently constrained within the existing 3-column layout on desktop. We also know that improvements could be made to the custom fields feature, but structural and backend changes to custom fields were out of scope for this work. ## What’s changing ### Profile viewing #### The new ‘Activity’ tab offers granular filtering of posts Previously, there have been two tabs for “Posts” and “Posts and replies.” It turns out that this was misleading (the “Posts” tab also included boosts); and, that there was no way for you to view an account’s activity with the granularity that you can after following them – no view for Posts only, for example. There are, in fact, 4 distinct views that you may want to see: _Posts_ , _Posts+boosts_ , _Posts+replies_ , or _Posts+boosts+replies_. Providing this granularity led us to adopt a more appropriate UI over displaying each of these as tabs. The new Activity tab has a dropdown menu, allowing you to view any of these combinations by filtering both boosts and replies. It is optimised to work equally well for you on the desktop as on mobile, and also if you use the advanced interface for desktop. #### Featured hashtags are more discoverable and contextual Hashtags can provide you with topic-based discovery. In the new Profile view, you can view hashtags contextually within the Activity tab, and click on them for a filtered view of the account’s tagged posts. #### It’s easier to view all pinned posts Some people have expressed frustration over pinned posts being buried in a carousel. We understand this concern, and are also balancing the needs of people who are browsing others’ profiles who have shared that they want easy access to _recent_ posts. Informed by data on the number of pinned posts across Mastodon profiles, we’ve replaced the carousel with an alternative form of progressive disclosure that allows you to reveal all pinned posts in a single click. #### Updated handle explainers One of our objectives is to make the Fediverse more intuitive for people who are non-technical. We’ve updated the handle explainer card to clarify what handles and servers are. Additionally, the full profile handle (`@user@domain.com`) now displays beneath the account’s display name, even if the account is on the same server as yours. The updated explainer for profile handles. #### Custom fields are more compact Custom fields display side-by-side when possible, making smarter utilisation of the Profile’s vertical space so that you get to the account’s content more swiftly. A more compact design for custom fields. #### Additional changes reduce visual load People must be able to find the content they need. However, when _all_ information displays at once, it impacts your ability to focus and complete tasks. You might notice we’ve given less prominence to a few pieces of information. When introducing changes that add friction, we take into account both the frequency and importance of related actions. **Personal notes:** The ‘Add a personal note’ action does not display as prominently on the profile; it is now accessed within the profile’s overflow menu. If a note exists, it still displays on the profile page, just as it has in the past. **‘Following you’:** The ‘Following you’ badge no longer displays on the profile. People we surveyed ranked this information remarkably low in terms of establishing both trust and interest an account. You still have numerous options to understand whether someone is following you: * **The ‘Follow’ button:** When you’re not following an account but the account follows you, the primary button label displays as “Follow back”. * **The accounts ‘Following’ list:** If the account is following you, you will see yourself at the top of that account’s ‘Following’ list. * **Profile overflow menu:** If the account is following you, a ‘Remove follower’ option appears in the overflow menu. * **Preview cards (desktop):** When hovering over an account, the preview cards still show ‘Follows you’ and ‘You follow each other’ statuses. ## Profile editing ### A unified editing experience Previously, profile editing on web was hidden within account settings. You had to take multiple steps to navigate back to your profile view. The new profile editing experience combines featured hashtags, link verification, and all other profile customisation in a single view. It’s easily accessible from an ‘Edit profile’ button directly on your profile – making switching between viewing and editing more seamless. A screenshot of the redesigned profile editing experience on desktop web. The page shows sections for profile and cover photo editing, display name and bio editing, custom fields, featured hashtags, and profile tab settings. ### More control during image upload You can now crop images, and add alt text to profile and cover photos. A screen recording showing a user zooming and cropping a profile photo within a modal, then clicking on the “Next” button. On the next step, the modal displays a preview of the cropped image and a text field where the user can enter alt text. ### Custom fields and verified links Previously, custom field editing was only available on web, and lacked accessible form labels. Additionally, link verification – a powerful feature for establishing credibility – was hidden in profile settings. Now, you can access link verification instructions directly from the custom field editing experience. You can also now add and edit custom fields in our iOS and Android apps. A zoomed-in view of the interface for editing custom fields, which contains buttons for adding, reordering, changing, and deleting custom fields. Beneath the custom fields, a hyperlinked text reads “How do I add a verified link?” ### Featured hashtags Featured hashtags are a useful way of helping others discover topics you frequently post about. We’ve decreased the friction and guesswork in adding featured hashtags on web: Suggested hashtags will appear on your profile view, and can be bulk added in a single click. For more granular control, hashtags can also be managed within the profile editor. Basic functionality for featured hashtags is now supported on iOS and Android. A screen recording showing the interaction of a user viewing a banner on their own profile that contains suggested hashtags with options to add or dismiss. The user clicks on “Add” and the suggested hashtags are immediately added to their profile. ### Customising tab displays The editing experience includes profile tab display settings, allowing you to hide the ‘Media’ and ‘Featured’ tabs if desired. Replies can also be excluded from the ‘Media’ tab, allowing for a more accurate gallery where creative people may showcase their work. We hope that these additional controls empower both people who use Mastodon day-to-day, and people who represent institutions. Before the 4.6 release, profile tab customisations will only impact a few servers that are testing the new profile experience. After the 4.6 release, these customisations will be reflected on most servers running the latest version of Mastodon. Displays may vary on third-party apps and independent servers. A screenshot of the Profile tab settings modal, which contains three settings allowing users to show/hide the Media tab, show/hide replies on the Media tab, and show/hide the Featured tab. A banner at the bottom of the modal explains that displays may vary on other servers. ## Availability The new design will be visible on `mastodon.social`, and other servers that run nightly builds of Mastodon, from today. The goal is to do some testing ahead of the 4.6 release, and make any adjustments based on feedback (see below). The new look will roll out to all Mastodon servers, as part of Mastodon 4.6, coming in a few weeks. ### We’re open to feedback We’ve shared our thinking, and the choices we made in this redesign, in this post. If you have things you’d like to let us know related to these updates, contact us at **feedback@joinmastodon.org**. We may not be able to respond to every individual message, but we’ll be reading every piece of feedback to inform our future plans.

Coming soon in Mastodon 4.6 - a redesigned profile page. We've used community feedback and surveys to inform these updates. Our latest blog post explains our design thinking and choices. Here are a few highlights 🧵

blog.joinmastodon.org/2026/03/a-redesign-for-p...

1 week ago 12 68 3 4

Original post on bonfire.cafe

We just **released Bonfire 1.0.2** , an update focused on giving you a more stable and reliable experience.

We're also heads-down working with **several communities who are setting up their own Bonfire servers**.

Plus updates on **end to end encryption** and **federated groups**.

More details […]

2 weeks ago 3 19 1 1

8.0.0 — Smash That Like Button Every major version is a milestone, and 8.0.0 is no exception. Your WordPress blog just became a two-way street in the Fediverse. Visitors can like and boost your posts directly on your site. Media from federated replies is handled more reliably, and new block patterns make it easy to drop ActivityPub features into your pages. ## Like and Boost, Right From Your Blog The Fediverse Reactions block now has optional **Like** and **Boost** action buttons, inline with each reaction group. When a visitor clicks one, a modal opens where they can enter their Fediverse handle or copy the post URL to interact from their home server. The plugin remembers the visitor’s profile in their browser, so the second time around it’s even faster. And for folks who aren’t familiar with how the Fediverse works, each modal now includes a collapsible **“ Why do I need to enter my profile?”** help section that explains the open social web in plain language. This dramatically lowers the friction for cross-platform engagement. ## Block Patterns and Templates Setting up a Fediverse-ready profile page used to mean manually assembling Follow Me, Extra Fields, and Followers blocks. Not anymore. We’ve added a **“ Fediverse” block pattern category** with four pre-configured layouts: * **Author Profile with Follow** , a compact profile card. * **Fediverse Follow Page** , a full-page follow experience. * **Author Header with Follow** , great for author archive headers. * **Fediverse Sidebar** , drop it into any sidebar or widget area. If you’re running a block theme on WordPress 6.7+, there’s also a new **Author Archive (Fediverse)** block theme template ready to go. ## Publish Smarter With Post Format Suggestions A new **pre-publish panel** now analyzes your post content and suggests an appropriate post format when your object type is set to “Post Format.” Got a post that’s mostly images? It’ll nudge you toward the Image format. A video post? Video format. This matters because media-focused Fediverse platforms like Pixelfed and Vernissage display Notes differently than Articles, so choosing the right format means your content looks its best everywhere it lands. ## Community Snippets We’ve added a `snippets/` folder to the GitHub repository, a home for lightweight, community-contributed extensions that don’t belong in the core plugin but are too useful to lose. The first batch includes: * **FediBlog Tag**, automatically adds `#FediBlog` to standard blog posts for better Fediverse discovery. * **Locale from Tags**, derives post locale from taxonomy tags. * **Bot Account**, marks your profile as automated and displays a “BOT” badge in the Fediverse. * **Blockless ActivityPub**, renders Fediverse reactions as pure server-side HTML, no JS required. * **Photon CDN**, serves cached remote media through Jetpack’s Photon CDN for faster delivery. Got a snippet of your own? Check out the snippets folder and send a PR. ## Smarter Media Caching Under the hood, we’ve rebuilt how the plugin handles remote media, avatars, emoji, images, audio, and video from across the Fediverse. Instead of importing everything into the WordPress Media Library at insert time, media is now wrapped in custom blocks and **cached lazily at render time**. What does that mean for you? Faster processing of incoming content, less disk usage, and better rendering of audio and video attachments. Original remote URLs are preserved in block attributes, so caches can be regenerated without data loss. If you’re using Jetpack’s Site Accelerator, that works too, the new system is built filter-first. For site admins, there are new CLI commands to keep things tidy: wp activitypub cache status wp activitypub cache clear ## Minimum PHP 7.4 With WordPress 7.0 deprecating PHP 7.2 and 7.3, we’ve raised the minimum requirement to **PHP 7.4**. This lets us clean up compatibility polyfills and use more modern PHP features going forward. If you’re still on an older version, update your PHP before updating the plugin. ## Changelog ### Added * Add a help section to interaction dialogs explaining the Fediverse and why entering a profile is needed. * Add a notice on the Settings page to easily switch from legacy template mode to automatic mode. * Add a pre-publish suggestion that recommends a post format for better compatibility with media-focused Fediverse platforms. * Add a Site Health check that warns when plugins are causing too many federation updates. * Add backwards compatibility for the `ACTIVITYPUB_DISABLE_SIDELOADING` constant and `activitypub_sideloading_enabled` filter from version 7.9.1. * Add bot account snippet that marks ActivityPub profiles as automated accounts, displaying a “BOT” badge on Mastodon and other Fediverse platforms. * Add Cache namespace for remote media caching with CLI commands, improved MIME validation, and filter-based architecture. * Add federation of video poster images set in the WordPress video block. * Add Locale from Tags community snippet. * Add optional Like and Boost action buttons to the Fediverse Reactions block, allowing visitors to interact with posts from their own server. * Add pre-built Fediverse block patterns for easy profile, follow page, and sidebar setup. * Add snippet for blockless fediverse reactions. * Add `wp activitypub fetch` CLI command for fetching remote URLs with signed HTTP requests. ### Changed * Improved active user counting for NodeInfo to include all federated content types and comments. * Improve language map resolution to strictly follow the ActivityStreams spec. * Superseded outbox activities are now removed instead of kept, reducing clutter in the outbox. * The minimum required PHP version is now 7.4. ### Fixed * Accept incoming activities from servers that use standalone key objects for HTTP Signatures. * Fix a crash on servers where WordPress uses FTP instead of direct file access for media caching. * Fix a crash when receiving posts from certain federated platforms that send multilingual content. * Fix automatic cleanup of old activities failing silently on sites with large numbers of outbox, inbox, or remote post items. * Fix comment count to properly exclude likes, shares, and notes. * Fix follow button redirect from Mastodon not being recognized. * Fix modal overlay not covering the full screen on block themes. * Fix outbox invalidation canceling pending Accept/Reject responses to QuoteRequests for the same post. * Fix QuoteRequest handler to derive responding actor from post author instead of inbox recipient. * Fix reactions block buttons inheriting theme background color on classic themes. * Fix reactions block layout on small screens and remove unwanted button highlight when clicking action buttons. * Fix signature verification rejecting valid requests that use lowercase algorithm names in the Digest header. * Fix soft-deleted posts being served instead of a tombstone when the post is re-saved. * Improve compatibility with federated services that use a URL reference for the actor’s public key. * Improve handling of all public audience identifiers when sending activities to followers and relays. * Prevent private recipient lists from being shared when sending activities to other servers. ## Get It Download from WordPress.org or grab it on GitHub. Remember to check your PHP version first — 7.4 or higher is now required. A huge thank you to everyone who contributed code, testing, bug reports, and ideas to this release. Special thanks to @kraft, @jeremy, and @futtta for their snippet contributions. Update, try out those Like and Boost buttons, and let us know what you think — what’s the feature you’ve been waiting for? What would you like to see next?

WordPress ActivityPub 8.0.0 makes your blog more interactive in the Fediverse: visitors can Like/Boost posts directly on-site, with faster repeat interactions and clearer guidance. New Fediverse block patterns/templates speed setup, a pre-publish panel suggests post formats, community snippets […]

1 month ago 3 25 2 1

A workout dvd titled “Big Butts hit the beach”

The back cover of the dvd

I cannot lie, I found this dvd at a local thrift store for $1.

The best part - the lead lady doesn’t consider herself as having a big butt, just calls her teammates “the big butts”.

3 weeks ago 1 1 0 0

Beginning Phase 2 of Northsky

In our latest newsletter, we discuss our plans for Northsky Phase 2, including IndieApp, Stratos private data, and scaling our moderation efforts: northskysocial.com/posts/beginn...

1 month ago 100 32 1 4

A man in a tie in front of a pin board with tons of paper and ribbons tying together, a conspiracy type board. The man has wide eyes and is kind of crazy looking.

I recently attended a Salesforce Marketing workshop in Austin, TX and quickly found myself drowning in products and SKUs I did not know. After a day or two of research, I hope I don't end up coming off like this meme in my article.

jeffsikes.com/blog/salesfo...

#Salesforce #MarketingCloud

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

Navigator: share() method - Web APIs | MDN The share() method of the Navigator interface invokes the native sharing mechanism of the device to share data such as text, URLs, or files. The available share targets depend on the device, but might...

You may want to mention that there's actually a W3C draft/specification for this too!

The Web API: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...
The spec: w3c.github.io/web-share/#s...
Draft for defining custom share targets: github.com/w3c/web-shar...

1 month ago 19 4 2 2

FR#156 – Share Where? On Mastodon's new Share button, and protocol ownership.

in this week's article I talk about Mastodon's new Share button, and how a network that cares strongly about open protocols gradually became dependent on proprietary protocols instead

connectedplaces.online/reports/fr15...

1 month ago 50 9 9 5

I really enjoyed this conversation with @rabble.nz. It's an expansive discussion: we take in VC, journalism, AI, the open social web, and even Elgg, my very first startup and open source community platform. I hope you like it too.

1 month ago 27 9 1 0

ICYMI, @fediforum.org's Growing the Open Social Web unworkshop took place today. Catch up on everything that happened via @timothychambers.net's #FediForum #SurfFeed, which he published to @bsky.app.

📌 bsky.app/profile/timo...

1 month ago 8 2 0 1

A cartoon logo of a Lego man dressed in a. Chicken outfit holding an axe. Underneath it says “PThai’s Khao Man Gai & Noodles”

This was good. Hiccup spicy, at its best.

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

Jeff Sikes - Technology Leadership for Non-Profits Providing tech leadership and hands-on assistance to mission-driven non-profit associations.

Job hunt is officially open.
I’ve had 13+ years building dev teams at nonprofits and making the most of every resource. I want to help orgs that are trying to make the world better.

Boost, reply, have at it. 🙂

jeffsikes.com

1 month ago 0 1 0 0

Fedify 2.0.0: Modular architecture, debug dashboard, and relay support · fedify-dev fedify · Discussion #580 Fedify is a TypeScript framework for building ActivityPub servers that participate in the fediverse. It reduces the complexity and boilerplate typically required for ActivityPub implementation whil...

Fedify 2.0.0—the biggest release yet!

• Modular package architecture
• Real-time debug dashboard
• ActivityPub relay support
• Ordered message delivery
• Permanent failure handling

Breaking changes included—see the migration guide before upgrading. Full release notes are on GitHub.

1 month ago 16 3 1 0

Original post on toot.wales

I've been asked to do a five minute interview on BBC Radio's "Radio Breakfast" on Friday 27 Feb to talk about the current social media landscape and the new Tŵt app!!

It's interesting and reinforcing to me to hear people see "new app" and equate that with "new project" or "new social network" […]

1 month ago 0 6 2 0

FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web:<br>An Online FediForum Un-Workshop

To that end, I've teamed up with my friend @j12t.org, who runs @fediforum.org to put together an online "un-workshop" to explore different ways of growing the open social web! fediforum.org/2026-03-grow...

2 months ago 41 22 1 0

Do you miss writing code? That grand moment something works is almost an intoxicant when you're working on something new, at least for me.

Do you get the same excitement from setting up instructions for Agents to follow? (this is a real ask, not being sarcastic or looking to start a fight)

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

Just a boring link. Mastodon wins this round.

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

Live Session EP (iTunes Exc... Navidrome Music Server - v0.60.0 (0c8f2a55)

Is this going to oEmbed or just link out to the share page. Not sure how Bluesky handles these.

music.box464.com/share/O7PSco...

1 month ago 0 0 1 0

A flattened same seed bun with dreary eyeballs in someone’s hand.

Things didn’t end well for Mayor McCheese after the hamburgurlar riots of 1654.

2 months ago 1 0 0 0

Every American needs to watch this:

2 months ago 20689 10372 591 997

🌝🌚🌞

2 months ago 0 0 0 0

A package of gum with little gum characters. The name of the gum is “Sensitive Gum” and the characters have worried faces, saying things like “I’m sad”, “Am I enough?” And “Why”

Saw this at my local quirky hardware store and it made me giggle.

2 months ago 0 0 0 0

Fediverse: An overview for community organizers | Stefan Bohacek Fediverse as a tool for communities and community organizers.

Just two weeks ago, three popular podcasters started an experiment. A community that's free from Big Tech, free from venture capital looking for a big payout one day. No ads.

They're nearly at 10k members now, and can connect with millions of others.

stefanbohacek.com/blog/fediver...

2 months ago 6 9 1 2

Are there any open APIs left? One of the dreams of Web 2.0 was that website would speak unto website. An "Application Programming Interface" (API) would give programmatic access to structured data, allowing services to seamlessly integrate content from each other. Users would be able to quickly grab data from multiple sources and use them for their own purposes. No registration or API keys, no tedious EULAs or meetings. Just …

New blog post: Are there any open APIs left?

shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/are-there-a...

One of the dreams of Web 2.0 was that website would speak unto website. An "Application Programming Interface" (API) would give programmatic access to structured data, allowing services …

2 months ago 6 2 2 0

I wrote for New_Public, about European projects building on atproto

2 months ago 60 20 1 1

Fediverse Report – #148 – On Protocol Governance On the complexities of protocol governance.

ActivityPub is getting its first formal update path since 2018. I wrote about why this matters, how this leads to some strange and funny power dynamics, and about who actually participate

connectedplaces.online/reports/fedi...

2 months ago 56 15 3 1

Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit The most affordable generative AI supercomputer.

I received a Jetson Orin Nano as a gift from my team a few months ago, and I'm just now getting a chance to set it up.

So many things to do before I can even boot into it...

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

The words “The Big Bone” are displayed on a neon sign. A white bone is illuminated along the bottom right.

Surprisingly not a gay bar, but it should be.

3 months ago 1 0 0 0

Posts by Jeff