A number of governments (France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands), international organisations (The European Union, The Council of Europe, W3C etc), public broadcasters (ZDF, the BBC, PBS/NPR affiliates etc) have set up servers or accounts on the Fediverse.
Please ask public services in your country/region/area to follow their lead. I can do a shoutout on @FediFollows to help get them started.
Musk's Twitter hides all its accounts behind a sign-in page, so it's no longer a public channel.
p.s. This doesn't have to be just top level public organisations. It can be any level, including grassroots. For example there's a public library in Illinois, USA at @VernonLibrary, it could be things like that.
Your last point is very important. I lose respect for organizations that post their up to date information on Facebook and/or Xhitter. Not because of Zuck and Musk (though they are awful) but because the systems are closed to people who choose not to use the service.
So, I can't see a businesses hours on a holiday because I don't have a Facebook account? OK, I'll just go somewhere else then.
And of course organizations which are or seek to serve all people should be using, if not just open systems, then as many systems as possible and as many open systems as possible.
Yeah, exactly. It's not so bad with restaurants because you can go elsewhere, but almost everyone depends on public services in one form or other so it's problematic to hide public service info on platforms that require membership to view.
Ideally they would also offer RSS so it could easily be mirrored on other platforms too. Most Fedi platforms (including Mastodon) have RSS feeds of public-visibility posts built-in.
I understand that updating an actual website can be somewhat problematic for even a large organization, but definitely yes, they should have some completely open way to give updates to people.
I am not sure if FB/Deadbird apis still allow a website to show the latest posts of a feed. If they do, it still not ideal, but at least better.
"I am not sure if FB/Deadbird apis still allow a website to show the latest posts of a feed"
They don't, at least Twitter doesn't. The alternative front end Nitter is closing down because all methods for displaying public feeds have now gone.
Then we are right back to RSS feeds. There are plugins for Wordpress, so I assume there are already modules that any admin can drop into a website to show an RSS feed, which seems to be the perfect way to display timely updates on any website.
@MylesRyden @FediTips @FediFollows Paradigm example: all UK Higher Education - as adherent to those as to MS.
it's gotta be said -- Mastodon's search function is weak
do you have actual accounts you could list, especially for those broadcasters?
Yes, I've been posting them on this account in last few days. If you browse my account at @FediFollows (or at https://fedi.directory) you can see lots of examples of such accounts.
"Mastodon's search function is weak "
If you opt into full text search, people will be able to search your posts by entire post instead of just hashtag:
https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-opt-into-or-out-of-full-text-search-on-mastodon/
I'm assuming public bodies would definitely opt into this, because all their info is intended for the public.
Regarding Switzerland:
Instance
https://social.admin.ch/
Accounts
@GuyParmelin
@gov
@BK_KOMM
@WBF_DEFR
@eda_dfae
@swissmfa
@EDI_DFI
@FediTips @FediFollows It never was a public channel. If it were, it would have been #opensource
@dragonsidedd @FediTips @FediFollows That's not- That's not what OSS is.
@FediTips @FediFollows let's be honest here. My country (Morocco) is very unlikely to ever contribute to the fediverse. I haven't seen a single Moroccan Mastodon account outside of my own. Most of us simply aren't very techie enough to know about this stuff, that's why.
What are some links to governments (like Switzerland, specifically) on Mastodon?
I've published some on my @FediFollows account recently (at https://social.growyourown.services/@FediFollows/111863392225131070) and you can also find them on my website https://fedi.directory
@FediTips @FediFollows And please ask your Members of Parliament/Congress/House/etc. to join the Fediverse. A democracy needs a town square that is accessible to everyone.
For German politicians I am happy to offer a #newbiebonus.
@FediTips Wait really? That's great news.
I kind of want to inquire my university about getting on the Fedi since they left Twitter because of Musk's bullshit
Good luck getting any alphabet agencies in the US to run a Mastodon box. Local municipal orgs might. I'd start with public libraries
Also RSS is great, but good luck getting the average person to use it. Still too techy for most, meh meh.
Oh yeah, grassroots is definitely good starting point There's a US public library at @VernonLibrary for example.
"RSS is great, but good luck getting the average person to use it"
They don't need to use it directly, the main advantage of RSS is it allows mirrors to be easily set up on any social network or website, which can then be followed or read like any normal social media account or site. For example @APoD is a Fediverse mirror of an official RSS feed from NASA.