Wouter Tebbens wtebbens@identi.ca

...remember the Pump network is much more than that! ;)

Lots of things changed when identi.ca migrated from the StatusNet system to the Pump.io system.

Among others:

- Pump.io is not microblogging. You can post long texts, with some formatting and line breaks. Well, like this one! You can post short text if you wish, of course. Also, you don't need shortened URL's, and you can make pretty links.

- You can follow people from any other public Pump.io server, like microca.st, hotpump.net, fmrl.me, pump.jpope.org, etc. Start following some new people! You can take a look at this user finder, for instance. Or keep an eye out to see who your friends are following, in the Meanwhile feed ;)

Don't be afraid to follow people from other servers. That's what federation is all about, and that's our strength! If you've been scared by the "permission" message using the web, where you have to authorize the other server to post as you, etc, know that this isn't necessary if you use a desktop client.

- If you use the web interface, when you create new posts, they are not public by default. If you want to make a public post (currently recommended due to some issues with the comments), you'll have to add "Public" to the "To:" field. Try to make at least one public post, so people who see your profile can see you're active before trying to follow you. Ideally, if the post can be public, you should post it to Public; it works better.

- You can use several external web services with your account, like hip2.it, pump2status.net, or the "proof of concept" game, OpenFarmGame, to name a few. One of the strenghts of Pump.io is not being a monolithic beast, but instead, a lot of connected services an applications providing all kinds of features. Check them out!

- You can upload pictures, audio, video and other files in your posts, though the officially "supported everywhere" attachments are pictures, for now.

- There are already several pump.io applications (clients), for PC or mobile devices that can do more than what the web interface can at this point. I seriously recommend checking them out: Clients List.

- You can check out a "public timeline" at hubub.e43.eu, hubub.polari.us and equivalent sites, or from a client that supports it.

- You can check out a pseudo-user directory at inventati.org/ppump/usuarios.

- If your account was used for some sort of entity, like a free software project or organization, you can take advantage of tools like Spigot, to post to Pump automatically from your RSS feed, or PumpTweet, to automatically send your Pump.io posts to Twitter. And you can find more options here.

If you have any doubts about any of these points, please feel free to ask.

This list has been modified a few times, and might be modified again, because yes, you can edit your posts and comments in Pump.io! =)

Cheers!

o/

Edit: Posted as a blog post at CommunicationFreedom.

Spanish version at ComunícateLibremente.

Careful with those copy-pastes from Twitter!

That link is falsified, and actually goes to their t.co domain ☹

We (my husband and me) try to educate our son on that when something is broken, first we try to repair it, if it is not possible, then we try to give it a second life, etc. We (broke* and) repaired together clothes, toys, books, computers... We have used broken things to make new toys, created costumes... When we want to do something we look first at the materials we have at home.

( * sometimes things break accidentally, other times, when trying to figure out new ways of playing or trying to open them to see their parts. Toys are for playing and learning, and that includes a bit hacking too, isn't it?).

I don't buy a different type of biscuits or flakes or whatever until he finishes the last one he chose. If he's bored, we play with combinations or decorations to make them more fun.

When we go to do the shopping, first we make a list at home. If there are temptations in the mall, then I can say "we didn't come here to buy that, it's not in the list. If you want it, next week, when we make the list, we talk about it".

We borrow books and films from the library, handle them with care (no hacking allowed with those ones!), and return them back, almost every week. I wish there were similar places as libraries, but for toys! (well, we have the park, where everybody must share the toys he/she brings, but it's not the same).

These may look like small things, but it's incredible the pressure of our culture: "is it broken? Throw it and buy a new one" or "We need to buy this in order to make that", or "I don't like this anymore, let's buy a different thing". You don't realize until you try to follow a different path! Or until you have a son/daughter and he/she comes with those ideas, and you wonder "from where did he/she learned that?".

We'll see for how long we can resist. Anyway, every day I give thanks, because our son means a daily opportunity for rethinking our world, and trying to do my best at explaining it, and making it more similar to the world that we would like to live in!