deCloudflare/subfiles/service.altlink.md
Sindu Vijayakumar 0959f69667
2021-10-16 13:01:52 +00:00

6.2 KiB

Alternative Link

This is opt-in service.

A little history

Once upon a time there was a bot named "CloudflareLink" which was created by Anonymous. It replied to many users who shared CF links publicly.

Not many people reacted it positively. Here is some of them.

To the owner of this bot
You should be ashamed.
Quit drive by bro'ing our statuses.
Please fornicate with a pointy stick.
Pointing to a copy rather than the original document if it's still online is bad practice too. Also, you are a very annoying bot.

They got annoyed and Mastodon server owner was pressured by their "spam" reports.

One of Mastodon server owner once said, "your little protest bot is making people upset, and i'm worried it might cause people to defederate from the instance, please tone it down."

For the record "CloudflareLink" was moved to other Mastodon servers 3 times and banned 2 times by 2 Mastodon services until the Anonymous decided to given up for good.

The main difference of AltLink is opt-in. Those people who share Cloudflare links casually never receive notification until they have a good heart and follow AL.

Subscribe

  1. Follow Alternative Link (AL).
🖼 🖼
  1. AL will accept your follow request and follow back you.
  • If you're locking your account, please accept AL's follow request otherwise AL can't read your toots.
  • If you're marking your account as Bot, AL will reject your request and send you a message.
    • Try to follow again within 24 hours. (opt-in by human)
  • If there is a network instability and AL failed to follow back you: please unfollow and follow again. This will trigger follow-back.
  1. When you share Cloudflared link, AL will send direct message to you with information.
  • Direct messages older than 12 hours will be deleted.

Unsubscribe

  1. Just unfollow AL's account on your side.
  • AL will unfollow you within an hour.
  • AL do not attempt to re-follow you.
  • If you've changed your mind and want to subscribe(opt-in) again, unblock, unfollow AL and follow again.

How to hide boosted toots

If you just want to use direct message function and don't want to know other user's voices, just use Mastodon's "Hide boost" function like below picture.

"Is it really CloudFlare!?" check

Just send domain name or URL as direct message and AL will answer within 1 minute.

Here's an example.

@altlink blog.emsisoft.com

You can also query multiple at once / mix domain and URLs

@altlink
en.wikipedia.org
https://blog.emsisoft.com/wow/
www.wikimedia.org

Report a problem / Create an Issue

You can create an Issue without git account. Just send a private or direct message. And don't worry,

  • Multiple mentions (e.g. @randomUser @altlink @otherUser blah blah blah)
  • Some spam keywords
  • Public message (e.g. there's a bot called @altlink)

...will be ignored to prevent spam. Your username part (before @) will be masked to protect your privacy.

Settings

You can configure AL via direct message.

  • 1: Do not message me same domain again for a day.
    • Default is off.
    • By default AL will notify you each time when you share cloudflaresite.example. Turning this settings on will silence second post for 24 hours.
  • 2: XXXXXXXX( W I P )XXXXXXXX
    • Default is off.
    • XXXXXXXX( W I P )XXXXXXXX
  • 3: Count my links and send me report monthly.
    • Default is off.
    • If you turn on this settings AL will simply count how many links you shared publicly and how many were Cloudflared. Note that this count will have duplicates because we never save (& don't care) what you shared.
    • If you change this settings or each month has passed counter will reset to 0.
  • 4: Set my preferred language to ??.
    • Default is unset.
      • AL will use language based on your toot.
    • If you tell AL your language, AL will speak your language.
      • Need other language? Create an issue.
  • 5: Show my current preferences.
    • No settings option.
  • 6: Ignore boosted toots.
    • Default is off.
    • By default AL will notify you when you boost(retweet) other user's post which has Cloudflare link.
  • 7: Use alternative provider.
    • Default is off.
    • If you turn on this settings AL will use IAList service.
set N V
  • N is above numbers.
  • V is value.
    • for number 1 to 3, 6 to 7:
      • one of: y n yes no true false 1 0 on off
    • for number 4:
    • for number 5:
      • none (see below example)
  • You can mix uppercase if you want.
    • sEt 1 TRuE is same as set 1 true

Here's an example.

  • Speak Русский. Monthly Report please.
@altlink
set 4 ru
set 3 on
  • What is my current settings?
@altlink set 5
  • Turn 1 on and show settings.
@altlink set 1 yes
set 5