Instance Updates: Twitter API Going Paid Edition and Backup Admin Wanted

It’s been a while since we made an update. I have posted on my main blog about the impacts of the Third Party API shutting down for free users unless you pay up. If you know anyone that creates Japanese-media-centric content or is an Anime Blogger, point them to our instance. We cater to Anime Bloggers and Japanese-media-centric content creators, and followers of those creators can join us on our comfy instance. Also, you can promote your works on our instance as others may have rules against it.

You can join us at https://sakurajima.moe/

What does Twitter’s Third Party API requiring payment mean for your WordPress plugins, Twitter to Mastodon crossposters, and tools used for Twitter migration. Unless the application owners pay the ransom, they will stop working on February 9th. We see that most services are not complying with this ransom as they urge users to create a username and password now if they use “Sign in with Twitter.” With this move, your new blog posts will no longer be automatically shared. This is a sign that you should move away from Twitter and perhaps give Mastodon a try.

We at Sakurajima are here in the long run as a public service. I have a stable job and can keep this server running for the foreseeable future. However, if you enjoy using our services, I encourage you to give a few bucks a month to offset the costs on Ko-Fi or Patreon. With how centralized social networks are now and the threat that someone can buy them and run them to the ground, I see the Fediverse as the future.

To show I’m serious about running Sakurajima (and Usuzakuraya) for the foreseeable future, we have registered a DMCA-designated agent. This will protect us from any claims we may receive and comply with safe-harbor provisions in the law. You can see our registration number on the about page of our server.

Second, we are looking to fully comply with the Mastodon Convent. We currently have the server backup daily and daily snapshots on Linode, and we have sufficient content moderation. This means looking for backup administrators to deal with technical issues when I’m not available to deal with them.

If you want to volunteer, you need to have the following qualifications:

• Use Sakurajima regularly for at least 2 months with posts and followers.
• Have creditable experience through work experience (public, private, or volunteer work), IT degree or similar, or IT Certifications (e.g., CompTIA, ISC², Red Hat certifications).
• Be familiar with administering a Linux system through SSH
• Have no strikes on your account.

I’m looking for two backup admins. If approved, you need to submit a public SSH key (passwords are not given out, and you need to set one to use “sudo”), be placed in the Backup Admin group on Mastodon, Pixelfed, and Xenforo, and Linode Manager access to the manager for the server if it needs a restart. Like the famous line, “With great power comes great responsibility,” you should only use the admin powers granted to you to resolve an immediate technical emergency or an event that I need someone to take over temporarily. Abusing power will lead to the removal of administrative privileges and a permanent ban for breaking trust.

If you are interested, send an email to the admin email on our instance, and I will review it.