Blog: [blog.kamens.us](https://blog.kamens.us/ )
Profile: [blog.kamens.us](https://blog.kamens.us/author/jik/ )
Homepage: [stuff.mit.edu](https://stuff.mit.edu/~jik/ )

Last Notes

##
The why and how of backing up your Mastodon data
##
Why this mattersRecently, the admin of a relatively prominent Mastodon¹ server, med-mastodon.com, decided to stop maintaining the server and shut it down without warning. This is, generally speaking, a terrible thing to do, but I will give the admin the benefit of the doubt and assume that he had some very good reason why he needed to shutdown without giving his users time to export their data or migrate their account to a new server (though as far as I’ve seen he hasn’t shared any such explanation).
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened, and it won’t be the last. Even servers whose admins have agreed to follow the [Mastodon Server Covenant](https://joinmastodon.org/covenant ), which among other things requires server admins to commit to giving users at least 3 months’ warning before shutting down, occasionally go belly-up without warning.
This could happen to *your* server at any time. Your server admins may be great people, but shit happens. Not only that, but your server’s admins or moderators could decide at any time to suspend or delete your account.
Some people protect themselves from this by [self-hosting their own server](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/run-your-own/ ). That has advantages, but it also has disadvantages, including time and money costs, and so it’s not for everyone. If you’re not interested in self-hosting, but you also don’t want to run the risk of suddenly losing all your Mastodon data, then you should be backing up your data on a regular basis.##
How to back stuff upThe most important thing to back up is the list of who you follow; fortunately that’s also the easiest. In the Mastodon web app, go to Preferences, then click “Import and Export” on the left, and click “CSV” to the right of “Follows”.
There you can also download your lists, muted and blocked people and domains, and bookmarks. All of those can be imported into a different Mastodon server using the “Import” page linked on the left.
Set up a reminder to back up this stuff regularly!
The next thing to back up is posts and uploads. If you consider social media transient, you may not care about this, but otherwise, you can periodically click the “Request your archive” button on the export page. You’ll receive a notification when the archive is ready to download.
Note that unlike the CSV files, your posts and media are not easy to upload into a new server. Unless you want to jump through some hoops (see below), you’re just downloading them for reference.
If you’re paying attention, you may have noticed that there’s something important missing above: what about your followers? Can those be backed up? Alas, it’s not easy.
The way it’s *supposed* to work is when you decide you want to migrate to a new account, you configure your old account to tell your followers automatically what your new account is, and their accounts follow your new account automatically. But obviously, that doesn’t work if your old server goes away with no notice!
I’m not aware of any web tools for backing up your followers (if you know of any, post a reply!), so if this is something you care about, you’re going to need to resort to the command line. Command-line tools that support exporting followers from your server include:<li><a href="https://toot.bezdomni.net">toot</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/kensanata/mastodon-archive">mastodon-archive</a></li>
If you’re so inclined, you could also write code to do the export yourself; Mastodon has a [rich, well-documented API](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/client/intro/ ).
Note that mastodon-archive also supports backing up a bunch of other stuff, so you could use it to set up periodic automated backups of all the data listed above, rather than just followers. Personally, I have mastodon-archive backing up my data automatically every night.
The toot utility mentioned above also supports downloading followed hashtags (“toot tags followed“), which you may also want to back up if following hashtags is a significant part of how you use the fediverse.##
What to do with the backed-up data###
You pretty much can’t import your old postsThe bad news first: there is no good way to migrate your posts from one server to another. This isn’t just true if the old server goes away; there’s also no good way to copy posts from an existing server to a new one. People have been [asking for this for many years](https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423 ) but apparently it has not been enough of a priority for the Mastodon developers to implement it.
There’s at least one [early-stage effort](https://mastodoncontentmover.github.io ) to build this functionality, and somebody has written a [clever tool that server admins can use](https://github.com/BitsNBytes25/Mastodon-Migrate ) to do it as long as the old account is still available, but neither of these is a robust general-purpose solution.
You can still browse your exported data, look at the posts in a text editor, write your own code to do stuff with the data, etc. Furthermore. There are [a number of tools](https://purr.neocities.org/about/ ) for viewing and searching through your exported post archive.###
How to get your followers backIf your account wasn’t migrated automatically because it disappeared out from under you, then assuming you’ve archived your followers as described above, you’re going to need to reach out to them one by one, let them know what your new account is, and ask them to follow you again.
(If you’re in online fediverse communities where people know you, you can also make a public post about your new account and ask people you know in those communities to boost it. You may need to do this several times to catch everybody, and you might still miss some people.)
If you have a lot of followers, then sending a bunch of DMs one by one to all of them will probably be a drag. You could automate it with toot, but be careful of running afoul of your server’s posting limits; you may get throttled if you post too many DMs too quickly.
Also, keep in mind that some people don’t read DMs at all, or don’t read DMs from people they don’t follow, so everyone may not see your messages asking for them to follow you again.###
Restoring followed hashtagsYou can use the toot utility (“toot tags follow hashtag“) to restore the followed hashtags from the list you previously exported with toot. Or if there aren’t too many you can just search for them by hand in the web app and then follow them.###
Everything else, you can importThe import page in the web app’s preferences can be used to import the CSVs exported from the export page. If you used mastodon-archive or toot or whatever to export the data instead, then you can manually construct a CSV in the correct format for import.
¹This article focuses on Mastodon for clarity, but much of what is written here is applicable to any type of fediverse server.
[
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#fediverse #Mastodon

2025-02-22 21:37:25 UTC

##
Astoundingly good “WIRED” article about my firing from VA and what it meansYesterday, *[WIRED](https://wired.com/ )* published an [absolutely fabulous article](https://www.wired.com/story/doge-usds-purge-veterans-affairs-site-cybersecurity/ )<a href="#fn1">*</a> by [Lily Hay Newman](https://www.wired.com/author/lily-hay-newman/ ) about my being fired by DOGE and what that means for the cybersecurity posture of VA.gov.
It sure ain’t good, folks. What’s happening to the U.S. government right now is every bit as bad as you think it is, and probably a lot worse.
The end of the article captures the rot at the root of DOGE and the Trump administration:
> “There were these interviews we all had to do with the DOGE people the day after the inauguration,” he says. “In mine, one of them asked me to describe what I was doing at VA and then said something like, ‘If you’re doing all that work, why aren’t you working in the private sector where you could be making twice as much money?’ And I said, ‘Because I don’t care about the money. I care about serving veterans.’
> “I think the fact that someone asked me that question at all is really telling.”
Here’s what you can do to fight back:<li>First, an easy one: <a href="https://www.wired.com/subscribe/">subscribe to WIRED</a>. It’s usually $30 per year but right now they’re offering a special: $10 for the first year. Their reporting on what Trump and Musk are doing is truly second-to-none. They are doing amazing journalism, and any media outlet doing good journalism right now needs our support.</li><li>If you are a federal worker, support and defend the Constitution. You took an oath to do that, and this is where the rubber hits the road. Do not obey illegal orders. Do not do things that violate your agency’s rules and regulations just because people from DOGE think they can make you. Yes, this is risky. Yes, you may face discipline or even termination. This is a time for courage, bravery, and principles, not for blending in and not making waves. If you don’t stand up for what is right now, you won’t be able to later.</li><li>Please let any federal workers you encounter know that you appreciate and support them. You have no idea how much your support means to them.</li><li>Subscribe to the email lists for any of your U.S. senators and representative who are Democrats. You can find out who your electeds are <a href="https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member">here</a>, and click through to their web sites where you will find instructions for subscribing. Any Democratic senator or representative who isn’t emailing their constituents multiple times per week at this point letting them know what Trump and Musk are doing and what the senator/representative is doing to fight back isn’t doing their job. If yours fall into that category, then call them multiple times per week to ask why they’re not communicating with their constituents about what’s going on, and to let them know what’s the most important thing you’re worried about right now (<a href="https://5calls.org/">5 Calls</a> makes this easy!). The Republicans figured out decades ago that frequent communication is necessary to keep the base activated. How are Democrats still getting this wrong? </li><a href="#ref1">*</a>
Free link [here](https://archive.ph/Z5PKc ) if you can’t get through the *WIRED* paywall, but *please* consider subscribing as described above.
[ ](# )
[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/mastodon?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.kamens.us%2F2025%2F02%2F22%2Fastoundingly-good-wired-article-about-my-being-firing-from-va-and-what-it-means%2F&linkname=Astoundingly%20good%20%E2%80%9CWIRED%E2%80%9D%20article%20about%20my%20firing%20from%20VA%20and%20what%20it%20means )[](https://www.addtoany.com/share )
#DOGE #VA #WIRED

2023-08-20 13:35:54 UTC

##
Letter: COVID misinformation from Science FridayTo: **scifri@sciencefriday.com**
Subject: **COVID misinformation**
I was pretty appalled by the misinformation and gaps in your discussions about COVID in your most recent episode. For example:
Your program implied that only “high-risk” people need to be worried about contracting Long COVID. In fact, the odds of even the most healthy person ending up with Long COVID after an infection are higher than 10% (exactly how much higher is not clear), and for some populations the odds of contracting Long COVID after infection are close to 50%. The odds of long-term disability resulting from COVID infection are an order of magnitude higher than with the flu, which makes the analogy to the flu that was drawn in this episode completely misleading and inappropriate.
At no point did you mention or even imply that every time someone catches COVID is a new role of the dice vis a vis Long COVID. People don’t have a 10% or 20% or 50% chance of acquiring Long COVID overall, they have that chance *each time they’re infected.* Not only that, but the data suggests that the odds of permanent disability actually increase with each infection, which is not at all surprising given what we now know about the impacts that COVID has on the body.
You implied that being vaccinated is highly protective against Long COVID. The best data we have now indicates that at best being vaccinated reduces the odds of acquiring Long COVID by about 35%. And to be clear, the numbers I mentioned above, i.e., minimum 10% risk of Long COVID and maximum 50% risk, already take into account vaccination.
You implied that people with severe cases of COVID are more likely to end up with Long COVID. Not only is this not true, but there’s substantial evidence at this point that people who have only a mild infection are *more* likely to end up with Long COVID. The exact mechanism of this is not yet determined, but one likely theory is that people who resume normal activity too soon after an infection are more likely to suffer long-term effects, and the more mild a person’s infection is the more likely they are to do that.
Your guest’s CDC apologism when asked to explain why we’re only being allowed one vaccination per year was appalling and outrageous. COVID is not (one) seasonal. We know this. Your guest blamed winter holiday travel as one source of COVID spread; is she not aware that people travel in the summer too (has she not heard of summer vacation?)? She blamed people congregating indoors and said this summer’s heatwaves were a fluke; is she not aware that there are heat waves every summer, especially given climate change? She neglected to mention at all that dry air makes COVID infection more likely and air conditioning dries out indoor air. Absolutely ridiculous.
Furthermore, this whole “The CDC doesn’t want to recommend two shots per year because it’s too much to ask of people” is completely asinine and absurd. I wish everyone would do what’s best for them and get vaccinated twice per year, but given that the government has decided to let people fend for themselves (and people are happy to do that, thanks in no small part to the misinformation I’m discussing in this email!), I should be able to decide for myself to get two shots a year for myself and my family if I’m prepared to do that. The problem isn’t only that the CDC isn’t recommending two shots per year; the problem is that they aren’t *allowing* people to get two shots per year, even people who understand that it’s a good idea and are willing to do it. Leaving people to fend for themselves is one thing; then not actually allowing them to take the steps they need to do that is another thing entirely, and much worse. Why wasn’t this discussed?
The misleading and omitted information about COVID provided on this episode literally endangers people’s health. I expect better from a program with “science” in its name.
Maybe you should try having some experts on your show who have been actually sounding the alarm about COVID rather than downplaying and denying its severity and acting as apologists for our government’s inadequate response. People who have been right about COVID from the start rather than repeatedly underestimating its risks. Someone from the People’s CDC, perhaps. Or Eric Topol. Or Eric Feigl-Ding. Or Lucky Tran. Or Jeff Gilchrist. Or Anthony Leonardi. The list goes on and on. There are thousands of reputable scientists and physicians sounding the alarm about our response to COVID. They have the science and the data on their side. Why don’t you give THEM a voice on your program?
Jonathan Kamens
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#COVID19 #LongCOVID #ScienceFriday
https://i0.wp.com/blog.kamens.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Science-Friday-COVID-letter.png?fit=665%2C492&ssl=1