Eugen Rochko

Executive Strategy & Product Advisor, Founder of Mastodon (npub163h…mv0n). Film photography, prog metal, Dota 2. Likes all things analog.

GitHub: https://github.com/Gargron
Portfolio: https://eugenrochko.com
Mastodon Merch: https://shop.joinmastodon.org

Public Key

npub1vl7jgjkprjrpytq0en63ss482a08aam0q5tr5nrwg4tdznvcvnaq44f6g0

NIP-05 Address

gargron_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsx0lfyftq3epsj9s8ueagcg2n4whn77ahs2936f3hy24k3fkvxf7spz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dskqj3mc

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1vl7jgjkprjrpytq0en63ss482a08aam0q5tr5nrwg4tdznvcvnaq44f6g0

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Last Notes

2026-05-26 19:41:43 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@JMarkOckerbloom/116642253074554430
No, not you too 😭
#note19nd…q0dh

2026-05-21 19:27:04 UTC

When I was growing up, we had operating systems that exposed a lot of the technical details about their inner workings, and websites that let us use code to customize them, like MySpace and Geocities. UX designers in tech have since optimized away most of the stuff that allowed and encouraged people to learn to use technology and now people get confused by files and browser tabs. And as the knowledge shrinks, more and more things have to be simplified away. I only ever see it as a one way road.

2026-04-16 20:30:31 UTC

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I'm going to go even further: e-waste is a much bigger problem than MacBook theft. Right to repair should be universal.

2026-04-05 15:30:29 UTC

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I’m not interested in following any “AI people”. That doesn’t make it an echo chamber. We don’t need equal amounts of people who love puppies and want to kill puppies, not everything needs to be equally represented.

2026-04-02 16:43:15 UTC

RE: https://flipboard.social/@surf/116336026699518351
Congrats on the launch @npub17fe…w0a6!
#note1mam…rcwm

2026-03-15 02:35:49 UTC

I know 100% that people will argue with me over this, but I miss when movies were professionally lit, when actors were intentionally blocked, and when more than teal, orange and beige were allowed to be on the screen. The medium has something to do with it--film made a lot of these things fundamentally necessary--but I think it's more complex than just that. The last few years' movies are just not pleasant to look at, with very few exceptions, and the change occurred sometime around 2015.

2026-03-10 20:59:50 UTC

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I have the impression that primarily anglophone people don't read as much translated literature, because so much good literature already exists in their language, so this issue may not be as familiar within that demographic. As someone who did not grow up anglophone, I can tell you there is a world of difference between a good and a bad translation even when done by humans. Machine translations are not even on the scale.

2026-02-25 00:05:06 UTC

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Huh? You don’t need an LLM to translate something. We had DeepL and Google Translate a decade before LLM was a concept. And what does it have to do with scraping? You just paste text into it or use a browser plugin.

2026-01-17 23:14:32 UTC

I will be opting my account out of the #Bluesky bridge next week. If you follow me from Bluesky (I think there are about 3.9K of you) and want to continue seeing my posts you will need to get an account on the fediverse. Cheers.

2026-01-03 08:37:26 UTC

I certainly hope the EU can put the same sanctions on the US for attacking Venezuela as they did on Russia for attacking Ukraine. This is indefensible.

2025-12-04 20:42:49 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@jonhicks/115662466196992390
I know #Tidal isn't perfect (and buying physical media or band merch is better, but hey, that is situational, I will only buy an album after I already like it), but this sort of thing makes me feel vindicated in choosing not to use #Spotify.
#note1dl6…uvnk

2025-11-01 18:37:36 UTC

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RE: https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/114749156199964168
I feel like this may have flown under the radar 😅
#note1zrs…j9td

2025-11-01 18:31:46 UTC

Out of curiosity, are you using or have you used Mastodon's Signal sticker pack?

2025-10-15 12:39:19 UTC

Coast of Rydal water.
📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Fuji Superia X-tra 400
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
⚗️ Come Through Lab
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #LakeDistrict #TheLakes #Cumbria #Mosstodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/115/378/210/955/188/005/original/b58c9c869d304b03.jpg

2025-09-18 08:20:17 UTC

Good morning! If you’re on mastodon.social (or another server running nightly builds) you can begin quoting posts in your posts (quooting?) starting today. Remember, you control whether you can be quoted, and call always retract your post from a specific quote. And you can quote me on that!

2025-07-08 23:25:26 UTC

There is a new setting for server operators in #Mastodon 4.4, under Administration -> Server Settings -> Discovery, called "Allow external sites to see your Mastodon server as a traffic source". If you're running a server for a larger group of people there is no privacy downside to enabling this, and it will help make the fediverse more visible as a traffic source to the rest of the web.

2025-06-19 05:35:43 UTC

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I mean… yeah, that’s pretty much it.

2025-06-17 17:09:01 UTC

We've published our new terms of service for mastodon.social and mastodon.online today, effective July 1. The same template will be available as an option to other servers in the upcoming #Mastodon 4.4 update. There are no changes to our policies or operations, just clarifications, e.g. if you upload content to be displayed to other users, you give us permission to display it to other users, but you keep all rights to it. We also explicitly prohibit scraping, even though it was never allowed.

2025-06-04 15:51:34 UTC

When we released post editing for #Mastodon, we first released a version that supported processing and displaying edits incoming from other servers, before releasing a version that flipped a switch allowing anyone to make edits. We're taking an identical approach with quote posts, as the upcoming 4.4 version of Mastodon will begin displaying quote posts from other servers and software. Once this is widely deployed on the network, 4.5 will bring the long awaited ability to quote posts.

2025-05-14 08:51:49 UTC

The web feels so broken. Subscription and login gates at every corner. Using Google on a phone now means being periodically quizzed on which of the buttons to press to *not* be redirected to the app store. Opening an Instagram link casually throws up a browser alert dialog because it tries to automatically open an unsupported URL scheme, presumably their own app, and apparently everyone is fine with it. I'm proud that Mastodon never locks public content behind login walls.

2025-04-16 06:59:49 UTC

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Translations cost money. That would not be economical if you might not read every post.

2025-04-15 19:58:06 UTC

In today's mastodon.social update, we're testing a few minor quality of life improvements to the web interface: Every list of accounts now has a shortcut to add or remove an account from lists; clicking a hashtag in a post now brings up a menu with a shortcut to browse posts in that hashtag specifically by the author, and a new featured tab on profiles to make featured hashtags and posts easier to find and navigate.

2025-03-16 23:51:08 UTC

I'm a bit curious how other people engage with photography and art on #Mastodon. Do you typically click the 1:1 button on the media modal and admire pictures in full resolution?

2025-03-16 17:37:35 UTC

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What kind of question is that? I make 60K EUR a year.

2025-03-16 17:25:31 UTC

Someone reminded me today 9 years ago I submitted my first post on Mastodon—using curl on the command line, since there was no interface at the time. That's how the journey began! 9 years is a long time to be doing something. Those early years are still fresh in my mind though.

2025-02-07 22:12:09 UTC

With the latest update to #Mastodon's web app, we show you a little reminder when you're about to post a picture without adding alt text. Alt text is crucial for accessibility, but has other perks too, such as making it much easier to search for your post—or filter it. Of course, the reminder can be simply toggled off in preferences.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/964/866/366/187/463/original/7945141b47872860.png

2025-01-25 10:24:29 UTC

I always struggle to pay attention to the metrics, but it looks like #Mastodon for Android downloads are up 455% recently. This tracks with how many new people I've been seeing on the explore page recently. Don't know if it's a coincidence but I think your help in fixing our app's rating might have had a hand in this...
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/888/471/454/092/723/original/7f12d17474e202b0.png

2025-01-08 18:41:36 UTC

The moderation policy changes at Meta are deeply troubling and should be a concern to anyone with a conscience. While the fediverse is a decentralized platform where different service providers have different moderation policies, at mastodon.social, hate speech is prohibited, and we will take action on any Threads account found violating our policies. I would strongly urge anyone with a Threads account to reconsider their alignment with the new direction at Meta and move to Mastodon instead.

2024-12-29 21:30:23 UTC

I think one of my professional highlights of this year was the moment @npub17fe…w0a6 and I came up with the fediverse:creator tag over lunch in San Francisco, and the subsequent implementation with my team. I love seeing that feature in action, besides being useful for discovery it just looks so nice.

2024-12-03 00:09:58 UTC

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You'll get a notification in the web app when it's ready.

2024-12-02 23:59:11 UTC

In December 2021 I set myself a goal: Add a year-in-review feature to #Mastodon before the next December. It's December 2024 and it's finally, slowly rolling out. It's not all that it was meant to be, because we couldn't prioritize it over all the other things we work on, but I didn't want to miss another year.
#Wrapstodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/585/919/691/374/914/original/0072a12aec007b43.png

2024-11-15 20:24:17 UTC

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We may not be the biggest by numbers yet, but Mastodon (and the fediverse) has proven itself to be an effective and reliable communications platform over the course of the last 8 years, and does not depend on venture capital to survive. The #fediverse is the future.

2024-11-15 20:20:54 UTC

Mastodon is benefitting from the #X exodus (eXodus?) too: The official app downloads are up 47% on iOS and 17% on Android. Sign-ups are up approx. 27% compared to previous month with about 90K new accounts, while the MAU has jumped to 894K (across all Mastodon servers).

2024-11-06 08:20:37 UTC

I think it's going to be more important than ever that #Mastodon and the #fediverse are not centrally operated out of the US like almost every other social media platform out there.

2024-09-18 10:44:12 UTC

New #DevinTownsend single from #PowerNerd is out now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdRnDRb9wh4
#NowPlaying #NP

2024-09-01 17:33:14 UTC

Please remember that Mastodon doesn't have a marketing team or budget. Whatever media coverage Mastodon gets is from inbound interest from journalists. The growth of the platform has been predominantly through word of mouth. If you want the fediverse to grow, tell your friends.

2024-08-22 11:49:15 UTC

I was at the right place at the right time.
📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Ilford Delta 400
🔭 Pentax M 50mm/1.7
⚗️ Come Through Lab
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #BlackAndWhitePhotography #BlackAndWhite #MonochromePhotography #35mm #Bristol
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/005/496/702/911/761/original/3b8d5db2ee7b3d3d.jpg

2024-07-09 21:04:17 UTC

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Interesting that Mastodon itself combines a myriad of different social networks into one app. In a non-federated world, mastodon.social and vivaldi.net would be completely separate social networks; more so for Flipboard, Ghost, Pixelfed and so on. And yet you get all of them in your home feed on Mastodon.

2024-07-05 17:14:48 UTC

A purrito. #CatsOfMastodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/735/006/193/837/948/original/69723896ca2fb5ef.jpeg
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/735/006/564/847/535/original/69db9ca991d43336.jpeg

2024-07-02 19:30:36 UTC

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This profile preview features the first two lines of the user's bio and the first two fields (commonly used for information like pronouns or verified links) which should hopefully make people more informed about who they talk to before they do so (similar idea as the reply prompts we launched a while back on Android).

2024-07-02 19:25:41 UTC

We've actually released two features today that I'm really excited about. One is, as you may already know, displaying the author's fediverse account underneath link previews. But the other is showing a profile preview when you hover a user anywhere in the web app, with a quick follow shortcut.

2024-06-22 01:26:38 UTC

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I'm not in charge of the ActivityPub protocol, that's the W3C.

2024-06-20 17:42:32 UTC

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154k people have opted-in to search. That's fewer than the 878k that have opted in to being featured in discovery algorithms, but I think it's not as few as some people might think.

2024-06-20 17:26:23 UTC

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Not having enough search results for a specific query is not the same thing as there not being a search function, which exists since 2023.

2024-06-20 16:41:46 UTC

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Which functionality is lacking? Can you give an example of a search query and how the results differed from your expectations?

2024-06-19 18:35:55 UTC

Probably not a film I'm going to use ever again, but for this shot it sort of worked.
📷 Pentax KX
🎞️ Rollei Retro 80s
🔭 SMC Pentax-M 50mm/1.7
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/644/709/167/682/871/original/ddd070e7d60ec6eb.jpg

2024-06-12 10:46:43 UTC

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Check my profile! On the sidebar you'll see #filmphotography. Click that, and it's all my photo posts. You set this up from your profile settings.

2024-06-12 10:36:00 UTC

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Would a featured hashtag on your profile not take care of that?

2024-06-10 18:17:29 UTC

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Gross

2024-06-10 17:47:10 UTC

Damn, they brought the calculator to the iPad. Unbelievable #wwdc24

2024-06-09 13:13:22 UTC

How is he a real cat?
#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/586/837/071/066/933/original/f0d6ba43ba8c824f.jpeg

2024-06-09 07:30:40 UTC

There we go, just voted.
#EUelections2024 #Europawahl #UseYourVote

2024-06-05 14:43:11 UTC

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One more thing. I am not a lawyer, but in my understanding the "default" license for any works you publish on the web is not "public domain", it is "no license". Content published on the fediverse cannot be used for anything, legally, except the intended function of the service. It is only if you want to to give more rights that you'd need "content licensing support". In that sense I also don't see this as a show stopper for federation today.

2024-06-05 14:36:25 UTC

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It's worth noting that Glaze is neither a guarantee that something won't be ingested into an LLM, nor is it something that comes at absolutely no cost; depending on setting it creates visible artifacts similar to JPEG compression that I have seen artists complain about. I don't think Glaze is relevant to the federation discussion however.

2024-06-05 14:35:08 UTC

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I remember we already talked about this yesterday. I think discussions about LLM training should be happening at the legal level, not technical, unless you want DRM. Personally, I do not want to advocate for DRM. I do not believe that robots.txt is an adequate defense against LLM training, and that the onus of keeping up with all LLM user agents should not be on website authors.

2024-06-05 14:22:05 UTC

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I read that yesterday. From my reading of the Cara page, it is not making any promises about protecting art from ingestion into LLM datasets besides offering access to the Glaze tool. It's simply a place where generative AI slop is not allowed to be uploaded. In that sense I see no show stoppers for federation today. Artists want to be seen, makes no sense to self-isolate.

2024-06-05 14:00:49 UTC

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RSS is not the same. I want them to know that I follow them, and to see my replies, and when I boost their art to my followers.

2024-06-05 11:58:52 UTC

I should be able to follow #Cara users from my Mastodon account. You can't convince me to make yet another account in a yet another silo, but I'd love to see and share more art in my home feed. Anyone have a connection to their team? Would love to chat about the #fediverse.

2024-06-05 04:52:27 UTC

And yet more from the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/562/204/161/125/501/original/0afc3ad152f11eba.jpg

2024-06-04 07:19:13 UTC

I’ve got a new camera! Pentax KX. Unlike the Canon Ae-1 Program, it’s fully mechanical. Everything seems to be in working order, except the focusing ring being misaligned and rotating past infinity.
#BelieveInFilm
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/557/132/942/161/113/original/e1c8abb5892c67da.jpeg

2024-06-02 09:33:32 UTC

Evening on the water. San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/546/323/914/751/156/original/36713a1c21a959aa.jpg

2024-05-31 06:58:43 UTC

New #Leprous single, Atonement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYvVcqS3IpQ
#NP #NowPlaying

2024-05-30 23:43:59 UTC

It's nice to find out breaking news on Mastodon.

2024-05-30 05:13:43 UTC

A bathroom. San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/528/317/968/265/380/original/9e671ecc3f019bc7.jpg

2024-05-29 22:49:54 UTC

A window in Presidio, San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/526/606/524/489/659/original/6e5fe216fd1faefe.jpg

2024-05-29 17:00:50 UTC

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No, something else. There's a <script type="application/ld+json"> element on some websites that contains JSON-LD describing the page. We use that in Mastodon instead of OpenGraph when available. See Washington Post's website for example.

2024-05-29 16:52:49 UTC

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It is typed application/ld+json though.

2024-05-23 05:40:13 UTC

Descent to the coast. San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/488/795/985/863/094/original/1ac74ffe8e71fc15.jpeg

2024-05-22 17:18:41 UTC

Sunset at Golden Gate. San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/485/852/532/690/243/original/3da1094d56aaf9e8.jpg

2024-05-22 02:50:55 UTC

Hopefully a slightly less common angle on a famous landmark. San Francisco.
📷 Canon AE-1 Program
🎞️ Kodak Vision3 250D
🔭 Canon FD 50mm/1.4 S.S.C.
#BelieveInFilm #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography #35mm #SFBA
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/482/448/919/891/452/original/0fd15385172fb5e2.jpg

2024-05-18 17:50:19 UTC

Back home after a very busy week in San Francisco. I spoke with @npub1ld4…at00, @npub14j8…pjuf, @npub13t2…gh8m, @npub1ggg…yfh8, @npub1h86…lepa, @npub1xmw…7pnp and so many others. In an age where the old web is gradually getting killed off by AI, there is still hope for the future in the shape of the fediverse.

2024-05-13 03:00:33 UTC

With @npub17fe…w0a6
#Plushtodon #Merchtodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/431/544/989/461/003/original/8e0a6322acc58074.jpeg

2024-05-11 12:48:10 UTC

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I missed it. What happened?

2024-05-09 15:00:34 UTC

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This is already the case, the hashtags have to be the last thing in the post.

2024-05-04 21:23:00 UTC

Blep.
#Caturday #CatsOfMastodon
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/384/919/111/715/409/original/27fb7a5baf7db48e.jpeg

2024-05-03 03:28:31 UTC

A very cool friend let me take a picture. I feel like this series is my best work so far. Switzerland.
📷 Pentax 6x7
🎞️ Kodak Portra 400
🔭 Super Takumar 105mm/2.4
👤 @npub1jw7…vks3
#BelieveInFilm #MediumFormat #FilmPhotography #AnalogPhotography
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/374/962/141/738/920/original/6423421dae546dba.jpg

2024-05-01 17:29:54 UTC

Why AI is Doomed to Fail the Musical Turing Test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8NyEjB_XeA

2016-03-16 20:26:29 UTC

I am tweeting

2016-03-16 14:44:31 UTC

Hello world