Profile for elena
- Display name
- Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂
- Username
- @elena@aseachange.com
- Role
- admin
About elena
Fields
- all my links
- https://elena.social
Bio
Italian writer, photographer and filmmaker based in Paris, France. Fediverse cheerleader.
I run the newsletter #TheFutureIsFederated which aims to explain the numerous benefits of the Fediverse to people not familiar with it.
I recently started learning Linux and self-hosting and I'm sharing stories about this new journey with the hashtag #MySoCalledSudoLife.
I'm a 
My values are: 
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🏕️ my adventures in self-hosting: day 365 (milestone edition) 🎂
Good morning Fedi friends!
Feeling a little emotional today as I reflect back on one year of #selfhosting.
This toot from December 17 2024 shows off my excitement over signing up for my first VPS and installing #YunoHost: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/113667636910565210
If you check out the full thread you can see some of the challenges I faced in the early days. It's only been a year but it feels like a lifetime ago. When I read back, I think: who was this person? _ (task) is so easy! Like, why be scared of tweaking DNS records? 😅
I will write about the highs and lows in a proper blog post. Spoiler alert: there were mostly HIGHS ☺️
For now, I want to express my gratitude to:
✨ @shollyethan who encouraged me by saying (I'm paraphrasing) "go for it, you learn by doing things"
✨ @ilja who recommended I check out YunoHost (I had never heard of it before)
✨
✨ @stereo for helping me test my first self-hosted app (this #GoToSocial account)
And thank you to all the sysadmins and programmers who have helped me troubleshoot problems this year. I found that tech support on the Fediverse takes less than a minute 🥰
I'm really #GratefulForYou 💖
Dear Fedi friends,
I'm really proud to share with you a video I made: "Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media" https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/
In this 4-minute video I explain what the #fediverse is to people not familiar with it, mentioning some of its great features and benefits (interoperability, no ads, no surveillance...) and I set it in contrast to the world of Big Tech social platforms. I argue that, with the rise of Big Tech oligarchs and the current political climate, there has never been a better time to join the fediverse.
I hope you will enjoy this video and that you will find it useful (maybe as a tool to introduce your friends, family, colleagues, school administrators, local government officials to it).
The fediverse has truly changed my life, making me a better, more empowered digital citizen. I am endlessly grateful for it, so this is my contribution to the cause ❤️
I am also incredibly thankful for the work of @samaaberg and @patel.riyen who helped me bring my vision to life with their amazing cinematography skills and their assistance throughout the process, providing brilliant feedback to the script / edits from the POV of fedi newbies.
And I was also moved by the generous help of people of the Fediverse who volunteered to translate the script into many foreign languages: @jan @fritjof @erikkemp @sknob @severin @clabru @tarcisiosurdi @hongminhee @danielcasanueva @ainali @nacly
Lastly, I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to premiere the video last week at #FediForum - thank you @j12t and @anca
The video is up on my self-hosted PeerTube instance (thank you @yunohost) and for now it is unlisted as I have no idea how my VPS will hold up. I also included an alternate location in the blog post.
I hope you'll enjoy it! It's been a real labor of love (a month of full time work on it)... I see it as my love letter to the fediverse 💌
Edit/update: THANK YOU for all the people who volunteered to have their avatar show up in the last shot. There were 750+ submissions and only 135 spots - sorry I couldn't include everyone 🥲
#TheFutureIsFederated
Hello #Fediverse and Happy New Year!
I'd like to mark the start of 2025 with the first message from my self-hosted instance. You may already know me as @_elena@mastodon.social. Well, now I also run my own #ActivityPub microblogging server, thanks to the magic of #YunoHost and #GoToSocial (and #Phanpy, which I'm using to compose this).
I registered this domain – aseachange.com – a looooong time ago but never did anything with it. It was the very first domain name I ever bought, even before securing elenarossini.com (!!!). It was so long ago, but I remember I was inspired by Beck's album Sea Change. seachange[dot]com was taken, so I grabbed Aseachange.
I absolutely love its meaning of profound transformation and I think it's PERFECT for my self-hosted #Fediverse instance and what it represents: independence, empowerment and digital sovereignty.
Ever since setting it up, I've been feeling joyful and hopeful. Everytime I look at myself in the mirror, I think: I'm in control of my own social media platform. And it feels SOOO GOOD.
What do I have in store for 2025? I plan to use this account to post messages about #selfhosting, learning #Linux, privacy and digital sovereignty.
I will also keep posting from my Mastodon account because you don't give a Lamborghini to someone who just passed their driver's license. I barely know what I'm doing here, so I feel a lot safer (for now) keeping my mastodon.social account as well... In case anything goes wrong here. Better safe than sorry!
So, this is my #Introduction and if you've read as far as here I just want to thank the Fediverse for being so amazing and allowing me to connect with people on my own terms. And thank you Fedi people for being so generous and supportive with your superb advice and kind words.
This is a really magical, special place.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Dear Fedi friends,
Yesterday I posted a toot about #WSocial on this account (I typically talk about them on Mastodon, but I needed more than 500 characters, so I switched here). It was widely shared and discussed.
Some of you may have missed my articles critiquing W Social. I have been following them - with a critical eye - and collecting evidence since their soft launch at Davos in January: https://blog.elenarossini.com/tag/w-social/
Anyway, some of you mistook the tone of yesterday's toot and thought I was ENDORSING signing up for an account on W Social. In reality I was being sarcastic 🙃
I will make sure to spell out my intentions much more clearly next time.
At any rate, my latest article about them made it to Hacker News yesterday (wild) and my research has been quoted in Dutch, German and French news outlets. The tide is finally turning (from fawning PR coverage to a more distanced, critical look).
Thank you for your support as always! ❤️
How to create an account on #WSocial in 13 easy steps:
1️⃣ choose a username
2️⃣ choose a password
3️⃣ choose your interests
4️⃣ download the #WIdentity app to your phone (two options: Apple AppStore or Google Play Store)
5️⃣ scan a QR code
6️⃣ create a PIN code
optional: enable biometrics; re-enter PIN
7️⃣ choose whether you simply want to verify that you're human or if you also want to verify your name
8️⃣ choose the verification method (automatic photo review, request a manual review or scan your passport chip)
9️⃣ scan your passport's picture page
1️⃣0️⃣ scan your passport's chip
1️⃣1️⃣ take a selfie
1️⃣2️⃣ scan a QR code to link the W Identity to your W Social account
1️⃣3️⃣ enter your PIN code
Congratulations, you're verified*!
(* for two years)
Demonstration in all its simple glory here:
📺: https://inv.nadeko.net/Vcq4MiabpEQ
Please save this toot as reference if you ever hear somebody say that IT'S TOO COMPLICATED TO JOIN THE FEDIVERSE BECAUSE YOU NEED TO PICK A SERVER 🤡
I'm officially one of you. Whenever I see graphics about digital sovereignty and moving away from Big Tech, I go: "well, actually" - especially when I see Signal suggested as an alternative to WhatsApp.
My first thought: Signal is pretty centralized, #DeltaChat would be a far superior alternative 🙈🙉🙊
Disclaimer: I use both (Signal and DeltaChat) but I really wish I could move all my convos to @Delta@chaos.social. Slowly convincing one person at a time...
The sheer ignorance of some tech "journalists" INFURIATES me.
Today the NYTimes featured on its homepage an article about how "The Netherlands blocked a U.S. company from buying a Dutch firm that handles its national ID system."
🔗: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/technology/solvinity-kyndryl-blocked-deal-us-europe-rift.html
So far, so good.
But the journalist behind the article wrote in the comments section:
"More and more, countries in Europe want to disentangle themselves from American tech. What's less clear is what exactly they can replace it with."
EXCUSE ME ADAM SATARIANO, THERE IS A GALAXY OF EXCELLENT FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE THAT MANY EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS ARE ALREADY USING.... OR EVEN BUILDING AT THE MOMENT.
Maybe I should have gone into journalism after all #lesigh
Dear Fedi friends,
I had the honor of being interviewed for @hyde's series #OverUnder.
🔗: https://lazybea.rs/ovr-069/
Mentioned in the interview: #FOSDEM
@yunohost
@gotosocial
@veronica
#Jellyfin
@timbl
#LEGO
& pizza!
Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity 
Good morning Fedi friends!
Monday morning ritual: doing maintenance on my #YunoHost systems (I have two separate installations).
I prefer to do things directly in terminal now... and I forgot how to run updates in tmux, so what to do? Oh I can simply refer to MY OWN blog post about this, LOL:
Yes, I published a #selfhosting guide for newbies... but also as a reminder to myself 😅
Wishing you all a great day / week. I'll be in Amsterdam later this week for #PubConf2026 - looking forward to it!
File under: AI Resistance
I'm reading – and enjoying immensely – @emilymbender and @alex's book #TheAICon.
I've been learning a lot of things and something that really stood out recently is the need to be careful about the language we use to describe these systems. Bender and Hanna helpfully explain:
"It matters what words we use when we talk about these technologies. For instance, in our writing, we don’t use the term “hallucination” to discuss the errors of LLMs, for two reasons. First, if it’s used tongue-in-cheek, it is making light of what can be symptoms of serious mental illness. Second,
“hallucination” refers to the experience of perceiving things that aren’t there. But LLMs actually don’t have perceptions, and suggesting that they do is yet more unhelpful anthropomorphization. That means we also avoid assigning thought processes to these systems, or saying that they can
“think”. Metaphors have power, they structure the frames of discourse, and they can subtly and insidiously encourage certain ways of understanding technology and the social systems it is embedded in."
Antropomorphizing AI contributes to AI hype. Thanks Emily and Alex for helping me see things this way!
One of my biggest regrets from the past few years was losing the habit of reading books. All the usual excuses: child to look after, too tired, not enough time…
I didn’t read a ton, but I had an average of 30 books a year. Last year I must have read 6. This year in early April I was at 0… and the realization shook me to my core.
Something had to be done.
I found out about KOreader and SimpleUI - having on an e-reader homepage a bar with reading stats would be an incredible motivator… I thought.
Jailbroke my #Kindle, installed #KOreader and #SimpleUI. And 18 days later I have… an 18 day reading streak and I’m averaging 43 minutes of reading time per day. I’m just so happy! 😊
(Unrelated but #Technofeudalism is REALLY GOOD - off to go resume reading it for another 20 minutes or so).
Asking for a friend: do you remember the fantastic https://w-social.eu website that explained to people what the Fediverse is and why it's a much better alternative to #WSocial?
Sadly it appears to be offline / with an expired SSL cert. Do you know who is behind it? Any chances of reviving it?
The folks behind W Social are launching the site this Saturday... they already got TV coverage in Germany last night 😒
👩💻 My So Called Sudo Life - day 500: still a newbie edition 🆕
Dear Fedi friends,
Today marks the 500th day of my self-hosting adventures and I'm celebrating it with... a slice of humble pie:
Also: please remember to update your Linux system to patch the critical vulnerability that has been found.
#Linux #CopyPaste #security #MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting #YunoHost
👩🏻💻 my so-called sudo life - day 497: Mastodon stampede edition 🐘
Dear Fedi friends,
You may remember how last year I was dealing with self-DDoS attacks every time I shared a link to my Wordpress or Ghost sites. Well, I solved the issue with Ghost (#VinylCache is brilliant) but I never found a solution for my Wordpress site... not even with #BunnyCDN. I guess I wasn't tweaking the right settings.
This is a pity because TBH the ActivityPub for Wordpress plugin is SO COOL and works flawlessly. I had to move my blog posts to Ghost and keep Wordpress as a static portfolio site. That being said, I never dared share links to my Wordpress site anymore because I would get about 4000 requests within 60 seconds and everything would freeze.
I just looked into #BunnyCDN's settings again and tried to tweak them. So please bear with me for an experiment, sharing an old blog post and seeing what happens.
Wish me luck!
From the archives:
https://elenarossini.com/2025/01/my-so-called-sudo-life-time-matters/
#BuyEuropean #CDN #DDOS #MastodonHugofDeath #MastodonStampede #Wordpress #blog #MySoCalledSudoLife
Aw #Italy I love you but on the tech and privacy side of things, you still have a looooooong way to go. #BigTech is so dominant over here.
I just booked a table for 3 at a local restaurant from their website and the next screen read: "Thank you for booking with us. Keep an eye on your phone, we will send you a Whatsapp message to confirm." They're assuming everyone has a Whatsapp account 😭
Meanwhile, the email address I gave them was a freshly created alias that included their name in the address 😏
I know people who run the local administration and they have FABULOUS cultural programs... maybe I'll propose a talk about how to set oneself free from Big Tech... I'll be here for 4 weeks in July...
Parenting / Work
I'm attempting to work from my parents' living room – preparing slides for my presentation at 2mr.social – while my 5-year-old is playing in the kitchen with my dad. It's so hard to concentrate...
5-year-old: "Let's play a memory game. Close your eyes. But don't fall asleep grandpa!!!"
Melting from sweetness while also trying super hard not to laugh out loud...
Anyway, I'm really excited and honored to speak in Hamburg in 10 days or so: another wonderful opportunity to spread joy and hope about the Fediverse...
Oh what a day!
Earlier today I managed to communicate via mesh networks with my friend @stereo in Germany... some 400+ km away.
It only took 6 hops... the third one in the chain was the iconic Jungfraujoch radio relay station (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch_radio_relay_station).
So exciting!
I can't thank Ralf enough for his help with this... I would have been completely lost without his guidance.
Let the fun mesh adventures begin!
Forget trad wives, the new influencer trend should be #NerdWives.
"Hey honey, I turned our old computer into a server so I could set up a #fediverse instance for our child and her friends."
"Hey all, today I am showing you #NextCloud as an alternative to #Dropbox and #GoogleDrive."
"Get ready with me! Today I am showing you how I check in with my friends with off-grid mesh radio first thing in the morning."
How awesome would this be? I mean, finally a trend where people LEARN SOMETHING and are more empowered as a result.
(Forever grateful to my Fedi friends for all the inspiration and encouragement in trying new tools) ❤️
Sad to see that mastodon.social is under a DDoS attack... but as @tferrer wrote, the beauty of the fediverse is that there are thousands of independent instances chugging along.
This includes my little self-hosted corner of the Fediverse running #GoToSocial 🪴
This is what TRUE decentralization looks like. And I LOVE it and I'm forever grateful for it 
👩🏻💻 my so-called sudo life - day 489: new experiments edition 🧪
A blog post that chronicles what I have been up to since December... namely: advocating for the Fediverse, creating #selfhosting guides for newbies and experimenting with e-reader jailbreaks and off-grid mesh radio communications
#MySoCalledSudoLife #KindleJailbreak #KOreader #SimpleUI #meshtastic #blog #tech #resistance
👩💻 My So Called Sudo Life: Jailbroken Kindle x Windows edition 
I just used a Windows PC for the first time in 20 years possibly?
Long story short, I typically manage my Kindle 4's contents with a Macbook Air from 2013 that still works wonderfully.
But! The old Air stayed behind in Paris, as I just arrived at my parents' in Italy with my Macbook Air M4. And the Kindle would not mount on it, no matter what I tried (even checking USB connections in Terminal). Last resort: I asked my parents if I could use their PC.
Dad got upset because with the first micro USB cable the computer wouldn't recognize my Kindle... so he launched #copilotai looking for help and I literally screamed "Nooooo I don't want any of that, quit quit quit immediately."
A different cable did the trick, I installed an earlier version of KOreader and it seems to be better... but the books aren't rendering yet, they're all gibberish, so I may have to install Calibre on my parents' PC and re-convert all the books.
Why going through so many hassles? Did you ever see how gorgeous Simple UI is for KOreader? A total game changer.
Sorry for the GitHub link, but it's either this or Reddit or YouTube, so choosing the "lesser evil" (debatable, I know):
🔗: https://github.com/doctorhetfield-cmd/simpleui.koplugin
I'll share photos as soon as I get it to work... it already took me upwards of 6 hours to get KUAL and koreader to install on my ancient Kindle. Nobody is stopping me now, I'm super super motivated to get it to work 😅
#MySoCalledSudoLife #NoAI #Microslop #Kindle #KindleJailbreak #koReader #SimpleUI
Hello Fedi friends. Sorry if I've been a little MIA but I've been preparing my most important presentation to date advocating for the Fediverse... happening tomorrow morning.
Happy and excited and nervous... it's one for the memory books... (and a secretive one at that!) I'll share more as soon as I can 💖
