Watching IndieWebCamp Austin introduction and demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB4zHGpvyig

★ https://martymcgui.re/2017/12/08/145345/

AOL Instant Messenger is being discontinued on 2017-12-15. I have not used it regularly in quite a while, but I wanted to at least export my buddy list. I found a way using Javascript and browser dev tools. It’s not the most user-friendly, but it’s better than nothing.

First, if you still have the AIM desktop software installed, check the menus and https://help.aol.com/articles/aim-discontinued for possibly much easier options to save your buddy list and chat logs. I don’t have a version installed and since AOL has removed official download links, I don’t know what’s possible through the software.

If that doesn’t work, here is what I did:

Log in to https://aim.com

Click the down arrow by your name at the top left. Under Contacts check “Show offline contacts in one group.” Uncheck “Show custom groups.”

In your browser’s dev tools, disable the following CSS properties:

.aimlist-panel { position: absolute; }
.aimlist-itemscontainer { position: absolute; overflow-y: auto; height: auto; }
.accordion-list { * }
.virtual-list { * }
.vl-rows { * }

This will mess up the visual display of the buddy list in your browser, but should make it so the entire list of buddies is in the HTML, which is what we want. By default only the current screen’s worth of usernames is in the HTML.

In your browser’s dev tools console, run these lines of Javascript:

var entries = document.querySelectorAll('.aimlist-item');
for ( i = 0; i < entries.length; i++ ) { console.log(entries[i].getAttribute('title') + ': ' + entries[i].getAttribute('aria-label')) }

The console should then fill up with lines of screennames, display names, and online status. Copy and paste all of those into a text editor, then do some cleanup as needed.

Thanks for a great service and the exports! Is it possible to announce this from @gimmebar? I didn't get an email so just found out via another mention of it.

★ https://wehavetoask.com/episodes/2017-10-17/

★ http://www.kiaikim.com/2017/how-to-move-a-wordpress-site-from-one-webhost-to

Great article!

If someone wants to avoid using the shell, or does not have shell access, I have had good experiences using a GUI like SQLyog Community. With that you can connect directly to your current database host as well as the new one (Dreamhost). Then there is an option to “Copy Tables to Different Host/Database.” You can select all tables or a subset of them.

There is an option to “DROP if table exists in target” which you may want to use, but be careful and double-check of course. :]

This should not run into issues with database sizes. As far as I know it is using individual SQL commands to copy.

If you’re in/near Austin, you should go!

https://twitter.com/manton2/status/938520500736847872

Surprisingly they already responded and removed the profile.

Well, this is pleasantly surprising. Facebook responded and removed the profile, based on my “annoying or uninteresting” report:

Thanks for taking the time to report something you feel may go against the Facebook Community Standards. We removed Sarah Huckabee PresSec’s profile from Facebook. If Sarah Huckabee PresSec’s profile is restored, the photo you reported might reappear. If this happens, please feel free to report it again.

Update: Facebook removed the profile.

Facebook still needs work on the ability to report content and communities.

I came across a post from a page named “Sarah Huckabee PressSec” that was a clearly fictional exchange (“joke”) that includes some debunked conspiracy theories about Obama. The username is @pressecretary (note only two “s”s) and the page has a lot of posts and photos that seem somewhat legitimate, so it is easy for a casual observer to mistake it for a verified, official page. It does not have the Facebook verified badge, though, and under the “About” button it’s listed as a community. There doesn’t seem to be any information about who created the page. The post has 57k shares and 27k comments currently. Glancing through the comments makes it clear that a lot of people think the post is factual.

I heard Facebook has the ability to report false news now, so I tried to report the post. Maybe the option is not available on Facebook pages, or only if the post includes a link, but the option didn’t appear for me. There was a category “I don’t think this should be on Facebook,” but under that there was nothing to report it as false or impersonation. I chose the closest among the available options: “this is inappropriate, annoying, or not funny.” There is no ability to add a comment to the report to clarify it further. I expect nothing will come of this, since it’s not the most accurate categorization.

Then I tried to report the page itself. “I don’t think this should be on Facebook” appears there as well, but again nothing about false information or impersonation. The only options were: threatening/violent/suicidal, hate speech, sexually explicit, and describes buying/selling drugs/guns/adult products.

I tried the category “It’s a scam” but then it gave me two things I could do: block the profile or hide posts from it. There was a “back” button and a “cancel” button, which seems to indicate nothing was being reported to Facebook; these were just options I could do to avoid seeing the profile/posts on my timeline. That seems like a pretty big failure for reporting scams.

Time to change your display name. ;) R1 > TFA

@EdwardorEddie This is gRegor from the @RELEVANTpodcast listeners. I loved your bit “Shania Twain? [first few bars of Man! I Feel Like a Woman]” that no one on the show commented on.

@starbucks Resetting my password on mobile, it indicates it must include “one special character” but doesn't identify what special characters are.

Also, this is bad password policy. Please pass along to developers: https://www.troyhunt.com/passwords-evolved-authentication-guidance-for-the-modern-era/

I’m (remote) attending “IndieWebCamp Austin 2017”

I’m attending “Virtual Homebrew Website Club Meetup on December 13, 2017”

Want to read: Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins

Unfortunately I won't be in Indianapolis for Christmas this year (so weird to say that), so I won't be hosting the Christmas Eve brunch. Maybe Doug Webster or someone else will keep it alive, though?

no

I put together a basic page that aggregates my want-to-read posts: https://gregorlove.com/reading/

Next I might work on adding tags so I can create more specific lists, like a gift wishlist. I tend to add books very easily, but that doesn't mean every one is on my wishlist. #indieweb