The Counterforce - How-Tos

DON’T INVERT THE ART

2025-11-17T10:20:32.000-05:00

Contributed by Hobbes

Punks like black shirts. This is an irrefutable fact. As a food spilling person, I am of the same mindset and will always choose a shirt in the punkest shade over any other color. But is there an unknown cost we have all been paying while hiding pit stains?

Let’s get started. My friends, what comes to your mind when you see these two examples?

Do you notice something a little strange? Well, if it doesn’t bother you yet that the titular black flag is now a white flag, I will show you a few more examples to further drive my point home.

SKULL TALK

There is no condition known on this earth that causes a person to have a black skull with white eye sockets. Even upon death. I’m sorry to break it to you, but this phenomenon exists solely within punks-fucking-up-artwork. We have decided, as a genre, that we do not care about blacked out teeth and glowing white eye holes – as long as it means the design goes on a black shirt.

Even more confusing, as you’ll notice in some of the above examples, is when we take a skull that was actually adapted for a black background, and flip it anyway to go back on to a white shirt.

LET’S FIX IT

TALK TO THE ARTIST

First and foremost, it’s always worth reaching out to the artist before you change the background color or reverse the design. They’ll understand how the shapes and details behave when everything gets darker, and they can help you avoid odd-looking highlights or loss of detail. If you want extra gold stars, telling your artist ahead of time that you intend to do black shirts will be helpful in their design process.

ASK YOUR SCREENPRINTER

Assuming you’re not ordering your shirts or patches off some sketchy redbubble site, this is a great option. Screenprinters are used to adapting artwork drawn on white to print cleanly on black. They can re-balance the lines and colors properly. Just make sure you’re communicating this is your desire – and confirming that they won’t just invert the design. While preparing to write this instructional, I asked a screenprinter for their opinion on our tendency to invert designs and they had this to contribute:“Just last week a band came in with artwork of a hooded executioner, but due to their poor choice in ink colors – the executioner suddenly became a klansman. You don’t want that. Please don’t invert your art.”

DO IT YOURSELF

Armed with a touch of photoshop competence, you can avoid socializing entirely and absolutely solve this issue yourself. I’ll show you an easy trick that’ll enable you to adapt most designs to go on to black shirts for the rest of your punk life. It’s nothing fancy, and it’ll feel like second nature after running through it a couple of times yourself. Let’s go!

QUICK PHOTOSHOP DIY

We’re gonna work on our boy Ratfink here. Someone desecrated our favorite garbage rat and we’re going to fix it together so he can be properly appreciated on a black shirt.

TO BEGIN: ACCESS EDITING SOFTWARE

Pirate it, borrow it from a friend, do not pay hundreds of dollars for a digital program.You can also use something like photopea.com which is basically a free Photoshop dupe for your browser.

STEP 1: FILE > OPEN

Don’t work off the screenshot your bandmate sent you in the group chat. Find the original and open it. Ideally you want a decently large scan of the artwork.

STEP 2: REMOVE BACKGROUND AROUND THE ART

Use the Magic Wand Tool (Shortcut is the W key) to select all of the white background around the art. Hit backspace to delete those areas once they’re selected.

STEP 3: SELECT THE ARTWORK

With the entire transparent background selected (Hold shift to select multiple areas), you can isolate the artwork by now going to Select > Inverse. Now only the artwork will be selected.

STEP 4: EXPAND SELECTION

Go to Select > Modify > Expand. Try 5 pixels and press OK. This makes a sort of halo or “forcefield” as a good friend likes to call it around the artwork.

STEP 5: WHITE BORDER

Make sure you have the color white selected in your palette. Create a new empty layer behind the artwork. Use that layer to fill your selection you just made with white by going to Edit > Fill. Set it to Foreground and press OK.

STEP 6: TEST IT OUT ON BLACK

Create a black background layer and try out the design. Erase parts of the border that don’t fit, adjust the size of the border to suit the art.

Isn’t he lovely? Now you can at the very least see where his damn eyes are looking. This is a simple five-minute dirtbag method of adapting a design to be readable on a black background.. Now imagine if you were to spend some time on it, or collaborate with your artist or screenprinter. What a great shirt! I wanna wear that and spill soup all over it! Enjoy!

Signal For Punks (it has Stories now!)

2025-09-04T11:37:43.000-04:00

Introduction

I've been using Signal for at least 10 years, it's long been the best way to reach me. A few years ago, I started using the Signal Stories feature, mostly as an experiment. At first, I didn't know anyone else using Signal Stories, and I wasn't even sure if any of my friends were seeing the show flyers, clips of bands, and local groundhog sightings I was sharing.

Now, several years later, my circle of punk friends using Signal Stories has grown substantially. I keep up with a lot of my distant and local friends via Signal Stories and people regularly ask me how to use them. I don't think Signal is perfect, and I don't personally love the "Stories" format of social media, but it's clearly something that works for a lot of people.

Here I'll present Signal as a good alternative to the corporate social media platforms. One of the broader goals of The Counterforce is to help move hardcore punk culture away from corporate social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok (see: the manifesto). So this is going to be a guide for punks on how to get started using Signal and Signal Stories.

As "social media," Signal Stories are great for sharing stuff relatively safely with a private audience that you control. For broadcasting information to a more public audience, (like promoting shows, bands and projects) I think alternative social networks like Mastodon/The Fediverse are better suited. Check out our Guide to Mastodon and The Fediverse (For Punks!) for much more about that.

Signal

Signal is an end-to-end encrypted messaging app for phones and computers originally designed by anarchist hackers and now operated by the USA-based non-profit Signal Foundation. Being a non-profit foundation, Signal's ultimate goal is to provide secure messaging for its users, not to create value for shareholders at the expense of its users’ privacy and experience. There are no ads, and in over 10 years of using it extensively I think I’ve received maybe 1 or 2 spam messages.

"End-to-end encrypted" means that messages sent with Signal can't be read by anyone except by the sender and the receiver. The Signal Foundation, and all the various Internet pipes and servers that are used to transmit your messages, can't read them. Signal is open source, which means that independent experts look through the source code for bugs or errors.

The Signal encryption protocol is so well designed, it is widely considered the gold standard. Other applications which offer encrypted messaging just copy the Signal protocol, although that doesn't mean these apps are as good or as secure as Signal. Besides the encryption, Signal is carefully designed to minimize any other kinds of data ("metadata") that is generated through your usage of the app (for example, who you are messaging and when, what groups you are a member of, etc.).

In 2025, you should be using Signal if you are not already. Even if you don't think you "need" the security offered by Signal, you know someone who does. If you or anyone you know might ever have an abortion, take gender-affirming hormones, use drugs, or express outrage at the genocide of the Palestinian people, you should be using Signal.

I understand hesitancy around installing another app to your phone. Consider you could just delete Instagram to make room for Signal! It's likely that more of your friends are are already using Signal than you realize, and frankly they are probably your cooler friends. And if you don't have any cool friends, well, using Signal might help!

Signal "alternatives"

Many people already use similar apps like WhatsApp or Telegram (hello readers outside North America!). WhatsApp is operated by Meta (who owns Facebook/Instagram), so using that app keeps you in Zuckerberg's Meta ecosystem of hell. Telegram is widely considered quite insecure, and is operated out of the UAE. Both these apps harvest as much of your data as they can, and share it with advertisers, data brokers and law enforcement/government agencies (happily and at every opportunity).

Signal is a much better and safer alternative to these apps, and it has all the same features you need (and it doesn't have an AI chatbot shoved into it).

Signal Basics

Getting started

Signal is available for Android and iOS. You need a phone number and a smart phone to use it.

There are also Desktop versions for Linux, MacOS and Windows, but the app needs to be installed on a phone first before syncing with other devices.

Adding contacts

A Signal contact is basically anyone you have exchanged direct messages with in the past (and haven't subsequently blocked). Signal calls it "Connections."

Signal allows users to find each other based on phone number by default, and many people leave this feature on since it can make it easier to find people you know on the app. If a Signal user has this turned on, you can just start a new message and enter their phone number, and Signal will find them. If you give Signal access to your phone contacts when you install it, it will also automatically add any users whose phone number you have and who have left this feature on.

However, you can disable this feature so people can't find you by your phone number. I recommend doing this, and these days many people do turn it off. It stops, for example, your boss or your landlord from finding you on Signal. I'll show you how to do this later.

Without phone numbers, you add other people using their Signal username or a QR code / contact link.

Signal usernames

Signal lets you set a Display name (the name that shows up in chats) alongside a profile pic, which is what people see when they’re chatting with you. But Signal usernames are what you share with other people so they can add you on Signal. The username consists of a word + a random number – for example, the current Signal username for The Counterforce is:

counterforce.99

You can only have one valid Signal username at a time. This gives you a bit more control over who can find you on Signal.

To set or change your Signal username, go to Settings and then click on your profile pic and display name at the top.

In addition to connecting via username, you can also generate a QR code or link that someone can use to add you. On the same Settings screen, you can generate a Signal contact QR code or link. You can share these with anyone you want to find you on Signal.

Groups

Signal groups work like group chats on other apps like WhatsApp or Instagram. No more Instagram band chats or gear threads! We have progressed beyond the need for Instagram gear threads!!

Other users in groups you're in do not become a Signal Contact unless you exchange direct messages with them. So you can be in group chats with relative strangers, and they can see your Signal profile but you won't see each other's Signal Stories unless you first message them directly.

Signal Stories

OK, yes, Signal has Stories that work like Stories in other apps. You can share a short video (<30 seconds) or an image. You can draw on or add text or stickers to the image. You can share just a text-based Story (and include a link!). Stories are visible to your contacts in a Stories feed for 24 hours and then they disappear.

Signal offers better privacy, both because Signal itself can't see your Stories (it isn't censoring your stories, training AIs on them, etc.) and because you have a lot of control over who can see your stories (more on that below). Also did we mention there are NO ADS, and no algorithmic promotion of some stories over others?

Once you start using Signal Stories, you'll probably discover a bunch of your friends already are, and if you stick with it more will follow your lead!

Turn it on!

If you've been using Signal for a while, you may need to turn on Stories. Go to Settings -> Stories to do this. Now you'll start seeing Stories from your Signal contacts (if you have any cool friends).

Show me the Stories

Once you have Stories turned on, you'll start seeing them here. It's not very intrusive. Just a little red dot to tell you how many new stories there are. I usually check my Signal Stories once per day at most!

Posting your own stories is pretty intuitive. To save space I'm not going to get too into it.

Story Privacy

Signal allows you to create many different Stories which are seen only by different groups of your contacts.

My Story is the default. You can choose different ways to restrict who can see it:

All your Signal connections: (anyone you've ever directly messaged on Signal – not people you are just in a group with)
All except... (hide your story from specific people)
Only share with... (only share with selected people)

You can also create as many additional Stories as you like. For each one, you can decide who will be able to see it (as in "Only share with..." for the default My Story).

I have the default My Story set to "Only share with selected people" and I select only my close IRL friends.

I also have a Story for Local Punks that is shared with all the local punks I know (even people I'm not close with), for sharing show flyers and such.

Other stories I have are Family (got the whole family group chat on Signal!) and Bandmates for all my bandmates.

When you create a new Story post, you can select which of your Stories to send it to. Additionally, you can send it to any group chats you are in, and the Story will show up as a special Group Story for all the other members of those groups.

Keeping Stories up to date

First, a recap from earlier on how to add new contacts to Signal. To be able to view each other's Signal Stories, you and a friend must be Signal Contacts, so you first have to exchange a direct message. Being in a group chat together isn't enough! If you want "add someone on Signal" to start swapping Stories, you can start a new direct message with them by:

composing a new message to their phone number (if they have that feature enabled)
composing a new message to their Signal username (e.g. counterforce.99) – via their Signal Link/QR code.

Get into the habit of asking for a Signal username (instead of an Instagram handle!) when you meet someone new you want to stay in touch with.

Whenever I get a new Signal contact, I go back to the Story Privacy settings (go to the Stories tab, and click the 3 little dots in the top right to get to Story Privacy) and open up the settings for the Story I want to add them to.

I search for the new person's display name to add them to my story. This is also where you can just scroll through and add or remove people from a Story.

People can't see which of your Stories you've added them to. For each Story, you can choose whether people can react or reply to your posts.

It's not the best interface for managing who can see which Story, but it's not too bad. And you have a lot more control and options than what Instagram gives you. Or just YOLO and let every Signal contact see all your stories...

Bonus: Using Signal more securely

If you are interested in leveraging Signal's encryption and secure design to keep you safe out there, there are a few tips to using Signal in a secure way.

First off, Signal is about as good as it gets for a secure messaging app that is also easy to use. It hasn't been hacked and it is not a CIA op. There are often viral claims or news articles about Signal being hacked or insecure, and thus far they have always been wrong.

Use disappearing messages

Turn them on by default and adjust as necessary (you can set a different disappearing message timer for each 1-on-1 conversation or group chat). For example, if you are going to share a password or some other sensitive information, set the disappearing message timer to something really short!
Leave and delete groups when they are no longer necessary.

Hide your phone number

Settings -> Privacy -> Phone number
Set "Who can see my number" to "Nobody"
Set "Who can find me by number" to "Nobody"

This will prevent unwanted people (like your landlord or a delivery guy) from contacting you on Signal. Your Signal contacts also won't be able to find out your actual phone number unless you choose to share it with them.

People will have to use your Signal username or link to add you.

Video/voice calls

Signal calls are also encrypted, but if you are having a call with someone who is one of your Signal contacts already, the call is peer-to-peer which means they could determine your IP address.
You can turn this off by choosing "Always relay calls" in Settings -> Privacy -> Advanced- Notifications
You can customize how much information is displayed in Signal notifications on your lock screen. By default, the name and contents of messages are shown, so anyone looking at your locked phone can see them (and if you have a cursed phone with an AI assistant, the AI can probably read these notifications too)
You turn this off in Settings -> Notifications -> Show

Signal's security is only as good as your security. Signal can't protect you if you add an enemy to a group chat by mistake, or if your phone is stolen and the thieves can unlock it.

If you want to read more about how to keep your phone activity safe in general, check out this zine.

My secret secure messaging app is better than Signal!

OK, so you are some kind of reply-guy and you are dying to tell me about a messenger app that is "more secure" than even Signal?

My goal here is to demonstrate an app that is accessible to my punk friends, already widely used, and has the features people want. Signal isn't perfect, I know. But please don't get in touch to talk about your favorite alternative secure messaging app. I don't want to flex but I can almost guarantee I know more about secure messaging apps than you do, I've already heard about whatever app you think is better than Signal!

Add The Counterforce on Signal!

As of this writing, the Signal username of The Counterforce is counterforce.99

Add us and send a message if you want to try out Signal, test out stories, or have any questions. Or for submissions, suggestions, hate/love letters, etc!!

Thanks for reading.

Zine

There is a printable zine version of this how-to!

Download the PDF:

CF-signal-for-punks-US-letter-imposed.pdf

Find more printable zines from The Counterforce and elsewhere on the Zines page.

ASK A PUNK: How to run your own online show calendar

2025-05-03T16:47:28.000-04:00

Intro

Few things in punk bother me more than when Facebook or Instagram are the only ways to find out about shows. For the past decade I've tried many different online and offline projects to provide alternative ways for Montreal punks to promote and find out about shows. I started with a flyer blog (I think), and for many years I did an e-mail list with monthly show listings. For a while there was a monthly print version too. I helped with a telephone hotline. And I've printed and handed out thousands of flyers, even for shows I'm not playing or booking.

Everyone who knows me knows I'm a big advocate of physical flyers and posters, but I also accept there is an online component to good show promotion. Especially in a city with a lot going on, you want people to be able to find out about and share upcoming shows easily, or at least without needing an Instagram account. I'm not pro-online, I just accept that it is a necessary part of our modern social life. So I'll always keep printing and handing out flyers and posters! But I am really against the only online place to find out about shows in a city being a login-walled corporate social media site. This is why I set up an online show calendar.

Montreal ASK A PUNK

In late 2022 I launched Montreal ASK A PUNK. It's an online show calendar, with all the features one might expect:

You can scroll through a chronological gallery of flyers for upcoming shows.
Each show has its own page with more details.
You can search for future or past shows by venue or hashtag.
You can select a date and see what shows are happening that day.
Shows are also grouped together in curated collections (by promoter, fests, etc).
Shows can be submitted anonymously by anyone, but they have to be approved by me or another admin.
Many local promoters and helpful punks also have an account so they can put up and edit their own shows without approval.
Submitting a show is as easy as creating a Facebook event. Choose a date, set the start and end time, enter the venue, upload a flyer, write a short description and maybe some hashtags.

Montreal ASK A PUNK homepage from Varning last year

Anyone can just go to https://montreal.askapunk.net and see the shows.
No account is needed to see the event. Every show has its own link, like https://montreal.askapunk.net/event/total-nada-fucking-lovers-invisible-cities-recall-psychic-armour, that is easy to share in a text message or on social media.
Events can be imported to other calendar software and tech-savvy users can even subscribe to an RSS feed.
Other websites can embed the whole calendar or just a part. For example, a venue or promoter can embed a list of all their shows, and it will stay up-to-date and link directly back to the ASK A PUNK event pages.

Montreal ASK A PUNK is also part of The Fediverse, which means anyone with an account on Mastodon or other similar apps can just follow the calendar and see new events in their feed. This is also how people can comment on or like an event, all they need is a Fediverse account on any server (like counterforce.social!) or app they choose.

What an ASK A PUNK show listing looks like in Mastodon

Gancio

Many people asked me if I built ASK A PUNK myself. NO! The calendar is powered by a piece of software called Gancio, developed by Italian anarchist hackers, originally to provide an event calendar for their hackerspace. Gancio is free open-source software. There's no Gancio service you can sign up for to get a calendar like ours. It's DIY, you have to set it up yourself— but anyone can install it on their own server to host their own calendar, and that's what I did!

How-to: the technical stuff

Hosting a Gancio calendar requires a little bit of tech knowledge. Beyond getting a server (which I talk about below), you need to be comfortable with the Linux command line, a bit of basic "system administration," and have some understanding of how general "internet stuff" works. I won't do a full step-by-step guide here, I just want this to give you an idea of what's involved. The general steps are:

Register a domain name (e.g. askapunk.net)
Get a server
Install Gancio on your server
Configure DNS to point your domain name at your server
Periodically do backups and keep Gancio up-to-date

That's a broad overview. You can install Gancio on Debian or nixOS, with Docker, or on YunoHost. You'll probably need to set up SSH keys and SSH in to your server (like hackers on TV), and you'll definitely need to do some DNS. If that all sounds like gibberish to you, that's OK. It sounds intimidating, but if you are already curious about doing autonomous computer/Linux things, Gancio is a pretty manageable way to get started. If you want to try learning it yourself, there are too many free resources online to list. I use the LandChad.net page as my reference a lot of the time because it is very simple and clear.

You also might be able to find someone local who can help you out. Any punk who runs Linux, hosts their own website, or has worked a computer job might be your Gancio sysadmin. I was not a professional computer-toucher when I started setting up websites and Gancio calendars, I just knew enough to get into trouble and I learned more as I went.

A server

To set up a Gancio calendar, you need a server: a computer connected to the Internet at all times so other people can access it.

In theory, you can run Gancio on a old computer in your closet at your punk house, but actually hosting stuff on the Internet this way has some downsides. It can run up your home internet bill, there are some security concerns, and furthermore you'll have all the punks in the city mad at you if your internet or power goes out and the calendar is down! But if you want to go that route anyways, YunoHost might be a solution. It's an operating system you can install on an old computer which lets you turn it into a server for many different applications you can install with "one-click," including Gancio.

The more stable and secure option is to rent a server in "the cloud." This is called a Virtual Private Server or VPS. A VPS needed to host a Gancio calendar can cost as little as $5 per month, sometimes even less. The one I have for Montreal ASK A PUNK costs $10-$15 CAD per month and hosts half a dozen busy calendars. It's a little bit of money every year, but it's easily fundraised from a benefit show or a few people chipping in regularly.

You might also have some local nerds who can donate some server space to you. Perhaps a local hackerspace, tech collective, university, or social center. Gancio doesn't require a lot of resources. Ask around! Again, you might find some local techie punks who want to help and donate their time and server space to set this up.

There's a lot more to running an online calendar besides the technical stuff.

Accounts

No one needs an account to view or submit events on a Gancio calendar, but there are accounts for the folks managing and curating the calendar. Gancio starts out with an Admin user who is responsible for managing everything. You set up this account when you first install Gancio. You want this to be someone trustworthy and reliable to keep the calendar running.

The Admin can invite other users, who get an e-mail to create their account. Other users can be "Users," "Editors," or additional Admins. Users can create and edit their own events, Editors can edit any event, and Admins can edit anything on the site and invite other users.

Montreal ASK A PUNK is set up like this:

Anonymous submissions are allowed, so anyone can submit a new event, but it has to be approved by an Admin.
Open registrations are closed: random people can't just sign up for accounts and create events without approval.
Local promoters who are regular and trustworthy get User accounts: they can create their own shows without approval, and edit any shows they've created. Montreal ASK A PUNK has a few dozen User accounts.
A few helpful punks have Editor accounts, to help curate the calendar, approve events and edit mistakes or updates. Montreal ASK A PUNK has a handful of Editor accounts.

The Settings!

This is a good system, because anyone can submit a show and there is a nice collective of Editors to help approve those submissions as they come in. About half of the shows are created anonymously and half are created by promoters using their User accounts.

Getting the word out

If you start a new online show calendar in your town, you have to get the word out. In some places, this is easy. People are generally thrilled to find out a resource like this available and will start using it and contributing right away. But sometimes it's a little harder and an online calendar works best if it's a community resource that many people contribute to. I set up Montreal ASK A PUNK a while ago, and I still have trouble with promoters who love that it exists but constantly forget to submit their shows there. Here's my advice:

Reach out to promoters, to set them up with a User account and walk them through how to submit shows (it's the same as Facebook, if not easier!). Remind them that they can still just submit a show anonymously if they forget their login info. Offer to have them just text you the flyers and you'll take care of the rest. Just keeping bugging them. Eventually they'll get it!
Get some friends to help get the calendar up to date. At first, you'll have to populate it yourself and make sure the show info is up to date and correct. Ask for help!
Make flyers promoting your new online calendar and hand them out at shows. People will be stoked!

Our flyer for Montreal ASK A PUNK

Ask promoters to shout out the calendar on their flyers. Your calendar is a central resources for the whole scene, and promoting it benefits everyone. You will find out who is a real DIY community builder, and who is just in it for their own Instagram follower count based on who follows through on this!
Curate a good calendar. Add a hashtag for each band playing an event. Clean up confusing show descriptions and broken links, correct mistakes (e.g. shows that start at 6am instead of 6pm), add more info like where bands are from or post links to their music on Bandcamp or Youtube so people can check them out.

ASK A PUNK network

Since launching the Montreal ASK A PUNK calendar, I've helped set up a few more:

There are also a few other online punk calendars that use Gancio that I had nothing to do with!

We try to keep a list of online hardcore punk show calendars (not using Gancio, just in general) in our Directory. There are lots more there, and if you know about one please let us know!

Why bother?

Besides fuck Instagram/Facebook/Meta/Tiktok/every sleazy corporate ticket/events listing website?

It makes it easy to see what's going on tonight, this weekend, next weekend. No digging through Instagram stories to find a disappearing flyer.
No accounts needed, no tracking, no ads, no capitalism.
A centralized community resource for your city: one place everyone can post, update, and check shows.
Decentralized: it breaks us free from all relying on a few massive corporate services to promote punk shows worldwide.
The calendar becomes an archive of past shows: if people properly add bands as hashtags for each event, you can search for a band and see flyers for all their shows since the calendar started.
There are many options to check and follow the calendar! Open it in your browser on a computer, check it on your phone (you can even save the site as an icon on your homescreen for easy access!), share links to events that anyone can view, subscribe to RSS, embed on other sites, follow from Mastodon/The Fediverse.

Alternatives

I like Gancio because it has a lot of the features I want, and doesn't have a bunch of features I don't want. It looks pretty good, it's easy for people to add and view events, and easy for me and others to manage and administrate. It's not perfect, but it's open source, so it's steadily improving and anyone can contribute suggestions or requests. Bugs get fixed and good ideas for new features are implemented.

Some people might prefer to set up a local message board as an alternative and less-corporate place to share shows. Message boards can be great for a local community like a punk scene, but a message board isn't meant to be a show calendar. You don't have to worry about moderating flame wars if your calendar is just a calendar. Gancio does one thing and does it well.

I'm skeptical of upstart centralized "alternatives" like global message boards or other central sites meant to provide a calendar of show events and discussions for the whole world. The Counterforce is about decentralized and autonomous resources. Investing in a big central message board or calendar site, used by people all over the world and run by strangers in a random far away place doesn't seem sustainable to me. I host a few ASK A PUNK calendars for friends in other cities, but this is just because I want to jumpstart the idea. I would much prefer to help people set up their own calendars in every city than just become Mr. ASK A PUNK and run the calendars for every city in the world. I care about DIY, and setting up your own online show calendar with Gancio is very DIY.

But if you are really into this idea, and just can't scrape together the technical know-how needed in your town, there are other solutions! Just make a website and keep it updated! You can set up a free website with Neocities, upload flyers and list upcoming shows, and create an e-mail address for people to submit shows. It's a bit more work, but it's still a great way to liberate show listings from the corporate ad-prisons of Instagram and Facebook.

And don't forget the offline alternatives! Keep printing and handing out flyers and putting up posters. A monthly printed show calendar can be a great compliment to an online calendar. Here in Montreal, the monthly zine newsletter La Chaîne includes show listings pulled from Montreal ASK A PUNK.

I hope this has introduced you to the idea of a Gancio-based online show calendar, or helped demystify the ASK A PUNK calendars if you'd already encountered them and their ilk. I hope you will be encouraged to help set one up in your town! It really is not that hard, and it can effect great change in your scene. If you want any help, or you do set up any kind of online calendar for your local hardcore punk scene please get in touch!

La guía para Mastodon y el Fediverso (¡para punks!)

2025-05-03T12:00:51.000-04:00

`#introducción`

El hardcore punk underground ha formado parte de las redes sociales corporativas desde MySpace. Hubo quienes se resistieron, y por otro lado los que lo aceptaron desde el primer momento, pero la mayoría de nosotrxs hemos seguido de forma pasiva el despeño de la cultura dominante hacia la distopía digital. En el año 2025 todas las bandas tienen una cuenta de Instagram, se necesita un evento de Facebook para cada concierto y solo ves un flyer si tienes la suerte de que aparezca en la story de alguien.

Los punks se están dando cuenta de lo malas que son las redes sociales capitalistas (¡y ya era hora!). Anhelamos formas mejores de estar en contacto, compartir nuestra música y pensamientos, promocionar conciertos, conectar sin importar las fronteras y hablar de nuestras tonterías. Lo que se presenta en este documento es una posible solución, un experimento o, al menos, un paso en la dirección correcta.

Quizás hayas oído hablar de alternativas como Mastodon o PixelFed. No son solo reinvenciones de las aplicaciones que conocemos. Forman parte de una red descentralizada y abierta llamada Fediverso. Esta red es totalmente diferente de las redes sociales corporativas a nivel estructural, lo que la hace muy resistente a ser privatizada y permite evadir el capitalismo de vigilancia. Es una red a la que no solo podemos unirnos, sino en la que también podemos construir.

En esta guía intentaré explicar qué es el Fediverso, por qué es genial para los punks, te daré una guía práctica para empezar con Mastodon y plantearé algunos de mis sueños para el futuro.

Lo que Mastodon/el Fediverso NO son:

...Fácil

Entender todo esto no es fácil porque es muy diferente a las redes a las que estamos acostumbradxs. Puedes crear una cuenta de Mastodon y probarla sin conocer mucho el contexto, pero probablemente no resultará muy interesante (ni muy punk). Si ya has probado Mastodon y no lo has "pillado", ¡espero que sigas leyendo y le des otra oportunidad!

Cuando usaste por primera vez las redes sociales corporativas, también tuviste una curva de aprendizaje. Nadie nace sabiendo cómo funciona Instagram. Las grandes aplicaciones han invertido fortunas en diseñar una experiencia en redes sociales que sea fluida (fácil de empezar a usar) y que enganche (difícil de abandonar).

Mastodon y el Fediverso no son ni fluidos ni pegadizos. Al igual que el punk, están creados por aficionadxs, iniciativas sin ánimo de lucro y redes informales. No tienen el mismo componente adictivo que las aplicaciones corporativas. No intentan atraparte ni existen para entretenerte. Su verdadero propósito es ayudarnos a encontrarnos en Internet.

Así que ten paciencia mientras sigas esta guía. La liberación requiere esfuerzo, y el conocimiento es poder. Puede que suene un poco dramático, pero dado que las redes sociales corporativas desempeñan un papel tan importante en la cultura (no solo en nuestro hardcore punk underground), arrebatarle el control de nuestras vidas y nuestra cultura a los multimillonarios tecnológicos fachas que están de moda creo que es una lucha con mucho en juego.

... Una herramienta de comunicación segura y privada

Es 2025. No uses los DM's (mensajes privados) en ninguna red social para hablar de nada serio. Usa Signal. Incluso si crees que no necesitas Signal, alguien que quiere hablar contigo lo necesita. Signal Stories y sus chats grupales son geniales si quieres espacios digitales que son sociales y además muy seguros (quizás un tema para una futura guía).

... Una plataforma de entretenimiento

A Mastodon no le importa tu atención o cómo entretenerte. Si estás buscando un doomscroll más ético, probablemente este no es el lugar. Solo recibirás lo que aportes.

...Un sitio para hacerte viral

Es un sitio complicado para ser viral. No hay un algoritmo tóxico que alimente los feeds de otra gente con tu contenido. Es difícil ser un influencer. No lo intentes. De todas formas, ¡tampoco es que lxs influencers sean bienvenidxs!

...El reemplazo de un mundo analógico

Internet nos permite crear un hardcore punk underground que es internacional. Nos facilita la conexión a través de pandemias, temporadas duras, momentos de lucha por nuestra salud mental y viviendo aisladxs.

Incluso si eres un verdadero punk anti móviles, este tema te afecta: quizás no usas Instagram, pero tus colegas punks o tu banda comparten ahí conciertos o fanzines. Todxs participamos en una escena que, para bien o para mal, se basa en gran medida en las redes sociales. Es importante encontrar a la gente en el lugar que habitan. Por lo tanto, debemos intervenir en cómo lxs punks interactúan en Internet, de la misma forma en la que no queremos que todos los conciertos ocurran en salas comerciales.

Pero la escena del hardcore punk no debería existir únicamente en Internet. ¿Cuándo fue la última vez que te dieron un cartel de un concierto en mano? Haz flyers, ve a conciertos, imprime y distribuye fanzines, ayuda a que funcionen los espacios DIY, haz una distri. The Counterforce apoya todas esas estrategias offline (¿has leído el manifiesto?). Que tu entusiasmo e interés en estas alternativas online (guays y radicales) no te distraiga de crear relaciones interpersonales y conexiones fuera de la red. El hardcore/punk siempre ocurrirá en una primera instancia en conciertos, fanzines, cintas o grabaciones.

tr: El hardcore/punk siempre ocurrirá en una primera instancia en conciertos, fanzines, cintas o grabaciones.

¿Qué es Mastodon?

Como ya he mencionado, Mastodon es parte del Fediverso. Entraré en detalle más tarde, pero empecemos por comprender qué es Mastodon.

De forma superficial es una red social del estilo de Twitter o Tumblr. Ves un feed (una lista) de publicaciones de cuentas que sigues. Puedes dar like, impulsar (repostear) o contestar a otros posts. Puedes hacer tus propios posts con imágenes, texto y links, y puedes mencionar (tag) a otrxs usuarixs. Se podría decir que no hay anuncios y no hay algoritmo. En vez de estar viendo una cantidad infinita de contenido sugerido, lo que ves en tu timeline o feed está enteramente determinado por las cuentas que has escogido seguir.

¿otro feed más?

Entendiendo Mastodon a través del e-mail

Aunque se parece más a Twitter, Mastodon es más similar a un e-mail a nivel estructural.

Esta es la cuenta principal de Mastodon para The Counterforce:

@The_Counterforce@kolektiva.social

Es como una cuenta de e-mail pero con un @ extra delante. The_Counterforce es nuestro usuario, y kolektiva.social es el servidor que aloja nuestra cuenta (es un servidor anarquista muy grande). ¡Si solo le dices a alguien "@The_Counterforce en Mastodon" no es suficiente! La parte del servidor la debes incluir, igual que haces con una cuenta de e-mail.

Kolektiva.social es un servidor de Mastodon, pero hay miles - igual que hay incontables servidores de e-mail diferentes como gmail.com, protonmail.com o riseup.net. Cuando registras una cuenta de Mastodon, escoges un servidor y tu cuenta se encuentra dentro de él. Habitualmente nos referimos a esos servidores diferentes como "instancias".

Estas son algunas de las cuentas de Mastodon que nos gustan. Fíjate que están en diferentes servidores de Mastodon:

@la_chaine@438punk.house - La Chaîne, un boletín de punk de Montreal tiene su cuenta en 438punk.house, un servidor de Mastodon para la escena punk de Montreal.
@somepunk@counterforce.social - La cuenta de algunx punk en Counterforce.social, un servidor que podrás usar cuando avances más en esta guía!
@submedia@kolektiva.social - La productora anarquista subMedia también está en kolektiva.social, el mismo servidor en el que está The Counterforce!

Una de las cosas buenas del e-mail es que no importa que servidor aloja tu cuenta, puedes enviar y recibir e-mail de cuentas de cualquier otro servidor. De hecho, ¡lo haces constantemente! Mastodon recoge este concepto (llamado interoperabilidad) y lo aplica en las redes sociales: usuarixs con diferentes cuentas en diferentes servidores de Mastodon pueden seguirse e interactuar entre ellxs.

¿Lo ves? Mastodon no es solo una red social, es una gran red descentralizada de servidores interconectados.

Los usuarios de diferentes servidores de Mastodon (también llamados instancias) pueden seguirse entre ellos.

Escogiendo un servidor de Mastodon

Los servidores de Mastodon están todos conectados, pero no todos son iguales. Hay algunas razones que importan a la hora de escoger uno:

Encontrar contenidos

Es más fácil descubrir cosas en tu propio servidor, o en servidores con muchas conexiones hacia el tuyo [N. del T: si en el servidor muchas usuarixs siguen a gente de otro servidor]. Si estás en un servidor con otrxs punks, es más probable que veas más cosas punk.

Moderación

Cada servidor gestiona su propia moderación de contenido, así que puedes elegir un servidor que tenga políticas con las que estes de acuerdo. Los servidores más grandes suelen tener más spam y trolls, y en casos extremos un servidor puede bloquear a otro para evitar el acoso o trolleo.

Autonomía y confianza

Tu servidor de Mastodon gestiona tus datos. Es donde tus posts se guardan. Tienes que confiar en el/la administrador/a, pero esx admin puede ser alguien que conozcas en vez de Mark Zuckerberg o Elon Musk.

La mayoría de servidores de Mastodon los llevan lxs propixs usuarixs. El software es gratuito y de código abierto, así que cada cuál puede montar su propio servidor (DIY). Mastodon funciona mejor cuanto más pequeño sea el servidor, y especialmente cuando hay intereses comunes y afinidades, como por ejemplo en una escena punk local. Las comunidades pueden ponerse de acuerdo para llegar a objetivos comunes, políticas de moderación, y modos de pago de las facturas para que el servidor siga funcionando. Puedes escoger un servidor donde te sientas cómodx, o empezar el tuyo propio si tienes diferentes necesidades o intereses.

¿Qué es el Fediverso? ⁂

El Fediverso es una red de plataformas de redes sociales interconectadas. El nombre viene de "federado" + "universo". Tal y como acabas de aprender, Mastodon no es un solo servidor, sino una red descentralizada de servidores autónomos interconectados. Estos servidores hacen la "federación". No es muy diferente de la red internacional de punk DIY, ¿verdad?

Pero el Fediverso es mucho más que Mastodon. Hay muchas otras plataformas que conforman el Fediverso. Mastodon tiene el aspecto y funcionalidades similares a Twitter o Tumblr, y estas otras plataformas también son clones de redes sociales capitalistas que te serán conocidas:

PixelFed (centrado en la fotografía, como Instagram)
PeerTube (centrado en el vídeo, como YouTube)
Misskey (como Tumblr pero tematizado alrededor del anime)
Bookwyrm (para reviews de libros, muy parecido a Goodreads)
Lemmy (links y foros de debate, como Reddit)
WriteFreely (blogs como Wordpress)

Cada una de estas plataformas tiene un foco diferente, como priorizar la fotografía o el vídeo. Hay muchas más que no he listado. Pero todas ellas tienen usuarixs, cuentas y publicaciones. Tienes una cuenta, publicas tus cosas, sigues otras cuentas y ves su contenido en el feed. En lo fundamental, son todas iguales.

Como en Mastodon, todas estas plataformas del Fediverso no son solo un servidor. Hay cientos de servidores de PixelFed, PeerTube, Misskey o Lemmy. Y como en Mastodon, lxs usuarixs de cada servidor pueden seguir a lxs usuarixs del resto de servidores.

Espera, ¿cualquier otro servidor? ¿Puede un/a usuarix de Mastodon seguir a un/a usuarix de un servidor de PixelFed?

¡Sí!

Con una cuenta de Mastodon puedes seguir cuentas de Mastodon de otros servidores, pero también puedes seguir cuentas de los servidores de cualquiera de estas otras plataformas del Fediverso. No estás restringida a interactuar con cuentas del mismo servidor en el que estás, ni siquiera de la misma plataforma.

Como usuarix de Mastodon @somepunk@counterforce.social, estas son algunas de las cuentas que puedes seguir:

@la_chaine@438punk.house - otra cuenta de Mastodon en un servidor diferente.
@submedia_channel@kolektiva.media - una cuenta de PeerTube que sube los vídeos de la productora anarquista SubMedia.
@TheFinalStrawRadio@social.ungovernavl.org - una cuenta de Castopod que publica los episodios del podcast The Final Straw.
@shows@montreal.askapunk.net - una web que funciona como calendario online publicado a través de un software llamado Gancio y que también puede ser seguido desde el Fediverso.

Las publicaciones de cualquier lugar del Fediverso en mi feed de Mastodon!

Verás diferentes tipos de posts de todas esas cuentas en tu feed. No solo posts de Mastodon de otros servidores de Mastodon, sino fotografías de una cuenta en un servidor de PixelFed, vídeos de una cuenta en un servidor de PeerTube, y eventos que provienen de un calendario de Gancio.

Los usuarios de diferentes servidores y diferentes plataformas de cualquier lugar del Fediverso se pueden seguir entre ellos.

¡Esto es el Fediverso! Una gran red de plataformas alternativas, cada una creada con miles de servidores autónomos que se conectan entre sí. Como usuarix, puedes tener una cuenta en cualquier servidor, no importa la plataforma, y aún así seguir e interactuar con cuentas o posts que estén en cualquier lugar del Fediverso.

Y esto, ¿por qué es importante?

Bueno, primero de todo, para joder a las redes sociales capitalistas. Su objetivo es recopilar tus datos y mantener tu atención, vendiendo ambas a anunciantes (o algo peor). ¡TÚ eres el producto! El aspecto "social" de las redes sociales existe simplemente para aumentar la cantidad de atención y datos personales que pueden sustraerte.

¡Sin mencionar la cantidad de formas en las que estas aplicaciones refuerzan la maquinaria de guerra, contribuyen o causan genocidios, y profundizan nuestro aislamiento y ansiedad social! Esas empresas y la gente que las llevan son JODIDOS, y no deberíamos apoyarlos voluntariamente contribuyendo a la estética de su producto encerrando ahí nuestro arte, música e ideas que acaban residiendo en walled gardens [N. del T: espacios tecnológicos cerrados, de donde la información no puede moverse y en los que hay que ser miembro para acceder a dichos datos].

Si lo piensas, el punk siempre ha sido una red federada. Si nos conectamos online, deberíamos hacerlo siguiendo los mismos principios.

El Fediverso es inherentemente anti-corporativo

Todo el software y los protocolos que construyen el Fediverso son gratuitos y de código abierto. Es imposible que ninguna persona individual o empresa compre o se apropie de la red al completo. Está creado, en su mayoría, por organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro, fundaciones, colectivos e individualidades. Muchxs de lxs desarrolladorxs son queer o trans con políticas radicales. Lxs neoliberales lo odian porque es muy difícil de monetizar. Tiene múltiples opciones de accesibilidad. Fue diseñado desde su base para ser una verdadera red social que facilita la conexión abierta y la comunicación en vez de la extracción de capital de lxs usuarixs.

Es DIY

El Fediverso tiene miles de servidores porque cualquiera puede crear uno - es relativamente barato y fácil. Podemos crear nuestros propios servidores de Mastodon, PeerTube o PixelFed y hacer que la red crezca. Estos servidores pueden estar centrados alrededor de nuestras comunidades y basados en nuestras necesidades. El Fediverso nos permite poseer y controlar nuestras redes online en vez de confiar en una opción capitalista mainstream gratuita (¿a que coste?).

No nos abandonará jamás

¿Cuántas fotos de conciertos se perderán cuando muera Instagram? (¿quizás su modelo de IA sea capaz de generar nuevas fotografías de conciertos para nosotros?). ¿Cuántas demos desaparecerán de Bandcamp cuando cierre? Lxs más mayores recuerdan MySpace - muchas demos de screamo perdidas en el tiempo, como lágrimas en la lluvia... Cada vez que una red social corporativa cierra o se vuelve intolerable, perdemos todo lo que hemos subido y todas las conexiones que hemos hecho ahí.

También pueden pasar cosas malas en el Fediverso: el/la administrador/a de tu servidor de Mastodon podría ser atropellado por un autobús. Pero al menos en el Fediverso, somos nosotrxs lxs que controlamos nuestros datos, conexiones y la red. En vez de unirnos a la siguiente app de mierda que se volverá una basura en unos años (siempre pasa), el Fediverso nos permite invertir en algo que no desaparecerá (a no ser que sea por nuestra decisión).

Un scroll más sano

El Fediverso no genera un doomscroll adictivo, ya que no hay unas ganancias económicas que motiven su funcionamiento. Puedes escoger qué quieres ver, abrir el ordenador para estar al día, bajar hasta la última actualización y salir. ¡Puede ser aburrido en el buen sentido! La diferencia en sensaciones y la falta de algoritmo hace que la gente sea mucho más agradable e interactúe de una forma mucho más auténtica. No conseguirás ser viral, pero conocerás humanos de verdad con lxs que disfrutarás de su compañía.

Un scroll más seguro

El Fediverso está creado para usuarixs y no para CEOs, así que tiene mejores controles de seguridad y privacidad. Sigue siendo Internet, las cosas públicas son públicas. Pero el Fediverso en general tiene mejores opciones para mantener algunas cosas privadas y tener mejor control sobre tus datos y sobre quién tiene acceso a ellos. El/la administrador/a de tu servidor puede ser alguien que conozcas y confíes. Incluso puedes ser tu propix administrador/a.

No es un walled garden

Las apps como Instagram, Facebook y Twitter encierran el contenido tras una barrera de login. Aquellxs que estamos fuera, estamos forzadxs a vendernos y crear una cuenta para ver algo.

El Fediverso está abierto. No solo las cuentas del Fediverso se pueden seguir entre ellas, donde sea que estén (diferentes servidores, diferentes plataformas), cualquiera en Internet puede ver un perfil del Fediverso y sus posts públicos. Puedes compartir un link a tu cuenta con gente que no conoce y no le importa el Fediverso, y podrán ver lo que sea que hayas escogido que sea público. ¡Tener una cuenta aquí es como tener una web gratuita!

Sueños

¡Ojalá que cuando hayas llegado aquí estés animadx! Antes de entrar en la parte práctica os quiero compartir algunos sueños para el futuro:

Que cada ciudad o región montase su propio servidor de Mastodon para lxs punks locales. Esto proveería de un lugar de conexión, y como los servidores están conectados entre ellos, podríamos seguir fácilmente lo que ocurre en otras ciudades y no solo en la nuestra.
Que las bandas, distros, zines y organizadorxs de conciertos se hiciesen cuentas en el Fediverso en vez subir su contenido exclusivamente en plataformas corporativas cerradas. ¡Dadle a la gente opciones mejores para ver lo que hacéis!
Que se inicien servidores de PixelFed para lxs fotógrafxs de conciertos, y servidores de PeerTube (PunkTube?) para vídeos en directo y vídeo fanzines.
Hay un proyecto en desarrollo llamado Bandwagon que trata de recrear Bandcamp para el Fediverso: imagina que las bandas suben allí su música en su perfil, y lxs punks desde cualquier lugar del Fediverso pueden escuchar y estar al tanto de las novedades y sus conciertos. Al cabo de no mucho tiempo los sellos DIY podrían tener su propio servidor de Bandwagon para subir las bandas que publican.

A propósito de irnos de las redes sociales corporativas

No voy a utilizar más espacio para explicar la infinidad de razones por las que deberías abandonar las plataformas corporativas como Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, etc. De forma resumida, es vergonzoso cuanta cultura punk se comparte solo en esas apps. Pero entiendo que dejarlas de lado puede ser complicado para muchxs de vosotrxs. Te arriesgas a perder todas esas relaciones que has creado. ¿Por qué querrias probar una alternativa si "no hay nadie en ellas"?

Puedes empezar a usar Mastodon mientras sigues teniendo Instagram o lo que quieras. Esto es especialmente importante si usas tus redes como banda/distri/zine/colectivo. Sé que el público de Mastodon aún es pequeño, pero si lo usas para publicar estarás invirtiendo en un proyecto sostenible sobre el que tenemos control. Darás una oportunidad a otra gente para que vea mejor tus publicaciones si quieren salir de esas redes sociales (o si nunca las han tenido).

Probar Mastodon puede ser un proceso lento, pero tienes que tener un poco de fe y perseverancia. Si somos bastantes trabajando en ello, la bola de nieve crecerá y nos encontraremos utilizando un espacio sostenible, sano, radical y bajo nuestro control. La razón por la que es difícil dejar las redes sociales corporativas es porque nos atrapan de forma intencional en ellas. ¡Tenemos que luchar de forma activa para liberarnos!

Guía práctica de Mastodon

Para daros una guía práctica me voy a focalizar en Mastodon. Mastodon no es todo el Fediverso, pero es una de las plataformas más populares, con unas apps bien hechas y bonitas. Es la forma más sencilla de empezar.

¡Pero espera! No escribas simplemente "Mastodon" en tu buscador de apps sin leer esto. Acabarás con una cuenta en Mastodon.social como un poser. ¡Te hemos avisado!

Recuerda que Mastodon está descentralizado: hay muchos servidores, no solo Mastodon.com (que, para tu información, es la web de una máquina trituradora).

Tienes que encontrar o escoger un servidor en el que registrarte (recuerda, es como un e-mail). Sí, por supuesto, te puedes crear una cuenta en Mastodon.social (el equivalente de Mastodon a Gmail), pero está lleno de normies, trolls y spam ocasional. El admin será un tío alemán llamado John Mastodon. Y recuerda, el servidor es la segunda parte del nombre de tu cuenta. Todo el mundo lo ve. Vale más la pena tener un nombre guay.

En nuestros sueños (leer más arriba), toda escena local tendría un servidor de Mastodon (o incluso dos, en caso de que haya peleas) y podrías simplemente registrarte ahí. Pero por ahora, nuestras opciones son limitadas. Hay muchos servidores, pero la mayoría son una mierda. Si tienes un servidor de Mastodon local, o si has escuchado de alguno de un amigx tuyx, ¡por favor registrate ahí!

En caso contrario, eres bienvenidx a registrar tu cuenta en nuestro servidor de Mastodon:

COUNTERFORCE.SOCIAL

Counterforce.social es un servidor de Mastodon para los proyectos o individualidades alineadas con Counterforce, y también un espacio de llegada para lxs punks que tengan curiosidad por el Fediverso o que hayan leído esta guía. Pero Counterforce.social no puede ser el único servidor de Mastodon para lxs punks de todo el mundo. Es un primer escalón, pero lo que necesitamos es que haya más punks que monten su propio servidor y contribuyan a una red descentralizada.

Así que registrate sin ningún problema y explora como Mastodon y el Fediverso funcionan y el aspecto que tienen. Invita a amigxs a leer esto y que se unan contigo. Pero en caso de que te interese, intenta crear tu propio servidor para tu comunidad.

Mastodon te permite mover tu cuenta de un servidor a otro. No te preocupes: cuando llegue el momento que empieces un servidor o encuentres otro, puedes mudar tu cuenta y transferir todxs tus seguidxs y seguidorxs.

Crear tu cuenta

Algunos servidores tienen registros abiertos, otros son solo por invitación, y hay que requieren de aprobación para las cuentas nuevas. Los registros que llegan a Counterforce.social requieren aprobación. Si te registras en este servidor, habrá un formulario que te pedirá algo de información sobre ti y por qué quieres una cuenta en Counterforce.social

CÓMO CREAR UNA CUENTA EN COUNTERFORCE.SOCIAL

Ve a https://counterforce.social en tu navegador y haz click en Create Account ["Crear cuenta"].
Lee las reglas del servidor.
Escoge usuario y contraseña. También hay una pequeña caja de texto que debes rellenar que se refiere a esta guía. Si te estás registrando usando la app de Mastodon (ya te dijimos que no lo hicieses), esta caja de texto dirá "Why do you want to join?" ["¿Por qué quieres registrarte?"]

Rellena esta caja de texto diciendo que has leído la guía, de donde eres, y pon el nombre de dos discos: el que te hizo interesarte por el punk, y el último que hayas escuchado recientemente. Seguramente no te dejaremos registrarte si no incluyes esto. No es que queramos ponerte a prueba, pero tenemos que impedir que se registren spammers y trolls, ¿no?
Revisa tu e-mail para confirmar que es correcta
¡Espera a que te aprobemos la cuenta (recibirás un e-mail)!

La aprobación puede tardar un día o dos - ¡no trabajamos aquí! ¿Por qué no seguir leyendo el resto de esta guía mientras esperas que te llegue el e-mail de aprobación?

Tu nueva cuenta de Mastodon

Vale, tienes tu cuenta, algo así como @somepunk@counterforce.social. De nuevo, recuerda que es como un e-mail: tu cuenta tiene usuario y servidor.

La primera vez que entres, Mastodon te dará una serie de personas recomendadas para seguir y te dirá que completes tu perfil. Haznos un favor a todxs: añade algo a tu perfil. Una foto de perfil y una bio para que sepamos que no eres un bot. ¡Nadie te seguirá si tu perfil está vacío!

Iniciando sesión

Siempre puedes acceder a Mastodon yendo a la web del servidor (en este ejemplo https://counterforce.social) en un navegador y haciendo log in. Esta es la web app de Mastodon. Si estás en un teléfono móvil, puedes añadir esta web app a tu pantalla de inicio y usarla como cualquier otra app.

También hay múltiple apps de iOS o Android para Mastodon. Cuando inicias sesión en una app tienes que asegurarte que has escogido el servidor en el que está tu cuenta.

Las apps oficiales de Mastodon (que están bien) tienden a intentar llevarte a que registres una nueva cuenta en Mastodon.social. No tiene ningún sentido. Si usas la app oficial de Mastodon para Android o iOS, asegúrate que le das a "Log In" y añades el nombre del servidor correcto:

Nuestras apps favoritas en este momento son Tusky para Android y Ice Cubes para iOS, pero hay muchas más. Una cosa guay de Mastodon es que puedes probar diferentes apps hasta que encuentres la que funciona para ti. De nuevo, "es como el e-mail" - para acceder a tu e-mail, puedes usar Apple Mail, Gmail en el navegador, o Thunderbird (para frikis).

Tu feed

El feed de Mastodon muestra todos los posts, respuestas e impulsos (N. del T: a veces también llamamos "boosts") de las cuentas que sigues (¡de cualquier parte del Fediverso!).

Acabas de registrarte y quizás has seguido unas cuantas cuentas sugeridas, pero tu feed va a estar bastante vacío. No hay un algoritmo que te de contenidos. A Mastodon no le importa una mierda si miras la app o no.

Mi experiencia es que la gente se queda en este paso. Acostumbradxs a las redes sociales como entretenimiento pasivo, tener poder sobre lo que se ve y lo que se sigue es un cambio totalmente radical. Si necesitas un feed activo para mantenerte animadx en esta aventura en el Fediverso (¡es totalmente comprensible!) intenta seguir a gente desde el inicio y seguir a gente a menudo. Sigue a cualquiera que pueda parecerte mínimamente interesante. Sus posts rápidamente empezarán a aparecer por tu feed y verás otros posts que impulsan. Siempre puedes dar unfollow a lo que no te guste.

Encontrarnos lxs unxs a lxs otrxs

Para encontrar a tus amigxs, primero habla con tus amigxs. Pregúntales si tienen Mastodon/cuenta en el Fediverso y añádeles. ¡Pregúntales por recomendaciones de quién seguir!

La barra de búsqueda

La barra de búsqueda de Mastodon te permite buscar otrxs usuarixs y cuentas para poder seguirlas. Con que solo escribas parte del nombre de su cuenta ya saldrán si el servidor ha encontrado esta cuenta antes. A veces tienes que poner el nombre completo junto al servidor (por ejemplo:@The_Counterforce@kolektiva.social).

También puedes pegar links de cualquier post del Fediverso en la barra de búsqueda. Si alguien te mandase un link a un post de Mastodon como por ejemplo:

https://kolektiva.social/@The_Counterforce/113681405266044162

... simplemente puedes pegarlo en la barra de búsqueda, y podrás darle like, contestar, impulsar o seguir la cuenta que lo ha publicado. Esto funciona para cualquier post del Fediverso, no solo para otros posts de Mastodon. Puedes pegar links de eventos de calendario de Gancio, vídeos de PeerTube, perfiles de Bandwagon, fotos de PixelFed, conversaciones de Lemmy, lo que sea, todos se podrán abrir en Mastodon. Esto es parte de la magia del Fediverso: puedes seguir e interactuar con todo tipo de contenido provinente de "webs sociales" teniendo solo una cuenta.

Lxs seguidxs/seguidorxs de otra gente

Lxs amigxs de tus amigxs podrían ser tus amigxs. Echa un vistazo a lxs seguidxs/seguidxres de las cuentas que te gustan para encontrar otras cuentas a seguir. Fíjate que lxs usuarixs pueden elegir no mostrar esta información, ¡así que no siempre podrás verlo!

El directorio de cuentas

Algunos servidores de Mastodon tienen un directorio de cuentas o perfiles con una lista de cuentas en ese servidor, y además otras cuentas que el servidor ha visto. Solo lxs usuarixs que hayan decidido compartir esta información aparecerán aquí. ¡Si descubres otro servidor que te mola, entra en su directorio de cuentas y copia/pega las cuentas en la barra de búsqueda para encontrarlas y seguirlas!

Otros feeds

Además de tu feed principal, Mastodon tiene otros feeds o líneas de tiempo. En la web app, estos están en "Tuts en directo" como "Este servidor" y "Otros servidores". Según la app tienen diferentes nombres como Timeline local, o timeline global.

"Este servidor" o la timeline local muestra posts públicos de cualquier persona que esté en tu servidor. Es como un flujo de información constante de las conciencias de tus vecinos. Si estás en un servidor pequeño que sea guay este feed puede ser genial - una forma fácil de saber qué está pasando en tu servidor sin tener que seguir a todo el mundo.

"Otros servidores" o el timeline global muestra todo tipo de posts públicos que llegan desde cualquier lugar del Fediverso. Lo que se muestra aquí son las publicaciones públicas del resto de gente de tu servidor y además lo que siguen o con lo que interactúan.

Hashtags

Puedes seguir hashtags y cualquier post que los contenga y que pueda ver tu servidor, se mostrará en tu feed.

Explore

La página de Explora te mostrará una selección de hashtags, posts y cuentas que tu servidor conoce de todo el Fediverso. No hay algoritmo aquí. Mi experiencia es que es una zona un poco aleatoria y sin sentido de tu rincón del Fediverso.

SOBRE ENCONTRAR NUEVAS CUENTAS

He dicho unas cuantas veces que lo que ves en Mastodon puede depender de lo que tu servidor "conoce" o "ha visto". El Fediverso es una red gigantesca y tu servidor no tiene una copia a mano de toda la red. Solo recoge la información que necesita. Si buscas una cuenta que tu servidor nunca ha visto no verás su historial de publicaciones a no ser que mires el perfil desde la web app de su propio servidor. Normalmente Mastodon te da un link para que puedas acceder fácilmente. Busca "Abrir la página original".

Una vez hayas seguido a esta cuenta, los posts siguientes sí se mostrarán en tu feed.

Ser encontradx

Si quieres que la gente encuentre tu cuenta de Mastodon, aquí van unos consejos:

Introducción

Cuando estés preparadx, haz un post con el hashtag #presentación (N del T.: #introduction si te presentas a público que escribe en inglés) y comparte un poco de información sobre ti, y qué quieres publicar o ver. Si la cuenta es para una banda, distro u otro tipo de proyecto explica el propósito de la cuenta. La gente verá tu post de presentación y seguramente lo impulsarán si les gusta lo que leen.

Impulsos y hashtags

No hay un algoritmo de recomendación en Mastodon. En esencia, la forma más típica de propagación de la información es a través de impulsos y hashtags. Cualquier cosa que creas que otra gente compartiría, ¡impúlsalo! Y usa hashtags apropiados si quieres que otras personas que no te conocen encuentren tu post (solo asegúrate de no ser pesadx/spammer).

También date cuenta que dar un like a un post no hace absolutamente nada para que se muestre a más gente - ¡solo le dice al/la autorx que lo has visto y que te ha gustado!

Como ser descubiertx

Mastodon te permite decidir cómo de "descubrible" es tu cuenta. Para elegirlo ve a "Preferencias" -> "Perfil público" -> "privacidad y alcance". Por ejemplo puedes decidir si quieres que tu cuenta esté o no en el directorio de cuentas del servidor.

Tu perfil en la web

He mencionado más atrás que una cuenta de Mastodon puede ser como una web gratuita ya que cualquiera puede ver tu perfil y los posts públicos sin haber iniciado sesión (o sin tener una cuenta).

Aquí tienes un link para el perfil web de The Counterforce: https://kolektiva.social/@The_Counterforce

Si ya tienes la app de Mastodon y tratas de abrirlo desde tu móvil en un navegador, te lo abrirá en la app. Pero si alguien lo carga en un navegador y no tiene Mastodon, verán una página web con nuestro perfil y una lista de los posts públicos recientes. No habrá ninguna ventana que les diga que se deben registrar o iniciar sesión para ver más.

Tu perfil tendrá un link similar, algo así como https://counterforce.social/@somepunk

Consejo punk: si lees mi RSS How-To For Punks [N. del T: no está traducido en estos momentos] y estás usando un lector de RSS, te darás cuenta que todas las cuentas de Mastodon tienen también un feed de RSS con los posts públicos. ¡Solo añade .rss al final del link de la cuenta!

Niveles de visibilidad de una publicación

Mastodon te permite controlar la visibilidad de cada publicación. Público y Público silencioso (a veces también como No listado) son en esencia, posts públicos. Por ejemplo, los posts de ambos tipos serán visible para cualquiera que no tenga cuenta y que llegue al link que hemos explicado antes en la sección de "Tu perfil en la web".

Los posts de sólo Seguidores se llegarán únicamente a la gente que te sigue desde cualquier lugar del Fediverso. Puedes elegir quién te sigue si lo deseas (lee la sección "Privacidad" a continuación).

Por último, la opción de Personas concretas es el equivalente a un DM. No hay verdaderos DM's en Mastodon (para eso utiliza Signal). Pero si quieres poner algo que solo lo vean unas pocas personas, solo tienes que mencionarlas (con @) y utilizar Personas concretas a la hora de publicar el post; solo esas personas llegarán a verlo.

Privacidad

Quizás no quieres ser encontradx. Puedes cerrar tu cuenta en Mastodon para que lxs nuevxs seguidorxs lxs tengas que aprobar. Deselecciona la opción de "Aceptar automáticamente los nuevos seguidores" en el panel de "Privacidad y llegada" de tu página de preferencias. Recuerda que tus posts futuros y pasados siguen siendo visibles para cualquiera, pero cualquier post que hagas que sea solo para "Seguidores" será privado. Haz que todos los posts de tu cuenta sean solo para "Seguidores" por defecto en "Preferencias" -> "Otros" -> "Privacidad de los tuts".

En general, recuerda que el Fediverso sigue siendo parte del Internet público. Tus posts públicos son públicos. ¡Lo cuál es perfecto si lo que quieres que es que la gente llegue a conocer tu proyecto o tu banda! Pero si lo que quieres es algo más de control, cierra tu cuenta y usa los posts solo para "Seguidores". Si te preocupa este tema, echa un vistazo a Mastodon Opsec.

Seguridad

Mastodon tiene un montón de formas para protegerte (o para poder gestionar a gente que te molesta). Puedes:

Silenciar a gente para siempre, o con un tiempo limitado para que no te olvides de quitarles la restricción (por ejemplo cuando alguien empieza a postear en un momento concreto mil cosas que no te interesan).
Bloquear a gente.
Bloquear servidores enteros.
Reportar usuarixs/posts en tu servidor que vayan contra las normas. Lxs moderadorxs se encargarán.
Reportar usuarixs/posts de otros servidores que puedan ser dañinos o peligrosos para tu servidor.
Silenciar palabras/frases (por ejemplo, si no quieres leer nada del "ska revival" puedes simplemente mutear la palabra "ska").
Bloquear notificaciones de gente que no sigues.
Esconder impulsos de gente que impulsa demasiadas cosas inútiles o que no te interesan.
Auto-eliminar tus propias publicaciones cuando ha pasado un tiempo desde que las has escrito.

Si quieres aprender más sobre Mastodon, lee la documentación oficial. Si tienes alguna duda, intenta preguntar en Mastodon! Quizás con el hashtag #askFedi.

Bluesky no es la solución

Mientras escribo esto mucha gente se está yendo de Twitter e Instagram para acabar en Bluesky, otra red social alternativa. Quizás incluso la has visto mencionada junto a Mastodon como parte del Fediverso o de "las nuevas redes sociales descentralizadas".

Bluesky es simplemente Twitter Junior. ¡De hecho fue originalmente un desarrollo alternativo de Twitter! Ahora está en un momento dulce, ya que tiene muchísimo dinero de inversores, y pueden desarrollar nuevas funcionalidades a gran velocidad y aún no ha empezado a añadir anuncios. Los nazis aún no han llegado. Pero Bluesky no tiene ninguna diferencia con Twitter o Instagram, simplemente está en un ciclo vital de red social capitalista inicial. En algún momento tendrán que hacer dinero (MUCHO dinero), llegará la presión económica y todo se irá a la mierda (N. del T.: busca el concepto "enshittification").

La idea de que Bluesky está "descentralizado" viene del hecho que usan un protocolo similar (aunque no es compatible) con el que se usa en el Fediverso. Os lo explico de forma simple y sin entrar en detalles técnicos:

Ahora mismo hay un único servidor de Bluesky. No hay descentralización. No puedes registrarte en un servidor que sea cercano a ti, montado por tus amigxs, o alineado con tus valores. No puedes entrar en ningún otro servidor que no sea bsky.social (mierda, deberíamos haber registrado cforce.social).
No puedes montar tu propio servidor de Bluesky. Ahora mismo hay una campaña de financiación llamada "Save [Bluesky] From Billionaire Capture" intentando conseguir 30 millones de dólares para montar un servidor de Bluesky adicional. El servidor counterforce.social cuesta, como mucho, $100 al año. La descentralización teórica de Bluesky es una forma de evitar pedir responsabilidad a nazis y otros actores maliciosos en la plataforma. Nada que ver con darnos autonomía y control a lxs usuarixs. Nos toman por completxs idiotas.
Gracias a su protocolo, todos los posts de Bluesky están disponibles de forma pública. No hay privacidad posible. Las empresas de IA están procesando cada post de Bluesky para sus algoritmos. Los posts de Mastodon públicos son igual de públicos, pero al menos en Mastodon tienes una opción para hacer que algunos o todos tus posts sean visibles solo a una audiencia sobre la que tienes control.

Otras alternativas

Esta guía se ha enfocado en el Fediverso y Mastodon, pero no quiero hacer ver que son la única solución. La motivación de The Counterforce es probar y explorar todas las alternativas que permitan a la escena de hardcore punk underground escapar de la cultura capitalista.

Por ejemplo, hay montones de opciones para entrar en el Fediverso más allá de Mastodon. Si solo prefieres posts de fotografía, prueba PixelFed. Si prefieres hilos o discusiones, prueba Lemmy. Si quieres subir vídeos más largos, entra en PeerTube. Monta un calendario de Gancio conectado al Fediverso para conciertos locales. No importa dónde crees tu cuenta, cualquier persona donde sea que esté del Fediverso podrá seguirte.

Otra opción para que los punks vuelvan a conectar en Internet es que revivan los foros. Crecí junto a los foros de punk y hardcore, y los recuerdo con cariño (aunque también recuerdo todo el drama). Creo deberíamos ir con pies de plomo con esos foros centralizados. Cuando la gente no es responsable puede ser muy mala, y confiar en un único servidor centralizado para crear una comunidad online es un proyecto destinado al fracaso. (También hay foros que son parte del Fediverso).

Sean cuales sean las alternativas que pruebes, recuerda no repetir los errores del pasado. Muchas manos poderosas quieren capturar a usuarios que van a la-app-social-que-lo-peta-esta-semana. La siguiente red social corporativa no nos será mejor. Da igual que sea Discord, TikTok, Slack o incluso enormes foros llevados por gente que no conoces, evita cualquier plataforma, nueva o vieja, llevada por una empresa que busca sacar provecho de fondos de inversión. Nada bueno puede salir de ahí.

Por último vuelvo a recomendar la otra alternativa más obvia: ¡haz más cosas fuera de Internet!

montatupropio.punk

Llegué al Fediverso a través de Kolektiva.social, en 2018 o 2019. Habiendo comprendido como Mastodon funciona y entendiendo el potencial del Fediverso, nos juntamos algunxs colegas y en 2021 empezamos 438punk.house, un servidor de Mastodon para punks de Montreal.

Al principio no había mucha gente, pero ha crecido sin parar ya que cada vez más y más personas buscan formas de estar conectadxs sin usar Instagram (que ha dominado nuestra escena). No fue fácil enseñarles a usar algo nuevo, pero lxs amigxs enseñan a lxs amigxs. Ahora tenemos más de un centenar de usuarixs publicando conciertos próximos, pidiendo consejos y ayuda, empezando bandas, compartiendo nueva música, etc. Algunas bandas tienen cuenta. Tenemos nuestros hashtags para publicar novedades de conciertos, y compartir lo que estamos escuchando. Alguna gente habla más, otrxs simplemente entran cuando quieren preguntar algo o buscan qué eventos hay el fin de semana.

También iniciamos el calendario de conciertos ASK A PUNK de Montreal usando Gancio. Gente de todo Montreal usa este calendario para enterarse de los conciertos (busca "Montreal Punk Shows"), pero también forma parte del Fediverso, así que lxs punks que están en 438punk.house (o en cualquier otro lugar de Mastodon) pueden seguir el calendario para ver los eventos en su feed.

Montar un servidor no cuesta mucho dinero o requiere demasiadas habilidades técnicas (cualquier nerd de Linux puede hacerlo). Organizamos nuestra propia infraestructura autónoma para la escena punk muy pronto. Ahora, a medida que abandonan Instagram, lxs punks de Montreal tienen un sitio donde ir.

Para nosotrxs el servidor 438punk.house es genial, pero somos la única escena punk en Mastodon. Sabemos que unxs cuantxs punks se han ido diseminando por otros servidores, pero si lees esta guía y entras en Mastodon, ¡búscanos! Aunque lo que más esperamos con ganas, es que otra ciudad entre y monte su Fediverso punk.

¡Únete a nosotrxs!

NOTAS TRAS LA TRADUCCIÓN

Ya se ha hecho hincapié en no entrar en este servidor, pero mastodon.social está en Alemania y por tanto aplican las leyes alemanas. Esto quiere decir que si, por ejemplo, publicas algo pro-palestina, podrías llegar a tener un problema con las autoridades alemanas. Lo mismo para servidores en otros países, cada cuál va regido por la legislación local. Protege tus tuts, o como dicen en la guía, si quieres hablar de cosas serias utiliza mensajería más segura como Signal.

Zine

Esta guía también está preparada para ser impresa como fanzine en PDF en los siguientes formatos:

Encuentra más fanzines como este para imprimir y distribuir en nuestra página Zine Distro.

Para saber más

The Counterforce Guide to Mastodon and The Fediverse (for punks!)

2025-02-03T17:10:55.000-05:00

`#introduction`

The hardcore punk underground has been on corporate social media since MySpace. Some resisted it, some embraced it, but mostly we have just followed mainstream culture's passive slide into digital dystopia. In 2025 every band has an Instagram account, every show needs a Facebook event and you only see a show flyer if you are lucky enough to catch it in someone's Story.

Punks are increasingly realizing how fucked corporate social media is (about time!). We hunger for better ways to check in with each other, share our music and thoughts, promote shows, connect across borders, and shit talk. What's presented here is a possible solution, an experiment, or at least a step in the right direction.

You may have heard of alternatives like Mastodon or PixelFed. These are not just reinventions of the apps we know. They are part of a decentralized, open network called the Fediverse. This network is totally different from corporate social media on a structural level, making it highly resistant to corporate capture and allowing it to evade surveillance capitalism. It's a network that we can not only join but build ourselves.

In this guide, I will try to explain what the Fediverse is, why it's cool for punks, give a practical how-to on getting started with Mastodon, and lay out some dreams for the future.

What Mastodon/The Fediverse are NOT:

...Easy

Understanding this stuff is not easy because it's so different from what we are used to. You can totally create a Mastodon account and give it a spin without any of this context, but you probably won't find it very interesting (or very punk). If you tried Mastodon already and didn't really “get” it, I hope you'll read on and give it another try!

When you first used corporate social media, there was a learning curve too. No one is born knowing how Instagram works. The big apps have spent fortunes to design a social media experience that is both frictionless (easy to start using), and sticky (hard to leave).

Mastodon and the Fediverse are neither frictionless, nor sticky. Like punk, they are built by hobbyists, non-profit initiatives and informal networks. They don't have the same addictive appeal as corporate apps. They aren't trying to trap you, and they aren't here to entertain you. Instead, their genuine purpose is to help us connect with each other online.

So bear with me as you work through this guide. Liberation requires struggle, and knowledge is power. That might be a little dramatic, but given that corporate social media plays such a dominant role in human culture (not just our hardcore punk underground), I believe that wresting control of our lives and our culture back from fashy tech billionaires is a struggle with real stakes!

...A secure and private communication tool

It's 2025. Don't use DMs on any social media app to talk about anything serious. Use Signal. Even if you don't think you need Signal, someone who wants to talk to you does. Signal Stories and group chats are great if you want digital spaces that are social and also very secure (maybe a topic of a future how-to).

...An entertainment platform

Mastodon doesn't care about your attention or entertaining you. If you are looking to be fed a more ethical doomscroll, this probably isn't the place. You will only get out of it what you put in.

...A place to go viral

It's a hard place to go viral. There's no toxic algorithm to push your content into other people's feeds. It's hard to be an influencer. Don't try. Influencers aren't really welcome anyways!

...A replacement for the real world

The Internet lets us build a hardcore punk underground that is international. It facilitates connection through pandemics, harsh seasons, mental health struggles and isolation.

Even if you are a true no-phone punk, this discussion matters to you: you might not use Instagram, but your band or shows or zines are still getting shared there by your fellow punks. We are all participating in an underground that relies in large part on social media, for better or worse. It's important to meet people where they are. So, we must intevene in how punks engage online, just as we don’t want to see all punk shows happen at Clear Channel or Live Nation venues.

But the hardcore punk underground shouldn't live exclusively on the Internet. When was the last time you got a paper handbill? Make flyers, go to shows, print and distribute zines, help run a DIY venue, start a distro. The Counterforce supports all these offline strategies (have you read the manifesto?). Don't let your enthusiasm and interest in these (cool and radical) online alternatives distract you from building in-person relationships and connections. Hardcore punk will always happen first at shows, in zines, on tapes, on records.

What is Mastodon?

As I've mentioned, Mastodon is part of the Fediverse. I'll get to what that means later, but let's just start with understanding Mastodon.

Superficially, it's social media akin to Twitter or Tumblr. You see a feed of posts from accounts you follow. You can like, boost (re-post) or reply to other posts. You can make your own posts with images, text and links, and you can tag other users. For the most part, there are no ads and there’s no algorithm. Rather than being fed an endless scroll of suggested content, what you see in your timeline is determined entirely by what you choose to follow.

A timeline like any other?

Understanding Mastodon through E-mail

Although it looks more like Twitter, structurally Mastodon might be more similar to e-mail.

Here's the main Mastodon account for The Counterforce:

@The_Counterforce@kolektiva.social

It looks like an e-mail address with an extra @ on the front. The_Counterforce is our username and kolektiva.social is the Mastodon server that hosts our account (a large anarchist server). Just telling someone to follow "@The_Counterforce on Mastodon" isn't enough! The server part must be included, just as with an e-mail address.

Kolektiva.social is one Mastodon server, but there are thousands of others - just as there are countless different e-mail servers such as gmail.com, protonmail.com or riseup.net. When you sign up for a Mastodon account, you choose one server and your account lives on that server. We often refer to these different servers as different instances.

Here are some Mastodon accounts we like. Note that they are on different Mastodon servers:

@la_chaine@438punk.house - La Chaîne, a punk newsletter in Montreal has its account on 438punk.house, a Mastodon server for the Montreal punk scene.
@somepunk@counterforce.social - Just some punk with an account is on Counterforce.social, a server that you can use to try out Mastodon later in this guide!
@submedia@kolektiva.social - The anarchist media collective subMedia is also on Kolektiva.social, the same server as The Counterforce!

One of the cool things about e-mail is that no matter which server hosts your e-mail account, you can still send and receive e-mails to accounts on any other server. You do it all the time! Mastodon takes this concept (called interoperability) and applies it to social media: users with accounts on different Mastodon servers can follow and interact with each other.

So you see? Mastodon is not just a single social media app, it's a huge decentralized network of connected servers!

Users on different Mastodon servers (aka instances) can all follow one another.

Choosing a Mastodon server

Mastodon servers are all connected, but they are not all the same. There are a few reasons why it matters which server you choose:

Discovery

It's easier to discover stuff on your own server, or on servers with a lot of connections with yours. If you're on a server with other punks, you'll probably see more punk stuff.

Moderation

Each server handles its own content moderation, so you can choose a server where you agree with the moderation policies. Large servers tend to have more spam and trolls, and in extreme cases servers will completely block each other to prevent trolling or harassment.

Autonomy and Trust

Your Mastodon server handles your data. It's where all your posts live. You have to trust the admin, but that admin can be someone you actually know instead of Mark Zuckerburg or Elon Musk.

Most Mastodon servers are just run by people. The server software is free and open source, so anyone can set up their own (DIY). Mastodon works best when servers are small, and based around common interests and affinity, e.g. a local punk scene. Communities can agree on the common goals, moderation policies, and how to pay the bills and keep the server running. You can choose a server where you fit in, or start your own if you have different needs or desires.

What is The Fediverse? ⁂

The Fediverse is a network of interconnected social media platforms. The name comes from "federated" + "universe" (not "feds"). As you just learned, Mastodon is not a single server, but a decentralized network of autonomous interconnected servers. They make up a "federation". Not unlike the international network of DIY punk, right?

But the Fediverse is bigger than just Mastodon. There are many other platforms that make up the Fediverse. While Mastodon looks and functions similar to Twitter or Tumblr, these other platforms are often also bootlegs of familiar corporate social media:

PixelFed (photo-centric like Instagram)
PeerTube (video-centric like YouTube)
Misskey (like Tumblr but anime themed)
Bookwyrm (for tracking and reviewing books, like Goodreads)
Lemmy (links and discussion like Reddit)
WriteFreely (blogs like Wordpress)

Each of these platforms have a different focus, like prioritizing photo or video content. There are many more that I didn't list. But they all have users, and profiles, and posts. You have an account, you post things, you follow other accounts and see their posts in a feed. It's all fundamentally the same.

As with Mastodon, all of these Fediverse platforms aren't just one server. There are also hundreds of different PixelFed, PeerTube, Misskey, and Lemmy servers. And as with Mastodon, users on any server can follow users on any other server.

Wait, on any other server? Can a user on a Mastodon server follow a user on a PixelFed server?

Yes!

With a Mastodon account, you can follow accounts on other Mastodon servers, and you can also follow accounts on servers from any of these other Fediverse platforms. You are not restricted to interacting with accounts on the same server as you, or even the same platform. Everything in the Fediverse is fair game.

As Mastodon user @somepunk@counterforce.social, here are some things I can follow:

@la_chaine@438punk.house - another Mastodon account on a different server.
@submedia_channel@kolektiva.media - a PeerTube account posting videos from the anarchist media collective SubMedia.
@TheFinalStrawRadio@social.ungovernavl.org - a Castopod account posting podcast episodes from The Final Straw.
@shows@montreal.askapunk.net - an online calendar website powered by Gancio that can also be followed from the Fediverse.

Posts from all over the Fediverse, delivered to my Mastodon feed!

I'll see different kinds of posts from all of these accounts in my feed. Not just Mastodon posts from other Mastodon servers, but photos from an account on a PixelFed server, videos from an account on a PeerTube server, and new events from a Gancio calendar.

Users on different servers and different platforms all across the Fediverse can follow one another

This is the Fediverse! A huge network of alternative platforms, each of which is made up of thousands of autonomous servers that all connect to each other. As a user, you can have an account on any server, regardless of which platform, and still follow and interact with accounts or posts anywhere else on the Fediverse.

Why does this matter?

Well first, fuck corporate social media. Its purpose is to collect your data and attention and sell both to advertisers (or worse). YOU are the product! The “social” aspect of social media exists solely to maximize the amount of attention and personal data that can be squeezed out of you.

Not to mention the myriad ways that these apps bolster the war machine, contribute to or cause genocides, and deepen our isolation and individual despair! These sites and the people who run them are FUCKED, and we should not be willingly supporting them by contributing to the appeal of their products by locking up our art, music, and ideas inside their walled gardens.

The hardcore punk underground has always been a federated network, when you think about it. If we are connecting online, we should be trying to do it following the same principles.

The Fediverse is inherently anti-corporate

All of the software and protocols that build the Fediverse are free and open-source. It's impossible for any single person or company to buy or own the entire network. It is mostly built by non-profits, foundations, collectives, and individuals. A lot of the developers are queer and trans weirdos with radical politics. Capitalists hate it because it's hard to monetize. It has many excellent accessibility features. From the ground up it was designed to be an actual social network that facilitates open connection and communication rather than extracting profit from users.

It's DIY

The Fediverse has thousands of servers because anyone can create one - it's relatively cheap and accessible. We can create our own Mastodon, PeerTube or PixelFed servers and grow the network. These servers can be centered around our communities and based on our needs. The Fediverse allows us to own and control our online networks instead of relying on a mainstream capitalist option to serve us (at what cost?).

It won't keep leaving us

How many show photos will be lost when Instagram dies? (Maybe their AI model will be able to generate new show photos for us?) How many demos will disappear when Bandcamp shuts down? Old heads remember MySpace - so many screamo demos lost in time, like tears in rain... Every time a corporate social media network shuts down or becomes intolerable, we lose everything we've uploaded and all the connections we've made there.

Shit can happen on the Fediverse too: your Mastodon server admin could get hit by a bus. But at least on the Fediverse, we are the ones in control of our data, connections and network. Instead of jumping on the next shiny corporate app that is just going to turn to shit in a few years (they always do), The Fediverse allows us to invest in something that won't disappear (unless it's on our terms).

A healthier scroll

Without a profit motive driving it, the Fediverse is not an addictive doomscroll. You choose what you want to see, open your computer to get updated, scroll to the bottom and log off. It can be boring in the best way! The difference in vibe and lack of algorithm means people are generally nicer and engage on a more authentic level. You won't go viral, but you'll meet actual humans whose company you enjoy.

A safer scroll

The Fediverse is built for the users instead of for the CEOs, so the Fediverse has better safety and privacy controls. It's still the Internet, and public things are public. But the Fediverse overall has far better options for keeping some things private and having better control over your data and who has access to it. Your admin can be someone you actually know and trust. You can even be your own admin.

Not a walled garden

Apps like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter lock content behind a login wall. Those of us on the outside are forced to sell ourselves out and create an account see anything.

The Fediverse is open. Not only can accounts on the Fediverse follow each other, wherever they are (different servers, different platforms), anyone on the Internet can view a Fediverse profile and its public posts. You can share a link your account with people who don't know and don't care about the Fediverse and they can still see whatever you've chosen to make public. Having an account here is like having a free website!

Dreams

Hopefully by this point you are getting on board! Before we get into the practical how-to stuff, here's are some dreams for the future:

Every city or region sets up their own Mastodon server for the local punks. This provides a local hub, and since servers are connected we can easily follow what's going on in other cities besides our own.
Bands, distros, zines, and show promoters set up accounts on the Fediverse instead of posting their content exclusively on closed corporate platforms. Give people a better option to see your stuff!
We see PixelFed servers for show photographers and PeerTube servers (PunkTube?) for live vids and video zines.
There's a project in development called Bandwagon that aims to recreate Bandcamp for the Fediverse: bands can upload their music to a profile, and punks anywhere on the Fediverse can listen and follow to get updates about new releases and shows. Soon, DIY labels could host their own Bandwagon server for bands they release.

I won't waste more space laying out the myriad reasons you should abandon corporate platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, etc. Simply put, it's embarrassing how much punk culture gets shared on these apps and only on these apps. But I will recognize leaving them cold turkey can be difficult for some of you. You risk losing all the connections you have built. Why would you want to try an alternative if "nobody is there"?

You can start using Mastodon while still checking Instagram or whatever. This is especially important if you use social media as a band/distro/zine/show promoter/other project. I get that the audience on Mastodon today is small, but if you post there you'll be investing in something sustainable that we control. You'll be giving other people a better way to see your stuff if they want to leave corporate social media (or never sold out in the first place).

Trying Mastodon might be a slow burn, but you need to take a leap of faith and keep at it. If enough of us invest in it, then the momentum will snowball and we'll find ourselves using something far more sustainable, healthy, radical, and in our control. The reason corporate social media is hard to leave is because they intentionally trap us there. We have to actively fight to break free!

Mastodon how-to

To give you a practical how-to, I'm gonna focus on Mastodon. Mastodon isn't the whole Fediverse, but it is one of the most popular platforms, with polish and nice apps. It's the easiest way to get started.

STOP! Do not just type "Mastodon" into your app store without reading this. You will probably end up with an account on Mastodon.social like a poser. We warned you!

Remember that Mastodon is decentralized: there are many servers, not just one Mastodon.com (which is actually a website for a mulcher, FYI).

You need to find or pick a server to sign up on (remember, it's like e-mail). Sure, you could create your account on Mastodon.social (the Mastodon equivalent of Gmail), but it's huge and full of normies, trolls, and occasionally spam. Your admin will be some German man named John Mastodon. And remember, the server name is the second part of your account name. So everyone sees it. It's worthwhile to have a cool one.

In our dreams (see above), every local scene would have a Mastodon server (or two even, because of inter-scene beef) and you could just sign up there. But for now, your options are limited. There are a lot of servers, but a lot of them suck. If you do have a local Mastodon server, or if you've heard of one from a friend please sign up there!

If not, you are welcome to try setting up an account on our Mastodon server:

COUNTERFORCE.SOCIAL

Counterforce.social is a Mastodon server for Counterforce-aligned projects or individuals, and a landing pad for Fedi-curious punks and readers of this guide. But Counterforce.social can't be the sole Mastodon server for punks everywhere. It is a stepping stone, but ultimately we need more punks to set up their own servers and contribute to a decentralized network.

So, feel free to sign up with us and explore how Mastodon and the Fediverse work and feel. Invite friends to read this how-to and join you. But then try to get the ball rolling on creating your own server for your community.

Mastodon allows you to move your account from one server to another. So don't be too stressed: when the day comes and you start or find a better Mastodon server, you can move your account and transfer all your follows and followers.

Create your account

Some servers have open registration, some are invite-only, and some require approval for new accounts. New accounts on Counterforce.social require approval. If you sign up there, there will be a prompt to say a bit about yourself and why you want an account on Counterforce.social.

To Create an account on Counterforce.social

Go to https://counterforce.social in your web browser and click Create Account.
Read the server rules.
Choose a username and password. There is also a text box to fill out that refers to this guide. If you are signing up using the Mastodon app (we told you not to) this text box will say "Why do you want to join?"

Fill out the text box by mentioning that you're reading this guide, where you're from, and name two records: one that got you into punk, and something you listened to lately. We probably won't approve you if you don't include this. We're not keeping score, but we gotta keep out the spammers and trolls, right?
Check your e-mail to confirm your e-mail address
Wait for your account to be approved (you'll get an e-mail)!

Approval could take as long as a day or two – we are just a few unpaid humans! Why not read the rest of this how-to while you are waiting for your approval e-mail?

Your new Mastodon account

OK, you got your account, something like: @somepunk@counterforce.social. Once again, remember that it's like e-mail: your account has a username and a server.

On your first login, Mastodon will prompt you to follow some people and fill out your profile. Do us all a favor and add something to your profile. A profile pic and a bio so we know you are not a bot. No one will follow you back if your profile is blank!

Logging in

You can always access Mastodon by going to your server's homepage (e.g. https://counterforce.social) in a browser and logging in. This is the Mastodon web app. If you're on a phone, you can usually add the web app to your homescreen and treat it like any other app.

There are many iOS and Android apps for Mastodon as well. When logging into an app make sure you are logging into your server.

The official Mastodon apps (which are fine) tend to try and guide users to sign up for a new account on Mastodon.social. It's deranged. If you use the official Mastodon app for Android or iOS, make sure you to select Log In and enter your server name:

Our current favorite apps are Tusky for Android and Ice Cubes for iOS, but there are many others. One nice thing about Mastodon is you can try different apps until you find one that works for you. Again, "it's like e-mail" – to access your e-mail, you can use Apple Mail, Gmail in the browser, or Thunderbrird (nerd).

The Home Feed

The home feed on Mastodon shows all the posts, replies and boosts from accounts you follow (from anywhere in the Fediverse!).

You just signed up and maybe you followed a few suggested accounts, but your home feed is gonna be pretty empty. There is no algorithm to feed you content. Mastodon does not give a fuck if you look at it or not.

In my experience, a lot of people get stuck here. Being used to treating social media as passive entertainment, it's a real shock to suddenly have agency over what you see and follow. If you need a busy feed to stay engaged with this adventure on the Fediverse (understandable!) then try to follow early and follow often. Follow anyone who seems even remotely interesting. Their posts will start populating your feed and you'll also see things they boost. You can always unfollow the stinkers later.

Finding Each Other

To find your friends, first talk to your friends. Ask them if they have a Mastodon/Fediverse account and add them. Ask them for recommendations on who to follow!

The Search Bar

The Mastodon search bar lets you search for other users and accounts to follow. Just typing in part of an account name will work if your server has seen that account before. Sometimes you have paste full account with server name (like @The_Counterforce@kolektiva.social).

You can also paste links for anything in the Fediverse into the search bar. If someone sends you a link to a Mastodon post like:

https://kolektiva.social/@The_Counterforce/113681405266044162

...you can just paste that in to the Mastodon search bar, and you'll be able to like the post, reply, boost, or follow the account that posted it. This works for any kind of Fediverse post, not just other Mastodon posts. You can paste in links to Gancio calendar events, PeerTube videos, Bandwagon profiles, PixelFed photos, Lemmy threads, whatever, and they'll open in Mastodon. This is part of the magic of the Fediverse: you can follow and interact with all kinds of "social web" content from your one account.

Other people's follows/followers

Your friends' friends might be your friends. Check out the follows/followers of accounts you like to find other accounts to follow. Note that users can choose to hide this information, so you won't always be able to see it!

The Profile Directory

Some Mastodon servers will have a Profile Directory with a list of accounts on that server, and other accounts the server has seen. Only users that have opted-in will show up here. If you discover another server that looks cool, browse its Profile Directory and copy and paste people's accounts into your Mastodon search bar to find and follow them!

Other Feeds

Mastodon has other feeds or timelines besides the Home Feed. On the web app, these are under Live Feeds as "This Server" and "Other Servers". Different apps might call them the Local Timeline and Global Timeline.

"This Server" or the Local Timeline shows you public posts from everyone else on your server. It's like your local neighborhood's stream of consciousness. If you are on a small cool server, this feed can be great - an easy way to keep up with what's happening on your server without needing to follow everyone.

"Other Servers" or the Global Timeline shows you all kinds of public posts from all over the Fediverse. What shows up here will be somewhat curated by the other people on your server and what they follow and interact with.

Hashtags

You can follow hashtags and get any tagged posts your server sees will show up in your home feed.

Explore

The Explore page will show you a selection of hashtags, posts, and accounts from across the Fediverse that your server knows about. There's not much of an algorithm here. In my experience it's just kind of some random stuff from your corner of the Fediverse.

Note on finding new accounts

I've referenced a few times that what you see in Mastodon can depend on what your server "knows about" or has "seen already." The Fediverse is a huge network and your little server doesn't have a copy of the entire thing on-hand. It only grabs the data it needs. If you look up an account your server has never seen before, you won't see the history of posts unless you go to look at the profile outside Mastodon (in a web browser). Mastodon usually gives you a link to do this. Look for "Browse more on the original profile" or "Open original page".

Once you've followed such an account, subsequent new posts will show up in your Home feed.

Get Found

If you want people to find your Mastodon account here are some tips:

Introduction

When you are ready, make a post tagged with #introduction and share a bit about yourself and what kinda of stuff you want to post or see. If the account is for a band, distro, or other project or explain the purpose of the account. People will see your #introduction post and follow you and boost the post if they like your vibe.

Boosts and Hashtags

There is no recommendation algorithm on Mastodon. The primary way stuff spreads between people is through boosting and hashtags. Anything that you think other people should share, boost it! And use appropriate hashtags if you want strangers to find a given post (just don't be spammy).

Also, note that liking a post doesn't do anything to contribute to it showing up in anyone's feed – it just lets the author know you liked/saw their post!

Discoverability

Mastodon lets you choose how discoverable you want your account to be. Look under "Preferences" -> "Public Profile" -> "Privacy and Reach" to set this up. For example, you can choose whether you want your account to be listed in your server’s Profile Directory.

Your Profile On The Web

Earlier, I mentioned that a Mastodon account can be like a free website since anyone can view your profile and public posts without being logged in (or without any account at all).

Here's the link for The Counterforce's profile on the web: https://kolektiva.social/@The_Counterforce

If you try loading that in a browser on your phone, it might load in your Mastodon app. But if someone loads it in a browser that isn't logged in to Mastodon, they will see a webpage with our profile and recent public posts. No pop-up telling them to log in to see more.

Your profile will have a similar link, like https://counterforce.social/@somepunk

Punk-tip: If you read my RSS How-to For Punks and are using an RSS reader, then you'll want to know that every Mastodon account also has an RSS feed of public posts. Just add .rss to the profile link!

Publishing Levels

Mastodon lets you control the visibility for every post. Public and Quiet public (or Unlisted) are essentially public. For example, posts of both type will be visible to someone not logged in who looks at the "Your Profile On The Web" link described above.

Followers posts will only go to people who follow you elsewhere on the Fediverse. You can choose who follows you if you like (see "Privacy" next).

Finally, the Specific people option is the equivalent of a DM. There aren't true DMs on Mastodon (use Signal). But if you want to post something only for certain people, just mention them by @ in a Specific people post and only they will see it.

Privacy

Maybe you don't want to be found. You can lock your account on Mastodon so that new followers have to be approved by you. Uncheck "Automatically accept new followers" on the "Privacy and Reach" preferences page. Remember that your future and past public posts are still visible to anyone, but any Follower-only posts you make will be private. You make Followers-only your default for new posts under "Preferences" -> "Options".

In general, just remember that the Fediverse is part of the public internet. Your public posts are public. That's great if you are trying to get the word out about your project or band! But if you want some more control, lock your account and post Followers-only. If you have more concerns about this, check out Mastodon Opsec.

Safety

Mastodon has lots of ways to protect yourself (or just deal with annoying people). You can:

Mute people forever, or with a time limit so you don't forget to un-mute them (like a timeout for someone on an annoying shitposting rampage).
Block people.
Block entire servers.
Report users/posts on your own server that break your servers guidelines. Your local mods will deal with them.
Report users/posts from other servers that might be harmful or dangerous to your fellow users.
Mute words/phrases (e.g. if you don't like hearing about the ska revival, you can just mute "ska").
Block notifications from people you don't follow.
Hide boosts from annoying people who boost too much dumb shit.
Auto-delete your posts after a certain time has passed.

If you want to learn more about Mastodon, check out the official docs. If you have a question, try asking it on Mastodon! Maybe with the #AskFedi hashtag.

Bluesky is not it

As I am writing this, a lot of people are leaving Twitter and Instagram for Bluesky, another social media alternative. You may have even seen Bluesky mentioned alongside Mastodon as part of the Fediverse or the "new decentralized social media".

Bluesky is currently just Twitter Jr. It was originally a Twitter spin-off! It's now in the honeymoon phase where it has lots of cash from investors, so it can develop features really fast and it hasn't started running ads. The nazis haven't taken over yet. But Bluesky isn't any different then Twitter or Instagram, it is just earlier in the lifecycle of corporate social media. Eventually it will have to make money (a LOT of money), and when that pressure kicks in things will get shitty.

The idea that Bluesky is "decentralized" comes from the fact that it is built using a protocol similar to (but not compatible with) what runs the Fediverse. Without getting into the technical details, here is the short explanation:

Currently there is only one Bluesky server. There is no decentralization. You can't join a server that is local to you, run by your friends, or aligned with your values. You can't join any other server besides bsky.social (damn, should we have chosen cforce.social).
You can't start your own Bluesky server. Right now there is a fundraising campaign to "Save [Bluesky] From Billionaire Capture" trying to raise $30 000 000 to start a single additional Bluesky server. Running Counterforce.social costs $100 a year, tops. Bluesky's theoretical decentralization is a way to avoid accountability for nazis and other evil actors on the platform. It has nothing to do with returning autonomy and control to us. They are playing us for complete fools.
Thanks to their different protocol, every Bluesky post is publicly available. By design, no privacy is possible. AI companies are already scraping every Bluesky post. Mastodon's public posts are just as public, but at least with Mastodon you have the option to keep some posts visible only to an audience you control.

Other Alternatives

This guide has focused on the Fediverse and Mastodon, but I don't want to pretend they are the only answer. The Counterforce is about trying and exploring many alternatives that help the hardcore punk underground escape corporate capture.

For one, there are plenty of ways to get on the Fediverse besides Mastodon. If you prefer just-photo posts, try PixelFed. If you prefer threaded discussions, try Lemmy. If you want to post long videos, get on PeerTube. Set up a Fediverse-connected Gancio calendar for local shows. No matter where you set up shop, everyone elsewhere on the Fediverse will be able to follow you.

Another option for punks to connect online is to revive the local message board. I grew up with punk and hardcore message boards, and I remember them fondly (although I also remember all the drama). I think we should be wary of huge centralized message boards, though. People can be assholes when they aren't accountable to each other, and relying on a single centralized server to build our entire online community is doomed to fail eventually. (There are also message board platforms that are part of the Fediverse).

Whatever alternatives you want to try, please just be mindful of repeating past mistakes. Many powerful players want to capture users who flee the imploding-social-media-app-of-the-week. The next shiny corporate social media app will be no better for us. Whether it's Discord, TikTok, Slack, or even a huge message board run by people you don't know, avoid any platform, new or old, run by a profit-seeking company with venture capital to burn. No good will come of it.

Finally, I will re-iterate the other obvious alternative: do more shit offline!

runyourown.punk

I first joined the the Fediverse in 2018 or 2019 via Kolektiva.social. After learning how Mastodon works and understanding the potential of the Fediverse, some friends and I got together in 2021 and started 438punk.house, a Mastodon server for Montreal punks.

It was slow at first, but we've steadily grown as more and more people have looked for a way to stay plugged in without using Instagram (which has otherwise dominated our scene). It wasn't easy to teach people something new, but friends teach friends. Now we have over a hundred users posting about upcoming shows, asking for advice and help, starting new bands, sharing new releases, etc. A few bands have accounts. We have our own hashtags for posting updates from shows and sharing what we're listening to. Some people are really chatty, and some people just log on when they want to to ask a question or find our what's going on this weekend.

We also started a Montreal ASK A PUNK show calendar using Gancio. People all over Montreal now use the calendar to find out about shows (just search "Montreal Punk Shows"), but it's also part of the Fediverse so punks on 438punk.house (and elsewhere on Mastodon) can follow the calendar to see new shows in their feed.

It doesn't cost much money or require much technical skill to set this up and keep it running (any Linux nerd can handle it). We got in early and established our own autonomous infrastructure for our punk scene. As more people are actively trying to ditch Instagram, Montreal punks already have somewhere to go.

The 438punk.house server is great for us, but we're kind of the only punk scene on Mastodon. We know a few other punks scattered here and there but if you read this guide and get on Mastodon, look us up! But mostly we are just waiting for another city to get on here and build the punk Fediverse.

Come join us!

Zine

This guide is available as a printable zine PDF:

Find more zines like it to print and distribute on our Zine Distro page.

Futher Reading

FLIP ON SHORT EDGE: A Punk's Guide to Printing Zines

2024-10-24T12:16:59.000-04:00

So you want to print some zines (like the ones in The Counterforce digital distro) to distribute at a punk show or other event, or to just give out to your friends. Sick! If you are new to printing or copying zines or just need a refresher, and want to avoid frustration and wasted paper, this guide is for you.

This guide will mostly cover standard, Letter-sized-paper-folded-in-half-and-stapled style zines aka "saddle stitch" (like the Counterforce zines pictured in the header image). This is the most common type of zine you'll encounter for DIY printing. We'll go over how to look at files and make sure you've got the right ones to print, choosing paper, printer dialogue settings and some tips on finishing such as folding and stapling. Effectively we’re taking a two-dimensional file on a computer and turning it into a three-dimensional, interactive object, so there’s a little bit of thinking and spatial reasoning involved, but don't worry you'll be fine.

To follow these instructions, you'll need access to a printer or copier which has duplexing, or double-sided printing, which most modern printers do. Printing zines on a one-sided printer or copier is a great punk tradition but getting the sides to line up is some galaxy-brain shit, and while this guide might help you start to wrap your head around how that works, I'm not going to explain exactly how to do it.

If you have any feedback on this guide you can contact The Counterforce, or if you think I did a bad job explaining this you can write and submit your own guide.

The Files

Zine files are typically in .pdf format. Sometimes you’ll find one in an image format like jpeg/.jpg or tiff/.tif. Most of this info in this article will still be conceptually relevant to those kinds of files, but you might run into some other problems with printing, so it's best to find .pdfs.

Sometimes, there will be multiple versions of a particular zine. For printing, the file name will usually have the word “print” or “imposed” in it, as opposed to “read” or “screen,” which will typically not print correctly because they are formatted for reading on a screen.

Imposed just means that the file is laid out in a way where when you print it out and fold it in half, all the zine pages will be in the correct order and orientation. When you open the PDF in a program like Preview or Acrobat or in a web browser, it will seem like the pages are in a totally fucked order. But I promise there is a logic to it! The first thing you should see is a landscape (“hamburger style”) file page with two pages of the zine: the back cover (last page of zine) on the left side and the cover (zine page 1) on the right side.

Note on language: this can get a bit confusing to talk about because there are two pages of the zine on each page of the .pdf file. In this guide I'm using “zine page” to mean each 5.5 x 8.5” page of the zine, and “file page” to indicate each 8.5 x 11” page of the .pdf file.

The next page of the file should have zine page 2 on the left side and the second-to-last page of the zine on the right side.

This is the point at which you may silently thank or curse the person who made the zine for including or excluding page numbers.

Note to people who make zines: INCLUDE PAGE NUMBERS.

The subsequent pages of the file will have page 3, 4, 5, etc, of the zine alternating between the left and right side of the page. Finally, the last page of the file should have two consecutive pages, (e.g. zine page 4 / zine page 5) and it should be the only file page where this is the case. If there aren't page numbers (silently curse the designer), you can check if the content between these two zine pages flows seamlessly—maybe there's even a cool centerfold illustration, or if there is text it should continue from the left side to the right side of the file page.

Note for the aspiring D.I.Y. scissor-and-gluestick types: this is also the template for laying out a zine that you can photocopy, OR you can scan it and submit it to the Counterforce Zine Page so people in other places can print it!

If you open a file and ONLY see the front cover, and if all of the inside pages have two zine pages and content that flows from one page to the next (if there are numbers they go up sequentially), this file is not formatted for saddle-stitch printing and binding. You gotta either find the imposed version or do it yourself, which is a whole thing.

If you open a file and find a long line of single, sequentially-ordered pages, you MIGHT be able to print this zine using a setting called booklet printing. If your print dialogue has this setting you can give it a shot—your print dialogue box might even have a little preview window where you can click through the pages and see if it is all lining up correctly. I don't usually mess around with booklet printing, but it can work as long as the number of pages is a multiple of 4.

Paper size

I'm writing this from Canada, where Letter (8.5 x 11”) is the most common paper size and zine format size. Outside of North America and the Philippines, the most common paper size is called A4 (side note, I highly recommend checking out the Wikipedia page on Paper size.) I'm going to refer to North American paper sizes (Letter, Legal and Tabloid/Ledger) because that's what I'm familiar with, but a lot of the conceptual info in this guide can apply to zines laid out for A4. While the sizes are roughly similar, A4 and Letter are NOT the same height to width ratio and NOT easily interchangeable. I don't recommend trying to print A4 zines on Letter paper or vice versa. It doesn't look good and you'll probably have weird margins and too-small text, but if you or your readership have a high tolerance for those things or you're really desperate I guess do what you gotta do.

A4 and Letter... seems like a small difference, but it adds up.

Sometimes you will find Legal (8.5 x 14”) or even Tabloid or Ledger (11 x 17”) zines. Most home and office printers can accommodate up to Legal size, since it’s the same width as Letter. Tabloid/Ledger is more rare in home printers, but your copy shop can almost certainly do it. Make sure the paper you’re printing on matches the size of the file. If you’re familiar with paper sizes or have a good eye for dimensions, you might just be able to tell the format by looking at the file, or comparing it to the illustration below, where all the formats are scaled to the same height. If you still can’t tell, you might be able to open up the first page of the file in image editing software and try to figure out the size.

An assortment of zines printed on Legal sized paper (8.5x14"). The pages are wider so you can fit more stuff on each page, whether that is drawings or text.

Printing

Ok, now that we have the right kind of files and the right kind of paper for our files, let's print. Depending on the printer and the operating system of your computer (or photocopier) it’s gonna look really different, but there are a few settings that you should double check in your print dialogue before you send the job.

Example of a print dialogue in Adobe Acrobat on a Mac. Notice that collate is checked, grayscale printing is checked, we're at "actual size" aka 100%, print on both sides of paper and flip on short edge are selected.

Double sided printing + Flip on Short Edge

This is the big one that you have to remember for zine printing, which is why it’s the name of this guide. When you select double-sided printing, usually “flip on long edge” is default, because that’s how vertical/portrait (“hotdog style”) regular ol’ office doc printouts work. As a punk, you might use "flip on long edge" for stuff like double-sided handbill flyers or j-cards, but for zines we always "flip on short edge."

If you still have a hard time remembering which one it is, just grab a regular half-letter zine and look at it and think about how it is structured. You can even take the staples out and flatten it and try flipping the pages both ways to see which one makes sense. Pretty much any time I get myself twisted up about layout or settings, just grabbing a physical zine and looking at it immediately answers my questions, so I’d recommend this if you get stuck.

Collate

If your printer driver has a little checkbox that says “collate,” definitely make sure it is CHECKED. If it is not checked and you print 50 copies of a zine, guess what, it’s gonna print alllll the page 1s and then allll the page 2s and so on and you’ll have to assemble them yourself. It is a lot of work, very annoying. For some reason my home printer defaults to "don't collate" and it has bitten me in the ass more than once.

Greyscale

Are you paying for copies or ink? You might want to print in greyscale (black and white) cause it’s cheaper. If you’re scamming copies (good for you) then you don't need to worry about it.

Scale

Usually I print at 100% or "actual size," but depending on the zine file and the printer’s margins, this may or may not cut off some content around the edges and you might have to scale down or choose "fit." Occasionally scaling down the zine can throw off the centre line, so you might have weirdness there. As with most things, just print and fold a test copy first to make sure everything is ok.

Note to people who make zines: most printers can’t accommodate full bleed, so please don’t put text all the way to the edge of the paper.

Orientation

This usually defaults to portrait, and technically we are printing landscape, but I am gonna be honest: I basically never touch this setting and I don't think I've ever had a problem with it on any printer ever. If you print the first page of your zine and it's oriented the wrong way, I'd just change it and see what happens.

Always print one copy before you print a bunch of copies! Check your prints throughout the print job, don’t just hit print and walk away.

Fucked up zines prints are a huge bummer cause they’re usually double-sided so you can’t even reuse the back for scrap paper. If you are patient and careful and get in the habit of checking your settings well, you'll avoid a lot of unnecessary paper waste, although some amount of waste is pretty much inevitable when printing at quantity. Don't be totally neurotic about it—it happens—but don't be sloppy or nihilistic about it either (especially if you're not paying for prints.)

Occasionally you will find a zine where the file seems OK and correct but actually it is laid out really fucked up and it won’t print well despite your best efforts. The fixes for this are beyond the scope of this article and can involve enlisting the help of someone who knows how to use design software.

Finishing

Finishing just means the stuff you do to the paper after it's done printing: for simple zines, it's usually just stapling and folding.

You can get away with not stapling or binding your zines if they’re only 1-2 sheets of paper, but for anything with multiple sheets you really should do your readers or your future self a favour and attach the pages together in the right order.

A regular stapler won’t really reach into the middle of a standard-sized zine, though many have tried to make it work by folding the cover to get it to fit in the stapler's mouth (but then your zine is kinda crumpled). Maybe this is fine for you. Otherwise, you need access to a long-arm stapler, which you might be able to check out at a library or makerspace, steal from an office supply store, or go in on purchasing with a few friends. I think they’re like $30-40 these days.

You can crease the zines first to make sure you’re stapling in the right place, or just set the stopper at 5.5” for standard half-Letter zines (or the total width of the paper divided by 2). Long-arm staplers can typically accommodate up to 25 sheets of paper with no issues.

Some people like to do other wild things like literally saddle-stitching the zines with a sewing machine or even throwing an elastic band around the middle. This is fine I guess but personally I staple.

Folding a lot of big zines can be rough on your hands. If you’re fancy you can try to find a bookbinding tool called a bone folder that is made for creasing, but the butt end of a sharpie works basically just as well and it’s really useful to have a sharpie in your distro kit anyways for stuff like making a sign that says “ZINES (A) P.W.Y.C.” (the correct way to price your zines.)

BONUS: Colour Covers

Using colour paper for covers makes your zine table look extra enticing, and IMO it is well worth the extra effort. Some really fancy printers or copiers will even have a separate tray for cover paper, although mine doesn't, so here's how I do it:

Get some colour paper. I usually like to get multipacks of the brightest colours I can find (the Astrobrights ones are really nice). Watch out, some of those packs will have super dark colours like black or dark blue that you might not be able to print on in high-enough contrast, but maybe you can find another use for them (like making a cool PWYC sign with a whiteout pen?). Make sure you pay attention to the type of paper you're getting—if you're trying to be really fancy and want to make your zines more durable you can do deluxe cardstock covers (usually 65-lb.+ or "cover" weight), but ~24-lb. "text" paper is more economical (whether you're stealing or buying) cause you get more sheets in the same sized package. Some printers don't handle heavyweight cardstock well, so also be mindful of that as it pertains to your personal setup.

You're going to be printing the first two pages of your zine PDF on the colour paper, aka one sheet front and back. In your print dialogue box, make sure the settings are the same as discussed above—double-sided, flipped on short edge, etc. Where it says "pages to print," instead of "all" we're going to select "pages" and fill in "1-2." If you are printing a zine where the inside front and back covers are blank (i.e. there is nothing on page 2 of your imposed zine PDF), you can just print page 1. Print one test copy to make sure that everything looks good, and then print as many copies of the cover as you're going to print copies of the zine. I like to count out the number of sheets of colour paper I'm going to need for the print run and load them into the feed tray so that I don't accidentally forget to switch back to white paper when the run is complete.

Next, the guts. Double check that your feed tray has white paper in it! Back in your print dialogue box, make sure all your settings are good (flip on short edge, etc). Under "pages to print" we're going to fill in "3-X", X being the last page of your PDF. Again, print one copy to make sure it works before you send the whole job with however many copies you're making, and keep an eye on the job as it's printing.

To assemble, simply lay a colour cover on top of the finished stack of guts and staple and fold like regular.

RSS How-To For Punks

2024-07-01T16:46:07.000-04:00

RSS is a system for freely subscribing to content online. Using RSS, you can build a feed of sources you want to follow – from news and blogs to podcasts and videos – without signing up for accounts and without using social media. You can receive notifications when anything new is posted, and keep track of what you’ve already read/seen. RSS predates social media, and although it’s much less popular now than in it’s heyday, it is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence among those who are looking for a more empowering and pleasant way to engage with the internet. It’s not the easiest thing to get into, so I wanted to put together a brief how-to to help anyone curious get started, including a "starter pack" of hardcore/punk related RSS feeds to subscribe to... but you can use RSS to follow a lot more than just punk stuff!

The CF RSS Starter Pack

If you're here just looking for our RSS starter pack to import all the RSS feeds from The Counterforce directory and more into your RSS feed reader... here it is:

https://the-counterforce.org/directory/CF-RSS-starterpack.opml

To learn more about what's in there, or to learn how to get started with RSS read on!

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS was the first successful and widespread way people could subscribe to things on the Internet, especially before the rise of social media.

RSS just sets up an open standard where anything on the Internet can publish a public feed of new content in a simple format. Users can use a variety of applications (an "aggregator" or "feed reader") to subscribe to RSS feeds of content they want to follow. Most news websites and blogs will have an RSS feed. Rather than having to manually check each individual website to see if there are any new posts or stories, you can use a feed reader to subscribe to the RSS feeds of each one. Your feed reader automatically checks all the feeds you are subscribed to, and will present everything new, or notify you when there is a new post from a particular site if you want. Usually all the posts are formatted nicely so it's easy to browse and read without leaving the feed reader (b: this often means no ads!).

The Counterforce RSS feed loaded in a feed reader

Unless you are an older nerd there is a good chance you've never heard of RSS, but even if you haven't heard of it, you have almost certainly used it: Podcasts are based on RSS. Every podcast is actually just an RSS feed of new audio files, and podcast apps are just RSS feed readers designed to prioritize audio content. Many podcast apps will connect to different public directories of podcasts, so as a user you don't have to manually go out and find the RSS feeds for each one. But if you have ever supported a podcast on a platform like Patreon, that special subscribe-only link you are given to "paste into your favorite podcast app" is an RSS feed. The Maximum Rocknroll podcast of MRR Radio (currently almost at 2000 episodes!) is online here: https://www.maximumrocknroll.com/radio/

They explain it pretty well! You can subscribe to the MRR Radio podcast by dropping that feed link into any feed reader! All podcasts work like this under the hood. So if you've ever subscribed to a podcast, you've already used RSS. But RSS can be used for a lot more than just podcasts...

Choosing a feed reader

There are hundreds of different ways to subscribe to RSS feeds. There's an RSS feed reader available for any computer or mobile device. You can put one on your e-reader. A lot of e-mail clients can also subscribe to RSS feeds. If you want to nerd out, you really can go deep and find the best solution that works for you. For this how-to guide, I'm just going to recommend the best feed reader imo for Android and iOS:

Feeder for Android

The best RSS feed reader for Android is Feeder. It's open source and free, it works great.

Feeder - Apps on Google Play

An awesome Libre and Open Source RSS feed reader

Apps on Google PlayNoNonsenseApps

NetNewsWire for iOS / Mac OS

NetNewsWire! It's free and open source and nice.

NetNewsWire

NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader for Mac.

NetNewsWireDaring Fireball

Subscribing to your first feed

All the screenshots in this article are from Feeder on an Android phone, but the process is basically the same for any good feed reader. In an ideal situation, you just select Add Feed and paste in the URL of the site. If you're using a phone you can "share" the site from your browser to your feed reader app, and the app will know you are trying to add a new RSS feed. We want to subscribe to the RSS feed for The Counterforce website (https://the-counterforce.org) so we share that to Feeder. Feeder finds the RSS feed, which is actually at https://the-counterforce.org/feed.xml

When adding a new feed (or editing it later on) you can usually tag or sort it into a subfolder or subcategories. This allows you to sort things out by topic however you like (e.g. "Real Punk", "Poser Shit", "Doom Scroll", "Enemies", etc) or you can just bask in the firehose of content that is "all feeds." Feed readers also keep track of what you've read or haven't read yet.

The Counterforce RSS feed has been added under Real Punk

Finding RSS feeds

Websites/Blogs

There are RSS feeds everywhere online, any website that has any kind of blog or posts where new content is added will usually have an RSS feed. Usually you can just paste or share the URL for the homepage of the site into your feed reader like in the previous example, and your feed reader will automatically find the special RSS feed. This will work with most major news sites, blogs, any site powered by Wordpress, Blogspots, Substacks , even Mastodon accounts! Every Mastodon account has a built in RSS feed of public posts, meaning you can subscribe to it from your RSS reader! No need to sign up for a Mastodon account and "Follow" big accounts if you just want to see what's new.

Sometimes your feed reader might not find the RSS feed, but if you are pretty sure it exists you can try adding /feed or /rss to the URL. You might have to hunt for or guess at this link, depending on how friendly the website is. There are some special tricks to finding RSS feeds for other things online, like YouTube channels – I'll go over that in the next section.

Hunting for feeds

YouTube

Every YouTube channel has an RSS feed, but Google keeps this kinda secret because they would prefer if you signed up for a Google account to Like and Subscribe to YouTube channels. But you can just use RSS and have new videos show up in your RSS feed reader. No need for a Google/YouTube account!

To find the RSS feed for a channel, you do have to do some light hacking. First, you gotta load the channel's page in a browser (like https://www.youtube.com/@NoDeal) and look at the page source code. You can do this easily on a computer by right clicking and selecting "View Page Source". On a phone, you can add view-source: to the front of the URL (like view-source:https://www.youtube.com/@NoDeal).

Now you just use the Find In Page feature in your browser to search for "rss" in the source. You gotta find the magic link that looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCEDz7xOK3PzoNVDAjuBoIAw

Alternatively, if you know a YouTube channel's Channel ID you can just reconstruct the RSS feed yourself. https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=PASTE_CHANNEL_ID_HERE

Paste that into your feed reader and you'll be subscribed! You'll know whenever a new video is posted.

Bonus: NewPipe

If you are a real YouTube head, you can also use the Android app NewPipe (https://newpipe.net/). NewPipe is a free, open source YouTube app that makes using YouTube very pleasant... no need for an account, no ads, background listening, and you can download any videos you want to enjoy offline. Really doing the Lord's work. NewPipe also lets you subscribe to YouTube channels without a Google/YouTube account, all just in the app. It's not RSS-based, and maybe NewPipe deserves it's own how-to guide at some point... but for now if you listen to a lot of music or watch a lot of videos on YouTube check it out, at the very least for the ad-dodging features!

tumblr

Even tumblr accounts have an RSS feed! Just add /rss to the URL (are you noticing a pattern?). I know there are still a few punks kicking around on tumblr, now you can keep up with them (or maybe make yourself a nice feed of inspo aesthetic accounts that are still posting). Not to mention RSS helps you bypass the prompt to login to see content. Here's what the RSS feed link looks like for the sadly defunct Hardcore Architecture tumblr:

https://hardcorearchitecture.tumblr.com/rss

The Counterforce RSS Starter Pack

One aspect of The Counterforce is the online directory we want to build and maintain of punk/hardcore sites on the Internet. We've got blogs, websites, archives, and radio shows/podcasts - many of which include RSS feeds! I've put all of those feeds together with some active YouTube and other video/music channels, the Ask A Punk event calendars, a few other blogs and Substacks. You can import this .opml file to your feed reader to subscribe to them all in one shot. They're already sorted into different categories, and you can always delete the ones you don't vibe with. The Counterforce gift to you, to help you get started with RSS!

Save this file, and import it to your RSS feed reader:

https://the-counterforce.org/directory/CF-RSS-starterpack.opml

Contribute

The Counterforce directory and this little RSS starter pack are both far from complete. If you know of a site, blog, YouTube channel, Mastodon/Fediverse account, event calendar, etc. that should be included, please submit it! https://the-counterforce.org/contact-submit/

RSS for more than just punk!

Hopefully this how-to guide and starter pack will get you into using RSS to follow your favourite punk and hardcore sources online that are outside of corporate social media. But RSS can be a great way to subscribe to all sorts of content and news. Essentially every blog and news website still uses RSS feeds. If you want to follow the news, you can definitely find RSS feeds for major and local newspapers, magazines, online news and analysis sites. Or maybe you prefer to dig deeper than the "mainstream media" – most independent bloggers using Substack or Wordpress support RSS. The same goes for anarchist counter-info and analysis sites like https://itsgoigdown.org, https://scenes.noblogs.org or https://anarchistnews.org – they all have RSS feeds. You can easily build a collection of RSS subscriptions in your news reader to get the news delivered to you, instead of just seeing article screenshots in TikTok videos or Instagram stories.

There are RSS feeds for all kinds of cool shit... The Internet Archive has an RSS feed for collections, you can subscribe and see when new stuff is uploaded. Here is the RSS feed for the massive "zines" collection if you want a firehose of new zines: https://archive.org/services/collection-rss.php?collection=zines

Or here's an RSS feed for the "Attention K-Mart Shoppers" collection of K-Mart in-store cassette tapes so you don't miss when a new one is uploaded: https://archive.org/services/collection-rss.php?collection=attentionkmartshoppers

I've saved this rant for the end, just to spare you. The argument for how RSS can let you follow a lot of different places online and bring them all to one place on your phone, without needing an account or e-mail is self-evident. But if you wanna get a little political, or still need convincing, I'll try to get you to think about how RSS is empowering and liberatory, especially in our current culture dominated by closed, corporate social media apps.

RSS used to be the way to subscribe to feeds online, all across the Internet. This was before social media. RSS was just how you would follow news sites and blogs, how you would learn what was new without having to manually check every single website. And it was part of the earlier open web, it wasn't a single app controlled by a single company. Everyone was happy and proud to get you to subscribe to their RSS feed.

Even if you don't remember this time on the Internet, you can probably imagine how it changed. Social media arrived! And social media is also based on subscribing and following and feeds, but instead of one open web, each social media site has it's own closed feed. You can't just follow everyone from one app without signing up for accounts anymore... you have to be a logged-in user to subscribe to different feeds. And of course everything you see is algorithmically tuned and interspersed with advertising in order to maximize the time you spend in the app looking at ads and being tracked.

RSS doesn't lend itself to this extreme level of capitalist exploitation, so as corporate social media came to dominate how we use the Internet, RSS fell out of fashion. Many companies have realized that offering public RSS feeds, while convenient and empowering for users like us, hurts their ability to make money. Even Bandcamp used to have RSS feeds so you could follow new releases from artists, which they removed in favor of pushing people to sign up for Bandcamp accounts.

Podcasts have secretly been the most popular use of RSS for a long time. The openness and accessibility of RSS is part of what makes it so easy for anyone to start one (maybe too easy?). But this has frustrated media companies like Spotify, who have tried to make "Spotify-exclusive podcasts" a thing. Rather than being based on public RSS, these "podcasts" can only be subscribed and listened to from within the Spotify app. Other podcast media companies like iheartradio similarly try to get you to listen in their app by tempting you with bonus audio or ad-free content. Within their app, they aren't using an open, public standard like RSS, so they can trap you inside their siloed ecosystem, track your listening habits (down to what parts of an episode you skip!), deliver more accurately-targeted ads and extract more profit from you. That they'll spend millions of dollars on a single podcast to make it exclusive to their platform shows their desperation. These companies have reached a limit to how profitable they can become using a user/consumer-friendly open standard like RSS. They only way they can make more money is by pushing everything off RSS.

OK OK so that's enough ranting. Give RSS a try if you want to break out of corporate social media a bit but still keep up with what's new. If you happen to make a website, a blog, or some other online project, make sure there is an RSS feed and let people know about it! This is all part of the greater Counterforce goals – demystifying things like RSS for punks, helping it be more widely adopted and easier to use will help free our culture from hostile corporations and capitalism!

iPod Revival

2024-05-29T08:51:47.000-04:00

Contributed by Harry Yams

I got reacquainted with iPods right around the pandemic. I was working construction and so many times I would have my headphones in, high-up in a scissor lift, hands in awkward places or covered in something nasty. I would be listening to whatever late 90s / early 2000’s punk and Spotify would be like “oh you like this? Have you heard SCREECHING WEASEL?” It felt like the most punishing co-worker trying to relate musically but missing the mark. “Oh not that? What about PENNYWISE / VOODOO GLOW SKULLS?”

Subsequently I got a new phone and it would no longer connect with my 2011 Macbook Pro. All of my friends' crappy Bandcamp MP3s wouldn’t transfer over. I don’t remember exactly but I stumbled across a YouTube video of someone “modding” an iPod and I quickly found a used black 5th Gen on Craigslist for $30.00.

Modding an iPod or “flash modding” means opening up the device and replacing the old spinning disc hard drive to a modern solid-state storage option. Like a SD / Micro SD found in a digital camera or other devices, these can increase the storage from 4-20GB up to 256GB-1TB. Reducing the moving parts theoretically increases the iPods lifespan. The beauty of this mod is that there is no soldering involved. Most parts of the iPod have a push-in / locking connector on the motherboard (screen, click-wheel, HD, battery, etc). Each generation is a little different. The iPod Touch and Nanos cannot be altered, while the iPod Mini (2004-2005) is more labor intensive but has an easier storage swap (just using a full size SD, it has the same pin configuration). I’ll be mainly referencing the iPod classic (generations 3-6). These seem to be the most bomb proof and come apart into two halves with its very visible side seam. The classics all require an adapter to get flash memory into it. There are cheap routes on Ali-express, but the go-to in the “iPod community” (yes, it's a thing, a little brutal, but helpful no less) is the iFlash adapter. They have many options, but for the most part the SD card goes in a slot on the iFlash board and the existing iPod HD ribbon cable connects at the bottom.

While the device is open, it’s also recommended to replace a few other things. The battery is simple to replace again with a locking connector and no soldering. You can now get modified Nokia 3000mah batteries with the iPod connection on the end. The headphone jack is also easy to replace. These tend to wear out over the years of heavy use. Folks have now figured out how to splice in a Bluetooth transmitter to the headphone leads. Although its considered a mod, this takes a bit of skill with solder and wiring (but it’s doable).

If you’re a millionaire, Moonlit Market now makes a retrofit back that includes Bluetooth, USB-C, flash drive, and a large battery for $329 CAD.

There are a million detailed guides and videos out there for modding, so this is just an idea of what can be done.

Acquiring Music in 2024

Soulseek - is still running and operational. For the folks unfamiliar, it's like Napster, a peer-2-peer connection for downloading music and used heavily by music nerds. I’ve often found old obscure Vancouver Island bands on it that I thought were lost forever.

Bandcamp - Obviously a great resource. With its recent sales to Epic Games and Songtradr, and its lack of advertising, I have trust issues that it will exist forever, similar to CBC radio 3 or New Music Canada[?] that hosted DIY music in the early 2000’s. Or even Myspace for that matter.

Blogspots - There are a slew of folks posting about their music collection and either ripping them onto a file-sharing website or showing you where to go. Terminal Escape is still going! While others like Remote Outpost’s aren't, they still contain a massive back-catalog of music to check out.

Trade USB keys - they are cheap and you can probably figure out how to get USB-A onto whatever computer you are using. Your friends probably have weird gems in their collections, and if you are reading this, then you know Martin does.

Torrents - still work. I often find if there is something you want that exists in a torrent then it's probably popular enough to find elsewhere.

YouTube rippers - I haven’t tried this yet, but it's commonly recommended in the iPod forums. I think they mount on a web-browser and convert YouTube video-audio into an MP3 file.

Connecting an iPod to a computer is still the same. If you are running a modern Mac, a finder window appears, similar to the original iTunes when you connect an iPod. If you are using Windows or Linux, there are various applications that still work.

Alternatively, you can now run Rockbox on the iPod itself and manage your MP3s in folders? Rockbox is an open-source software replacement that runs on a variety of MP3 players and portable music devices. I have yet to try Rockbox, due to my old Mac working with the device just fine.

There is also software to get music off an iPod. I have had varied success with these programs, but it can be done.

Getting an iPod in 2024

Sadly with its new gained popularity, the price of iPods has gone up. Even on Ebay or in the thrift an iPod classic can go for $100. For me, that is what has led to the weird “hunt” that I guess other collectors appeal to in their weird obsessions. If I find one on Craigslist sub $30 I will try to get it, or it’s something I keep an eye out for at yard sales.

It’s neat finding one and seeing what someone was listening to 20 years ago, or who’s name is engraved on the back (such a weird option). Or finding the black and red U2 edition iPod (2004-2006) - years before they forced that album on your phone (2013).

Collecting a few has led me to make themed iPods, some only containing sappy pop-punk, or crappy-crust, or the entire collection of a very niche podcast. Each on their own separate device. It’s also the perfect machine for taking on such dorky conquests such as The MOTORHEAD Challenge.

There are downsides to all this of course. Downloading music, organizing and transferring it, using a 30-pin USB cable, and then using wired headphones isn’t always appealing. It’s more time consuming than just typing something into a search bar. It sucks buying a “damaged iPod” off eBay, only to find the motherboard has been destroyed and is useless. Or setting out on your day only to find you forgot to charge yet another device. There are drawbacks for sure.

I enjoy using an iPod in 2024 for a few reasons

First, and I’ll try not to be too gatekeep-y, there is a lot of stuff I like listening to that’s not on Spotify or Apple music. The debut albums from THREE INCHES OF BLOOD or HOLDING HANDS, a lot of Bandcamp artists, even NEIL YOUNG for a minute (and who’s to say he won’t do it again).

Having control over “my music” is something an iPod is great at. I like listening to GREEN DAY’s “Dookie” but I don’t want that to lead into the “Father Of All…” album. It’s nice on an iPod unintentionally choosing these limits. Albums on Spotify also get their tracklists rearranged similar to the Star Wars movies getting re-edited, which I hate. Contrarily, if I wanna listen to JUDAS PRIEST’s “British Steel” but hate when "Red, White, & Blue" comes on, I can just leave it off.

I like the simplicity. I often get overwhelmed and distracted with Spotify. I can’t remember how to find what I wanted to listen to, and put on what I was playing last. I usually just want to put on music I like and not think about it. Using the iPods that are just text I find less distracting. I can just spin the wheel in the artist menu and it will usually land on something I want to listen to or I’ll see a name that I haven’t thought about in a while. It feels like folks are starting to notice having access to every movie, TV show, and song ever made is overwhelming. Much like a restaurant menu with 100 things on it, it's sometimes nice when the options are limited to just a few things you enjoy.

I still love shuffle. Going from BOLT THROWER’s "No Guts, No Glory" into DE LA SOUL’s Eye Know is a back-to-back I never would have thought of, let alone a modern algorithm. But a machine with a randomizer that doesn’t have to think often makes for some hilarious song runs or mixes. Friends have told me this would drive them crazy, but I personally love it.

I like that it’s apart from my phone. iPods are great for going on a bike ride or doing a task you don’t want to be distracted from. You’re not getting notifications or your boss calling you on your time off. You’re also not going to unconsciously start looking at social media or Mastodon.

I’m sentimental (like all the time). Friends bands, old bands, bands that remind me of certain times or places, embarrassing albums, or projects from folks that have passed. An iPod is a simple device to contain, organize, preserve, and enjoy it all.

Harry's Forever iPod albums

PAINTED YOUTH - “Painted Youth”
DOGGO - [Both Albums]
NOBRIDGE - “Demo Fest”
BRATTATTOO / PEROGIE - “split”
MILK MUSIC - “Beyond Living”
DESASTER - “A Touch of Medieval Darkness”
COMPLICATIONS - “Demo”
SILENT ERA - “Tape”
M-BLANKET - “Safety” 7”
RAMMER (most of their stuff)
HIS HERO IS GONE - “Monuments to Thieves”

HOW TO SHIP TAPES (AND MORE) FOR CHEAP WITHIN CANADA

2024-05-17T15:39:20.000-04:00

A Lettermail primer presented by Scream & Writhe, first published 12/9/23 and revised and submitted to The Counterforce 5/17/24.

Lettermail continues to be a somewhat overlooked option for shipping tapes, CDs, and other similar sized items. This information will prove useful to many who have been unnecessarily burned by double-digit parcel shipping rates.

The main determining factor for Lettermail is the package dimensions. This is the most important thing to be mindful of. There is wiggle room with the max length and width being just shy of 27x38cm (10.6x14.9”), but the max thickness for shipping via Lettermail is just a hair over 2cm, and this is where people often run into trouble: 2cm happens to be the exact thickness of a tape in a standard norelco case. This means that once a tape is inside a bubble mailer nothing else can be added on top, and if you are shipping 2 or more tapes they must be laying flat, side by side, not stacked on top of each other. If you exceed the 2cm limit in any way, even just by adding a card or some stickers, for example, you may be charged parcel rates.

Pick a suitable mailer. Standard 6x10” bubble mailers can hold 1-3 tapes (sometimes 4 if the internal width is on your side). 8x12” bubble mailers can hold 4-5 tapes. See examples below.

Some postal clerks can be very strict about this as your package may not easily pass through the slot in their measurement tool even if you’ve packed it properly. They might try to say that your package can’t be shipped via Lettermail. In this case you can say that you’re willing to take the risk and have them send it anyways, saying that you understand that the package may be returned to you and you’ll have to pay to ship it again (if you’ve packed properly this won’t happen and the package will be delivered without issue). Worst case, you also have the option of trying again when someone else is working, or trying another post office where the staff may be more receptive (many do know the score by this point).

The final cost will be determined by the package weight, which maxes out at 500g. After tax it will be just over $2 on the lower end (1 tape or CD) and closer to $7 on the higher end (a small book). The prices increase slightly every now and then (thankfully not annually like the rest of Canada Post’s rates), so it’s best to check the Canada Post website for their non-standard and oversize mail postage stamp rates to keep up to date. Current costs after May 2024 increase: up to 100g (1 tape): $2.09, up to 200g (2-3 tapes): $3.43, up to 300g (4-5 tapes): $4.78, up to 400g: $5.48, and up to 500g: $5.89, plus tax. Unlike parcel rates, which vary widely based on location and destination, these blanket prices are valid when shipping to/from any point in Canada.

Beyond tapes, Lettermail can also be used for: 1-4 CDs in a bubble mailer (2 digipaks cross-stacked remain under the limit. As do 4 ecopaks, meaning you could technically* attempt to ship 8 ecopaks in two cross-stacks of 4 in an 8x12” mailer. Standard jewel cases are thicker, you will only be able to get 1 in a 6x10” mailer, or 2 side by side in an 8x12” mailer), a combination of tapes and CDs (i.e. 1 tape and 1 CD, side by side), zines or small books (you may want to allow room for cardboard to prevent bending), 1-5 7”s (depending on thickness, either in a 7” mailer or between two pieces of cardboard in a bubble mailer).

*Things will move around in transit, and what may be stacked nicely when first shipping out will likely turn into an oversized jumble by the time it hits the sorting facility and could be returned to you. When placing CDs side by side it’s best to also insert a piece of cardboard to keep the package flat and prevent this kind of slippage.

In the last figure you will notice that even a single 10” record can be shipped via Lettermail by cutting two pieces of sturdy cardboard down to size, ensuring that it will be under both the max weight and the max dimensions. Still other combinations are possible, as long as you don’t break the 2cm limit, keep the other dimensions within 27x38cm, and the weight under 500g. Get creative!

Lettermail does not include tracking and delivery generally takes a week or more, depending on the location (Canada Post advertises 4 business days for out of province delivery, though this is a very generous estimate). It’s rare for Canada Post to lose a package (though it can happen, even with a tracked parcel). If tracking and insurance are what you need, it is worth signing up for a free Canada Post Small Business account. Having an account gets you minor shipping discounts (does not apply to Lettermail), with the added benefit of being able to ship Expedited packages with tracking and insurance (up to $100) for the cost of Regular packages. As a bonus, Canada Post allows Small Business accounts to ship one domestic package for free (up to 5kg) every Tuesday in October. </end of endorsement>

The Counterforce - How-Tos

DON’T INVERT THE ART

SKULL TALK

LET’S FIX IT

TALK TO THE ARTIST

ASK YOUR SCREENPRINTER

DO IT YOURSELF

QUICK PHOTOSHOP DIY

TO BEGIN: ACCESS EDITING SOFTWARE

STEP 1: FILE > OPEN

STEP 2: REMOVE BACKGROUND AROUND THE ART

STEP 3: SELECT THE ARTWORK

STEP 4: EXPAND SELECTION

STEP 5: WHITE BORDER

STEP 6: TEST IT OUT ON BLACK

Signal For Punks (it has Stories now!)

Introduction

Signal

Signal "alternatives"

Signal Basics

Getting started

Adding contacts

Signal usernames

Groups

Signal Stories

Turn it on!

Show me the Stories

Story Privacy

Keeping Stories up to date

Bonus: Using Signal more securely

Use disappearing messages

Hide your phone number

Video/voice calls

My secret secure messaging app is better than Signal!

Add The Counterforce on Signal!

Zine

ASK A PUNK: How to run your own online show calendar

Intro

Montreal ASK A PUNK

Gancio

How-to: the technical stuff

A server

How-to: the social stuff

Accounts

Getting the word out

ASK A PUNK network

Why bother?

Alternatives

La guía para Mastodon y el Fediverso (¡para punks!)

#introducción

Lo que Mastodon/el Fediverso NO son:

...Fácil

... Una herramienta de comunicación segura y privada

... Una plataforma de entretenimiento

...Un sitio para hacerte viral

...El reemplazo de un mundo analógico

¿Qué es Mastodon?

Entendiendo Mastodon a través del e-mail

Escogiendo un servidor de Mastodon

Encontrar contenidos

Moderación

Autonomía y confianza

¿Qué es el Fediverso? ⁂

Y esto, ¿por qué es importante?

El Fediverso es inherentemente anti-corporativo

Es DIY

No nos abandonará jamás

Un scroll más sano

Un scroll más seguro

No es un walled garden

Sueños

A propósito de irnos de las redes sociales corporativas

Guía práctica de Mastodon

COUNTERFORCE.SOCIAL

Crear tu cuenta

CÓMO CREAR UNA CUENTA EN COUNTERFORCE.SOCIAL

Tu nueva cuenta de Mastodon

Iniciando sesión

Tu feed

Encontrarnos lxs unxs a lxs otrxs

`#introducción`

`#introduction`