So, @tnash and I moved to a private Mastodon instance on @mastohost
Despite following all the instructions, trying reboots
and re-running dead jobs, we are both WAY down on followers that haven’t redirected.
I’m at about 25% of my old followers from ross@fosstodon.org !!!
Is this normal? Did we do something wrong? Are they dead accounts? Do we need to just wait? Tips for fixing?
NOW!
You judge. Grey, almost bald, giant eared elephant?
Or shaggy-haired, small-eared, admittedly tusk-less terrier.
The future of mammoth comparisons is yours.
Do the right thing.
Elephant
Yorkie
“What looks more like a woolly mammoth than an elephant?”, I hear you cry?
Well. See.
You have forgotten.
You have been blinded by years of mammoth-elephant conspiracy.
Let me open your eyes.
This… THIS!!!…
Is a Yorkshire Terrier!
When asked the question “which animal looks most like the woolly mammoth?” in a quiz, my wife said “Elephant”.
The quiz somehow agreed.
I, vehemently, did not.
THIS is an elephant…
Internet. My wife has brought up a decades-long argument. YOU will resolve it.
This… is a woolly mammoth.
My son just showed me this years April Fools version of his weekly comic. It’s very funny.
I'm Ross!
I code with PHP, Javascript, WordPress and Laravel.
I work at Delicious Brains/WP Engine.
I have too many side projects including Turbo Admin, my magical command palette for #WordPress.
I'm a dad of two. I care about sustainability. I ride bikes. And my boss says I "bring lots of questions and energy".
Server move imminent!
I’d always wondered about self-hosting Mastodon. But was happy where I was.
And then stuff happened. And I became wary of the sustainability of big instances.
And I found a friend willing to share the costs. So it became very viable!
So you may see a new me shortly.
Huh. So. Birdsong in general, and the call of the Great Tit in particular, make an excellent accompaniment to Belle and Sebastian’s “The Boy with the Arab Strap” 
Up late preparing for a talk I’m giving soon.
It’s so great to have some creative energy flowing.
Talk prep is fun and exciting!!!
(No I can’t tell you what it is yet. Soon!!!)
Ironically, when I tried to take the "State of Devs 2025" survey…
This episode of The Vergecast contains the most hilarious segment on party speakers. It’s slightly in-joke for listeners, but I think it stands alone too.
I’ve laughed along to it twice now.
https://pca.st/episode/d8f931f4-a786-4f07-8361-25183aee25ba?t=212.0
Oh this is good. My friend Keith made
A site full of simple, low-effort activities for parents who want to spend more real-world time with their kids (without screens).
He says:
“As a tired dad and a web developer, I needed this myself. Now I’m sharing it with you.
If you’re a parent, I’d love you to check it out — and if you know one, maybe pass it along.”
Tim is knowledgable and eloquent and just such a great teacher. He's a friend, so I'm biased. But this is likely to be amazing and if you need to know about WordPress Security you should get on his list.
https://fosstodon.org/@tnash/114414938157889292
This email is AWFUL!
I mean this as more of a case study than a grumble.
But this is a GENUINE invoice from the De Vere hotel I stayed in.
Spam red flags in my brain:
1) I was not expecting it
2) It was sent at a strange time
3) I don’t recognise the name or email domain
4) They messed up my name
5) Other than my surname, there is no personalization at all!
6) There is an attachment with a name that means nothing.
7) It just… looks like spam!
It’s TERRIBLE!!
I have found a map of the severed floor!
Oh no.
Wait.
This is the hotel I stayed at this weekend.
Actually got to solving this one!
Hooray! I solved today's #WordlePress in 11 guesses! 
x 7
Test your #WordPress dev knowledge at https://wordlepress.com/
Flippin real old-school deep internet magic happened this week.
There was a discussion about an old C64 game that was beloved by a couple of people including me.
Someone saw this and posted that they were in-person with the developer of that game.
The next day the dev joined Mastodon to join in the conversation and we could tell him direct how amazing his work was.
This… THIS is what the internet and social media should be like, and, as far as I remember, was for some time a while back.
A thing I've realised.
Part of why often feel like I'm failing is that I don't get feedback.
When I ask for feedback I genuinely want it (but positive and/or constructive please!!)
If I don't get any feedback I assume I must be doing something wrong, because I know I'm not perfect and I want to be better.
Hmm…
(I also need to get better at giving feedback in some contexts… more hmm…)
The eldest’s “Catering” lessons are the absolute bain of my life right now. It’s 22:17 and I’ve just realised he needs to take a single sprig of thyme and half a vegetable stock cube that we don’t have to school tomorrow.
And if I don’t find them he’ll be punished for my disorganisation.
Gah!!