Timothy R. Butler

https://mastodon.faithtree.social/@trbutler

Pastor, Little Hills Church (npub1vzz…mcar) and FaithTree Christian Fellowship (npub1qc8…fhvs) (outreach ministry). Editor, Open for Business (npub1d8s…u4vu). Shakespeare lover, Apple/*nix geek in #StLouis #Missouri.

#Christian #ChurchHistory #Reformed #Theology #Aquinas #Shakespeare #Photography #Technology #Apple #Linux #Perl

Tags for Fediverse tools: #Searchable #fedi22

Blog: https://asisaid.com
Church: https://littlehills.church
Outreach Ministry: https://faithtreecf.org
Magazine: https://ofb.biz

Public Key

npub1f02dvt46tugcvtgg4ftjvcwtm9rwdltgmmxv3afnkpan8k26v5eq7f7tyw

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyh4xk96a97yvx95y254exv89aj3hxl45danxg75emq7enm9dx2vsprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyf8wumn8ghj7mmxve3ksctfdch8qatzd4507h

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

offchain.pub

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1f02dvt46tugcvtgg4ftjvcwtm9rwdltgmmxv3afnkpan8k26v5eq7f7tyw

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Published at

2026-08-30T21:10:40Z

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0 Metadata

Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-08-21 18:42:35 GMT

What @npub1e0x…xqda writes about the particular _kind_ of anti-AI attitude on #Bluesky is, more generally, why I post to Mastodon and only bridge to Bluesky. For all the complaints about other platforms, including #X, I've not found any place quite so vicious as Bluesky on a variety of topics. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/08/21/bluesky-is-full-of-anti-ai-zealots
#Fediverse #Discussion #Community

2026-04-05 18:56:02 GMT

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That’ll be fantastic when it happens. Thanks for all the incredible work on this theme…

2026-04-03 18:08:56 GMT

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I loved Mandrake…

2026-02-24 05:14:50 GMT

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BTW, how do you like standard vs. TangerineUI vs. Bird UI generally? I think this makes it a tad friendlier for the folks from the church trying out the Fediverse. Bird UI maybe even more so, but I do like the auto dark mode…

2026-02-23 06:20:47 GMT

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It does... it's auto dark mode based on system dark mode. Probably my favorite feature of #TangerineUI over the otherwise excellent #BirdUI, which can't do auto switching. (However, you can still switch to Bird UI or default Mastodon in the Appearance preferences…

2026-02-22 18:59:41 GMT

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That is a huge undertaking... always anxious to see your continued handiwork, though!

2026-02-21 19:53:53 GMT

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I'd love to see a genuine fork that has the UI sensibility of your Bird UI…

2026-01-19 23:42:41 GMT

I go on #X and get angry and depressed by the things in my feed (left and right, it isn’t about bias). I come on the #Fediverse and even when I disagree with posts, they rarely are disagreeable in a way that gets the emotions going. It makes me wonder why I even ever go over there… (Well, #OpenSourceIntelligence (#OSIntel) mostly, I guess.)

2025-12-19 02:28:37 GMT

As a pastor who also has worn a part time journalist-commentator hat for 24 years, I’ll be clear: no good journalist would write what #MegBasham did below. That alone would get a person fired from anywhere with a serious ethics platform. But Basham regularly flaunts such #ethics. https://x.com/janet_mefferd/status/2001410892869546380?s=46

2025-11-10 22:58:30 GMT

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Thanks so much! I grabbed it! By the way, I see you made commits towards automatic dark/light mode, but can't see how to take advantage of it (and the documentation still says it isn't available). Is there a way to utilize those commits to get automatic switching and it just isn't revised in the doc yet, or is that still work towards something in the future?

2025-11-07 17:58:53 GMT

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Oh, I missed the rc! Thank you! Such a great addition to Mastodon.

2025-11-07 17:46:17 GMT

I'm excited about #Mastodon 4.5! Native quote posting (finally) and some other great sounding features… any gotchas I should be aware of #MastoAdmin s? I see @npub1zdf…6u9l's excellent #BirdUI isn't yet officially supportive of the final release, so maybe there's that…

2025-10-23 18:44:20 GMT

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Good point. I think those of us who really appreciate it intrinsically get the advantages, but they need to be made clearer and more accessible. And yes, totally agree with you on your “bad people" point.

2025-10-23 18:22:03 GMT

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I'm not sure -- do you have any ideas? I've had a Bluesky account since it was invite only and have never liked it. Not just the continued centralization (which bothered me since I'd already become a supporter of the Fediverse's better alternative), but an awful algorithm. It also felt like it wasn't “X without the really awful extremes of X," but more “mirror X,” so to speak, but without the reach X continues to hold from its Twitter days. Probably the government accounts will only boost Bluesky, because they do appear to be there to troll, which will feed the algorithm as the Bluesky users get an endorphin high from letting their anger out towards those accounts.

2025-10-23 18:11:46 GMT

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I really wish Bluesky would move to true federation. The bigger they get and more funding they get, the more they'll be inclined to resist it instead…

2025-10-19 18:14:35 GMT

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My point is censors will inevitably ratchet up the rhetoric to ensure disfavored speech they wish to stop fits the standard required to stop it. For example, Russia deems anything spoken against their war as "supporting Nazis,” since they label their enemies as Nazis. Well, by the standard you describe, that means that speech should be censored. But those of us outside of Russia know, in fact, the Russian government is far more guilty of such behavior than the people they censor.
"Who will watch the watchmen?"

2025-10-19 16:46:58 GMT

I really, really dislike when people (like [@FediTips](https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips ), whom I often really appreciate) push for the Fediverse to defederate from unfavored speech. “If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”
Pushing for #Bluesky to use its ill-advised centralization to make it more like regular corporate social media that picks winners and losers is antithetical to what we should desire in the decentralized, open web. It's also the exact sort of thing "regimes" like to do.
Speaking of that term: there is plenty of room to criticize any administration, including Trump's. I've criticized the administration and some of its use of social media on here, in fact. But calling a duly elected administration a "regime"... persuades precisely zero people of anything. I've disliked that flex when the Right used it and I dislike it when the Left uses it, too. It also obscures that it is in the public interest for us to know what the White House says, both when we agree and disagree with it.
#FreeSpeech #Fediverse https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/115396451982308613

2025-09-10 19:51:09 GMT

The shooting of #CharlieKirk is awful -- especially as he engaged in his signature effort to actually debate people of opposing opinions. That's what we need: peaceful debate. Praying he can recover and recover fully.

2025-06-28 01:44:01 GMT

I’m not a big “blocker” even on #X, though I do have my limits -- slurs, threats, etc. Tonight, I #blocked someone on #Fediverse for the first time after multiple attempts to end a discussion well were met with out-of-thin-air slander and crudeness from an individual who had commented on something I'd posted. I mention that because I actually think that speaks well of the Fediverse: such things seem almost surprising on here. Thank you, Fediverse, for being different -- even when we don't always agree on a subject!

2025-06-26 18:07:38 GMT

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If you’d like to add us, faithtree.social defaults to your beautiful Bird UI alongside an option to use @npub1vmy…ql57 ’s Catppuccin variant.

2025-06-17 20:11:03 GMT

I’m trying to convince folks on #Threads to turn on #Fediverse sharing and with improved integration launched over there wrote an explainer on my (mostly unused) Threads account. If you're over there, share that goal and think it is helpful, please repost it over there -- let's get more Threads users on the Fediverse! https://www.threads.com/@timothyrbutler/post/DLAwEl8uasZ

2025-06-15 17:55:01 GMT

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Interesting… it seems like those should be at odds.

2025-06-11 18:01:34 GMT

We need to define terms -- otherwise we accidentally slip into "definitional gerrymandering." I give a few examples, but I wrote this because the problem is endemic: https://ofb.biz/sa1323
#Philosophy #Theology #TimKeller #JohnPiper #NewCalvinism #PoliticalDebates #BigBeautifulBill

2025-05-25 02:26:29 GMT

Four films to get to know me.
#Movies #Inception #FerrisBueller #BluesBrothers #HighNoon
https://files.faithtree.social/media_attachments/files/114/566/101/996/411/720/original/f419ae71ca64cbff.jpeg
https://files.faithtree.social/media_attachments/files/114/566/102/084/723/681/original/6370b2398f4d6f5e.jpeg
https://files.faithtree.social/media_attachments/files/114/566/102/184/083/515/original/c377e8c9fa51f2ac.jpeg
https://files.faithtree.social/media_attachments/files/114/566/102/276/365/755/original/53a8721a68bc7b05.jpeg

2025-04-29 22:54:10 GMT

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An excellent question! Depending on where one's doubts of Jesus's words lie, I might answer different points. But, a few brief thoughts:
1.) the amount of testimony of Jesus's miracles, death and resurrection is quite high (relatively speaking in the ancient world). While many people claim divinity, there aren't usually records of _many_ of the surrounding circumstances. Often if miracles are attributed to a figure, we find they weren't attributed by first hand witnesses.
2.) those who witnessed these things, believed them, confessed them and were willing to die for them. (Not just those who later on were told them, but the ones who knew if they were following a lie or not, because their own eyes saw whatever they saw or didn't see.)
3.) There was little or no benefit to believing and confessing these things if they knew them to be untrue.
4.) A Christian also believes God's Spirit testifies about His Word, and to me, I believe that experiential aspect is the most profound, though it obviously can't prove anything to someone else. It would be God showing you or anyone else that.
I realize none of this gives a complete reason. But hopefully it is at least helpful in understanding the mind of someone who does believe.

2025-04-29 22:35:04 GMT

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We do indeed claim that and believe it. I believe if one takes the words of Jesus seriously, that's the inevitable destination.

2025-04-29 06:39:14 GMT

#JohnMacArthur just gets this wrong. #Jesus at birth was both God and man. You can't separate His natures. #Nestorius #Theotokos #Christianity https://x.com/NathanielJolly/status/1916913739024286200
https://files.faithtree.social/media_attachments/files/114/419/876/070/206/019/original/ff20e0790e7015f1.png

2025-04-04 17:45:20 GMT

#Bluesky *could* make cross-communication with the #Fediverse easy. They *could* make use of [@snarfed.org](https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://snarfed.org/about ) 's #BridgyFed a button in the UI rather than something users need to discover. They *could* simply add #ActivityPub alongside #AtProto. But they don't. Right now, Meta with #Threads is a far better representative of things open than Bluesky.

2025-03-16 18:06:41 GMT

Genuine question looking for thoughtful answers: is this important or not? How influential is #VOA / #RFE / #RL in today's social media world? Does it have a big impact in getting around censorship still or not? #VoiceOfAmerica #RadioFreeEurope #RadioLiberty https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/03/16/7503096/

2025-02-22 21:20:19 GMT

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It’s problematic, but I don’t think it would apply re: 1A. The restriction on speech would be to the company, not the end user, since no one has a constitutional #FirstAmendment right to post on X. If Musk willingly restricts “his”/“his company’s” speech, that’s not a violation since the “violation” is against himself/his own interests, not a restriction of others’ rights.

2025-01-29 21:21:43 GMT

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Looking for time to add it to my CMS, which (also if I can find time), I plan to rerelease as FOSS just as I did a very long ago version.

2025-01-24 05:19:33 GMT

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I'm definitely all in -- it seems better across the board. Perhaps that is part of what makes me nervous: Bluesky seems like the sort of inferior option that somehow often wins. Hopefully in this case it won't.

2025-01-23 22:07:41 GMT

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I just hope it doesn't become the sort of case where slowness yields the floor to inferior products, like Bluesky. The FOSS world has a storied history of such things I remember vividly from my time volunteering in the early KDE Project and related territories.

2025-01-23 19:41:55 GMT

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This seems like such an important omission that anything else being developed should be paused until it is added. I sometimes forget it is missing thanks to the excellence of @npub1frs…09cc ...

2025-01-19 08:33:58 GMT

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So far, my instance says "Profile not found." But maybe Loops is just overloaded right now. I'll try again tomorrow... I don't think I'll probably be a Loops user, but it'd be neat if I could follow intersting Loops accounts form over here...

2025-01-19 08:30:02 GMT

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I tried to see if I could follow you from Mastodon, since it's federated... but I guess @[email protected] doesn't work from outside of Loops? 🤔

2025-01-14 05:44:16 GMT

Just switched FaithTree.social to #BirdUI. Thank you for the beautiful theme, @rolle and thank you @npub1z0a…p2r8 for making me aware of it.

2024-04-17 04:00:24 GMT

#Mastodon #administrators [@Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon) the instance I operate uses a different web access address (mastodon.faithtree.social) than its fediverse address which skips the subdomain. I'm migrating to a new server and would like to simplify by dropping the subdomain, since it throws off some Fediverse tools. Is this possible without messing everything up?

2024-01-25 16:49:19 GMT

This is a really bad idea. Malevolent #AI will still crawl your content, but “white hat” AI, so to speak, will be prevented from learning as much as possible to be as functional as possible. If we keep law-abiding AI limited, we will regret that over time. If you'd be OK with a student reading what you wrote and citing it in a paper, you should be OK with AI reading it, too. https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/111150385548513664