Technology

Just being here has felt freeing in and of itself. No ads omg. It's beautiful. I like the slower pace here too, it doesn't bother me to see the same post on the main page from a few days ago. I think it's a nice break for my senses actually.

I've gone all-in on (properly) federated social media and I've got to say it's been a great experience. After what's happened to Twitter, with Zuck's recently stated plans for Meta, and TikTok's immediate Trump cocksucking, I realized that all privately-owned platforms are as good as compromised, no matter the utility they otherwise provide.

Instagram was more difficult as it was how I found out about a lot of local events, and was my primary connection to a lot of old friends, but it was worth it. I actually reach out and talk to those friends who I previously just followed. It's restored some actually connection that social media had stripped away, and I find myself avoiding the endless scroll I used to get caught in.

I'm still working on evacuating YouTube, but using RSS feeds to be more deliberate about whose uploads I'm notified about has helped a ton.

anyone got tips for finding quality memes on mastodon? i love the philosophy of the service, but i have 0 interest in reading political takes from strangers all day, and right now it feels like all i see on the “trending” page is people complaining about politics. i just want to escape the bad news and laugh a little, not get mad at my phone anytime i open the app

The selfhosting movement sets people free in general.

John Mastodon.

I tried Bluesky for while but honestly I like Mastadon and Lemmy better. I'm also testing LOOPS (tiktok replacement) which is from the same creator as Pixelfed. There's something comforting using decentralized platforms that are safe from Government and Corporate intervention

keeping you engaged on their terms. And their terms alone. There's no freedom

So keeping you engaged on seemingly your own terms is acceptable and possible?

Such articles just make me think of Bluesky with boredom and suspicion.

The real free web is the non-existent luddite web. It should solve problems platforms solve now, but with minimal engagement possible, ideally look for a second, push a button and leave for a walk. A platform is not interested in minimizing engagement, so it should be a system where paid work necessary for its operation doesn't allow one to become a platform.

I like talking about that, and even tried to push myself (executive dysfunction is a bitch) to try to start a little toy project of something like small web (meaning objects with basic hypertext pages with links to other objects ; with current state of an object being a result of many crud-like messages, and which are considered and which are not would be determined by signatures and chain of trust, meaning that two people with different political views could have very different versions of the same forum and both be happy ; such messages and not resulting objects would be what's stored and replicated, like something between Usenet and a version control system). But then realized I don't really want to do that, just to talk about that, and that's more complex than it reads. Maybe eventually, when I'm twice older.

I hope more active users move to the fediverse. That way we will have a lot of variety in content and can also potentially prevent communities from becoming echo chambers. I suppose moderation will also have to be taken up a notch for these changes to actually have a positive effect.

I remember reading a book that talked about public spaces and how we often think of malls as public spaces, but they have so many restrictions and ulterior motives that it doesn't really hold.

They're essentially the irl equivalent of centralised social media platforms. I hope once the fediverse really takes off, we can have 'official' platforms/instances that are run by governments that federate only to other 'official' ones. That seems like a better way to reach people, instead of Xitter.