• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • Both Twitter and Reddit have failed to become profitable. And Twitter’s in a far worse position right now than Reddit, because of its massive debt and lack of employees to fix or moderate issues. And since Reddit, who never had to pay for moderation, could not become profitable, it had to make some drastic changes toward that goal. Even if that dissatisfies users.

    I was on Reddit for almost 10 years when I deleted my account. And while the platform will survive, it’s difficult to say the same about Twitter. Not only was it a far worse experience to be on the platform after Musk acquired it, but now it’s almost impossible to use it. People paying for the subscription have fewer issues, but I doubt that’s going to drive up subscriptions, as Musk most probably expects.





  • That’s amazing! Anytype is one of the greatest note-taking apps I’ve ever tried, and there doesn’t seem to be anything it cannot do. So happy to see others using and recommending it.

    I updated the Android app and noticed there’s a new desktop version as well, but I’m having issues updating it on Linux, so I just assumed it’s still in alpha.


  • Have you tried Anytype? It’s a combination of Notion and Obsidian, and it’s end-to-end encrypted, and everything is stored on your device. Still in alpha, but it has a lot of features already. Because it’s in alpha, they only give access to people who attend an online presentation of the app. But it’s worth it. And as soon as it exits alpha, the plan is to open source it.








  • But that wasn’t my point. It’s not that I think that Facebook or Google cannot scrape Fediverse platforms/instances, it’s that even if they do, they cannot serve targeted ads based on our activity here.

    We have different definitions for privacy. Since I’m active here, it should be clear that to me private doesn’t mean hidden. I like how the EFF put it, in their article on the Fediverse:

    [T]he default with incumbent platforms is usually an all-or-nothing bargain where you accept a platform’s terms or delete your account. The privacy dashboards buried deep in the platform’s settings are a way to tinker in the margins, but even if you untick every box, the big commercial services still harvest vast amounts of your data. To rely on these major platforms is to lose critical autonomy over your privacy, your security, and your free expression.



  • It seems we have different priorities and concerns, and I can respect that.

    I’m skeptical of Facebook, as I see the potential of it attempting to take over the Fediverse. As I’ve said in a different comment recently, Facebook’s business model goes against the Fediverse’s business model. And, in the long term, the Fediverse model has the potential to compete with larger for-profit corporations. And, as it has done in the past with the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, Facebook is now once again trying to prevent its demise by joining the Fediverse. Again, I’m not saying that the Fediverse is an existential threat to Facebook now, but it could be in the future. As people increasingly become weary of big corporations stealing their data, Facebook has to pretend that it’s changing. That it has learned from its past mistakes. And I just don’t buy it.

    We’re here because these large corporations have failed us.

    Yes, I wasn’t implying that Google or Facebook cannot see what we’re talking, when I mentioned the privacy concerns. I was referring to this data not being used to profile us for targeted ads.

    first it will be a black hole ripping through the Fediverse.

    Not if most instances choose not to federate with Facebook. People who want to be on a federated instance can sign up to that instance. The option to not federate is a build-in feature of the Fediverse, and I hope kbin.social takes advantage of that. If not, I’ll see myself out and look for an instance that does.

    Here’s an article that helped me understand this issue better: https://ianbetteridge.com/2023/06/21/meta-and-mastodon-whats-really-on-peoples-minds/.