I think they mean in the sense that it’s not a native desktop app (or mobile)

The call to action button is the free plan, with subscribe having a secondary button style. That alone makes it clear they want to show you ads more than they want you to subscribe.

I’m in TX with a whole bunch of constituents amendments on the ballot. Never too optimistic about making a difference in such a conservative state, and particularly annoyed the only thing that could have a positive effect on our failing electric grid is a tax incentive for natural gas 🤮.

The only prop I’m still on the fence about is the university fund. I’m skeptical of state funding for universities, because my understanding is quite a bit of that goes to admin instead of lowering tuition. But most organizations seem to support the proposition, and the only ones who oppose it say they do so because the universities are too “woke”. I don’t want to vote in alignment with some alt right organizations :/

I’m also still interested in the xmpp vs matrix debate. I’m using matrix ATM because it seems more actively developed and used, but I know some people still swear by xmpp. Ultimately I really just want a decentralized alternative to discord, but beyond that I feel like I’ll just want to go to whichever alternative has the most users, since that’s pretty useful for chatting software.

I’ve heard feedback that matrix doesn’t seem to be very united, with different groups implementing different competing features proposals etc., which does seem to be a pretty big issue.

I’m also pretty optimistic about a lot of the new stuff being built on matrix. I recently became aware of Commune, which is about making sections of matrix servers web searchable, and that sounds incredible - one of my biggest issues with discord is how often it gets used as effectively game wikis, collecting all these guides and information that’s only accessible through a proprietary discord account. No anonymous search.

The bit about “no” not meaning “no” means they’re specifically implying meta employees can be sexually assaulted even if they say no. I’m sure it’s said in jest, but it’s still a fairly offensive comment.

I’m not ready to really degoogle my phone, but wow next DNS has a lot of cool features! Thanks for the recommendation

I’m not sure I agree with the take that blahaj.zone has a facism problem. They’re explicitly anti-tankie and anti-nazi, which are the authoritarian end of the political spectrum. It’s a very left leaning space, and I think anyone in the lower left quadrant, e.g. libertarianism to anarchism and socialism to communism, would be well received.

I mean hey, by all means if you think a community is too hive mind-y or echo chamber-y then by all means don’t join. That’s the beauty of small highly customized communities - it can be moderated in a way all the members agree with, and anyone who doesn’t like it can find or found a different one.

I don’t know what exactly you’re imagining such a community would disallow, but I feel like whatever it is, I’d agree with it being disallowed. Disagreeing with someone is typically fine in most communities I’ve seen, it’s just hate speech or any -ism or -phobes that aren’t. And that’s fine.

I totally agree. I’m optimistic about technology once we escape capitalism. Under socialism automation and technology make everyone’s lives easier. e.g. the classic example of a technology that allows workers to be 2x more productive would mean the workers all keep their jobs and pay, but work half as much under socialism, but under capitalism half lose their job and the rest work just as much for the same pay.

That said, things like sustainability, social responsibility, and the other pieces of the “demoralization campaign” should absolutely be considered. They’re important.

I probably should’ve clarified its the last few that I felt were relevant to this post. I understand it sucks when you feel like anything you say may get you banned due to someone else’s interpretations, but in practice I don’t think it really becomes an issue.

Perhaps be a bit more careful when first joining a community as you learn how the community tends to act and behave, and where the lines tend to be drawn, but then after that you should have a general sense of what’s allowed, and if you do go over the line the mods are much more likely to just give a warning instead of a ban if you’re a regular.

A ttrpg called .dungeon got a remaster recently and I keep coming back to one of the screenshots on the store page, because I’m such a big fan of the rules for community moderation it enumerated:

I think this article makes reasonable sense. Also that quote from Spez is so disheartening. Glad I’m not on reddit anymore

Imagine looking at a video where he explicitly states leftists have no desire to rule by violence, and repeating the tired comment that he’s a tankie.

Well funnily enough I think that part, legally, is totally fine. There’s nothing anti competitive about being in two unrelated industries, and I don’t think there’s a good case that aws is a monopoly. There are viable and cheaper alternatives like hetzner, aws is just popular but it’s not manipulating the market

That’s a really interesting article on how Amazon makes it money when prime is such a good deal for the consumers. I really hope Amazon gets broken up

I didn’t assume you were a fan of suburbs, I just read your comment about cities being blights upon the earth and argued why I think suburbs are more blight-like.

The only assumption I made about you is that you’d appreciate an appeal to environmentalism, since you called earth our beautiful planet

That’s a very fair point, and one I agree with. I also think it’d help to move away from capitalism though. Capitalism is the force that encourages so many companies to throw away excess food rather than give it away, because doing so would lower demand and be “bad for business”. If we could just reduce our food waste that alone would do wonders in decreasing land use for farms, monoculture or otherwise.

I also think, over time the world should become more vegetarian. Even if you believe in food chains and that it’s okay for us to eat meat in general, the farming of animals often in cartoonishly cruel conditions solely for our consumption is abhorrent. Moving from meat based diets to (at least mostly) plant based is a moral necessity, and on top of that will massively reduce emissions (15% comes from livestock), land use, and biodiversity loss

Walkable cities produce less pollution per capita than suburban or rural areas due to less pollution from commutes and increased efficiency delivering utilities (due to the population density).

Suburban sprawl is what truly makes ugly stains on our word - concrete everywhere, destroying the watershed, with no native grass in the medians, and so many cars spewing out fumes, micro plastics, and disrupting migration patterns. They’re depressing places to live.

Fwiw, I think using a self hosted home automation setup (shout out to home assistant) paired with smart devices that don’t use internet (e.g. zigbee, zwave, or matter once it comes out) can allow you to have a smart home without these kinds of fears.

That said, I would definitely agree to using mechanical locks. Although a monitored smart security system is probably still a good idea - you’re letting a company virtually enter your house, but you can’t rely on a self hosted solution to notify you when your power goes out, for example.

Good point, there’s probably 999 other people working on those same exact pieces.