Joe Terranova @joeterranova@leftist.network

Welcome to Wayland.social: the successor to X.com.

When an app asks for permissions, the OS should not only let you answer yes or no. Every category should have a "yes, but feed the app fake data" option.

Want my contacts for no reason? Have these generated fake ones! Wanna listen to my microphone? Here's random ambiance sounds! Location? I'm on a tiny 5x5m island!

Hell yeah! Put it all in your databases mfers!

Actively punishing services wins over boycotts any day. Didn't want that junk in the database? Don't ask for it!

People are asking me what I think about #Meta joining the Fediverse. To review what I've said elsewhere, it' important to acknowledge three important realities:

1. Meta can use ActivityPub, and nothing can be done about it. Fediblock doesn't prevent Meta from using ActivityPub because ActivityPub is an open protocol.

2. A mass Fediblock (Gab style) is not happening. The big servers aren't doing it. And if the big servers aren't doing it, the medium and little servers don't have the power to enforce a mass Fediblock.

3. The majority of people on the Fediverse don't care -- and many of them even want to connect with Meta. I know, this might surprise you. But based on my observations, most people won't be leaving mastodon.social because it federates with Meta.

4. Even if the majority of servers Fediverse servers blocked Meta, that would still mean that certain unsavoury servers (which shall be unnamed) will likely connect Meta -- and I certainly don't want those servers to be the face of the Fediverse for people who use #P92

5. Even if Meta pulled a Truth Social and didn't connect to the Fediverse, that does not prevent them from sucking up all that data from ActivityPub -- seeing how that data is, in fact, public.

Am I saying there's no value in blocking Meta? Not at all. Yes, block them if you don't want to send and receive messages to P92. Will that prevent Meta from seeing your messages? As I said, no, not at all. But at least that's data you haven't directly given to Meta (unless you're allowing RSS on your server). And it will also mean you won't receive messages from Meta -- if that's your purpose, blocking is good.

Now I've come to believe that when Meta joins the Fediverse, the Fediverse will largely be divided into three factions:

Faction 1: Servers that federate with Meta
Faction 2: Servers that don't federated with Meta, but federate with servers that federate with Meta
Faction 3: Servers that don't federate with Meta, and don't federate with any server that federates with Meta

Factions 1 and 2 will probably go on their merry way. It's Faction 3 that I believe will die because it's ultimately unfeasible.

"But Chris!" some might say, "There's that pact!"

Unless all those servers in that pact are only federating via white labeled servers who've signed that pact, the pact is useless. Such white labeling would mean that every server that federates must be manually reviewed. And it means that every new server that joins the Fediverse will be federated with Faction 1 and Faction 2 before they're federated with Faction 3.

Which ultimately means that Faction 3 gets tinier and tinier, especially as churn occurs, and those users don't get replaced by newcomers.

In the end, what will federation via white label achieve? Not a whole lot, except make certain people believe they have done something substantial to fight Meta when they haven't.

At a certain point, we have to accept reality: Meta will use ActivityPub, and most people using the Fediverse will talk to them.

So am I waving the white flag?

Not at all. What's important to acknowledge here is that it's not we, the Fediverse, who have conceded. It's Meta.

It's Meta who have given up ownership of their own corporate-owned network effect in order to join the Fediverse.

Despite this concession from Meta, I'm not happy about them joining the Fediverse.

However, there's another consideration: for people who use Meta. it's an incremental improvement over what they had before -- which was no federation. Again, less worse is better than worse. If the world is slightly better -- even if it's not ideal -- it's still better.

Do I want people to use Meta-owned social networks? Not at all.

Here's where I disagree with 99% of people panicking about Meta: I believe ActivityPub will ultimately be Meta's own undoing.

And I want to hasten this undoing 😊

Thinking through the Reddit crisis, I'd recommend that @ernest and @dessalines contact the creators of the most popular reddit clients and work together to piece a bridge that would take the calls that were made to #reddit and translate them into API calls that would go to #lemmy and #kbin

Having those clients run in the same way against the #fediverse equivalents would reduce friction for end-users and potentially help a lot of moderators who rely on them.

#redditblackout #redditMigration

After Reddit's beyond-arrogant CEO dismissed the subreddit blackout as just posturing, moderators of discussions extended the blackout. This is the only sensible response to the company's contempt.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/13/23759674/reddit-mods-blackout-protest-extended-indefinitely

Please stay the course.

For my part, I'm canceling my Reddit account and looking at decentralized alternatives.

Petition to move pride month to August in the northern hemisphere and February in the southern one.

That way,

pride comes before Fall

When I was
A salesman
I slept in
My bed and the next morning
I turned into a bug

Just your daily reminder that @elk is a beautiful web interface for Mastodon, and that if you are new to the #Fediverse, there is so much to learn and explore, and you should try asking questions if you are confused, and feel free to tag me and others, & follow me & people like @mmasnick & @feditips who frequently share useful things to help you get started around here.

There are nearly infinite resources; they aren't all easy to find, but they are here.

Roses are red, coding is pain
git push --force origin main

The Luddites were a labor movement.

"The Luddites themselves 'were totally fine with machines,' says Kevin Binfield, editor of the 2004 collection Writings of the Luddites. They confined their attacks to manufacturers who used machines in what they called 'a fraudulent and deceitful manner' to get around standard labor practices.

'They just wanted machines that made high-quality goods,' says Binfield, 'and they wanted these machines to be run by workers who had gone through an apprenticeship and got paid decent wages. Those were their only concerns.'"

Also the men wore dresses and called themselves brides of Ludd.

#luddite

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/

I had a disturbing encounter in a #Toronto retail store yesterday. A masked sales associate approached me with friendly greeting & then dissolved into tears.

Me: Are you OK?
SA: Just tears of relief; I approached you because you were wearing a #mask, so I knew you wouldn't say anything nasty to me about wearing mine. I can't afford to get #Covid, I just finished my cancer treatment.

Everyday she receives jaw-dropping, stomach-turning anti-mask comments. 🥺​

#WeAreLost
#HumanityIsDoomed

My tech philosophy:

Use #FOSS for any situation in which viable FOSS exists. Only use proprietary if no viable FOSS exists.

Local (in country) is better than off-shore, though this is somewhat price-sensitive.

Social media:

Open and decentralised (#Fediverse) first. Closed and centralised second, if at all.

I think governments around the world (especially in my corner of it) should adopt this philosophy with extreme prejudice.