chamim

Musk knows that he needs to say/do outrageous things to keep receiving either attention on twitter or free press. He strives to be relevant to those who, for some reason, take him seriously. He's a pathological liar willing to say whatever ridiculous thing makes him appear as relevant.

They took insporation from Twitter and we all know how profitable that turned out to be.

He lives in a bubble and he's certain that following Musk's example will make him richer. But what he fails to understand is that, while reddit is massive and people are addicted to or reliant on it, if it stops producing high-quality content, it's going to eventually be replaced by something else. Hopefully, by the fediverse.

Suddently they care about their users, suuure.

Reddit didn't always have the user base it has now, it took them years to become big. I don't think we should strive to be as big as reddit.

I was reading the comments to a Lemmy post today (I cannot find it now, to link to it), where users who've been on the platform for a while talked about how the recent wave of signups improved the experience. If the people that are going to switch over at the end of the month continue to a positive influence, that's a win in my view.

Not exactly. What Facebook is expected to attempt here is an embrace, extend and extinguish strategy.

While I see what you mean about the names causing confusion, as I was confused myself at first, it took me very little time to adapt. Don't underestimate the users, most won't care too much about what 'subreddits' are called on each platform.

As others (source 1, source 2) have put it, this spells huge trouble for ActivityPub if Facebook joins in. Which is what this organized effort is trying to prevent.

I think you're missing the point. We are weary of Facebook's decision to enter the Fediverse exactly because we know it sees the Fediverse as a long-term threat and it could try to extinguish it. While they at first would adopt open standards and protocols, what stops them from creating proprietary extensions and using those and its dominance and resources to make it difficult for users to switch to other platforms in the Fediverse?

I think we reached a point where flagship phones are good enough to be used for more than 5 years. But the battery won't live that long, for. most people. I've replaced my previous phone, after four years of using it, for the most part because of the battery. I'm looking forward to replaceable batteries returning and helping at least some of us keep our phones for a few more years.

How is it a win for me if I specifically signed up for a fediverse account to get away from data-hoarding, money-driven corporations like Facebook? I don't want Facebook to have access to my account information, posts and comments. I think you're missing the point about who this company is and the extent to which it is willing to go to get people's data.

Nobody's saying that, in terms of user bases, the Fediverse is comparable to Facebook or Instagram. And it seems to me that you are misrepresenting why people here, myself included, don't want our instances to federated with Facebook. It's not that we don't want bigger communities. Most of us have been on Facebook or Reddit and have given up on those bigger communities and adopted the Fediverse because it aligns with our values and privacy principles. Facebook does not. Its Fediverse platform will not suddenly be the opposite of what the company has been doing for more than a decade.

I'm honestly questioning if TheYang is reading our comments or if they are just spewing the same talking points regardless of the arguments presented to them. It's baffling to see people so willing to embrace a corporation that has done nothing but exploit its users and their privacy.

Considering OpenAI is asking for your phone number to sign up for an account, it's not hard for the stolen accounts to be linked to the owners.

The Fediverse and Facebook's business model are incompatible, and that's the main issue here. And in terms of users, I'm sure there are a lot of kbin and Lemmy users who would have an issue with their instances federating with Facebook.

Please don't harass reddit employees who have no say in what the company does.

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/.

This is what I'm using and it's a decent experience, especially since you can tweak things to your liking.

I think it depends on what you mean by privacy. But I do recommend you read what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about the fediverse. They released an extensive series about it last year: Leaving Twitter's Walled Garden & The Fediverse Could Be Awesome (If We Don’t Screw It Up).

Here's the part that addresses your concern:

Take privacy: the 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.

This handful of companies also share a single business model, based upon tracking us. Not only is this invasion of privacy creepy, but also the vast, frequently unnecessary amount and kinds of data being collected – your location, your friends and other contacts, your thoughts, and more – are often shared, leaked, and sold. They are also used to create inferences about you that can deeply impact your life.

Even if you don’t mind having your data harvested, the mere act of collecting all of this sensitive information in one place makes for a toxic asset. A single bad lapse in security can compromise the privacy and safety of hundreds of millions of people. And once gathered, the information can be shared or demanded by law enforcement. Law enforcement access is even more worrisome in post-Dobbs America, where we already see criminal prosecutions based in part upon people’s social media activities.

We’re also exhausted by social media’s often parasitic role in our lives. Many platforms are optimized to keep us scrolling and posting, and to prevent us from looking away. There’s precious little you can do to turn off these enticements and suggestions, despite the growing recognition that they can have a detrimental effect on our mental health and on our public discourse. Dis- and misinformation, harassment and bullying have thrived in this environment.

There’s also the impossible task of global content moderation at scale. Content moderation fails on two fronts: first, users all over the world have seen that platforms fail to remove extremely harmful content, including disinformation and incitement that is forbidden by the platforms’ own policies. At the same time, platforms improperly remove numerous forms of vital expression, especially from those with little social power. To add insult to injury, users are given few options for appeal or restoration.

These failures have triggered a mounting backlash. On both sides of the U.S. political spectrum, there’s been a flurry of ill-considered legislation aimed at regulating social media moderation practices. Outside of the U.S. we’ve seen multiple “online harms” proposals that are likely to make things worse for users, especially the most marginalized and vulnerable, and don’t meaningfully give everyday people more say over their online life. In some places, such as Turkey, bad legislation is already a reality.

Is it really fair to call Facebook just one bad actor? It's one of the largest corporations in the world, has some of the largest social media and messaging platforms out there. In terms of resources, there are very few companies, let alone individuals or groups, that can compete with Facebook.

If you look at it in these terms, you understand that Facebook has an interest in making sure that ActivityPub doesn't too large without Facebook having a say in it. If it could control the whole internet, I'm sure it would. So, no, I don't agree with your framing of the issue.

I've been searching for this functionality on kbin as well, but I don't think it's implemented yet. JustinFTL's recommendation to boost stuff is not private, while usually the saved items are.

The second one improves the original concept so much, I really like it! ☺️

It might have been a momentary glitch, as they show up for me.

that's the way to go 🏴‍☠️

I don't use any Facebook products for a reason, and I would not want to have to move to a different instance if the one I chose would federate with Meta. And the same goes for other data-hoarding companies out there, in case they try to enter this space.

I think there is a tendency, at least in the early phase of discovering you're queer, to believe there's something remarkable about that. I certainly thought so for a while, especially because where I'm from being openly queer was not as prevalent 15 years ago as it is now. I'm happy to have friends who don't treat me differently for being queer, who love and support me for who I am.

I'm no ActivityPub expert, but what people more knowledgeable than me have pointed out is that this results in fragmenting the Fediverse, which ends up hurting it on the long run. I'd definitely not want to be on an instance that federates with Facebook, but I also wish none of the larger ones choose to do so.

In case you're having the same issue, simply go the the Magazines page and search for a topic you're interested in. Or you could also look at the related magazines or random magazines listed on the sidebar.

Yeah, that might explain it.

Maybe it depends on the country, but I had to give them my phone number to register.

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.

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.

I had to do the same thing after I realized how different the website looks on mobile versus desktop. For something still in early beta, kbin is very well put together.

Here's an article that goes into detail about why Facebook joining the Fediverse means the end of the Fediverse: https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html.

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.

I had used to spend a lot of time on reddit, but I've now created a kbin account to replace reddit. I've added a PWA shortcut where my previous reddit app (Relay) used to be. I've done the same thing to replace Twitter with Mastodon.

Thank you for this guide. I've deleted my posts and comments and requested the account to be deleted.

I'm still new to the fediverse, so please take what I say with a pinch of salt, but when you create an account on the fediverse, you can access all the federated instances. Which is why you're seeing content from both kbin and lemmy instances.

Mullvad has recently.

Like most of people in here, I only pay for Tidal, while also having access to other platforms through friends or family.