I think it's more just because we're early adopters and the first wave of refugees.

We're building something here - and right now, for some it's a new home, for some of us this is something big - a place that resists monetization. This isn't just the fresh new version of social media, built by cool people who have the best intentions and a vision (I think most of them did, at least initially)

Admins go bad, already some of the instances I'm on have people starting to look at not just paying for servers, but making a profit. And if they can live off the donations - fine, more power to them.

But when someone comes knocking with a bag of money, what are they going to do? They can sell us out, but they can't go far before we leave... What do we miss out on? The content will either follow or we're missing out on content elsewhere.

And we can mitigate it further - too many talented people care too much to let this idea die. We're going to face difficult times, but it's a new ephemeral Internet built on top of the one stolen from us - it doesn't start or end with a reddit clone.

And I think that's why we care - because this time is different. It can't go bad the way everything else does. It relies on no one, and it's built from all of us

This place is ours. No kings, no masters, no capitol, no capital

Here's the other thing - he's maybe a millionaire, not a billionaire. That's middle class, maybe upper middle class if he's got other income

This is a normal person who just lost his job with little notice because of a greedy company, and, to add insult to injury, now has to come up with money for refunds out of the blue

I know I wouldn't feel good taking back that money, whether he can afford it or not

Frankly, I think this is the only reasonable stance to take with Facebook.

They do a lot of good things. They do a lot of bad things. The entity itself has zero understanding of the difference

Take the good - Facebook has invested in the maturation of a lot of technologies...as the only clear victor in social media, they very literally have more money than they know what to do with, and they threw some of that at FOSS

Leave the bad... Or more accurately, do everything you can - not only to block their data collection and manipulation of you, but also of your friends and family. Ad blockers, local cdn, and Firefox if they'll go for it

And most importantly, keep them far from the operations of anything you hold dear. The fediverse should make this list - this is something important. It's social media without an agenda - that's both rare and pretty damn important for all of us

They can't stop. There's a lot of good people at Facebook, but they can't stop - that's just what a corporation is. I'll happily break down why from first principles, but the takeaway is this - every last employee of Facebook could be the most moral, competent group out there and it'd still act like an amoral cancer on society

It's not a matter of good or evil, they will take every path that promises ROI on a time frame inversely proportional to their size, and they're freaking huge...

My theory is he's heard Musk brag about how he's made Twitter profitable, and only lost bots and scammers - the users and advertisers all came crawling back (without releasing numbers)

No way that's true, but every owner of social media seems to have paid attention. They want to believe it - there's growing pressure to turn a profit now, so when someone tells you "the users might get mad, but they'll come crawling back if you stand firm" they pay attention

It's pretty easy to convince someone of something so convenient

Totally agree - when the server was quiet and empty it was one thing, but the server isn't quiet or empty anymore.

It's annoying seeing memes reposted by bots (people can do that just fine all on their own), but I've seen stuff like AITA threads - the OP isn't even here to read it... Is the idea to judge people behind their backs?

I found it extra upsetting because I'm hoping the Lemmy version will be more like AITA using to be - it turned from "who is the problem here" to "did you have the right to do this"

As a late millennial and a programmer, I've got you.

So when you request a web page, before anything else, the server gives you a 3 digit status code.

100s means you asked for metadata

200s mean it went ok

300s means you need to go somewhere else (like for login, or because we moved things around)

400s mean you messed up

500s mean I messed up

So this is in the 400s. Each specific code means something - you've probably seen 404, which means you asked for a page that isn't there. And maybe 405, which means you're not allowed to see this

418 means you asked for coffee, but I'm a teapot

I think it should be dramatic - it's a very serious choice, and it shouldn't be made lightly or quietly. Especially when it's because of social rather than technical reasons

It should be a big deal, and admins should feel the need to answer to the community when they make that choice. It needs to be dramatic, or it'll become too easy

That's certainly what the companies believe, is it actually true though? Musk said everyone but the bots came crawling back... Without showing numbers

I think tech CEOs badly want to believe this is true, because it would be an easy solution to all their problems. And with everyone doing something similar, there's no competitor for them to jump to

I think they're about to realize no one has to go to them, entry were just the convenient choice. Once they're no longer convenient, people will turn elsewhere

One of my favorite things to do with chat gpt is having it rewrite things as Trump. I wasn't interested in rereading the constitution a second ago, but it's going to be tremendous, you wouldn't believe how great it's going to be

Yeah, people will do something just for fun, to profit personally, or to spite someone

The moment they realize someone is making money off it, they start getting FOMO - humans are very loss adverse. No one wants to miss out on free money

But what if they had turned around and said, "fine, we'll start hiring you guys. You'll get paid hourly, but you'll have to do the proper paperwork, be given guidelines from corporate, reviewed on your performance regularly, and you might be relocated to undermoderated subs"?

Most of them wouldn't be into it - they don't actually want to work for Reddit, they just don't like feeling like someone else is sitting back and living off their work while they get nothing. The reality is, they're not doing a job, and they generally don't want to be (there's a difference between a job and work, especially work that benefits others vs a job protecting the cash cow)

When someone does a service for you, you act grateful and offer them lemonade and gift cards, you don't try to turn it into a job, and you sure as hell don't break their tools and ask when they'll get back to work

Those things don't sound mutually exclusive

I can't speak for everyone, but when I say lol I usually am trying to soften a self disparaging statement or expressing the absurdity of the situation... Or just lighten the tone because I feel like my message is too serious and I'm coming off like an asshole

Ok, I'll engage you on this one, your position at least seems internally consistent.

Let's play out this example - your 2 year old niece is sick, and so are you. You recently found out that she even exists - you didn't know you had a sister until CPS told you she's your responsibility.

An action that risks your life could possibly save her... Let's say a liver transplant. It has to be you, you're her only living family member. And because of that, you'll also be responsible for her - you can put her up for adoption when this is all over, but you're still on the hook for the medical bills whether this works or not.

She's guaranteed to die if you don't give her the transplant, and you would almost certainly recover quickly on your own.

If you go through with the transplant, she has a slim chance to live, and an even slimmer one to have a decent quality of life.

But in your current state, the transplant is very risky - at best you'll see a lengthy and expensive recovery, after missing months of work you'll be tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Complications could see you paralyzed or in lifelong pain, and it's very possible both of you die on the table - maybe even likely.

The doctors are telling you it's a terrible idea to go through with this, that the risk is unacceptable and it would be a mercy to just let her pass, but they're obligated to go through with it if you insist.

Now, no one is stopping you from going through with it - if you want to put your life on the line for another, that's your decision to make. You're her guardian now, so it's your decision if she should have to go through the pain for the chance at life, no matter how small.

That's all well and good - I've seen enough to know that death is often a mercy, but if you believe otherwise there's not much to say

Now, here's my question - should the government be able to force you to attempt the transplant?

Some of these details might seem weird, but I was trying to stick the metaphor as close as possible to a very real scenario with a dangerous pregnancy. The only difference is - the doctor is performing an action here, but withholding one with the pregnancy.

You're not though - pregnancy is not a lack of action. It's an enormous commitment, especially when it's atypical. It can even be a practically guaranteed death sentence - if the fetus implants in the fallopian tubes, it's already not viable - at best you're waiting for the fetus to grow big enough to rupture them, and hoping the bleed that causes doesn't do too much damage before you can get help.

Not to mention if a fetus dies in the womb after it gets to a certain size, it rots and leads to sepsis - unclear laws and harsh punishments have already led to situations where doctors refused care for both of these life threatening cases, and in both these cases the odds aren't slim, they're none. In the second the fetus was already gone... Sometimes when they induce labor the fetus isn't even in one piece... It's pretty grisly

I don't agree with your belief that a potential life is the same as a life, but let's set that aside - I can respect that as a belief

So... My root question to you is - Should you be able to force someone to risk their own for someone else?

If so, how sure do you have to be that the other person will die no matter what you do before you're released from the compulsion to put your own health on the line?

There's always at least some risk of pregnancy turning fatal for the mother. How much danger do you have to be in for the math to check out?

And also, to what point should politicians with little understanding of medicine be able to deny you care?

I'm actually working on this haha.

It's definitely a v2 feature, but it's in the works

I share your priorities, but I don't think you understand the depth and breath of how they can ruin this for us... The only guarantee is that, at some point (maybe tomorrow, maybe in 5 years), they'll ask "how can we extract value from this investment?". That's what a corporation is, it can't help it anymore than fire can choose how hot to burn

But even before then, we have misaligned goals. At best, their priority is to generate an endless stream of advertiser friendly content, extract information about users, and grow endlessly. At worst, they want to use us to help kill Twitter while ensuring federation of individuals does not become a viable model for social media

There's also a way to add matrix usernames to Lemmy accounts, so it's possible to make an app that ties the two together. Is that a feature people would care about?

I've got a plan. I thought to myself "jeez, pretty crazy you can run a personal Lemmy instance on raspberry pi". So I start thinking - how much could you do on a phone? The answer is - a lot if you do it as you go

I'm pretty good with data - and there's a lot of it there free for the taking. But I'm not a company, and I neither want nor need your data. I don't even need a backend - you talk directly to the fediverse, and your phone crawls the network alongside you.

I'm not paying to process it either, so I don't even have to be that efficient about it - I only need to handle one person's data, on their phone, as they go. I tested it on the Android go phone ATT sent me for free a while back - the thing is a toy that doesn't even run a full version of the play store, and it had no trouble running it

I've laid some pretty significant ground work, and I'm nearing a release - it's not doing anything fancy yet, but it looks decent and it's a great foundation to build on. For now, the recommendations will be just stuff you've scrolled past, but once I build it out it's going to be so good I'll have to remind people their data never leaves their phone.

After all, it's based on how humans meet naturally - through common interests and meeting friends of friends

I'm testing the posting right now - I've been pretty stressed when I remembered that other people probably like to post, and I need to finish that and a new-user onboarding that will plop you on a bunch of servers to get a feel for them before you sign up. Keep an eye out for Flemmy, I'm putting it on the play store by Saturday, and an iPhone build will be not too far behind.

Well, I guess I should probably wire up the inbox... It's kind of therapeutic posting without being able to see replies, but probably not improving my social skills

What in an account? It's not the name or karma, because we have display names and no karma (I think it should be per community, but discussions on if we even want it are ongoing, maybe someone will come up with a really clever idea)

If it's your subs, saved posts/settings, and even getting notifications for responses to your posts/comments I'm building all that into an app. The only thing you obviously couldn't do is edit - but an account migration method in the federation spec is in the works

But I love decentralization, I think it's the answer to everything, and it needs to go further.

All important data should live on your device and be updated, and can be applied to a different account (even on a different server)

You should be able to talk to multiple servers at the same time. This one has me stuck in refactoring... But I'm pretty sure I've got it down, I just need sleep.

You should be able to do not just filtering, but sorting and discovery at the device level - I've got custom filters working, someone asked for a keyword filter, and I thought "that sounds like a bad idea, let's try it out". You can also go server by server and do searches, then if you like something, you hit subscribe and it'll tell your server to start pulling it in

I've also got plans to use voting to look at what communities and users you like most, and show you what they like. All without the data leaving your phone.

Centralization makes everything way easier, so it's a constant temptation. But we'll get more and more decentralized as time goes on.. I'll drag the fediverse in that direction kicking and screaming myself if I have to... This is too important to just let it become just

Luckily, a lot of the devs building for Lemmy feel that way - at every layer, we're asking what we can do to take it further

I was using wefwef, it looks nice but it's slow and has awkward UX. Every time I want to reply or vote, I have to take a second to think about which way to swipe

I think you're into something about not complete or not good - I was hoping to be one of the firsts, but building a solid foundation takes time - I could've gotten something out there a week ago, but I've got big plans - I want to build discovery and sorting into the app, I want to be able to pull from multiple servers at once, and I want users new to Lemmy to have their hands held as they pick a server. And obviously, it has to feel responsive

To do that I had to build a data store and coax high performance libraries to play nice. I was pulling posts and had the account switching working on day 1, but I didn't even start on posting until a couple days ago - and only after I made drafts that would reload when you go back

It's easy to build something rough, fast, or inefficient Building something polished means working on the foundations, building it up, and doing and redoing things as you consider what feels "right"

Give Flemmy a shot in a few days if you're on Android (more like a couple weeks on iphone). It's still early days and there will be bugs and missing features, but, now that the groundwork is solid, it's moving fast

That's certainly what the companies believe, is it actually true though? Musk said everyone but the bots came crawling back... Without showing numbers

I think tech CEOs badly want to believe this is true, because it would be an easy solution to all their problems. And with everyone doing something similar, there's no competitor for them to jump to

I think they're about to realize no one has to go to them, entry were just the convenient choice. Once they're no longer convenient, people will turn elsewhere