This is absolutely true, and this is how the internet was back in the old days before Big tech and megaplatforms. People would set up little servers on their cable modems using spare laptops. It was experimental, it was imperfect, but it was ours. One side effect of this, was that you had to be at least a little bit smart to get yourself connected to it. Even if that just meant knowing that connecting to it was something that you wanted to do. That weeded out a lot of idiots who contribute low quality discussion. Also, because there is no giant company with a financial incentive to get everybody to use it as much as possible, things were built for raw functionality rather than trying to make them easy for people to get addicted to in 30 seconds. That naturally makes them more usable for anybody with an IQ over 90.
It didn't take long for ads to come along. Remember the 90s banners where you would punch the monkey to win $20? Or the text links that were ads? Pop ups?
Okay that's fair- I'm sure some instances will choose to advertise in some way.
TBH I'm more concerned about spam. Reddit has an army of anti-spam stuff, and that's just one site. As Lemmy grows, it will become a spam target, which will be more challenging due to its open nature (IE spammers will spin up their own instances eventually). I suspect that much like e-mail, some kind of RBL list will emerge.
I see what you’re doing there, but it caused me real pain on Reddit that no one could do effect/affect or reins/reigns or populace/populous or phenomenon/phenomena or you’re/your or they’re/their/there or lose/loose or who/whom or counsel/council or “she and I”/“her and me” or may/might or i.e./e.g. or its/it’s or lay/lie or pique/peak or pore/pour or… sorry, I’m a bit anal and a bit traumatized. Anal trauma, if you will.
Instead of focusing on specifics (online, "they") focus on the basics.
Where does any piece of information come from? What are the underlying assumptions in it? How is it framed? How is it circulated? What effect does it have? Etc. If people automatically think critically, they are way less susceptible.
This comment reminds me of CrashCourse Navigating Digital Information which taught me fact checking and how to look up info on the internet. Playlist Here
"Learn to pick your battles." I've found that the vast majority of battles aren't worth picking. Your time and energy are valuable, don't waste them on things that aren't worth it. Ask yourself, "Am I willing to die on a hill for this?" Most of the time, you should just walk away.
Learn how to do deep, honest self reflection, the kind that makes you fully vulnerable to yourself. If you feel yourself snapping to a conclusion rapidly or defending a position aggressively, stop and really question why. What are the reasons you think that/feel that?
Use those moments to expose yourself to opposing views with an open mind. Even if you still end up on the same side, you'll have at least understood where the other person is coming from. I've trained myself to be suspicious any time I hold a view where I struggle to think of plausible arguments supporting an opposing view. That usually indicates that I've been in an echo chamber and I need to start challenging my own position more.
"The heart without the mind is ineffective. The mind without the heart is insincere." Passion and practicality need to work together to find effective solutions to make the world better. It does little good to have a bleeding heart with no plan of action to accomplish anything. It also does little good to have a plan of action without people involved who truly believe in it and care about the outcome.
Those folks will be the only ones left when funding runs thin and support dwindles, the bleeding hearts will show up when the weather's bad, show up early and stay late. Both are essential to create lasting, effective, positive change in the world.
Above all else, be compassionate. All people deserve basic human dignity. Love people as best as you can. This has sadly been the hardest lesson for me to learn. I grew up in a family with lots of law enforcement connections and sadly, I was taught to fear, hate, and ridicule far more often than I was taught to love.
I know that's not everybody's experience, but that was my experience. I was taught that if somebody was in a bad situation in life, it was almost always their fault, and they were to be condemned for that and I was to treat them as outcasts.
I'm ashamed to admit that I carried that mentality with me through all of my childhood and into my adult life. I was disgusted by homeless folks, drug addicts, people suffering in shelters and in government housing. I'm ashamed to admit that I viewed them as parasites, draining valuable resources from society all because they were "too lazy/dysfunctional to be productive."
I was told this and taught this as truth. Thankfully I started to slowly deconstruct and question all of that that in my 20's. Something started to happen to me internally, and when I would see a person begging or hear a story about impoverished folks struggling, I started to feel care, and compassion, and concern for them. I started to understand the systemic reasons for their situation, I stopped thinking the way to deal with these problems was to throw them in jail or fine them for panhandling.
I'm happy to say that my spouse and I are involved in community efforts now days to help folks in need. We're are working with different organizations that address these issues in our home city and it's been such a fulfilling journey so far.
Sorry for the novel, I felt like I needed to get some of that off my chest. This world is really broken and the underprivileged are suffering a lot. Don't be like a younger me and add to that, be compassionate and caring to others. Love and try to understand. Help and serve, you might be the only hint of positivity another person sees for days, weeks, even years, so make it count.
Find orgs/groups around you that help folks in need and address systemic issues in your communities. Stand up for those who are the most vulnerable, give a voice to those that don't have one.
Peace, love, and good vibes to everybody here and beyond. I hope y'alls day/night goes well. Stay safe and be well. <3
It is best to move to Firefox because fundamentally the chromium project thrives because of Google ,an Ad company. It is not worth using chromium derivatives.
I don't plan on going back to Reddit in a major way. After giving Reddit up, I find myself thinking over my experience on that site for the last few years. Engaging commentary was harder and harder to find, particularly in any sub of sufficient size, and I spent a lot of my scrolling through Reddit angry. Leaving Reddit has been a wake up call for me. It's a rat race on Reddit, and I don't need that in my life anymore.
A mix of donations for the larger instances, and some self-hosting for smaller instances. E.g., lemmy.world has a couple of links for Donations in the sidebar. Kbin got some seed money from NLnet.
The whole thing is federated, so this costs are distributed, and I'd imagine largely pro bono.
I think lemmy.ml was getting money from NLnet by completing Milestones, but now that they’re scrambling to handle bugs and doing Q&A constantly I think they’re losing out on that funding. At least that’s what Dessalines reported, I believe
That's a very important point. Some of us probably still remember the learning curve when coming to lemmy. Everyone has heard how others complained about it, or would not join in the first place.
Creating ambiguous terms and multiple definitions for the same things is one unecessary way to make life harder for everyone.
I tried to read that but it was way too drawn out. I think I made it to page 200 or so and he didnt even leave his village yet. And it has 1000 pages. That was years ago so numbers might be wrong.
Rats are actually very good pets. You’ll need 2 because they are super social. They are very clean and smart, and it’s possible to train them. We had some when my kids were small and one would ride around on my shoulder. Super cute.
Also, they’re cheap. But they don’t live very long. They aren’t hypo allergenic but they’re so small it isn’t a problem, my wife is allergic to cats and regular dogs and she didn’t have an issue.
Or, get a non-allergy dog. There’s lots of doodles and shitzu mixes out there now.
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