Nix

That took a while… enough to have double/triple/quadruple checked and “removed” most high profile names with any modicum of power and/or financial backing 🤔

Well I reserve my judgment until the names are published. We already know some of the entourage from previous journalists and reports.

If most names published are of unknown, foreign or already passed away individuals it would be quite suspicious indeed.

Unfortunately, due to the constant willful or untested shenanigans of various website I have set up all my system’s Firefox profiles to spoof by default its user agent (and other JavaScript properties) as Windows 11, x86_64, Firefox LTS (even if I use latest, Aurora or beta). Some blantant recent example: YouTube uses lower quality options on browsers running on Arm-based systems — misreporting as an x86 CPU appears to be a widespread browser fix

Doing so has helped me and many friends/family I switched to a flavor of Linux (mostly Mint, but sometimes LMDE or Ubuntu or specific requirements/demands) avoid numerous dumb problems.

Even on mobile sometimes UX breaking issues creep up.

Okay, somewhat alive and on crutches. 😓

There are still some rare yet ephemeral sparks of good insights left dwelling and lurking over there.

During the reddit blackout I almost automatically/unconsciously went back there to see what’s up like I used to back then.

Forums/Slashdot(still alive 😃)/digg/newground »» Reddit/facebook/twitter (all dead) »» fediverse »» [the cycle continues] »» ∞

Most of the time, I have been a lurker without an account and only bothered to make an account or even log in with said account whenever I had to ask a question or answer something I knew about well.

I like forums and sites where you don’t have to have an account to post/reply. However, with the growing issues with bots/sockpuppets/trolls and general troublemaker those beautiful vestige of an old trusting era are getting rarer and rarer (still lively, vibrant and growing as they and new services transitions to local networks/intranet though).

In any case, the internet has always been in constant flux. Nevertheless, I have always adapted myself with the changes and try not to put too many eggs in a single or few services. I usually prefer systems and services I can run/host myself for family, friends and myself.

I’m still dumbfounded by the sheer number sycophant and adulator that keeps believing the everchanging nonsense he is peddling.

Despite being proven a liar on a regular basis and destroying the lives of even his closest so called allies and friends.

I just wonder what their daily lives are like to be so gullible and never realising that they are being lied to or being taken advantage of. On the contrary, they insult/trample/lash out against anyone trying to help them or even just trying to understand them.

Well, I have given them all the empathy I could muster (amongst the handful of people I knew).

Lying to more than, let’ say, 100 individual (simultaneously to an audience or separately the same lie to different persons) should entail concrete consequence. For example, being confined to their home for a certain amount of weeks/months without access to TV, internet and other means of electronic/immediate information/communication so as to let them simmer in their thoughts for the duration. Whether they are the president of a company/country attempting a subterfuge or a edgy 13 years old trying to impress their classmates.

Having immediate consequence for proven lies would have solved so many past and current problems and impending crisis (from climate change, antivax, cults, PFAS/pesticides to the subprime mortgage fiasco, tobacco/asbestos disinformation, Libor rate, Enron, Theranos, Boeing 737 MAX, Volkswagen emissions, the ongoing cryptocoin/NFT craze, the list is truly endless… ). Small lies eventually leads to bigger and bigger lies until it’s too late.

Obviously, some lies are sometime necessary to still perform what most would consider to be in good faith. For example, preparing a surprise birthday party for someone and everyone participating having to lie to keep them in the dark until moment is right to reveal the surprise. Or, parents making stories to reassure their children in a difficult or unexpected situation.

In the majority of those “in good faith” situations, the number of people being lied to are limited to less than 20 individual and usually only for a known limited period of time. Hence, my undocumented 100 person treshold. If one has to convey the same lie to more than 50 people they should rethink whatever they are up to.

… Welp, I got sidetracked again …

Politician who blatantly lie to get elected would have never been an issue. They can be “mistaken” or “misremembering” until they are proven incorrect. Which they will have to rectify and therefore cannot continue to peddle the same lie or would be locked at home without any means of outside communication for a non trivial amount of time.

The profusion of misinformation will be the downfall of our societies, before even the climate crisis ruins us, if not dealt with in time with the seriousness it requires.

Awesome! It’s great to see thing become snappier and better since I joined Lemmy.

Reddit would almost never update unless it was a pants on fire situation or they would force feed features that no one wanted or even was tested properly.

A big thank you to everyone involved, FROM those taking the time to submit bug descriptions in a reproducible manner and those making feature requests or those simply upvoting and pointing out the most needed patch/updates TO simultaneously amateur, newly minted coders and veteran developpers pushing small and big patches to fix anything from typos, reformatting old code, cleaning almost unnoticeable UI object, transition less performing backend modules or secure/harden of all these moving parts.

I am glad to witness and be a part of the perpetual progress of the fediverse.

I have always used a realistic but totally fake name with Amazon (and other country specific tld) and any other online merchants. However, I always use my full name on my credit card (or family member credit card if I purchase on their behalf). Moreover, for delivery I use another real name (only her first name) to be sure they deliver to the right person who is always available.

This is probably a new security thing for new accounts, my Amazon accounts are from 2009~2011 and I regularly use them (daily even).

This is so that if there is a breach/hack at the merchants system my own exposure is as limited as possible or as messy as possible (i have multiple different addresses and multiple different names in each account, some not valid anymore because someone or I moved or changed cards).

Thanks 😊

An automated transcription bot for linked audio or video content (longer content, interviews, etc.) would be incredibly useful.

It might be important to point out how pervasive clickbait content has become.

Even reputable journalists have to let their work become Clickbaity by their editors (title and headline mostly).

Despite all their efforts and super “AI” tools, YouTube is full of irrelevant clickbait whenever searching for something.

All that just to get a pinch from the advertising money pit.

Paying moderators and redditors will likely kill whatever vestiges are left of reddit.

Moreover, altruistic behavior tend to shun/shy away from paid work (it’s a totally different mindset).

It is rather interesting to note that this Corpus of data may not be as valuable if it cannot be used without always being legally in several grey areas (perhaps even red areas in some jurisdictions).

Currently, an increasingly large pool of artist/writters/singers and other people (even corporations such as studios and large right holders) are exercising their rights to not have their creations and derived works be used or slurped into AI models without their express consent.

Corporations making use of those AI models may find themselves in expensive legal limbo now and the foreseeable future.

Considering no redditor imagined nor consented to have their post and comment history be comprehensively abused (as in “improper treatment or usage; application to a wrong or bad purpose; an unjust, corrupt or wrongful practice or custom”).

We may enter a period where lawlessness pervades AI models (just like any gold rush, for example the current crypto craze). Eventually, the legal framework will catch up and will probably make any dubious Corpus of data untouchable.

How long this takes is anyone’s guess. I surmise several large profile lawsuits would suffice.

Oh wow, I remember that book at my library. I think I was hand copying urls for interesting sites (games maybe?? bonus.com still exists??) and my parents just got 56k internet (the cheapest option at the time I think). 5Mbps or 10Mbps was the highest option but expensive.

Neat little memory. Thanks 😊

Been mostly a reddit lurker since the collapse of digg. I generally don’t make accounts after a series of website shutdowns, it’s annoying to put energy/time/upkeep into someone else’s platform (anybody still remember Microsoft Spaces? – a MySpace knockoff).

Eversince those experiences, I have essentially used RSS/Atom and XML feeds for all my news and various forum of interest whenever available. Otherwise I run my own scrapping tools with a mix of cURL, xmlstarlet, jq, etc… and whatever new fancy tools are Du Jour.

Even price watching for deals on different online stores; I almost always guest checkout (exception for stores I purchase from multiple times monthly, keeping track of orders and return can be annoying).

Hopefully, this fediverse-thing will be more resilient. Nevertheless, I’m ready to jump ship whenever I see the usual Iceberg…

I am going to get some popcorn and a comfy sofa and watch them add “fuel into the proverbial bonfire”

Lucky for me, I was an eternal lurker on reddit. The few accounts I had were basically single post/comment throwaway.

I am in awe. I have been seeing this graph posted and updated couple of times every year for at least a decade maybe. This is truly a SHTF moment.

Some of the other graphs I keep a eye on are the arctic sea ice extent and the Mona Kea daily average CO2 ppm.

Truly, we humans have taken over piloting this planet whether want to or not, whether we are aware of it or not, willfully blinded or not.

It was truly unexpected to see how large social networks find new and innovative ways to ride and accelerate their downfall.

From my perspective:

• Facebook --> Cambridge Analytica fiasco

• Twitter --> Elon was bluffing but Twitters Legal team forced him to proceed otherwise the SEC was already looking for blood and an excuse to make his life very difficult for all his previous shenanigans

• Reddit --> already downhill since just before Ellen Pao nonetheless may I speculate that perhaps one or more of the larger shareholders/investors forced the current situation but Huffman underestimated and did not realize that the power users and pro bono moderators were entirely dependent on third-party apps.

Moreover, I exclusively used reddit through old.reddit.com I have no idea how current Reddit actually looks like nor do I care as it was unusable.

Sad to see great things go but life continues onward.

I’m liking lemmy on Android with Jerboa, no major issues.

Moreover, I have been able to subscribe to several communities on different instances.

It is taking shape as we use and improve it.

Glad to see that I am not the only one a bit lost but excited with this transition from reddit.

Hopefully this fediverse-thing will be way better and more resilient than everything past.

I was finally able to subscribe to other instances. YAY!