Speaking as one, the majority are decent people but there is a minority who are openly fash and a sadly growing amount who tolerate fash bands cos the riffs are good.

If its open source and privacy respecting then I’ll use the app. If its not and I have to use the service then website

Great to see another brand new browser under active development!

UK experience:

• Open all your windows to air out for at least 20mins every day. If the place is prone to damp, twice a day. This includes days its sub-zero outside
• Cheap rugs in strategic high traffic places protect shit carpets
• If the landlord supplied it, the landlord fixes it
• Get a windup torch for when the power goes out (it will)
• Massive electric blankets to wrap up in rather than having the heating on 24/7
• Charity shops for cutlery, glasses, mugs, plates. cooking utensils etc. Just make sure to clean them well before using.
• Heavy thermal curtains in front of external facing doors and between rooms (if open plan).
• Make sure you know exactly where elec/gas/water meters are, make a note of their reg. no. and take regular readings.
• Get storage solutions that stack high rather than wide.

I fully support the autonomous right of all people to make informed decisions about their own lives and on paper the idea is a no-brainer.

But unless the legislation surrounding it is very, very tight it could easily be misused or abused. We already live in societies where people with disabilities - particularly learning based disabilities - are seen as having less value. I have overheard conversations where people pass comment on people with disabilities such as “Can’t be much of a life”, “would’ve been better for them if they’d died at birth” etc etc.

Amongst the first group of people the Nazi’s targeted were people with disabilities that they referred to as ‘useless eaters’ and subhuman.

I’m not suggesting that laws allowing self-euthanasia are akin to fascism so don’t Godwin me. All I’m saying is that without very strong legislation and a lot of checks, laws like this can be used to justify a lot of things.

Much like my fellow English folk in this thread, I wasn’t sure what they even were. The only times I’ve ever had them is on an egg mcmuffin at the local Mickey D’s.

We will get whatever companies and algorithms push at us, just like social media. The idea that media is tailored to us is a bit of a myth in my opinion when that tailoring can be overridden at the whim of an advertiser paying more than the competition.

I’m also not sure that tailoring things is really good for personal growth. Of course we all have tastes and prefer certain genres in terms of things like games, books, movies, music etc but having just tailored content seems like a bit of a dead end street where its more and more difficult to find experiences you’ve never even considered, let alone tried.

The people leaving Twitter right now want Twitter minus Elon. That’s Bluesky. They’ve heard a couple of their Twitter follows mention it and they’ve gone to their app store where they find an app called Bluesky, install it and easily join and start using it. Once they do they are finding it pretty straightforward to find people they used to follow on Twitter.

That’s all people want.

And it’ll stay that way until people use, and keep using, this space. So, to use an overused phrase, be the change you want to see :)

Growth is a secondary concern to me. I’m not against it but quality is much more important to me than quantity. And I mean quality in terms of content AND respectful interaction.

Historically, if one can even use the word for such a recent thing as the internet, techies are usually first to a new thing. And these types of conversations inevitably follow at some point as though growth at all costs is the only way to stave off death. And then a decade or so further on we end up with Xitter, Meta and Reddit where the anger is palpable and the interface revolves around pushing monetised hate at you and exploiting your private data for another source of monetisation.

I’m enjoying being able to go somewhere everyday where I don’t have awfulness pushed to a platform curated feed I can’t opt out of. If people want those things - fine they exist. I hope the fediverse does all it can to avoid interacting with or devolving to those places and that any discoverability tools that might get developed are for people not algorithms. I hope it remains an alternative to that mindset, not just another place to fling shit at each other.

Only Brits or BBC International viewers will know this character but Catherine Cawood from Happy Valley.

And obviously Ellen Ripley, Dana Scully and Sarah Connor.

I pay Bitwarden the tenner a year as I have no reason to distrust them and they’re definitely providing a more reliable, securer service than I can self-host.

I also do an encrypted export once per week and store that export to an encrypted cloud based service and an encrypted USB stick. Takes 2 minutes.

Bandcamp is still OK for me and I listen to some fairly obscure stuff.

Just to offer a heads up - there’s a new solution/site which is currently in Beta but is backed by good people (musicians). It needs an influx of music diversity (lots of metal at the moment) but if it gets that when it comes out of beta then it could very well be a good Bandcamp replacament - Ampwall

Incontinentia Buttocks.

Invitation To Love the soap opera that a lot of residents of Twin Peaks, especially Nadine, seemingly adored.

Bad idea. Last time someone did this we ended up with this timeline.

Mate, I was simply extending an analogy you introduced. I neither know (nor care) what the presence of a McDonalds does or doesn’t do so don’t Sagan me. Nor am I claiming mainstream social media is all arseholes. What I’m saying is that mainstream social media most certainly has the ability and propensity to make people into arseholes due to constant enshittification - part of which is the influencer phenomenon in my opinion and the need for growth at all costs.

I most definitely have reached out to lots of good people on the fediverse and had lots of great exchanges that follow both professional and ‘hobby’ based interests I have.

But here’s the thing - you want growth? OK. I also have no issue with growth. But the best sort of growth in my experience comes organically. It happens at its own pace. The minute you start prodding it along with managed algorithms and all the other stuff mainstream social media now has you end up with an extended hate room. I don’t miss Reddit or Xitter at all. I genuinely mean that. No more ‘suggestions’ of people to follow, no more manufactured outrage getting pushed to my feed, no more clickbait. Instead what I have now is a curated feed across multiple different types of experiences that I spent some time getting how I want them and dipping in and out of when I want to.

You’re using words like ‘ambition’ and ‘irrelevant’ like the Fediverse is some sort of corporate entity. It’s not - that’s a point very much in its favour in the opinion of quite a lot of people on it. Contrary to your opinion that no one cares, lots do. What some of us don’t care about is catering to a set of people who are paid to express opinions and who, it seems to me, over a period of time end up becoming Andrew Tate or Russel Brand.

There’s no McDonalds in the town I currently live in, which is 20 minutes away from one of the largest cities in the country. It might come as a massive shock to you but I - and I think the majority of people - can survive just fine without a Mickey D’s. Not having one doesn’t make a place desolate, it makes it healthier. And if someone really wants a Big Mac, they can go and get one from elsewhere.

Do you see what I’m saying? This isn’t the same place as that - it’s quite nice to have a place online that still isn’t. And for those that do want that, they can still spend time there if they chose to.

Strangely comforting for something I’m sure you thought was a snappy comeback,

I genuinely don’t care about influencers. Like, at all.