atomicpoet

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

Straight men who disavow all femininity, what is up with that?

If you supposedly love women, then you should love femininity—and how it’s expressed.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

This is supposedly the “straight” flag. And I hate it.

Not only is it boring, it seems oppressive. Whoever designed this flag must love prisons. In fact, if someone wore this flag, I’d think it was a prison uniform.

I’m a masculine person who’s only ever been in relationships with feminine people. I don’t want this flag representing me.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

My day has officially been made.

I was walking by myself when an elderly man in a wheelchair yelled out, “You are strong!”

I thanked the fellow.

No one has ever called me strong before.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

Whenever I watch pro baseball, I’m impressed by the names of the white baseball players. It’s often something like “Orenby Hackenschmittydoodle” or “Zephyr Wootentabby III”.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to fediverse

I’ve been around for a few migrations to the #Fediverse. They follow similar patterns.

First, some Big Social service does something bad, something so egregious it pisses off a vocal set of people on Big Social.

A bunch of people on Big Social realize they don’t want to be beholden to some company trying to get rich off their work, so they look for an alternative. They land on the Fediverse because it’s the one space that is resistant to centralized control. They want something specific: social media that is decentralized. This first group of migrants tends to be the most enthusiastic.

The next group of people who migrate don’t care as much about centralization or decentralization. But they like the first group, and they generally want to be supportive so they take the step of migrating.

After that comes a group motivated by FOMO. They see something happening, want to be part of it, and go where they perceive the crowd is going. They like the high of a mass movement happening, and love participating in something bigger than themselves. This group is very influential, as they generate hype and a sense that the Fediverse is “the hotness”.

Thereafter comes influencers, usually people who are influential on other platforms and want to go where they believe the audience is going. But not always. Some of them are wannabe influencers with dreams of grandeur, and want to be “first” at a space they perceive is in its infancy.

What’s next? Journalists. And to be specific, I’m not talking about journalists who are already active on the Fediverse, but those who come in cold, are already overworked, and are probably bitter about visiting what they perceive to be a convoluted nerd “site”. They don’t understand what’s going on, but they were given an assignment from their editor, and so they have to write something – anything – to explain it (what they perceive to be it) to the masses.

Finally, there’s the “mainstream”. These are people who read something in Android Authority or the New Yorker or the Washington Post, have minimal curiosity, and try registering an account. They give what they initially think is a “site” a glance, just so they can say they’re in the know. They now know what the big deal is, or think they do.

Most of these migrants won’t be here for the long term. And some of them might even become detractors, angry that the Fediverse doesn’t work like “everything else”. And that’s okay. The Fediverse can’t be all things to all people – yet.

However, there will also be some who stay because they realize there’s something about the Fediverse that speaks to them. These people become incredibly active, big evangelists for the Fediverse, telling people they know about its benefits.

Each migration builds the network effect of the Fediverse. Each migration builds awareness.

And more importantly, each migration builds further upon what is possible with the Fediverse.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

If you’re here for conversations about the Fediverse, please don’t follow this account (@atomicpoet). Instead follow my other account, @atomicpoet.

This account is for personal interests. I talk about workouts, video games, music, that kind of thing.

Occasionally, I use it as a back-up for the work account—which I’ve been doing for the past two weeks. However, that is temporary, and I plan on using the other account more often eventually.

evan, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

"Google should have a software service in the Fediverse."

#EvanPoll #poll

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to kbin

The #Kbin mobile web app is better than #Reddit’s mobile web app.

Not hard to do since Reddit hates it when you use their mobile web app. But still—this is one thing in Kbin’s favour.

evan, 11 months ago to random

Who's the epic Python hacker who's going to fork the Jaiku codebase and put it on the Fediverse?

https://code.google.com/archive/p/jaikuengine/

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to reddit

Android Authority doesn’t get it.

Compared to #Reddit, #Lemmy sucks. And so does #Kbin. We all know that.

The #RedditMigration isn’t about any app being better than Reddit. It’s about a company that’s grown on the backs of volunteer labour now claiming ownership of that labour.

Reddit didn’t write those posts, draw those illustrations, make those videos. We did.

And Reddit sure as hell didn’t create those communities, nurture them, and moderate them. We did.

I agree with tech writers who say that the average person just “wants their memes”. But Reddit never made those memes. We did.

Content might be king. But who makes content? We do.

I have no doubt that the average person just wants content. But while we might be providing content for free, we’re not dancing monkeys. Who decides why content is made, how it’s made, and where it exists? We do.

The Fediverse doesn’t exist merely as an engine for content. It exists so that people can share what they love.

Why are people coming to the Fediverse specifically? Because we rightfully see ActivityPub as insurance for our content – which, again, is made by and for us.

Not Reddit. Not Big Social. Us.

If I’m giving my content away for free, then so long as it is federated, no one company can own it – putting up gates, demanding payment for my work. Instead, my work is out there, living on 24,000 nodes that presently exist.

Android Authority might dismiss this as “suffering the same fate” – what fate they perceive, I don’t know. But to me, the true “suffering” is when a company like Reddit claims ownership of my work, locking 3rd party developers out from API access.

For this reason, I’m locking Reddit out from my work.

Perhaps the author of this post, Dhruv Bhutani, doesn’t consider that he’s writing for a, well, blog. And that this blog exists on its own domain, with its own design, as its own property. He could have written this entire post on Reddit, but he didn’t.

Why? I suspect it’s because he believes his work has value, and Reddit simply doesn’t give him what he believes is his worth.

Same deal with me. I’m not looking to get paid for my work on Reddit. I do it for fun – always have. But if I’m doing something for fun, it’s still going to be on my terms.

Not all of us creatives are willing to be a cog in Big Social’s machine. That’s why I’m here on the Fediverse right now. I don’t give a damn whether the average person just wants memes. I create for me.

So yeah, Lemmy and Kbin suck. I can live with that – they will both improve. And I have no doubt that, with time, they might prove to be better than Reddit.

But this isn’t about how good Lemmy or Kbin are. Nor is this about the insatiable appetite for memes.

This is about my need to create on my terms – and I’m not alone here.

Decentralization is the killer feature here.

https://www.androidauthority.com/reddit-alternatives-lemmy-3335429/

@fediversenews

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

Just finished a binge of Paul Anka tunes.

That guy has class.

atomicpoet, 11 months ago to random

I took 5mL of CBD oil.

It’s not psychoactive. But I do feel incredibly calm and relaxed as well as clear-headed too.