Taking some personal days to re-evaluate stuff and think about the future of Operation: Puppet.
The more time that passes, the more I want to invest my time in the #fediverse and the #indieweb. I have a tiny following here but the corpo web is such a dystopian steel wall that at least here there’s a path forward for regular folks.
Seeing a lot of buzz about how the #fediverse is losing users (almost always based on #mastodon numbers) as they drift to things like Threads and Bluesky. Anecdotally I’ve noticed a drop in “engagement”, but I’m not really phased.
This is the weird kids table in the school cafeteria, with the D&D club and goths. We were never going to be the “big thing”, and that’s good.
Yea for sure. The whole “let’s conquer the internet” was arguably always a broken ambition. Different places have different vibes and that’s a good thing. The “everything place” idea (eg Twitter or threads) shouldn’t also be an “all the time” place. Make unique spaces instead. It’s the way of the internet.
And getting real, the protocol (AP) likely isn’t magical or good enough to foster a conquest anyway.
Happy 4th birthday (first commit) to @owncast! Thank you @gabek and all the contributors for your hard work. You’ve made the web a better place. #owncast
The “free but has ads” fallacy: if I can’t afford your paid tier I certainly can’t afford to buy anything from the ads you’re blasting at me. The only ones who actually benefit from this model are ad companies themselves, not the advertisers and certainly not the end user. #enshittification#youtube
@operationpuppet
It's hilarious right?
Like YouTube is weaponizing ads, using them as pain points to "encourage" folks to pay for YT Premium.
Google has all the behavior data on their users, and could legitimately pair brands with people interested in those products.
If you had a business, why would you ever advertise on a platform that uses your ads AGAINST the viewer?
@operationpuppet the fallacy assumes that the reason the person not buying the “no ads” tier did it because they can't afford it and not because it hides the cost. (Fully agreed on the last part, still.)
Although #mastodon is the elephant in the room (see what I did there), the #fediverse is way more than just that. I want to look at other ways to engage with the wider Fediverse, just for fun and my own education. I have a #pixelfed account that I never use but maybe I'll move all my image posting to it and just repost it here, etc. Still mulling.
@nosaj Oh absolutely, but everyone who follows my Mastodon may not also follow my Pixelfed since they’re different servers etc. The Achilles Heel of the Fediverse has always been no single portable identity. Glad to see folks smarter than me now talking about that 😂
The secret project revealed! I was contacted by the wonderful folks at SciShow Kids to make new versions of Bill, Webb and Juniper! Look for them on their YouTube channel soon! #puppets#puppetbuilding
#peertube peeps! Did my first test of live streaming to my server today. All went well but the VoD was split into several uneven videos instead of published as a single video. Any clue where I'd start looking to determine why?
Echoing a sentiment I’ve seen elsewhere, please bear in mind that this time of year is particularly tough for the self employed, gig workers and #artists who are all reeling from paying taxes.
Every artist has some form of Patreon/Ko-Fi/tip jar. If you’re ever inclined, this is the time.
Realized the logo on the #owncast server being the same as the O:P logo everywhere else probably wasn't helpful cuz at a glance folks assume it's all coming form this account. So I gave the https://www.operationpuppet.live logo a bit of a tweak.
Probably going to do a special video just about the Owncast server soon. Really want to build on it, I like it a lot.