chamim

chamim, 11 months ago

Not exactly. What Facebook is expected to attempt here is an embrace, extend and extinguish strategy.

chamim, 11 months ago

As others (source 1, source 2) have put it, this spells huge trouble for ActivityPub if Facebook joins in. Which is what this organized effort is trying to prevent.

chamim, 11 months ago

I'm honestly questioning if TheYang is reading our comments or if they are just spewing the same talking points regardless of the arguments presented to them. It's baffling to see people so willing to embrace a corporation that has done nothing but exploit its users and their privacy.

chamim, 11 months ago

How is it a win for me if I specifically signed up for a fediverse account to get away from data-hoarding, money-driven corporations like Facebook? I don't want Facebook to have access to my account information, posts and comments. I think you're missing the point about who this company is and the extent to which it is willing to go to get people's data.

chamim, 11 months ago

I think you're missing the point. We are weary of Facebook's decision to enter the Fediverse exactly because we know it sees the Fediverse as a long-term threat and it could try to extinguish it. While they at first would adopt open standards and protocols, what stops them from creating proprietary extensions and using those and its dominance and resources to make it difficult for users to switch to other platforms in the Fediverse?

chamim, 11 months ago

Nobody's saying that, in terms of user bases, the Fediverse is comparable to Facebook or Instagram. And it seems to me that you are misrepresenting why people here, myself included, don't want our instances to federated with Facebook. It's not that we don't want bigger communities. Most of us have been on Facebook or Reddit and have given up on those bigger communities and adopted the Fediverse because it aligns with our values and privacy principles. Facebook does not. Its Fediverse platform will not suddenly be the opposite of what the company has been doing for more than a decade.

chamim, 11 months ago

The Fediverse and Facebook's business model are incompatible, and that's the main issue here. And in terms of users, I'm sure there are a lot of kbin and Lemmy users who would have an issue with their instances federating with Facebook.

chamim, 11 months ago

Mullvad has recently.

chamim, 11 months ago

This is what I'm using and it's a decent experience, especially since you can tweak things to your liking.

chamim, 11 months ago

Reddit didn't always have the user base it has now, it took them years to become big. I don't think we should strive to be as big as reddit.

I was reading the comments to a Lemmy post today (I cannot find it now, to link to it), where users who've been on the platform for a while talked about how the recent wave of signups improved the experience. If the people that are going to switch over at the end of the month continue to a positive influence, that's a win in my view.

chamim, 11 months ago

Musk knows that he needs to say/do outrageous things to keep receiving either attention on twitter or free press. He strives to be relevant to those who, for some reason, take him seriously. He's a pathological liar willing to say whatever ridiculous thing makes him appear as relevant.

chamim, 11 months ago

While I see what you mean about the names causing confusion, as I was confused myself at first, it took me very little time to adapt. Don't underestimate the users, most won't care too much about what 'subreddits' are called on each platform.

chamim, 11 months ago

Suddently they care about their users, suuure.

chamim, 11 months ago

Considering OpenAI is asking for your phone number to sign up for an account, it's not hard for the stolen accounts to be linked to the owners.

chamim, 11 months ago

Not an admin or mod, but I can say that this is already better than reddit. There's more transparency and users are being listened to. You can follow the kbinMeta magazine, for instance, to see what I'm talking about.

chamim, 11 months ago

I think it depends on what you mean by privacy. But I do recommend you read what the Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about the fediverse. They released an extensive series about it last year: Leaving Twitter's Walled Garden & The Fediverse Could Be Awesome (If We Don’t Screw It Up).

Here's the part that addresses your concern:

Take privacy: the default with incumbent platforms is usually an all-or-nothing bargain where you accept a platform’s terms or delete your account. The privacy dashboards buried deep in the platform’s settings are a way to tinker in the margins, but even if you untick every box, the big commercial services still harvest vast amounts of your data. To rely on these major platforms is to lose critical autonomy over your privacy, your security, and your free expression.

This handful of companies also share a single business model, based upon tracking us. Not only is this invasion of privacy creepy, but also the vast, frequently unnecessary amount and kinds of data being collected – your location, your friends and other contacts, your thoughts, and more – are often shared, leaked, and sold. They are also used to create inferences about you that can deeply impact your life.

Even if you don’t mind having your data harvested, the mere act of collecting all of this sensitive information in one place makes for a toxic asset. A single bad lapse in security can compromise the privacy and safety of hundreds of millions of people. And once gathered, the information can be shared or demanded by law enforcement. Law enforcement access is even more worrisome in post-Dobbs America, where we already see criminal prosecutions based in part upon people’s social media activities.

We’re also exhausted by social media’s often parasitic role in our lives. Many platforms are optimized to keep us scrolling and posting, and to prevent us from looking away. There’s precious little you can do to turn off these enticements and suggestions, despite the growing recognition that they can have a detrimental effect on our mental health and on our public discourse. Dis- and misinformation, harassment and bullying have thrived in this environment.

There’s also the impossible task of global content moderation at scale. Content moderation fails on two fronts: first, users all over the world have seen that platforms fail to remove extremely harmful content, including disinformation and incitement that is forbidden by the platforms’ own policies. At the same time, platforms improperly remove numerous forms of vital expression, especially from those with little social power. To add insult to injury, users are given few options for appeal or restoration.

These failures have triggered a mounting backlash. On both sides of the U.S. political spectrum, there’s been a flurry of ill-considered legislation aimed at regulating social media moderation practices. Outside of the U.S. we’ve seen multiple “online harms” proposals that are likely to make things worse for users, especially the most marginalized and vulnerable, and don’t meaningfully give everyday people more say over their online life. In some places, such as Turkey, bad legislation is already a reality.

chamim, 11 months ago

He lives in a bubble and he's certain that following Musk's example will make him richer. But what he fails to understand is that, while reddit is massive and people are addicted to or reliant on it, if it stops producing high-quality content, it's going to eventually be replaced by something else. Hopefully, by the fediverse.

chamim, 11 months ago

They took insporation from Twitter and we all know how profitable that turned out to be.

chamim, 11 months ago

Please don't harass reddit employees who have no say in what the company does.

chamim, 11 months ago

I play a lot of Stardew Valley and I'm going to miss that community, as there sadly doen't seem to be enough interest for it around here. And the jazz-related communities are also inactive.

chamim, 11 months ago

I think we reached a point where flagship phones are good enough to be used for more than 5 years. But the battery won't live that long, for. most people. I've replaced my previous phone, after four years of using it, for the most part because of the battery. I'm looking forward to replaceable batteries returning and helping at least some of us keep our phones for a few more years.