The definition of pretty much every word these days has been hijacked to mean the exact opposite - like Google lets you “search” for things you “want”, and Reddit would “connect” you to “humans people”, FaceBook will steal all of your data share “news”, again from “people”, and so on.
I pretty much think of “smart” as now meaning “tactically weaponized to maximize corpo profits” - you know, “for your convenience”!:-P 🤮
Exactly, yeah like I’m not trying to remove myself entirely from “society” - the physical law of entropy means that people need to put in EFFORT to make things happen, and that deserves to be recognized, plus the dev should have a proper means of support to be able to buy food, shelter, etc.
I even tip at restaurants wherever I go. I don’t know if I’ll be okay in the future - I don’t own a home or know my retirement plans, but I don’t think a few dollars will make the difference, but it can boost someone else’s day and that’s really something:-).
I really like Netflix’s player, their CC options, and the quality of their streaming service. It’s just too bad about the content going all over the place, and THAT part is actually not their fault.
Though I just could not do that for Google Music, when they pay the original artists so extremely little:-(.
They are a company - their obligations to their customers begin and end with extraction of funds to disburse to their shareholders:-(.
Back in the early days when they were trying to ingratiate themselves to the public, they put on a good face - “don’t be evil” and all, but the mask is off now. Even now, they still really truly are more ethical (or at least might be, maybe?) than some others, e.g. https://lemmy.world/post/11951288? (but that is not saying very much at all, to compare an evil corporation like Google to a full-on fairly criminal-like corporation that steals artists & other people’s content against their will; and I only say “criminal-like” b/c the aging geriatrics in various governments around the world barely use computers much less understand its terminology such as “mobile device”, so the existing legal structures remain mired half a century behind what is going on in today’s actual world).
Also, I am weird - I will do things like pay for Netflix even though I haven’t watched it in months, preferring the high seas that has more content that is no longer there:-P, b/c I want to support continued development of new content (though TV & movies are becoming a dated art form nowadays). That said, YouTube is a VERY different situation, b/c while they do have server costs and what-not, they also are one of the lowest (not THE lowest, but among them… iirc?) contributors back to the artists who actually make the stuff. So a better way would be to find artists that you like, and send them money directly where they would get 100% of the revenue.
Anyway, I like your post that shows that there is more than one reason to support such apps - not just b/c of the content but also more than that too.
“Can’t compete” => won’t, ftfy :-P
Google got their money, so they are simply “done”, unlike software made by people who genuinely care about stuff, and donate their time for free to improve it.
Ouch. So… any ideas when AI might be used to lower my medical costs? :-P (/s btw, except a horrifying thought just struck me: how long until someone takes that choice away from me and does it to lower THEIR costs?)
Dat butt tho…
Hold me, I’m scared:-P.
It is with the most sincere regret that I must inform you that in fact It is Wednesday, my dudes. It is now, and will forever be Wednesday.
Putin’s wet dream? :-P
Hrm, so literally eat the rich? Well, that’s one (direct) way to combat inflation, I’m in!:-P
Could you imagine if people were this tall irl? At a third the height of a skyscraper, these would be more like gigantic robots walking around the city for some unknown reason!:-D
Yes please!
But c’mon, obviously Eleberry, it’s clearly the winner! :-)
Um… you really don’t want to know!
That’s why I left. And you too. The difference is, I give it precisely zero thought on a daily basis. Don’t let him run your life even after you’ve gotten away from it. Forgive him even, if you can - not for his sake, but for yours - is what I guess I am trying to say. Also, the community has already somewhat shattered, as people are leaving it? Except I did not delete my account, I simply stopped using it (well, I did make one comment in all that time since), which illustrates how any metric based on user count may not measure the situation accurately (and ofc daily posts can always be complicated by bot accounts).
You could contribute to Lemmy perhaps, e.g. try to help get it to federate with Mastodon instances… or something. And as you said, you already are contributing to Mbin. Those kinds of positive changes (i.e., in the sense of moving forward, rather than looking back) are all that you can do, in the end.
Well, that’s my two cents, fwiw:-).
That does sound reasonable, and I thought he gave in awhile ago i.e. at least added admins to the instance, which retains him as the sole “owner” but allows others to step in for the more day-to-day work, as you said. But at the end of the day, what he does is up to him.
And what you choose to do about it is on you - e.g. if you want to write to the nlnet foundation asking them to communicate with him and possibly withhold further funding unless certain conditions are met, that is your business.
My own business was to communicate what I did, and now it is up to you to listen to the advice offered, or not. That is the essence of freedom, so please feel free to not have to worry about something outside of your control - his actions - by focusing on what you alone can do, your own actions.:-)
Are you trying to say a comment from me, or from anyone? My last comment on Kbin was a week ago, and the one before that was three weeks ago. I will probably keep my Kbin account and just rarely if ever use it, as opposed to before where it was the only account I had.
Or if you mean anyone, the Kbin.social server is back up now, so yes it is functional. The owner does not communicate much but he works hard to keep it that way, it’s just that for whatever reason it has major issues, though it is up right now.
Your language… sends odd signals to people. e.g., Kbin.social is running on his own computer, which he bought, with his own money, yes? Maybe he asks for voluntary contributions to defray electricity and ISP costs. The Kbin software is separate from the Kbin.social server that runs it, you see what I mean? Why try to take his own computer away from him? Just build something better and people will flock to it instead. Heck, some people have abandoned the Fediverse entirely bc they could not figure it out, and went back to Reddit. To each their own.
Btw many of us see what is going on - have no fear about that. I personally left Kbin three weeks ago when it was down for just days and days at a time, after a similar incident a few weeks before that, and similar issues ever since the project began. But it was always free for me, I don’t believe I have any “ownership” of either the server or the project. And I made my choice for me, but if others want to stay, that’s also fine. You are trying to make sure that we know that Mbin exists? We know. Make it better and we might try it out. Give up on Kbin and step out ahead of it, if you want. If you are frustrated by the need to wonder and guess at how he will do things in the future, then bypass him entirely, if you can. He seems to want that too.
Btw check out this announcement. There are many great options, and it is wonderful to have choices, e.g. in how communicative the admins are at the server of your choice. Or any of us at any time can start our own - the sheer beauty of the Fediverse!:-)
Not entirely, but neither is it extraordinarily healthy either. We’ll see what develops - e.g. maybe its creator will emerge from a binge of programming and it’ll become better than ever.
I still doubt that I’d go back after leaving it though - I waited so very long for it to improve, but it only ever seemed to get worse (performance wise), and it has major structual issues too, e.g. all final-say decisions controlled by a single owner who does not communicate much with the outside world.
In fairness, Kbin was not nearly as advanced as Lemmy when the Reddit protests and migration occurred, so a great deal of catching up was inevitably necessary.
A lot of people are leaving it due to the interruptions in service, but yeah it still exists.
I should probably read that - I figured that I get the gist having read Animal Farm but hey, if we are going to live out the irl version then it might be good to at least say that I read about it first!:-P
It is fascinating how some people see far (ahead), by virtue of seeing clear (to the soul/center of the human condition) - technology may change but we don’t seem to. Asimov, Jules Verne, George Orwell, they are like techno- or cultural prophets, not that we listened, sadly:-(.
C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) in addition to being a christian apologist also wrote philosophy about how Hitler was able to influence Europe during WWII, and I found that just fascinating e.g. if you avoid ever saying a thing but instead just act as if it is true then it is a way to avoid it being questioned. Evil people have access to so many tricks that a free & just society would never condone using (another big one lately is misinformation), nor would it even so much work in the other direction b/c getting people to question things is a major bonus in such a society so it’s at best an anti-pattern there, and yet I wish we were much more aware of them b/c otherwise it is like facing a pathogen with no immune system.
Anyway thank you for reminding me of those quotes:-).