Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

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

How can we expect students to take plagiarism seriously as an issue if we in the academy are condoning this behavior by corporations? (4/?)

I just saw a group that's focused on explaining 'degrowth' touting (on Facebook) that they're excited about their new presence on LinkedIn, where they're inviting people to discuss degrowth. Ugh. Just. No. You can't credibly use the exploitative 'free' unsustainable products of corporations committed to perpetual growth & lobbying gov'ts to remove any remaining fetters... to discuss how to remove those anti-planetary forces from the world (which degrowth absolutely requires).

This borders on comedy… except it isn’t funny.

The Patent Troll Lobby Set Up An AI-Powered Comment Creator To Support Its Bad Patent Policy

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/06/15/the-patent-troll-lobby-set-up-an-ai-powered-comment-creator-to-support-its-bad-patent-policy/

Just going to tag this #inflation or more specifically #corporategreed

My biggest problem with #capitalism is that it forces everyone to make earning money their primary objective.

Not to provide valuable services for society.
Not to make sure that people don't suffer.
Not to preserve our environment.

All these things are just optional side effects to the main objective of making money, and will be easily discarded if doing the opposite turns out to be more lucrative.

Thanks @billbennett for pointing out that the AWS and Apple 'gift horse' might not be quite as generous as it appears. https://billbennett.co.nz/commece-commission-annual-telecommunications-monitoring-report-2023/ I wonder, too, Bill, if those corporations are enjoying the same profitable tax benefit loopholes that Microsoft has long exploited: https://davelane.nz/self-serving-generosity

#NotOnGitHub: Tell us about your favourite #OpenSource / #FreeSoftware projects that are not available on mainstream platforms, whether on a self-hosted cgit or available as an archive download only.

The #FLOSS world is more than #GitHub and #GitLab.

Congress and the American people are fed up with intelligence agencies abusing their surveillance powers to spy on journalists and others.

Congress shouldn’t reauthorize Section 702 without significant reforms.

#FixFISA

https://freedom.press/news/congress-can-end-warrantless-spying-on-journalists-and-other-americans/

Sign up reminder! 📣 Next week our co-op is hosting an online panel with contributors to "It Did Happen Here: An Antifascist People's History," a new oral history of successful anti-racist organizing in Portland, reflecting on the hard-won lessons from the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s and 90s. Register for free and grab the book at https://firestorm.coop/events/3055-building-community-defense.html.

I'm just gonna leave this here and note that Margaret Kimberley has a long track record of successfully seeing through the bullshit.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/trump-indictments-subvert-legal-and-political-system

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#books #literature #community

Being kinda white, euro and techie to start, Mastodon earned itself a rep for “HOA style” anti-Black behavior in which people tone police, second guess others’ experiences, ask ppl to hide posts about racism behind content warnings, or act as reply guys committing endless micro aggressions on posts about racism.

Do NOT be these people. And if you are harmed by these people let us know w/screenshots or RT

Follow #BlackMastodon to find more people to *listen* and learn from on this topic
5/x

Slave cases are still cited as good law across the U.S. This team aims to change that

(this is what "the war on woke" is really about)

#BlackMastodon
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/14/1181834798/slave-cases-precedent-us-legal-system

When the state and federal authorities permit this to go on, you know the pretensions to democracy are just that - pretensions.

A White Coup in a Black Town in Alabama in 2020 - Valley Labor Report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M-M_nZWfXE

If you see "parental rights" or "parents' rights" in the context of the autonomy and medical and social welfare of a child within the federal jurisdiction of Canada, it may interest you to note that that concept is fairly antithetical to the established legal approach (as imperfect as it often is). According to practice here — as far as I understand it, based on conversations with lawyers and social workers — the welfare of the child comes first and foremost, and the concept of parental rights is not really a thing, but in the eyes of the courts and the law should be framed rather as parental responsibility. Parents don't have the right to do whatever they want with their children. Parents have the responsibility to the welfare and wellbeing of their children.

"Parents rights" is a gender critical, queerphobic, and ableist dogwhistle. Be on guard when you see it.

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See all the #books & use coupon code DINGED til 7/1 https://blog.pmpress.org/2023/03/08/75-off-these-well-traveled-titles/

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#anarchism #antifa #books