The catastrophic typo has completely undermined your three paragraphs of beautiful typo-free blurb. Re-read your copy before posting, people.

automatically modify a YT link to a designated invidious instance or whatever

Surely that’s the link that should be posted, then?

using your GitHub

It’s not yours, it’s Microsoft’s.

This is a really good question. I’ve also been wondering why there seems to be no obvious go-to service for blogging, i.e. full-form authored text, in the same way there are for photos (Pixelfed), video (PeerTube), and of course microblogging and discussion forums like this one. Seems like an oversight.

Yes, there’s WordPress. But IMO WordPress is just overkill for most use cases, with its massive database backend. Text is text, the web was designed for text and it worked before databases existed. A static site generator will generate a flat text site just fine (I’ve used them) but you need to host it.

Someday I’ll try self hosting but for now, I’ll pay for decent services.

Maybe you shouldn’t even need to try?

I’ve changed my mind on this one. I used to believe in the utopian internet dream of everyone hosting their own stuff on their own domains. But managing domains and hosting are both a PITA. They require money, technical expertise (because security), and commitment (or else your site goes away). The URL of a blog article posted, say, right here is probably going to be more permanent that it would be on the average private site. And Archive.org is recording the content either way. I’ve come to the view that sites should be left to organisations, and individuals should do themselves a favor and just affiliate themselves to one of those sites. Against payment if appropriate.

Which leaves the question of which site?

On a road without dedicated bus lanes, then buses and cars are essentially fungible. Who wants to be stuck in a traffic jam inside a packed bus with standing room only?

If the bus has its own lane then it becomes effectively a different mode of transport with higher capacity and lower point-to-point time. At that point it will begin to induce its own demand. Similarly, new bike lanes and metro lines are always empty at first, then they fill up. And the resulting world is much nicer than the one where everyone was in a car.

So. Nobody gonna push back? It’s quite a convincing article. Especially this bit:

This is something I want to put a bit more focus on: how important the PDS is.

Giving people their own PDS is soooo crucial to having a free ( as in freedom ) internet. This needs to be something that I can:

• Self host or have somebody else host for me
• Download all of my data from, whenever I want to, and
• Grant other apps read and write access to

That last piece is crucial to the existence of all of these different ATProto apps. We are giving people their own data store and then letting them connect that to all kinds of different tools and experiences.

It does at least seem like the protocol is more sophisticated, and so perhaps carries more potential, than (say) the one powering this site.

Good news. Just keep it peaceful or it will be counter-productive. There is nothing Trump wants more than violence and disorder.

Important to keep in mind that decent journalism does not fall from trees. The “greedy and trackers-filled” sites are often just ordinary newspapers and magazines that had their business model turned upside down by the internet. They only have so many options left when big tech has cornered the online ad market using spyware and when most people choose not to subscribe on grounds of “bias” or whatever - very often the same people who have no problem making regular payments to genuinely greedy corporations like Amazon or Netflix.

But I do agree that we should pay more attention how news sources are funded.

The profit-nonprofit metric is pretty good but not perfect. Firstly because journalism is de-facto always nonprofit. That’s why even good newspapers are often beholden to billionaires. Even thousands of subscribers can’t pay for a product of the quality of the Washington Post (though it’s getting close). There are zero evil capitalists skimming off the profits of journalism, because journalism is just not a profitable business.

Secondly because even audience-funded news sources can be biased, usually in line with their audience’s prejudices (Unherd and The Free Press spring to mind). Any NGO or cooperative can write an ostensibly fact-based article but that doesn’t make it a credible source. This is what journalistic ethics are supposed to cover, similar to academic ethics work if you’re writing, say, history.

I think the basic test should be: Does this news source have multiple lines of accountability?

• wholly owned by a single multinational corp? - avoid
• funded entirely by a non-profit foundation - check the owner’s mission
• a cooperative of accredited journalists (a few exist) - fine but beware individual biases
• has lots of subscribers and also ads - should be OK but check specifics
• state broadcaster - fine when accountable to independent board (BBC, CBC), else beware

I like it. The reasoning’s good.

I hate the term “instance”. It’s hopelessly geeky (it derives from object-oriented programming). It brings to mind nerds and gamers in basements.

Trying very hard not to come to the conclusion that if you waste 2000 bucks on a connected bed, you have only yourself to blame.

Seriously. Unlike dumb TVs, dumb beds are not going away. Buy one for 400 bucks and donate the remainder of your bed-buying fortune. Your body won’t notice and €1600 can do a lot of good.

Misinformation. OP is advocating that you shoot yourself in the foot.

The CEO said something silly on Twitter which revealed either that (a) he shares an exceedingly banal opinion with literally half of America or (b) he’s not above a bit of preemptive sycophancy to advance his (positive) anti-trust agenda.

There’s nothing particularly scandalous in the offending tweet:

• Implying that the Democrats are now “the party of big business” is arguably true (and very boring)
• Implying that the Republicans now “stand for the little guys” is dumb but also arguably true, unfortunately - the working classes swung to Trump in the recent election while the Democrats are fast becoming a party of high-earning elites (which is why they lost)
• Saying that the antitrust actions began under Trump I is, well, true

Proton is not owned Zuck-like by its CEO. It’s controlled by a foundation with other stakeholders on the board, including the inventor of the Web himself. In its niche it is still by far the best option. Ditching it for a nebulous non-existent alternative because the CEO expressed a dumb and extremely commonplace opinion is just silly and self-defeating.

PS: to be clear, OP is peddling misinformation because it’s not true that “Proton took the stance” of anything. It’s the personal opinion of the CEO that’s at issue. It’s a major distinction. I find it disappointing that people interested in privacy would have such little respect for a private individual’s right to have their own thoughts.

PPS: to be extra clear, my comments are about the post above, not stuff that people are reading elsewhere. But the substance stands. See discussion for detail.

It would help if European voters stopped behaving like spoiled children and voting for wannabe dictators because inflation or immigration or whatever.