‘Better’ is relative :) is it better than using something like SearXNG? No. But for those people who insist on using Google, its better to do a proxied search than a first-hand one. Mullvad are European, are one of the very few orgs I personally think are trustable and have shown no signs of enshittification, Leta has been audited by a 3rd party - for those looking for a private Google experience this is about the best there is.

Leaving notes…committing genocide, yeah they’re interchangeable really.

Privacy focused company move off privacy respecting service and suggest following them on privacy nightmare service. Are they trying to kill any trust in their own company?

Sadly, 99% of people - wherever they live - won’t really do or say anything until it affects them personally.

Star Trek memes. I didn’t even know I liked Star Trek until 2 years ago.

As others have said, money is most of it.

But I also remember that what seems to have prompted his last few years of total unhinged behaviour was his daughter turning her back on him. That seemed to be the point of no return for him.

So there is part of me that thinks he wants to have access to and control over data. The whole nazi salute wasn’t about money, it was about ideology and I think controlling data will allow him to go after communities of people as part his ideology.

Nostr is where everyone who secretly admires Musk/Trump/Zuck goes.

The resistance will be federated.

Tuta, StartMail, Mailbox all have good reputations for privacy respecting services.

Can verify that photogimp is brilliant. As well as the interface it also creates photoshop like keyboard shortcuts too. There are one or two things not quite right but on the whole its a life saver.

1. Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran by Lowen.
2. Erosion / Avulsion by Hidden Mothers
3. Bloom & Decay by Dawn Treader
4. Absolute Elsewhere by Blood Incantation
5. Hellfenlic by The Infernal Sea

If you stick to the apps that are indicated as being well supported it’s good. The main reason I use it is because I’m part of a team that includes people not comfortable with the command line so having a web interface to manage a server means not everything falls on my shoulders.

Speaking as one, the majority are decent people but there is a minority who are openly fash and a sadly growing amount who tolerate fash bands cos the riffs are good.

UK experience:

• Open all your windows to air out for at least 20mins every day. If the place is prone to damp, twice a day. This includes days its sub-zero outside
• Cheap rugs in strategic high traffic places protect shit carpets
• If the landlord supplied it, the landlord fixes it
• Get a windup torch for when the power goes out (it will)
• Massive electric blankets to wrap up in rather than having the heating on 24/7
• Charity shops for cutlery, glasses, mugs, plates. cooking utensils etc. Just make sure to clean them well before using.
• Heavy thermal curtains in front of external facing doors and between rooms (if open plan).
• Make sure you know exactly where elec/gas/water meters are, make a note of their reg. no. and take regular readings.
• Get storage solutions that stack high rather than wide.

Much like my fellow English folk in this thread, I wasn’t sure what they even were. The only times I’ve ever had them is on an egg mcmuffin at the local Mickey D’s.

We will get whatever companies and algorithms push at us, just like social media. The idea that media is tailored to us is a bit of a myth in my opinion when that tailoring can be overridden at the whim of an advertiser paying more than the competition.

I’m also not sure that tailoring things is really good for personal growth. Of course we all have tastes and prefer certain genres in terms of things like games, books, movies, music etc but having just tailored content seems like a bit of a dead end street where its more and more difficult to find experiences you’ve never even considered, let alone tried.

The people leaving Twitter right now want Twitter minus Elon. That’s Bluesky. They’ve heard a couple of their Twitter follows mention it and they’ve gone to their app store where they find an app called Bluesky, install it and easily join and start using it. Once they do they are finding it pretty straightforward to find people they used to follow on Twitter.

That’s all people want.

And it’ll stay that way until people use, and keep using, this space. So, to use an overused phrase, be the change you want to see :)

Growth is a secondary concern to me. I’m not against it but quality is much more important to me than quantity. And I mean quality in terms of content AND respectful interaction.

Historically, if one can even use the word for such a recent thing as the internet, techies are usually first to a new thing. And these types of conversations inevitably follow at some point as though growth at all costs is the only way to stave off death. And then a decade or so further on we end up with Xitter, Meta and Reddit where the anger is palpable and the interface revolves around pushing monetised hate at you and exploiting your private data for another source of monetisation.

I’m enjoying being able to go somewhere everyday where I don’t have awfulness pushed to a platform curated feed I can’t opt out of. If people want those things - fine they exist. I hope the fediverse does all it can to avoid interacting with or devolving to those places and that any discoverability tools that might get developed are for people not algorithms. I hope it remains an alternative to that mindset, not just another place to fling shit at each other.

Come on its obvious! Sedan - see Dan. Staring at a man called Dan.

Also ‘red’ has 3 letters, just like ‘gay’.