There was some talk awhile ago of the devs maybe extending feeds beyond Communities to Posts and Comments too but I don’t think it ever got off the ground. Would certainly be way easier to do what I think you want if they did exist.

It’s almost as if he’s annoyed by the total decimation of local services that used to be able to handle such things his party has brought about since 2009.

His lies/alternate reality are not so much believed as embraced - the people who support him already loathe and hate the things he’s talking about. All he’s doing is lending them legitimacy. Most people are, by and large, reactionary and seek out things and people that confirm their own beliefs. Nothing here is new apart from the scale of it and the new technical ability to increase that scale.

Spoiler: he is.

I pay Bitwarden the tenner a year as I have no reason to distrust them and they’re definitely providing a more reliable, securer service than I can self-host.

I also do an encrypted export once per week and store that export to an encrypted cloud based service and an encrypted USB stick. Takes 2 minutes.

Bandcamp is still OK for me and I listen to some fairly obscure stuff.

Just to offer a heads up - there’s a new solution/site which is currently in Beta but is backed by good people (musicians). It needs an influx of music diversity (lots of metal at the moment) but if it gets that when it comes out of beta then it could very well be a good Bandcamp replacament - Ampwall

We do tell people. For example, when you get off the train at Reading station it clearly says “Welcome to Reading”.

I’m not arguing that fighting religion with religion is a bad idea - I’m saying they’re not very good at it. The last time I checked they’d won 3 rulings out of a possible 32. That’s across all cases, not just abortion. In the meantime, religious groups that are not inept are winning cases. And the more headlines TST generate, the more posts like this one pop up across all forms of social media and the less attention people pay to legitimate groups that actually can - and do make a difference.

I would urge you to look further into the histories of the owners of TST, one of who wanted to launch TST by publishing a sequel to Might Is Right a protofascist screed that Anton LaVey cribbed from for the Church of Satan.

I also don’t think they’re entirely about taking people’s money. But they sure do do a lot of that and no one seems to know exactly where that money goes.

Which would be fine if they were actually effective at anything besides trying to get money from people. They’ve lost every abortion related legal action they’ve started so far.

By contrast, a religious group (the so-called ‘Hoosier Jews for Choice’) that aren’t inept and can actually be effective and aren’t more interested in your bank balance than your politics secured a landmark ruling for abortion rights in April this year.

TST’'s finances are utterly opaque - only their two owners (because it is a business) know what comes in and what goes out and they aren’t telling. There are much better groups to donate both time, effort and money to instead of some very dodgy group with a worrying reputation.

Lucien Greaves.

I strongly advise you watch the DeadDomain video and form your own opinions. Everything she claims in it is sourced. It is not at all what that Medium blogger says it is. If you prefer reading to video TempleWatcher has pages (with all points referenced) on the two owners Greaves and Jarry.

TST’s abortion campaign - which is strongly opposed by multiple pro-abortion support groups in multiple States - is a classic example of how they operate.

Not only are they depriving legitimate pro-abortion groups of attention and funding, they are getting people to donate money for their business.

New Mexico, where their current clinic is, has no problem with abortion. I see they’re not naming the state where this new one will be but I’m betting it will be somewhere equally trouble-free for those seeking an abortion.

What this ‘competition’ is doing, like all TST’s fundraisers, is getting you to fund their start up costs in an abortion friendly State without any requirement to give anyone a return on that donation.

If you want to support pro-abortion causes - and you should - support organisations who will actually help people.

It’s not an ‘either/or’ situation - both sets of people are culpable.

Want to see the direct consequences of unfettered hate masquerading as free speech? That would be Elon Musk, Nigel Farage et al spreading utterly incorrect rumours about migrants in the UK and goading right-wingers to set fire to hotels where migrant families are staying. Luckily no one was killed but do you think tutting and calling them idiots before you move on is going to change a thing?

Weirdo Republican Talking Head No. 3464592

Mate, I was simply extending an analogy you introduced. I neither know (nor care) what the presence of a McDonalds does or doesn’t do so don’t Sagan me. Nor am I claiming mainstream social media is all arseholes. What I’m saying is that mainstream social media most certainly has the ability and propensity to make people into arseholes due to constant enshittification - part of which is the influencer phenomenon in my opinion and the need for growth at all costs.

I most definitely have reached out to lots of good people on the fediverse and had lots of great exchanges that follow both professional and ‘hobby’ based interests I have.

But here’s the thing - you want growth? OK. I also have no issue with growth. But the best sort of growth in my experience comes organically. It happens at its own pace. The minute you start prodding it along with managed algorithms and all the other stuff mainstream social media now has you end up with an extended hate room. I don’t miss Reddit or Xitter at all. I genuinely mean that. No more ‘suggestions’ of people to follow, no more manufactured outrage getting pushed to my feed, no more clickbait. Instead what I have now is a curated feed across multiple different types of experiences that I spent some time getting how I want them and dipping in and out of when I want to.

You’re using words like ‘ambition’ and ‘irrelevant’ like the Fediverse is some sort of corporate entity. It’s not - that’s a point very much in its favour in the opinion of quite a lot of people on it. Contrary to your opinion that no one cares, lots do. What some of us don’t care about is catering to a set of people who are paid to express opinions and who, it seems to me, over a period of time end up becoming Andrew Tate or Russel Brand.

There’s no McDonalds in the town I currently live in, which is 20 minutes away from one of the largest cities in the country. It might come as a massive shock to you but I - and I think the majority of people - can survive just fine without a Mickey D’s. Not having one doesn’t make a place desolate, it makes it healthier. And if someone really wants a Big Mac, they can go and get one from elsewhere.

Do you see what I’m saying? This isn’t the same place as that - it’s quite nice to have a place online that still isn’t. And for those that do want that, they can still spend time there if they chose to.

Strangely comforting for something I’m sure you thought was a snappy comeback,

I genuinely don’t care about influencers. Like, at all.

Maybe they should stop caring about visibility and engagement and concentrate on participating in, building and y’know enjoying a community?