I’m only on the fediverse but I miss algorithms. Recommended accounts (which to be fair exists on a corner of Mastodon), similar accounts to one you just followed, custom home feed, suggested posts, etc. Discoverability sucks on fedi and the lack of interest from devs for some sort of private FOSS implementation is disappointing.
Loops was like let’s have a “For You” algo early this year but even that seems to be a dead idea.
Edit: nevermind I typed a lot but that Lemmygrad user made a far better post that I agree with.
There is no metadata harvesting on Signal and the use of a phone number is so convenient and helped massively with adoption from the general unaware public.
I loved that it acted as a private and secure drop in replacement for SMS (particularly before they removed that integration) that does what I needed and does it very well and easily connects me with people that already have my number. This made sharing Signal very easy. The only data Signal has to even provide to the authorities is your registration date, phone number, and time of last connection. The absolute minimum. It’s fantastic. If you compare this to Whatsapp which has everything but the exact content of your messages, it’s not even a contest.
For myself on Signal and everyone else I’ve known that that uses Whatsapp or Insta or whatever, the extra absolute anonymity of also removing phone numbers from the already small equation just isn’t needed or worth it, otherwise you wouldn’t be using Signal, let alone fucking Facebook.
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You beat me to it
So they can hear me type p + enter into my browser?
It hurts to think about the timelines that could have been.
I like the way your mind works.
or do as they do in China and run a quick scan using their special software?
Can I get a source for this?
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I never implied that you said they were the only problem, nor am I proving your point because you perceive me to be “triggered” by the critique that aspects of phones are contributing factors, which I also did not disagree with. I’m simply stating that there are much larger and central factors that are contributing to unhappiness such as political, social, and economic instability, and that people who focus on other people’s contrary reactions to the popular talking point that “phones are bad” are not having a discussion in good faith.
Yeah it’s the technological tool that’s the problem. Definitely not rising cost of living, political insanity, civil unrest, climate change, the slow stripping away of rights, war. But sure the problem is some nerd swiping up on their phone or playing video games or watching Netflix or literally any other distraction from hell world.
Big tech are absolutely evil pieces of shit beholden to the economic system that allows them to thrive to the detriment of humanity, but to blame a magic brick in your pocket like “yeah THIS, this must be why everyone is miserable (especially youth because please think of the children)” is just an incredibly narrow way of thinking, albeit a somewhat effective boogeyman, to distract from gestures broadly how badly we’ve fucked up and how much worse it’s getting as the century progresses.
On behalf of teen me and adult me, fuck off
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Amazon had also appointed a former NSA director. Actually, it was Snowden’s director.
I admire your conviction. But in that case we also have to consider how your right to move about freely is being affected. If you feel like you need to choose not to travel when you want or need to travel, how will you reconcile? Do you weigh and choose the lesser evil? Seems like you just end up violated one way or another. I don’t like it, not any of this.
I was going to block them and lemmygrad at first but decided not to and instead tried to understand what all these people were about.
Now I’m a communist, have a hammer and sickle, live in China, and my favorite color is red. Death to America comrades! Get fucked libs /s
Seriously though, they’re not anymore insane than us. Maybe just a bunch of drunken commies at a bar who don’t really bother to distance themselves from the subjects of a century of red scare propaganda. In any case, it’s worth keeping an open mind and engaging in good faith.
Though as leftist as I personally am and have become in time, I’m not going to call anyone comrade or start using hammer and sickle imagery except in the context of history lol. Libs can still get fucked though.