“Solving the crisis … requires the private and non-profit sectors to join forces with the public authorities at all levels of government.”

So as long as everybody coordinates toward the same common goal, we should be okay.

…Welp, we had a good run.

Pictured: An endangered Gary in his natural habitat.

Do you have a good “getting started” resource for self-hosting that you would point people to?

Or just plug in a regular laptop when you want to watch something. That’s my move.

On top of crap hardware, “smart” TVs are a pretty serious security vulnerability, too. Better to not have it on the same network as your primary devices.

I want to watch a documentary about what led up to this. I have so many questions.

EDIT: Oh hey just eight posts down…

“Society if Piped would actually play videos,” for me :( I’ve had some luck with Invidious, but I haven’t been able to get videos playing on Piped for some months now.

Well… That’s like alot of steps, lol. In UX design, we would call that a violation of the Three Click rule, and obfuscating the expression of user intent.

Like… Do you gain anything from these launchers? I guess Frosty you opt into because you use it to manage your mods. Maybe launching through that is how your mods get bootstrapped. Kay cool.

Epic games, you definitely need and want to use for other reasons-- Shopping for games and managing your library-- but is it really benefitting you to open that app so that you can open the app you actually want to use? Maybe you have a reason that you actually like that better, idk, but I’d rather just open the app that I want.

And then the EA app… What does it offer that makes it worth putting another step between you and your game? Login to the EA account you don’t need? DRM? Ads for other games? The premise of most launchers is that the company has some goals that you don’t share, and they’re willing to add friction to your experience to achieve those.

Some launchers aren’t so bad. I dunno what EA’s deal is. Speaking of Ubisoft Connect specifically:

• It’s an online-only service that forces you into having an account to play… It’s not just an extra launcher in front of your game
• Ubisoft Connect is part of their DRM mechanism
• It wants admin privileges on your system
• It leaves processes running in the background when you aren’t using it
• And more

Those things aren’t necessarily all bad per se, and you’d certainly tolerate them for some apps… But it’s a big imposition for the company to insist on, IMO, and part of the reason for the launcher hate.

I didn’t downvote btw, I think you’re entitled to your opinion and maybe you’re fine with the launchers you use… But personally, I just choose not to play Ubisoft games for that reason, even though there are games that I would like to have played.

Ubisoft Connect, no thanks.

I WFH so there’s a 53% chance that I’m spending those 25 minutes walking my dog.

But for the remaining 47%…!

The Holy Spirit Board is the only spirit board designed to directly contact our lord and savior Jesus Christ! Unlike other spirit boards that are often used to contact ghosts and demons, this is a one way ticket straight to heaven. Try it today, and discover a new way to pray!

I want so bad for someone to ELI5 the belief system that includes:

• Ghosts, demons, and a conscious ephemeral Jesus Christ are all out there waiting to be contacted
• Sliding a thing across a board is an effective way to talk to them, but like… Shaking up some Scrabble tiles, or scribbling on a sheet of paper with your eyes closed or whatever is not
• Which invisible entity you’re talking to depends on the theme and art of the board

REALLY curious to know how all of that fits together.

That’s pretty cool of you to show up to the conversation in good faith tbh.

LOL Right? The contempt is just barely contained by the Wikipedia voice and tone.

Sponsored: TRY MARBLED ROCK ROAST

I too had an Animorphs flashback.

That art style is called “Alegria” or “Corporate Memphis” and it always makes me feel kind of nauseated, even without the cannibalism.

privacy-wise, I started to feel really unsafe on reddit

Definitely. Reddit is trending toward a much more privacy-invasive posture as they lean into advertising and prepare for their IPO. I was a regular Lemmy user by the time they started blocking users behind VPNs, but that particular move was shockingly anti-consumer IMO.

I’m obsessed with things being open source and free and so lemmy just tickles me in the right way in that regard :).

Same :) I’d add “distributed” to that list, too-- It’s comforting to know that the Lemmy ecosystem isn’t one private entity that can make arbitrary decisions, or be bought out by any eccentric billionaires. Reddit has this army of mods and contributors that make it work, but as we saw in the API fiasco last year, the power dynamics there are really lopsided… Lemmy is much more empowering to the people who use it.

For specialised communities, some aren’t really active here. Ie. the community about the illness I suffer from has about 100 members here and is dead, while on reddit it has 50k members

Definitely a disadvantage, yeah. Reddit still has that scaled network effect that is hard to replicate. Lemmy is less lurker-friendly, but if you’re willing to participate, I find that people actually show up. You can often post in those “dead” communities and find that there are lots of folks to talk to, they just haven’t been posting there. It’s much more like “if you want a warm fire, you gotta chop wood,” here than on Reddit. Less convenient, but more satisfying IMO.

It was a little complicated choosing a node and signing up.

Yeah, that’s a big barrier for people :\ Tech companies spend TONS on minimizing sign-up friction, but that “What is an instance? How do I pick one?” thing is a) frictionful, and b) intrinsic to any Fediverse system. I always tell people “don’t overthink it, just pick one,” but it’s still a barrier.

Yo Throck, you down to hit the frictionless ramp this afternoon?

Welcome! What do you think so far?

That second one is the real killer.

Well defined and constrained responsibility: No problem.

Open-ended obligation to people you don’t know: Bottomless pit of potential despair.

Lol I actually kind of like having a lawn to mow, but yeah it sucks to have to.