Yeah, if someone is on a Meta product and somehow has the credulity to expect privacy after 20 years of ongoing, invasive, and unrestrained privacy abuses, it’s kinda on that person at this point.

Cool. As if the over-promotion of AI garbage wasn’t enough of a reason to stop using it.

That’s pretty cool! Reminds me in some ways of usenet and how people extended what it was able to do. Now I gotta go ask my uncle, who just sold his setup and shack, what he did with it (he’s getting older, and it’s not as easy to get out there anymore). I always thought he was just tinkering with electronics and chatting with other hobbyists, but sounds like he was potentially doing lots of other things besides.

I wonder if he knows about these online options. Might be able to keep his hobby going in a lesser capacity.

So people pick a topic and just start talking? It’s kinda a niche hobby, so there’s probably a lot of like-minded people, but what if somebody starts going off on a tirade?

Does it matter? That’s the analogy I picked.

I know lots of people are mad, but I just see TikTok as another centralized platform that capitulates to special interests (read: money). I think the ban is a net positive, and I wouldn’t lose any sleep if they banned other centralized social media platforms.

It never feels good to have the rug pulled out from under you, but people will find better ways to communicate. Humans are nothing if not creative problem solvers.

So, is Ham Radio like the spiritual ancestor of something like Discord Voice Chat? I’m trying to understand why people do it, besides the technical/tinkering aspects.

Re: Point 2:

https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/14/tiktok-users-attempted-migration-to-chinese-app-rednote-isnt-going-too-well/?eicker.news

The cultural exchange is good, but people will soon find that there’s not much “freedom of expression” in China.

You should give Ender’s Game a listen, the one narrated by Harlan Ellison and Stefan Rudnicki (I borrowed from my local library). The performance is excellent.

Doesn’t seem violent to me. Climate change threatens us all, and from where I sit, the ultra-wealthy aren’t afraid and think they can simply buy/exploit their way out of the looming danger.

I guess we’re about to see how many favors they’re going to give to the fundigelicals. Whee.

My guess is they side with Texas (because they’ve had too much normal adjudication lately), citing some impropriety statute from the Dutch Puritans circa 1683 as their core precedent, followed by pointing out that there’s no federal law that supercedes it, so neener-neener.

I have no idea who you’re referring to. The people that have said there’s ongoing human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, that collectively meet the UN definition for genocide, have nothing to do with TikTok or privacy. And if they made such a statement on the latter two, I would ignore it, since that’s not their area of expertise.

Is there a particular reason you’re denying that the Uyghurs are being targeted and that the survivors’ testimonies should be disregarded?

I do recommend the movie, if you haven’t seen it!

Well, you do what you think is best. I’m not trying to tell you how to live your life, and I think our goals are aligned, but it seems we’ll have to agree to disagree on what we each think is the best course of action.

Good luck out there. Gonna be a rough couple of decades.

I can only hurt one empire materially, the one I materially live within.

Right, but you missed the core of my point. If you don’t like either, you don’t have to support either. If that means going to a decentralized option or going without a TikTok alternative, seems like you’ll achieve your dual goal of not helping either terrible option.

So, regarding your distaste for genocide—you, uh…might want to read up on Tiananmen Square and the Uyghurs.

Also, I notice you didn’t mention any Fediverse (or other) alternatives. I’m not going to make any accusations, but what you wrote sounds a lot like astroturfing.

If your ultimate goal is to say, “Fuck the US,” fine, but if what you really want to say is, “Fuck capitalists and authoritarians,” you’re going about it all wrong. What you’re essentially saying is that you’d rather be punched by this other guy just because it’s not the one you hate. Meanwhile, you don’t have to be punched at all.

Y’all are the best. Will have to try these ideas later

I feel like they couldn’t make things much worse apart from just making the app say, “Lol, fuck you,” every time you tried to do anything.

It’s so bad, I’ve mulled just trashing the one speaker I have that I didn’t even pay for, just to move to something better.

Those users:

I know you meant it in jest, but I think the last I saw, it was at 9mil and growing steadily.

And TBH, that relative lack of general attention is probably a good thing. Too much growth too fast could swamp or sink some instances.