Stop needlessly shitring on Windows, iOS and MacOS.
Recently there was a post about Wallmart blocking privacy features on iOS when connected to their wifi.
And the comments spoke about how if you are using Apple, you should not expect privacy anyway, implying that Android is a bastion of privacy. Which tunred into an annoying thread and deflected critisism from Wallmart.
I have seen other threads when people are asking for help with Windows or Mac OS issues and the comments talk about how Linux is much better.
That is kinda like, asking your friends for help after spraining your ancle, and them suggesting amputating the entrie leg replacing it with a far more powerful cybernetic robot leg, that doesn’t help you.
I am an IT guy, I just want my computer to work and let me game, manage and edit photos, watch videos, and listen to music, my current Windows 10 machine works fine for me.
I don’t want to tinker when I am home, I have tinkered enough at work managing 365, reading logs, writing scripts and pulling cables.
When I feel that Linux is working well enough, I will switch, but that is up to me, I am not interested in how I can configure my computer to my exact specification, I want a decent computer that I can run the same install on for 6-7 years with updates before upgrading or reinstalling. So far has Windows provided that, Linux has not, I have dailied both.
I have used both extensively, and that is my impression as well.
Out of the box, iOS seems far more secure than Android, but as you say, you can tinker to the end of time with Android to get it to a point where it is more secure, I just don’t have the time or patience to do so.
Very subjective. iOS isn’t even in the running for any of my needs
That said, any time and old person or Luddite adult asks for a computer suggestion, I always tell them “if you don’t mind overpaying, get an Apple PC/tablet/whatever or the cheapest iPhone you can find”. Apple limits its users so much that it is perfect for those folks need a device that protects itself from them. Disclaimer: I work in a tech field, so I rarely see the people around me using iOS devices.
I was limiting things specifically to security. E.g. iOS uses encryption for local personal files, and attempts to use strict security as far as what apps are allowed to do instead of a single "yes do whatever / uninstall app" dialog at the beginning (refusing to use background apps to use the camera + network + etc). It wasn't a general comparison.
Android also encrypts the user data by default since Android 10 (2019).
Android also has different permissions the apps need to ask for just like iOS. Including not allowing background apps to use the camera/GPS/mic by default.
Hm, maybe I am misinformed then. I haven’t used Android in a few years and I just remember being very struck by how enthusiastic iOS was, when I started using it, about smacking down apps that wanted to do something sketchy and how absolutely appalling were the app permissions choices I was faced with on Android.
Android also has fantastic notification controls on a per app basis compared to iOS. I can pop into settings and disable an apps “Marketing” channel, but continue to allow it to have its “Important notifications” channel for example.
Tapping on a channel also allows you to set individual settings, maybe I want NDs “Announcement” notifications, but I want them to be silent, but maybe I still want them to popup on screen while I’m actively using my phone
Ofc, it’s still dependent on individual apps to implement their side properly, but when they do its amazing
I agree with you, but there is a time and a place to advocate for linux, and it isn’t when someone is stressed and just want their computer up and running.
Right now, Lemmy seems very tech-focused - which is understandable, as it’s mostly tech geeks that use this platform. I’d like to see a wider variety of interests here, more things outside of technology/Linux/Star Trek/etc.
If we want Lemmy to become more popular, we need to appeal to the mainstream Internet users.
As Lemmy becomes more popular it will drift from being so tech focused.
Many popular sites gradually drifted off of tech focus as their user base grew. R*ddit is a prime example of how a very nerdy niche site grew and shifted to be popular (sorta) organically.
I do think that for all the hullabaloo about Ellen Pao and banning a bunch of subreddits - that actually did more to open the place up to users who were otherwise driven away by /r/FatPeopleHate and /r/Jailbait being on the front page all the time.
If Lemmy were to change to attract users it would likely be from increased defederation with instances that are less palatable to mainstream society.
If we want Lemmy to become more popular, we need to appeal to the mainstream Internet users.
I was thinking about it the other day, I feel like the vast majority of Internet users are now on Facebook/Instagram/Tiktok/Twitter/Discord depending on their age and demographics.
Text-based forums are probably not appealing to most of them
Might be a hot take, but Lemmy Culture is good, actually. It isn’t homogenous, instances have unique cultures that might fit your needs and interests better.
I wouldn’t change that, federation and defederation does bring drama, but it also brings really cool micro communities.
I like that it is more inclusive than the DUMBster fire that is reddit.
While it is very left leaning, because the entire world is left leaning, other views so get presented and debated (and downvoted), but they are not filtered out and insta-permabanned. It is way more engaging.
Don’t know why you are down voted. I didn’t leave reddit because I disliked the platform, I left because I disliked the leadership. Lemmy is an attempt at creating a similar platform.
More witty and funny answers in the comment section. Out of thousands of commenters you could get a few gems that make you ‘spit your coffee at the screen, goddamn you’.
With this amount or active users it’s not sustainable. I’m interested in broad topics and I try to chase the most active community for the topic, no matter the instance that hosts them.
The only meaningful sign of “community” I managed to identify is the tanky one, where it’s palpable a radical difference with the very generic “everywhere else”.
It is. I still wish it “Politics” would default to WorldPolitics" and USPolitics was it’s own thing, instead of the other version where Politics and News and US stuff and the general topics need the “World” prefix.
If you use it differently you are in conflict with the entire anglosphere. You can make that complaint if you’re not speaking English, but in English, the primary meaning of “America” is the United States.
Non-American here: In English it typically does. The collected landmass of North and South America (or just the continent, if you consider them to be a single one) is usually called "the Americas"
This isn't a hard-and-fast rule of course, and with all the different dialects of English out there I'm sure there are some that work differently. I assume you prefer "US" or "USA" as a short name for the country?
I, as an American, write “The US” the refer to the country specifically to avoid confusion. But there’s not really another good demonym that’s not an slur. “Estadosunidenses” is too much of a mouthful and “Statesman” has another meaning.
Canadian here. “American” means from the US. People from the rest of the continent don’t care. They’re the ones with the dumb country name that doesn’t have a more obvious demonym. But we’ve all collectively agreed that that’s what it’s called.
If you want to refer to someone from South America you say South American. If you want to refer to someone from North America you say North American.
Most americans (IE the americas, which include central and south america, and the carribbean), really dislike the usonians usurpation of the term “america” to refer solely to the United States, which really only started in the early 1900s as the US got really forward about its imperialist interests. You’re only hearing “americans mean only US citizens” from the nation that excludes most americans.
Counterpoint: there is no continent named “America.” “North American,” “South American,” and even “Central American,” or “Latin American,” for added specificity, are completely sufficient demonyms for the denizens of the continents (and subreigon) writ large.
Well, I also have the feeling that most people here are from the U.S. or Germany. And I only identify the latter as such, because of their usernames. Not sure if I’m right, but I surely feel isolated on Lemmy at times.
Here in Europe there are a lot of country-specific instances (e.g. feddit.de or feddit.nl). I can confirm the German one has quite a lot of members and some large German subreddits moved to Lemmy when the blackout happened. Germans are quite privacy focused in general with a generally higher Firefox market share and a lot of shops only accepting cash (not proud of the latter haha)
I make sure to list any weights and measures in both US and metric.
I also try to include a fair amount of content focused on other parts of the world.
Lemmy is small enough that even though I’m guessing it is majority US, that it is likely less US-centric than most social media. It’s just good to have some stuff for everyone, and I know I like to learn about things outside my country, so I want non-US focused content myself on a regular basis.
I don’t think in metric, and there’s a strong possibility that I never will. I came of age in an educational system that taught metric units alongside imperial, but also in a day-to-day world that heavily skews towards imperial units.
If I see metric units that I can’t immediately interpret in my head, it’s absolutely trivial for me to get the conversion by other means. It’s equally as trivial for someone who uses metric to make the opposite conversion.
Anyone losing their shit about it is acting performatively.
The triviality is what makes me just do it myself. If I’m the one sharing something to a global audience, it makes more sense for me to do it once than to have everyone else go do it if they need to.
I was talking in another thread today, possibly one in response to this one, or at least one similar, and I basically said I want Lemmy to succeed, and my content is easy to source, but getting regular visitors and commenters is the hard part, so I’m willing to do a little pampering to positively reinforce my “guests,” especially at this stage of the game. It’s just some extra consideration, to show people I’m being thoughtful of them, and to make it feel like a place they can come to get facts without having to google them all the time.
My big issue with Lemmy at the moment is I think we’re testing what level of civility we’re willing to give to and to tolerate from others, and I don’t see as many commenters being helpful to each other and I feel mods are scared to steer conversations back to more polite conduct due to the overbearing rep of Reddit mods. So I’m just trying to be the example of what I want to see. That’s the real thing I’m looking to provide. The unit conversion is just a slice of that you could say.
I still have people downvote over nothing or make smartass comments occasionally, but I can’t prevent it all. I’ll do what I can though to make things pleasant and positive for who I can.
I agree with all you’ve said, and I tend to add both systems when expressing a meaningful measurement. My statement is pointed more towards situations where someone hasn’t done so and it throws some poor soul into a meltdown.
The one that gets me is when people complain about paywalled articles. I agree it doesn’t make sense to share one, but this is a tech savvy group here, and I kinda expect 95% of people to know how to deal with that by now. Even mainstream sites have shared how to get around that stuff long ago now.
I’ve done my best to include °C conversions of all my °F. What more do you people want.
Since we’re here, I had covid one time and had to shop online for stuff that came in ounces, quarts, pints, and liters, and even without brain fog, I can tell you that comparing prices and sizes against apples, oranges, and furlongs (⅛ miles (≈⅕ km (but this is an argumentum ad absurdum))) is the most unsatisfying garbage that has ever been.
HackerNews has one of the best downvoting rules I’ve ever seen - you can’t downvote someone replying to you. I think that simple change massively changes the way karma works.
They also arbitrarily don’t allow you to reply to lots which is annoying. I often have follow-up questions (legit ones, not comebacks or other crap) that I can’t do anything about :(
But I agree, its generally terrible etiquette to downvote something someone has contributed to you if its goodfaith and also, assuming your thing is visible people are gonna see it and your interests are linked so its just silly, bottom-line
From what I can tell, all the karma thresholds are dynamic and probably only knowable by admins. If nearly 1000 isn’t enough to avoid rate limiting then they sound pretty aggressive.
From my perspective HN’s approach seems to do pretty well at mitigating bad behavior, but might be a little too hard on newcomers and casual users.
I think a large portion of lemmy is too focused on making lemmy popular. Fake engagement and posts that nobody cares about don’t create engagement. Instead, more focus on just enjoying lemmy would ironically lead to better posts and discussion. Likewise, people post the same articles to the same communities seeking engagement. It leads to dupilication which waters down the discussion, ironically, also leading to less engagement. I think federalised communities, as has been discussed would be a good solution. However, it strikes me that they don’t want to miss out on karma, for some reason. So, short term gain, for long term hassle of multiple posts. If some of the most prolific posters posted to the most relevant community and cross posted elsewhere, then maybe communities would coalesce more.
Coalescing into massive communities is a mixed bag. Putting all your eggs in one basket makes them more vulnerable to rogue moderators, sudden loss of a server, the need to defederate if the host server gets compromised, provides a more attractive target for bots, and other bad actor things.
Yes it would improve ease of use and make Lemmy more newbie friendly, and it can be frustrating to have conversation splintered. Lots of times I’ll comment on an empty story at the top of my new feed only to find a lively discussion a little lower. That’s all frustrating, I agree. It’s also, I think, the nature of federating.
If multiple different news communities are thriving despite posting pretty much the same content, there are reasons for that. People can pick just one to subscribe to, and they don’t all pick the same one. That tells me there is something about each one that makes them attractive to different people.
I think it can really hurt smaller communities, though.
I think part of this comes from wanting a broader base of content, which I agree with. The rest seems to come from wanting the downfall of Reddit, who is in my rearview mirror so I don’t care.
We are currently like old Reddit, a techy, mostly progressive, crowd. That means a lot of uni-topic content.
When there are 10,000 users, and 5 of them are into sewing, the sewing community is dead. When there are 100,000 users, and thus 50 interested in sewing, content starts to form. You can see where this goes from here.
An example of this that really bothers me: I joined several gaming munis because I like to talk about games. But there are people out there who feel that a gaming muni should be about the games industry, and so those munis are just a constant stream of gaming news articles, patch notes, and trailers. Mostly with completely barren comment sections. What I wanted was the social experience of chatting with people about games. I don’t care about (as a random example) the latest Helldivers 2 patch notes.
I think less of an emphasis on having a steady stream of content and more on only posting something that you believe is worthy of discussion would be so much better. If people want to see literally every rockpapershotgun article, they can subscribe to their RSS feed.
The way I see it, people shouldn’t post things unless they have some discussion they want to have about that thing. They shouldn’t post just because it’s news. I’d be fine with Lemmy having far less frequent new posts if those posts were all created by people who were legitimately trying to share something rather than just generate content.
Id like more right wingers. Not in a i like them kind of a way in a i want lemmy more representative of the population kind of way. I also think we really need to be pushing harder on the free speach free marketplace of ideas we have created.
Lemmy is pretty international. We have right wingers here, but it’s not really representative. The USA right wingers only make up a small portion of worldwide population, so don’t stress. It’s not an echo chamber.
Yea, I think the American bubble makes people think their political spectrum is normal… while the Democrats would be a right or centrist party pretty much anywhere else in the world.
I get what you’re saying but I like that Lemmy has a left wing bias (with a dash of libertarians). If it was the dominant media site, I’d agree about the echo chamber risk but so much media (in the English speaking world, anyway) is under right wing ownership now. Having a handful of sites that are a refuge from it all is a feature for me, not a bug. It’s an escape from the echo chamber.
No, it absolutely does not. Lemmy has a LOT of groupthink, just a different type of groupthink than the norm.
Reddit pre 2014 was the wild fucking west. You’d have some girl posting about why she likes sticking goat intestines up her butt and the comments would be all “it’s not my thing but I can see your point of view”. People were selling heroin on a public forum. There was a sub called something like “fiftyfifty” where you click on a link and it’s either a cute bunny or some dude getting beheaded, no blurring or censorship just full gruesome decapitation. The most popular sub was called “jailbait” for chrissake.
Like, kids today cannot comprehend how sanitised everything is. You are locked in a box. Lemmy is a different box than reddit is a different box than Instagram is a different box than Facebook is a different box than Twitter. You don’t know what freedom is. You will never know. It’s exhilarating and terrifying. But all you can do nowadays is pick a different box.
How its the ultimate embodiment of free speach the marketplace of ideals and competition. Id classify these as liberal ideas but ive notices a lot of the Americanised left wing doeant seem to agree with these anymore.
Leftism refers to collective ownership of the Means of Production, Rightism refers to individual ownership. Reddit is Capitalist, Lemmy is the Leftist answer to it.
There is no “competition” on Lemmy because there’s no profit and no production.
There’s no monetary profit, but I could absolutely see competition for whose ideas gain the most support.
And the Fediverse does not collectively own all the instances. Each instance is created and supported by an individual or small group of individuals.
You can even see the failures of unregulated capitslism in how lemmy (especially lemmy.ml and lemmy.world) are consolidating users and engagement. Unregulated capitalism trends towards monopoly.
There’s no monetary profit, but I could absolutely see competition for whose ideas gain the most support.
Capitalism is not “competition,” it is a specific mode of production. Competition exists outside Capitalism.
And the Fediverse does not collectively own all the instances. Each instance is created and supported by an individual or small group of individuals.
The source code is open and free, ergo people can do what they want. The underlying tools are accessible to anyone, the instances are not “production” nor do they exist for exchange.
You can even see the failures of unregulated capitslism in how lemmy (especially lemmy.ml and lemmy.world) are consolidating users and engagement. Unregulated capitalism trends towards monopoly.
The source code is open and free, ergo people can do what they want.
You really don’t see the parallels between this statement and “anyone can become a millionaire”?
Not everyone has the opportunity or the skillset to “do what they want” with the source code. I’m not a coder. How can I do whatever I want? I’m beholden to the structures that other people build.
You really don’t see the parallels between this statement and “anyone can become a millionaire”?
There’s a chance you could stumble onto a point if Lemmy was profit-driven.
Not everyone has the opportunity or the skillset to “do what they want” with the source code. I’m not a coder. How can I do whatever I want? I’m beholden to the structures that other people build.
You don’t need to be in order to be able to download the source code. Skills are not ownership.
I don’t think you deserve to be so heavily downvoted, but also Christ it’s nice to have a refuge where I don’t have to constantly hate humanity. Particularly when so often it’s simply not possible to have a genuine conversation because folks are spitting out talking points and ignoring facts. Which the left does as well but at least they don’t make me want to go on a murderous rampage. Usually.
Yeah i get what u mean about the extremists. But honestly the tankie extremists are just as bad. Their denial of genocide by the ccp is particularly bad. Ive been told that people are willingly choosing to go to ccp reeducation centers.
That last bit feels very unlikely or a total distortion. Not because I’m looking to argue, but I also happen to be human (meaning I think this applies universally to all humans regardless of any particular philosophy) and that sounds incredibly tedious and I can’t believe that’s the sort of thing any other human would spend their valuable time doing. I’d rather fold my laundry, and I fucking hate folding laundry.
More here than R**dit. As a pro-gun Libral (pro-pistol), I had a great chat with a hard-line anti-gun person on here. On Reddit, I would have risked being permabanned for being a maga racist by an idiot mod, then had zero recourse against the idiot mod (totally not a bitter anecdote…).
Here, if I have a heated debate with a conservative, as long as it doesn’t get hostile, I can keep communicating and trying to help them understand my points instead of suddenly talking to [deleted] about [deleted] because some shit mod didn’t like their views.
Be the silliness you want to see in the world. Start a pun thread or a switcharoo or all the things that used to make the old place fun. Lots of people will take that bait and run with it.