Alex Vranas @Alex@vran.as

Matrix is really strange. I like the idea, but there are some serious issues with the way it works. Kinda cool that you can basically roll your own Signal / Telegram server, but it's extremely heavyweight and really vulnerable to abuse.

It's also nice to follow over 1k accounts because that's the only way any content makes it to me. I actually filter some accounts out of my user timeline just to fluff up my federated timeline.

I still follow those accounts, I just have a more curated personal timeline.

One of the things that I thought was a downside to running a single-user instance is that not all of the comments load for popular posts. I really only see the people I follow, I have no other users filling in the blanks in my database.

But this makes it harder to get stuck in the weeds. If I want to see reactions to a post I can open the thread on its home server and see everything.

It's honestly a good filter to keep me from responding to posts that aren't productive to respond to.

@Meyerweb I'll never forgive Apple for threatening Sun Microsystems with a lawsuit over Project Looking Glass, killing the project.

This could have been the future of UI.

@Blort @matrix it all stabilized, but it did seem especially taxed joining the channels under attack. Though, those were large channels, so it might not have been related to the attack.

It looks like it was just the couple I tried to join. the matrix chat and the free software chat seem to be targeted right now.

@matrix Was setting up a #Matrix Synapse server to play around with today of all days, only to find that joining a handful of rooms completely maxed out the CPU and RAM, mostly because it is downloading heaps of garbage from the matrix.org Synapse.

It looks like the @matrix flagship server is currently under attack by far-right trolls.

All of the larger rooms are currently flooding with pornspam and slurs.

That whole "defederate from every instance that federates with Threads" idea is dead-in-the-water at this point, right? I've heard this strategy come up several times since Meta announced planned ActivityPub support, and it has always sounded to me like community suicide.

Jones Soda now offers a mug with Jim Jones on it.

BUT...

You have to drink 25 cans of "Mary Jones" soda with 100mg THC each to be eligible.

“I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged,” said Cassidy, a former US navy pilot who has previously run for Congress unsuccessfully in Mississippi. “My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree. And so I acted.”

The Oath of Enlistment means nothing. It's nationalist theater.

A reminder that, despite the propaganda, veterans/troops are not the reason Americans have rights. If they are Republican, and many of them are, they are part of the fight to destroy the pillars of freedom this country was founded on until all that's left is a Christofacist Dictatorship.

Which is why military/police worship is such a popular Conservative aesthetic: They know who will carry out their will should they ever overthrow this nation.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/15/satanic-temple-vandalism-iowa-state-capitol

The best part about running my own single-user instance right now is that nobody will ever care if I federate with Threads or not, because it won't affect anyone but me. I can just stay out of the drama and do what I want.

I will probably federate just to follow some of my IRL friends and family, but I'll also probably put some limits on what hits my global feed because I don't want brands on my feed anywhere.

@cy I empathize with her heart condition, but I doubt that information was even available to the record label, nor is it a factor in this situation at all.

Regardless of that context, selling merchandise on Amazon is a for-profit endeavor, she was absolutely selling counterfeit merchandise.

They have, as of yesterday evening, dropped the judgement against her because of media pressure and the iffy details surrounding the lawsuit, which is good because this wasn't a fair judgement.

@cy I'm sure there are plenty of shortcomings to address, but I don't really care to make assumptions.

Going after for-profit counterfeiters is not very predatory, I don't see how suing someone for selling unlicensed merchandise meets the definition of extortion, and lawsuits often start with the maximum allowed damages until they can discover the actual scale of infringement.

The only major shortcoming I can actually see is that the defendant's right to a defense was unjustly forfeited.