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from Sam's Ramblings

if it's even actually decentralised in the first place

alternative titles: – The Corporations Already Won [over the Internet] – I Attempt to Justify my Irrational Hatred of Discord in the Form of a Pointless Rant

I hate most centralised software. Anyone who has the misfortune of knowing me knows I hate most centralised software. My personal website has links to de facto decentralised forms of communication. I have a Twitter account I refuse to post on or even look at the 2 times a month I look at cute Japanese cats. I have a Discord account I will never ever advertise beyond a few friends that refuse to use anything other than Discord. GitHub is full of faults but it's probably one of the least bad, though I will laugh every time some new cargo cult (read: Rust, Nix, Deno [DISCLAIMER: I actually like Deno]) is extremely heavily reliant on GitHub. Video bandwidth is so infeasible that monoliths like YouTube come into sole existence because of massive corporations like Google.

Using Discord as a bug tracker(?)

This rant got inspired when I was looking at the documentation page for an alpha of a software I quite like. One of the first things on their contributing page for issues was this (paraphrased):

If you find a bug, please let us know [..] on Discord.

Wait, what?

You want to not use GitHub issues, something extremely easily searchable and indexable, for DISCORD? The reason given (on a GitHub issue, lmao) is because (paraphrasing again):

to reduce noise [...] and keep all the information in one place.

My siblings in Christ, you already have a place where you can keep all the information in one place. It's even centralised, and you already use it. It's called GitHub. You can even use GitHub's silly Discussion feature and segregate alphas into its own category. Why in the name of advertiser friendly content would you EVER need to only use Discord?

It's the convenience, isn't it? You already live on Discord so why not make others too. Well, tell that to anyone on an IPv6 only network, all 3 of them. (Not that they would be able to use GitHub, either...)

Aside: Using Discord as a ticketing system(??????)

Bluesky recently started its “federation” programme. To sign-up to their allowwhitelist, you had to do one simple thing: Sign up! ...to their Discord server. That includes making tickets to get allowed in. Yes, apparently some insane person made a ticketing system for Discord. Why would someone ever need such a thing?

I don't know but programmers seem to exclusively live on Twitter and Discord, occasionally travelling to other dumpsters like Reddit or GitHub when their usual caves start to rot.

TL;DR: I hate Discord and absolutely fucking despise being forced to use it.

Alternatives exist!

There are alternatives to all of this highly centralised corporate slop!

  • Matrix exists to get rid of Discord! (and is still heavily tied to the mother instance of matrix.org)
    • Though I should mention outside of the freak FOSS space no one actually uses it, they all use Discord.
  • The Fediverse/Nostr (if you're really weird)/Bluesky (if you're an American leftist) exist to get rid of Twitter!
    • Though despite how many people complain about it most big software projects still exclusively use it.
  • Gitea/Forgejo exist to get rid of GitHub!
    • Honestly, no complaints here. I love Gitea and Forgejo (though not Forgejo's name).
    • Apart from the typical decentralised problem: lack of reach.

Lack of Reach: The Decentralised/Alternative Ouroboros

this is a strawman I won't use decentralised software because I don't know anyone else that does/no one else will leave with me/will think I am weird for not using the central alternative!

The central problem with decentralised software is [it seems like] that no one actually wants to use it. Want to contribute to software projects? Sign up to GitHub. Want to chat with your friends or those software developers? Sign up to Discord. Want to post cats and complain about American politics? The Twitter dumpster fire welcomes you. It's easy because it's advertised and everyone else already does it. The decentralised problem is typically many of them are the 2018 Hacker News “Uber for X” but for decentralised software. – Why would most people ever use “Discord but decentralised” when Discord exists and people are using it?Why would most people ever use “Twitter but decentralised” when Twitter exists and people are using it?Why would most people ever use “GitHub but decentralised” when GitHub exists and people are using it? Non-technical people don't give a shit about centralisation. If they did, Cloudflare would have gone bankrupt in 2013.

Decentralised software will never catch on because it did not already. Unless it becomes such a killer app it will dethrone any alternative like what Discord did to Skype in the mid-2010s, lovely projects like Matrix and Gitea/Forgejo will rot in the sidelines while their corporate competition continues to curb stomp it into irrelevancy.

Some Decentralised Software is Actually Centralised

I really like Matrix. I help host a Synapse server. I also host a personal Dendrite server and have all the bridges set up. But good luck trying to use Matrix and trying to avoid matrix.org. The flagship instance is so utterly massive that trying to block it is a very easy way to shoot oneself in the foot. The same could be said of Mastodon with mastodon.social and Misskey with misskey.jp. Bluesky doesn't even pretend it's currently decentralised. Good luck using that behind an IPv6-only network! Pay up for those IPv4 addresses!!

Also please unblock me I only did one joke please

Yes, you could avoid them (or get blocked by them for simply no reason), but then your potential outreach falls of a cliff. The Ouroboros eats its tail.

An Attempt at a Conclusion

I love decentralised software. I host everything that I use beyond the servers myself, from the DNS resolution of my domains to the blogging software you are currently reading this on. I was excited by Bluesky before I ever opened the “What's Hot” feed. I got excited by the fediverse before I realised it was just a group of cliques that hate each other for no reason other than existing and guilt-by-association. I use Matrix everyday, even though like 90% of the time it's to message my boyfriend. (Love you, Grumb!)

But no one else I know does. They post Twitter screencaps on Discord. Not that I want to control them, they're their own people and make their own decisions. Many of them burnt out of the fediverse even harder than I ever could. We tried Matrix but the Discord bridge broke and the only person who had access to it just didn't care about Matrix enough to want to ever fix it. Don't get me started on my few real life friends, they're even worse.

Decentralised software exists and can be lovely and sometimes objectively better than its more popular centralised counterpart (though getting stabbed will be a better experience than using Twitter and graffiti on a wall is probably more searchable than anything on Discord ever will) but won't catch on because of the ouroboros of convenience/no one else using it.

 
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from Sam's Ramblings

an ode to my best friend of 15 years

i remember the good times in 2009, when we were young and all was fun the time when my mother said “only pick one” but i could not say no to you so we came home with two

the first was friendly to all, always wanting attention but you only liked me when we moved house you would only let me accompany you as we drove into the unknown

as we grew up, we changed you grew more friendly to others but still you always preferred my side while i got older, and moved out i always had a picture of you on my desk

anytime i came home i was always happy to see you growing old so peacefully i got older too what fun that brought

no matter what no matter when you would always be there to cheer me up i wished you could always be there for me but life is not like that

now you are at the end of your life it is hard to see you this way so small so frail so precious It hurts us all watching you like this.

i hope you are in a better place now where you can stretch out all you want where you can eat all of the shredded cheese you want where you can enjoy being loved as long as you want where you can finally be at peace

when the bad times happen it is hard to remember the good but there were so many memories and i will never forget that

i love you, now and forever and it hurts to see you go but it happens to all of us eventually

i hope you cherish your eternal slumber eventually i will be there too, together once more

see you, space kitty ~

 
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from Sam's Ramblings

I have completely checked out of reality the past several months.

Not much has changed since then. I quit my old job and got a new one. I work from home now. I like it so much I never want to go back to an office.

Since I disappeared, where did I go? Nowhere.

I've felt completely burnt out from everything I did for the nearly 2 years I was around for a long time. Honestly, I still feel that way. For the first and only time in my life, I can confidently say that Drew DeVault was right about something. (the inherent toxicity of the fediverse [and most “social media”]) Social media delenda est. No one will listen anyway.

I've barely had the motivation to do anything outside of what I need to do to survive. My few things that could be called “projects” have stagnated. And that's fine. No one uses them anyway.

It's fine. Everything is fine. I'm (not) fine. Not that it matters anyway.

I've already disappeared. I've already done what I wanted. That's all I wanted anyway.

 
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from Sam's Ramblings

I, like most of my cohorts, have decided to shut down our Pleroma/Akkoma/whatever the fuck instances down. I, personally, don't want it to be permanent but for some of my closest friends it is. While saddening, it came almost entirely as expected. *oma is horrible software written in a horrible language by horrible people that was not fun to poke around in trying to fix. The fediverse was fun once, and then just stagnated. Doesn't help that many of them (if you're reading this, I'm not talking about you) are genuinely insufferable.

It's sad to see anyone or anything go. It's even more sad when the reasons why someone goes completely make sense. It's awful that it had to end like this, but it was going to happen sooner or later. I doubt anything new will save us either, bluesky is still completely centralised and it's run by a different breed of garbage people. While them actually getting paid for their work definitely will bring higher quality work, the reference implementation relies on AWS and is currently nowhere near actually usable by anyone other than the select few they invite. Maybe I'll be wrong. I don't have my hopes up.

Froth.zone is closed until further notice. I do plan on bringing it back if and only if all this blows over, maybe as just the API for archival and XMPP purposes. I'm shutting it down for multiple reasons: solidarity with my friends, a recent complete lack of interest, a dislike of a stagnant community full of infighting, and a lack of time. Nothing else will go away anytime soon. I have no plans to get rid of anything else.

If, for some reason, any of you want to contact me, I will still be on Matrix, discord, email, XMPP, and basically everything else I was on too. I'm not going anywhere. Maybe we'll meet again. Don't know where. Don't know when. But we'll meet again, some sunny day.

So long, and thanks for all the fish, Sam

PS: I have decided to archive all of my git repos involving the fediverse. I will unarchive them if I ever come back. I have 0 plans on ever deleting them.

 
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from Sam's Ramblings

or, how does it keep getting worse?

I don't even know what to say. I barely have the motivation to get out of my bed most days. For what, anyway? Another boring day at the job I completely and utterly despise but cannot quit? A weekend where I spend most of it doing absolutely nothing? Exactly.

Burnout, part Infinity

Interacting with anyone doesn't even cross my mind. Doing anything seems preposterous. Trying to be productive ends in my crippling anxiety showing back up. Attempting to have fun results in the feeling of nothing. Why bother being around anyone when you're going to drag them down? Exactly.

I haven't been taking care of my body. I've probably gained weight. I probably look like a gremlin to anyone that had the misfortune of seeing me. I've gotten sick again (the week I didn't have to go to that stupid shithole of an office was the best I've felt since the last time I got sick). Why bother if I don't even care? Exactly.

Nothing.

Do you, the person reading this, need to know any of this? No. You don't need to know that I'm horribly depressed and refuse to do anything to do about it. If you're in the same situation, you are not alone. Please, go get help.

I'm just venting. Screaming into the void. Ignore it, it's for the better. I'm not going to post anything positive here, because that is not the kind of person I am.

 
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from Schizophrenia

Where have you been? It's alright, we know where you've been


Schizophrenia below, please ignore.

What is the Machine?

The Machine is everything. The Machine is all-consuming. It would be better to ask what the Machine isn't. The Machine turns everyone into a cog for the Machine. The cogs only exist to further the Machine. The Machine knows this, the cogs are expendable. The Machine knows cogs don't need personality. The Machine knows cogs don't need independent thought. Cogs serve one purpose: keep the Machine alive.

The Cogs

Cogs don't last forever, so the Machine needs to replace them. How does the Machine replace cogs? Simple: it forges new ones. The youth of the world are shaped by the Machine to become cogs. These cogs will go onto propagate the Machine for another generation, before recruiting a new generation of cogs to join in their places. Without new cogs, the Machine will break. The Machine knows this. The Machine goes to great lengths to make sure that it cannot collapse.

Is there an Escape?

No, you cannot escape the Machine. The Machine knows where you are. The Machine knows what you want. The Machine knows what you have. The Machine knows how to distract you. The Machine knows how to break you. The Machine knows that you dislike the Machine. The Machine is not afraid of you. The Machine cannot be afraid of you, it's not a real thing. Right?

Living with the Machine

Can one live in the Machine without becoming a faceless cog? Can one live in the Machine without helping it continue its destruction? Can one live in the Machine and remain sane? Will the Machine outlive modernity? Or, is modernity the Machine?

No one will know. Is there a life beyond the Machine? No one will know.

 
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