Some will cheer, some will be mildly disappointed. But I’m out, I think.
So I always said you lot were just funny words on a screen to me, but I did tear up a little reading your comments. I guess I’ll miss a number of you. It made me feel better about the time I spent here posting, and worse about leaving.
I wish I had it in me to keep going like the last few times.
Thanks. To all (or, rather, the vast majority) of you. It was because of you that I enjoyed my time on the Fediverse so much.
Aww man, I’m sorry. You were always awesome, and boy do I understand not wanting to start over. The Fediverse is great in some ways, but the Roguelike Social Media aspect is… not it’s most endearing feature.
I can’t even savescum like I did with ADOM back on my shitty laptop in 2005 DX
Yeah… man, I understand the technical limitations but it sure would be convenient if you could transfer user profiles.
Honestly, as I said elsewhere, I could do it if it was just my user profile. Communities are the real issue. Building up activity to the point where I’m not always the only person posting takes months of constant activity, every time.
I just don’t have it in me again.
Ah, yeah somehow I was envisioning user profiles including communities and… yeah, anyways, I for sure get it. I helped get a bunch of communities started over on reddit back when I was in college, and these days I just don’t have anything like the
adderallfree time that really requires. Much love for the work you already put in, your history posts really were a highlight of my mornings!
I’m sorry to see you go but I understand why you feel you need to leave. We’ll miss you around these parts. Take care PugJesus!
I’m sorry if this misses you, but your memes and wonderful breakdowns of history always made me smile. Thank you for everything.
Thank you for everything you’ve done, and for your history posts, I always looked forward to seeing them. The fediverse will be a grayer place without your posts.
Thank you for making fediverse so much more enjoyable all this time. Sad to see you leave, but totally understandable.
My federated social network is ruined.
Wait are you really leaving?
Yeah. Continuing to post on Piefed.social feels futile, and I just… don’t have the energy to migrate and rebuild my comms again.
I’m not happy about it, and I wish I had more to give. But I also learned a long time ago not to press myself beyond my limits.
thank you so much for all that you gave to us. You were one of the cornerstones of the fediverse and I thank you for all the information you gave us. I hope you have a great life. All the best.
Oh nonono, we do not authorize you to leave actually.
Well, I know I can’t convince you, so, good luck on your life out there! :)
I’m really sorry to hear this.
If you ever deicde to try again in the future, please give Piefed.zip a shot.
While I don’t use it (I’m on the sister Lemmy instance, Lemmy.zip), I’ve got nothing but praises for the Admins.
To this day I haven’t seen a single thing to even so much make me think about migrating.I concur, piefed.zip has been my home since lemm.ee went down and so far so good!
Quick! Let’s build an iron curtain to contain him!
Peace, brethren. We need more like ya - and that’s just the problem, getting communities to a critical mass in this medium is kind of unsustainable. Maybe we should go back to forums.
I feel like critical mass is very much possible and sustainable in this medium. I remember watching Reddit communities hit critical mass, and it was generally similar to the curve here, just on a faster scale.
The issue is the instability, and the instability is largely because of poor planning (God love Ernest, and I hear he’s doing better health-wise now, but he shouldn’t have been running the instance basically solo to begin with) and decisions.
The instability is definitely a sour note. I don’t disagree with your choices at all, for the record. I just feel like this format is probably better suited to being run by actual organisations, rather than loners with weird motives.
If there was a nonprofit org (or god forbid, an employee owned company) that ran a link aggregation platform, I’d see that as far more sustainable in human terms. It takes sysadmins, active moderators whose agenda is actually aligned with the mission of the platform, and dance commanders like you (is that a good word for it?) to bolster engagement and build community.
Just thinking out loud here, I’m not trying to talk you into anything or whatever. You deserve some extra free time.
Hosting instances by a nonprofit org definitely seems like a good idea, it’s why after feddit.de happened feddit.org is now in the hands of the Fediverse Foundation
Yeah, I agree. Institutions running instances would be much more reliable. Unfortunately, we play the game with the cards we have, not the cards we want.
PugJesus, you are completely awesome and your contribution to the success of the fediverse is immense. Thank you so, so much.
I can’t believe anyone can be so stupid as to think that stopping the most engaged people being engaged in the community would be in any way sensible. And limiting voting? When you can only ever vote once on each post or comment? Piefed developers: “this popularity really needs capping”.
Removed by mod
Have you engaged with a mod/admin ever? They’re usually fucking idiots.
Oh shit I’ll be sad to see you go
I don’t know who would cheer, you’re one of the pillars of this ecosystem as far as I’m concerned and even though I don’t say it enough I always appreciate your efforts in keeping so many niche subs fed with constant content.
I totally get how you’re feeling, and I can’t blame you for being burned out. You’ve put in an insane amount of work over the years. I hope you find some time to rest.
You will be missed, and will be remembered for a long time.
I haven’t seen anyone prolific on Lemmy not get hatred. Most of it I haven’t felt was justified.
Incidentally, I like your username.
Count yourself lucky lol. I know several and they aren’t good people to know. But yes this will definitely make the new feeds a lot lighter. And traffic overall go down. Neither of which are great.
Several…what?
I don’t know who would cheer
Oh, whoops…
I agree with this guy, you are a pillar
I don’t know who would cheer
Hi 👋
Tbh makes little difference since I had him blocked, but if he uses the opportunity to finally touch grass, it’s a win-win.
Did you know about the part where his illnesses make touching grass an ordeal he reduces to the minimum necessary (politics, keeping up with friends)? I get that you won’t see his comments, but he said as much somewhere in this section.
Point is, he is touching grass and has plenty more opportunity. I don’t see why people are hating on someone contributing so much content, most of it high quality, and bringing life to the platform. Why would less activity be a good thing?
Did you know about the part where his illnesses make touching grass an ordeal he reduces to the minimum necessary (politics, keeping up with friends)?
What does that mean, exactly? There are lots of ways to touch grass that don’t involve physical activity any more intense than typing. Playing a board games with your friends is touching grass, for example.
Even if it were true that he had no choice but to be terminally online, his personality is insufferable, he digs in hard to his positions and can’t be reasoned with. I believe he’s had drama with trans spaces (something about neopronouns, it was a long time ago) before because of that sort of thing.
I believe my last conversation with him involved him screaming at me and calling me a fascist because I said that I wouldn’t believe claims without evidence. And then following me around calling me a fascist while still refusing to provide a shred of evidence for his claims. I suppose if you already agree with him on everything, you wouldn’t see that side, but from my perspective he doesn’t care about being persuasive or backing up his claims so much as playing to the crowd and shouting down disagreement.
Imo, comms like NCD are pure internet brain poison, “semi-ironic” glorification of the military with a veneer of liberalism. Likewise for the political compass and associated memes, it shapes the way people think about politics, massively oversimplifying everything.
He called you a fascist because it’s true. You are a genocide denier and simp for totalitarian regimes. It is even linked within the argument you linked.
I don’t just deny genocides, I deny literally everything that doesn’t have evidence to support it. Claiming that anyone who needs evidence to believe things is a “fascist” or a “simp for authoritarian regimes” is beyond absurd. Especially when the main proponent of the claim you’re demanding I accept blindly, without evidence, is itself an authoritarian regime!
How come do you come with the same talking points as neonazis/Holocaust deniers? (denying that evidence exists when you in fact deny the legitimacy of any evidence presented to you)
How did you come to eat sugar, a food which Hitler also ate?
No matter what bullshit you try to pull to make me look bad for doing it, I believe in facts and evidence and will always believe in facts and evidence. You don’t get to go around using moral condemnations to “prove” claims that are utterly unsupported by evidence.
The accusation that I “deny the legitimacy of evidence presented to me” is baseless, because no evidence has been presented to me. PugJesus seems to believe that it is morally wrong, on principle to present any evidence whatsoever to back up claims made by the US government, that everyone should be expected to accept such claims purely on faith and that anyone who lacks such faith is a fascist.
Somehow, you lot seem to have gotten it into your heads that claims get to completely bypass the normal process of skepticism and evaluation if they involve genocide. At the same time, you completely refuse to weigh in on whether there is an ongoing genocide of Italians right now. Do you just hate Italians? Or is it that you know that if you denied that claim (which I just made up), you would be every bit as much of a “genocide denier” as me?
Would be weird if an ml user liked him TBH
Like I said, he’s really just concerned with playing to a crowd that I’m not part of, so yeah.
Even if it were true that he had no choice but to be terminally online, his personality is insufferable, he digs in hard to his positions and can’t be reasoned with.
Sorry that you don’t like it when I provide evidence and you refuse to read it, as in the comment sections you linked.
I believe he’s had drama with trans spaces (something about neopronouns, it was a long time ago) before because of that sort of thing.
“Something about neopronouns”
Ah, this old canard. Unsurprising that you’d spread more blatant misinformation.
I believe my last conversation with him involved him screaming at me and calling me a fascist because I said that I wouldn’t believe claims without evidence.
Amusing that you literally link to me providing evidence multiple times.
And then following me around calling me a fascist while still refusing to provide a shred of evidence for his claims.
Sorry that you don’t like it when it’s pointed out that you’re an Uyghur Genocide denier.
You can’t leave: Adrian Zenz and Radio Free Asia need your help to keep the faith.
Keep complaining to management, truth warrior 🤣
Amusing that you literally link to me providing evidence multiple times.
Exactly what I’m talking about. You know that most people won’t read through the conversations to know you’re lying.
Sorry that you don’t like it when it’s pointed out that you’re an Uyghur Genocide denier.
Pretty rich coming from an Italian Genocide denier.
Exactly what I’m talking about. You know that most people won’t read through the conversations to know you’re lying.
Talk about projection.
Me providing a link (see bottom left for the exact link) to evidence in the very first comment, followed by quoting the link when disputed, and providing further evidence.
Me literally screenshotting the link provided to show where you were wrong, and pointing out that you failed to understand what I was saying entirely, followed by me providing evidence of your genocide denial (link at bottom left)
Like most Nazis, repeating lies often in the hopes that they’ll be believed is all you have.
Me providing a link (see bottom left for the exact link) to evidence in the very first comment, followed by quoting the link when disputed, and providing further evidence.
I’m talking about your accusations further down the thread. You know, the part where you call me a fascist for refusing to believe things without evidence?
followed by me providing evidence of your genocide denial
What does that matter? You’re also a genocide denier, regarding the Italian Genocide. Everyone on earth is a genocide denier.
Like most Nazis, repeating lies often in the hopes that they’ll be believed is all you have.
No, actually, I have reason and evidence, which you lack.
What does that mean, exactly? There are lots of ways to touch grass that don’t involve physical activity any more intense than typing. Playing a board games with your friends is touching grass, for example.
Per https://feddit.uk/comment/26233735
“As someone with a laundry list of physical and mental ailments, my ‘touching grass’ time is extremely limit, and general I reserve the monumental effort there for important issues - like keeping up with the social events of my actual friends, or participating in local politics in my increasingly-fucked-and-fascist country. “Touch grass, it’s more fun than shitposting about history!” doesn’t really apply for me.”
As for the rest of your comment, I’ll be explicit in saying that I won’t engage with it. I have read the linked comments, their context, other comments linked in that context and frankly, I don’t think that will be a fruitful conversation for either of us. I hope you can respect that choice not to have it.
touching grass
All I’m saying is that, regardless of the reasons, too much internet can create brainworms, bad politics, and toxicity. I’ve yet to hear of any physical or mental ailment that makes it impossible to log off.
As for the rest of your comment, I’ll be explicit in saying that I won’t engage with it. I have read the linked comments, their context, other comments linked in that context and frankly, I don’t think that will be a fruitful conversation for either of us. I hope you can respect that choice not to have it.
Sure. You asked, I answered. I mostly linked them because I don’t believe in saying anything negative about a person without providing evidence.
All I’m saying is that, regardless of the reasons, too much internet can create brainworms, bad politics, and toxicity.
Imagine saying this as an Uyghur genocide denier and PRC bootlicker.
Aren’t you supposed to be logging off? Now that you’ve noticed I’ve unblocked you, I doubt you’ll be able to stay away for a week.
I know Lemmy has its issues, but I swear the more I hear about Piefed the crazier it sounds.
I will never understand why people want to trade the corporate nannies for some self-elected nanny.
We don’t need any of this weird social engineering junk
Lemmy’s issues are pretty gigantic as well - to the point where many people outright refuse to fund its further development, thus impacting the future of the Threadiverse (one example is the inordinate amount of time spent performing moderation activities rather than actually working on adding features to the codebase).
Anyway, it’s good to have multiple alternative options - having more software implementations of the ActivityPub Protocol is unquestionably a good thing imho.
The social engineering though is NOT a good thing imho - fortunately it’s an option that can be disabled, though unfortunately it is opt-out rather than opt-in, and not transparently handled at all.
Absolutely. My stance is not that Lemmy is not without serious flaw, just that Piefed does not seem to be the solution, to me at least.
PieFed.social is outright censoring votes now, deciding what people are allowed to see or not - and this affects not only people choosing to use PieFed, but also Lemmings (& users of Mbin, Mastodon, Friendica, nodeBB, etc.) as well. The Algorithm has returned to social media, taking away your personal control and instead putting it into the hands of Big Daddy who knows best what’s good for you.
Then again, Lemmy.ml is famous for doing this consistently for literally YEARS. Every single community on there is an echo chamber where certain “undesirable” types of people are not allowed to interact. You could prove me wrong btw by going into any active community and speaking plainly in a negative manner about Russia, China, or North Korea. I’ll wait…? 🤪
Remember that at one time Lemmy devs also implemented a slur word filter, DIRECTLY into the codebase, in a HARD-CODED manner no less, and when the community cried out against that, Nutomic said in response:
If you dont like it, fork it. Stop bothering us about it, we will never fully remove the slur filter.
We hoped for better from PieFed. Instead we merely got “different”. Though the pull towards authoritarianism is hard to resist - so often it is the quickest and by far least painful path towards a desirable solution (see e.g. Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars), and I can’t fully judge anyone for considering it. Worse, it might be the height of naïveté to even so much as think that anything else could exist outside of pure theory (aka fantasy)? After all, who is offering a “better” platform - YOU? (me? anyone else stepping up to offer?)
So then what is “the solution”, in your mind? Based on your instance, I am guessing you will say Lemmy? In that case, what about PieFed.zip, running its own version of PieFed with the voting quota anti-feature stripped out? Maybe at the end of the day, the software becomes just a starting point, and it’s the instance admins that are the ones who decide which parts of the software will run or not.
(I still cannot see myself donating to the further development of Lemmy software though - if only for the reason that the enormous amount of time spent moderating the Lemmy.ml instance seems to leave little time leftover to actually work on new code changes, though ngl the genocidal attitude towards actively wishing the deaths of everyone living in a Western civilization does put me off a tad bit as well!)
I feel like we’re having two separate conversations.
What the Lemmy devs do with their instance is separate from what they do with their software, imo.
I’ve said this many times before but as I see it we have two bad choices:
Lemmy, whose devs are arguably questionable with worrysome personal politics and philosophy but who do not bake said philosophy into their software.
Or Piefes, whose devs are arguably much more acceptable and well-meaning, but who bakes their social philosophy into their software.
To me, these are both bad options, but I’ll pick the side that develops agnostically without nannying tendencies. That they chose to enact stricter political bounds within their home territory is irrelevant to me because I don’t spend time there and that feels well within their rights without encroaching on the autonomy of others, to me.
Or, in short: I don’t care even a little bit about Lemmy.ml, I only care about Lemmy.
Lemmy, whose devs are arguably questionable with worrysome personal politics and philosophy but who do not bake said philosophy into their software.
But as OpenStars pointed out, the Lemmy devs did just such a thing in a much more egregious (hard-coded) way previously. The slur filter is now optional after considerable time and outcry.
Piefed’s vote restriction is an option that admins of any instance can fiddle with, or, effectively, disable entirely. Like the slur filter currently in Lemmy, and thus less forced than the slur filter as it was initially rolled out on Lemmy. The issue, for me, is that I made a home on Piefed.social, specifically, and now it’s… not home for me.
If you don’t care about what admins do on their own instance, this shouldn’t bother you. I care - both in the abstract and insofar as it affects me, and so am… winding down my participation.
If it sounded like what I was trying to say was “PugJesus should have just picked and stuck with Lemmy!”, then I apologize, because that is enormously not what I’m trying to say.
If anything I’m saying I understand your frustration and was just lamenting a lack of a good solution, and attempting to point to the insufficiency of all available options.
I only targeted towards Piefed because of the kind of “kumbuya” idealists that claim it’s superior while being blind to its flaws.
I don’t disagree with you, your frustrations, or your decision to step away rather than re-invest somewhere with another shaky foundation
I didn’t take you as saying that.
I’m just saying that there isn’t a difference here between the slur filter as is and the vote limiter as is in terms of implementing philosophy into the software. Both are options for admins in the software, not mandatory.
The Lemmy devs, however, initially attempted to make the slur filter mandatory, meaning that their attempt to implement their philosophy into the software was much more heavy-handed, and only walked-back after considerable outcry.
Basically, Rimu’s choice here is immensely shitty, but is fundamentally more a choice of Rimu as an admin than as a dev. As a dev choice, the voting limit is of questionable utility, but not forced on instances - it’s a number that admins can easily (effectively) abolish.
It’s much more a Piefed.social problem than a Piefed (all instances) problem.
I agreed with you up until the slur filter:
If you dont like it, fork it. Stop bothering us about it, we will never fully remove the slur filter.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me, unless you’re one of those weirdos who just NEEDS to say slurs
For a Lemmy.world example, I was discussing medieval siege warfare (either I or someone else was quoting a primary source, I think?) when I found out that either ‘fags’ or ‘faggots’ was censored.
Had no clue before that.
Essentially, nearly every slur either has other usages (I’m reminded of overzealous word filters censoring niggardly and snigger, or ‘a chink in the armor’) or may still be relevant in the context of quotation (calling someone ‘cunty’ is being Australian, probably; calling someone ‘chink’ is being racist; knowing which 5-letter profanity starting with ‘c’ was used may be relevant in forming an opinion on someone’s behavior).
Slurs should get the ban hammer, not an autocensor; and bans should be handed out by people who can judge context.
Good points, and also good thing I’m not a moderator
The main problem with the slur filter is that it does neither consider context, nor considers delimiters. For example, when someone were to say the word for the purple fruit used to make wine, they’re not intending to use a word for the non-consensual sexual violation, yet the algorithm can’t see the difference when it detects the UTF-8 sequence 0x72 0x61 0x70 0x65, doing a hard-replace with the substring “removed” regardless of the context. Tom Scott once made a video about this phenomenon: it’s called
String("The Sc" + "unthorpe problem").Also, as you can see through this reply of mine, filters are pointless when there’s a plethora of ways to say the same thing without saying the actual word. Naive filters (e.g. RegExp-based match and replace) will just curb those who aren’t creative and/or knowledgeable enough, while affecting the experience for everyone who aren’t intending to do slurs, leading them to start using coded language and, thus, making it even harder to detect slurs as the slurers will eventually learn, through the non-slurers, that they can express the same thing without triggering the filter, until we get to a point in which the entire platform pivots to AI moderation, and even then there’s so many ways to express the thing without the LLM detecting, it’s called “steganography” and curbing this requires technical approaches known to be a Hard NP problem in computer science.
I mean… I disagree with the vote quotas specifically, but anyone running an instance is gonna have to have some kind of controls, and Rimu’s being open about what’s going on and why and it’s not a big deal for me. The point of the fediverse is that you can pick the particular instance whose policies you’re OK with. With corporate sites you only get one “choice” and they hide their algorithms from you.
I don’t think it’s fine the quota is enabled by default for everybody. You want to have the option, fine - but don’t force it on people. Should be opt in.
I was looking on a couple of posts about it recently and there was an instance when (I think) admin of one instance updated it without realizing this feature is in there. That’s problematic.
