Notices by Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)

Vice’s Hard-Right Turn to Trumpism https://theintercept.com/2024/11/19/vice-news-right-wing-trumpism/

"Netscape is obviously dead, Firefox is hanging on by a thread (which is inconspicuously shaped like a giant sack of money from Google), Opera is dead (its shady Chrome skin doesn’t count), Brave is cryptotrash run by a homophobe, and Vivaldi, while an actually good and capable Chrome skin with a ton of fun features, still isn’t profitable, so who knows how long they’ll last. As an independent company, Chrome wouldn’t survive...and Chrome in anyone else’s hands might have the potential to be even worse." https://www.osnews.com/story/141156/doj-will-push-google-to-sell-chrome-to-break-search-monopoly/

2/Be aware you are effectively operating behind enemy lines. It may be tactically useful to do so, but don’t pretend there is anything “good” happening here. For all the talk about critical thinking, folks could try using some for once. 🤦

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joecardillo_bluesky-bigtech-socialmedia-activity-7263206291139932161-BTim

Mastodon is benefitting from the #X exodus (eXodus?) too: The official app downloads are up 47% on iOS and 17% on Android. Sign-ups are up approx. 27% compared to previous month with about 90K new accounts, while the MAU has jumped to 894K (across all Mastodon servers).

Ben & Jerry’s Sues Parent Company for Silencing Support for Palestine https://truthout.org/articles/ben-jerrys-sues-parent-company-for-silencing-support-for-palestine/

UN Report: Israel’s Tactics in Gaza Are “Consistent With Genocide” https://truthout.org/articles/un-report-israels-tactics-in-gaza-are-consistent-with-genocide/

@bebopcello Thank you so much! How have you been?

@funkybuddha Thank you so much!

It's my birthday today! And just recently, we successfully launched @sheffieldmaskbloc here in the city, inundated with requests we're struggling to fulfill due to quick depletion of stock, so we're pushing for more funds! I'm currently volunteering to handle a separate bank account in my name to hold and spend funds from. So my birthday wish is that rather than offer me anything or donating to me via my website, feel free to instead use Ko-fi if you can afford to donate, as every penny there is going towards the procurement of more resources to ship out to folx needing them. Thank you so much! http://ko-fi.com/sheffieldmaskbloc #MutualAidRequest #MaskBloc #MaskUp #Sheffield #CovidIsNotOver #Covid19

We're down to our last tenner of funds and want to make sure we can cover postage for any requests! If you can donate - even a small amount - it is greatly appreciated! Maybe you'd even like a zine in return for your contribution! https://ko-fi.com/sheffieldmaskbloc #Sheffield #MaskBloc #MaskUp #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #Covid #Covid19 #CovidIsAirborne #CovidIsNotOver

Why BlueSky is not a viable alternative https://medium.com/@aidanraymond/why-bluesky-isnt-the-alternative-to-x-formerly-twitter-you-re-looking-for-and-why-mastodon-is-46c8901f2748 #Fediverse #Mastodon #bluesky

Not a parody: The Onion acquires Alex Jones’s InfoWars in auction https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/14/not-a-parody-the-onion-acquires-alex-joness-infowars

The ICO's controversial policy of not fining public sector organisations in the UK, except for the most serious cases, fails to deter them from breaching data protection law.

The ICO must use its full powers, including enforcement notices and fines, to make data protection law effective.

#dataprotection #privacy #GDPR #ICO #ukpolitics

A reminder of the phrase: "perfect is the enemy of good." To cite Mastodon as a genuine alternative to Twitter and Bluesky is not to say that Mastodon is perfect. That should go without saying. Everything can be scrutinised and critiqued and improved on. But that's not the purpose or point of these posts - the point is, you can't improve something built on bad intentions and compromised foundations like Bluesky is. Let's bring those places down while building these places up.

@ikeruga My reply to you was written with kindness and in good faith. I'm sorry you've taken it in any other way.

@ikeruga There's a saying popular in anarchist circles that you will probably be familiar with: "perfect is the enemy of good." Nobody suggested this is perfect, but I knew there'd be a reply like this because Mastodon is full of people who actually want to create something better all the time, are open to criticism and reflection, and are always quick to keep Mastodon cheerleading in check (sometimes to a fault)! However, that's an entirely separate argument (and one I've addressed at length on my website, and many times on here) and my points still stand, yes.

@Thad Haha subtle sarcasm?

I guess my point here is, it's not a "platform" when no one can hear you. I have half that number of followers here on Mastodon and yet I'm heard but - more important than that - I listen. I take in posts by people wiser than myself, and/or at least with different backgrounds and experiences to myself, who I learn so very much from. Mastodon (more specifically, Todon) makes that possible for me. It brings out the best.

Us "mere mortals," meanwhile, love this shit: I had over 3,000 followers on pre-Elon Musk Twitter, and by that point there was, well, no point: the ads and algorithms had long since pushed my tweets aside in favour of whatever normies had trending, and - in the absence of any decent code of conduct - the space was becoming unbearably bot-ridden at best and toxic at worst.

Repackaged Twitter (Bluesky) will suffer the same fate as original Twitter (X). Or possibly even worse. I'm not wrong. Feel free to save this toot, idgaf.