Trying to meet users where they are over where you want them to be. For free software or creative commons endeavors, if a proprietary collaboration products (especially if exclusively) like Microsoft GitHub or Discord or Slack or Figma is

• locking issues behind their account + ToS
• ban projects that undermine capital interest (Yuzu, youtube-dl, third-party clients flagged as malicious, constantly breaking API to make building upon difficult)
• blocks a swatch of potential users for US sancations or a local regime
• happily hands off data to feds
• collects gobs of data to either sell and/or use to train AI models they will sell back to us
• Requires userStyles, userScript, filter lists to scrub the ads & social media features to have a worthwhile experience (kids call these “mods” on Discord for some reason)
• uses social media hook tactics to get you to spend more time on the platform
• have bloated clients that tear into your RAM

When there are free software alternatives that fit the bill (& crucially aren’t resource hogs hurting feasibility) or even non-profits running competing so you don’t need to pay, reach for these options. These projects might be less polished, but since they aren’t fighting to profit propped up by investors, this is to be expected? By getting curious users in the space they will report bugs & contribute upstream instead of building “mods” to correct the predatory option. If you have witnessed even one “enshittification” instance, you know this is inevitable so don’t waste your effort propping these up. Choose tools/services that align with your principles instead handwaving them as unimportant—or assuming users are too inept to learn something new. But also, there is a block of folks that are under respresented that already do know how to operate these platforms that are possibly disinfranchized or blocked that you haven’t even accounted for by choosing the corporate option.

I’ve used this for several years. I miss when it was trivial to get scrobbling support on anything. Weirdly despite how portable players now have access to Wi-Fi & Bluetooth tethering, nothing support scrobbling out of the box. Last.fm even used to give good recommendations before it went downhill. You can say there is now value in trying to help ListenBrainz make a new recommendation algorithm with open data, but less folks have been using such platforms in the wake of leaving their data in the hands of Spotify & YouTube.

I mean Matrix was intiated by Israeli intelligence so not unreasonable

One reason for moving to Nix was declarative config so at least that part of my system is a series of Nix files to build into a working setup.

…The rest… let’s just say “needs improvement” & I would like to set up a NAS.

Be wary of sunk cost fallacy. Sometimes you gotta bite the bullet & allow yourself to see it as some wasted money with the opportunity to start over with something with less lock-in or the boost in creativity of now having to work with new constraints.

The thing that grinds my gears

WARNING: I’m not actually a quotation tho my > character says that is what I am for in the specification & if you check my HTML markup I am a <blockquote> which also has a spec saying I must quote a source

Markdown-itis is ruining semantics on the web just ’cause it doesn’t support callouts like a proper lightweight markup syntax for documentation, technical writing, & blogging. It is the wrong tool for these mediums but users forgo caring about semantics for the familar not even understand their tools or their outputs.

Sony is still carrying the torch for flagships

Additionally LineageOS for microG which rolls the microG stuff into the ROM which saves a lot of work/frustration when trying to unGoogle a device. Any device that is officially supported by LineageOS will have builds which can’t be said for many other ROMs.

But not friendliest on IO. No headphone jack. No microSD. No dual SIM.

But you may not run them as root!

Unironically awesome. You can debate if it hurts the ability to contribute to a project, but folks should be allowed to express themselves in the language they choose & not be forced into ASCII or English. Where I live, English & Romantic languages are not the norm & there are few programmers since English is seen as a perquisite which is a massive loss for accessibility.

The hotter take: languages like APL, BQN, & Uiua had it right building on symbols (like we did in math class) for abstract ideas & operations inside the language, where you can choose to name the variables whatever makes sense to you & your audience.

since it’s open source

Open core with an open community edition. 100% better than fully proprietary & Microsoft.