Shit, I remember these in school. And I'm 22, pretty sure early 20s isn't ood enough to count for an "are you this old" meme.

Depends on how exactly you define popular.

If you use a definition that includes anything like "liked and admired" then she doesn't fit. Her service is busy but as this thread shows, most people openly state they only go to her because they have no other choice for these cracks.

Using popular hides how many people actively want to jump ship if only there was competition. It's like saying that Comcast is popular because they have so many customers who don't have a viable alternative to using them.

Popular feels like the wrong word. If you're the only game in town for a specific service, that doesn't inherently mean you're popular.

That explains why when you're alone by the fire, but it doesn't explain why there's always one unlucky bastard when it's a large group. There's plenty of bodies so it's not just air pressure pulling the smoke. It's fate that someone must be the sacrificial smoked lamb.

In this context it feels less like an ad, and more like "hey look how desperate they're getting".

I will not ask my fellow lemmy community members to blindly trust me on this.

This is the primary thing you are asking people to do. Literally everything else you said hinges on people blindly trusting you.

I understand wanting to protect your sources. But you're taking it to the other extreme by providing literally nothing except unprovable claims. Give us something, anything, even an easily faked email or pm. Just anything that requires even the slightest bit of effort beyond just typing up straight lies.

Embrace, they join the fediverse seemingly in good faith. Bringing their larger userbase to massively increase the size of the fediverse.

Extend, they add some features that are convenient when interacting with their base across the fediverse. But these conveniences require proprietary software integration.

Extinguish, once enough users and platforms are tied into the conveniences of extend, they use that to force compliance. Stricter and stricter rules on their proprietary software. Comply or die.

The fediverse won't be gone afterwards, but if it EEE works then we will end up very stifled.

That's not what they said at all.

What they said is that just because you don't agree with the opposite opinion doesn't make the person saying that opinion a troll. They may be a hateful motherfucker, but a hateful motherfucker who is trying to talk in good faith.

They aren't arguing some enlightened centrist "everyones opinions are equal" bullshit. They're just arguing that opposite opinion does not equal automatic troll.

Exactly.

Most of us on the fediverse can sympathize with the idea that "its really frustrating not being able to use Reddit as a reliable spurce for obscure knowledge."

The difference is that we feel "its really frustrating that I can't rely on Reddit, because even if the answer is there I can't in good conscience support spez." Instead of "all the answers are gone because of these stipid protests."

See the problem here is that you forgot that opinions are only allowed to include concerns or nuances that are on the approved list.

Anything you might be concerned about that isn't on the approved list puts you straight into wrongthink, double plus ungood.

I have opinions on when and how children should be allowed to access cigarettes, alcohol, and motorcycles. Are those opinions also boring, unnecessary, and entitled?

Which, the "nuclear is evil and any power that isn't solar, wind, or hydro deserves literal death" circlejerk?