Great chapter.

Mom (and onee-chan) weren’t worried about how well she might do on a problem on the chalkboard - they wanted to make sure she was enjoying herself with good people who cared about her. And she is.

It’s really impressive how the mangaka’s expanding on things in the serialized version.

IIRC, we did get to see Airu the first time through, but only briefly and in idol mode - we didn’t get even a hint of her background until just now. And the way it played out - slipping into her old delinquent mode just long enough to deal with those guys, then switching to idol mode to win then over as fans - was brilliant.

And the other girl covering Urumin’s eyes was a great touch, and funny to boot.

Where are you seeing this supposed anti-semitism from the left?

I’ve literally seen zero anti-semitism from the left. Every single anti-semitic statement or action I’ve ever seen has been by someone on the right.

Now the left does tend to be anti-zionist, but much though warmongers like Netanyahu might want you to think so, that’s not by any stretch of the imagination the same thing as anti-semitism.

That was adorable.

Personally, I think that Lemmy hit rock bottom relatively shortly after the main Reddit exodus in early July, and has steadily improved since. And more than anything else, I attribute that to users leaving.

The thing is that at least some significant part of the people who have left are people who couldn’t or wouldn’t appreciate the threadiverse for what it is and instead spent their time whining about the ways in which it isn’t the same as Reddit.

And honestly, good riddance to them.

There are always going to be people who can and do appreciate the threadiverse for what it is. Those who are already here will stay and at least some of those who haven’t discovered it yet will, and will move here. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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I agree wholeheartedly.

I’d only add, just because I’ve been thinking this a lot lately and have been looking for a chance to shove it out of my brain and out into the world, that I find much of the focus on Reddit to be sort of creepy.

There’s something about the behavior of some of the people I see around here that very much reminds me of an obsessed ex-lover - like they’ve gone through a messy breakup and now they just can’t let it go. Every conversation ends up being diverted into them whinging about their ex some more, they’re obsessively stalking the ex’s social media, hoping to see signs that they’re miserable without them or just having a hard time in general, and they’re potentially even sending them nasty messages, trying (almost certainly vainly) to make them suffer. They can’t just let it go and get on with their lives.

And they really need to. That part of their lives is over, and it’s time to move on. Clinging to it is not healthy, and frankly, to others, it’s tedious, and sort of creepy.

I’ve been online for close to 30 years now.

I’ve lost count of the number of forums I’ve had to leave because they went to shit.

I always find another one.

Amusingly enough, your assertion here is functionally identical to the one you’re criticizing.

Your assertion is that it’s not worth engaging with those who advocate for preemptive defederation because their fundamental nature makes it such that you cannot legitimately expect a positive outcome.

And that’s EXACTLY the position that those in favor of preemptive defederation have taken regarding Meta.

Broadly, I have no issue with this.

In the first place, it’s just a part of the nature of the fediverse that admins are free to manage their instances as they prefer and users are free to choose instances as they prefer, so it’s no more significant in that sense than a restaurant not including some particular thing on its menu. It’s their choice, and I’m entirely free to order something else or go to a different restaurant.

Specifically, to the degree that it matters (which is likely not at all), this is the decision I’d make too, just because even in a culture increasingly defined by corporate shitweasels, Meta stands out for being especially shitweaselish.

All that said, I keep wondering if it’s going to be an issue anyway. The fediverse is a sort of technically and conceptually complex place, and uncharitably, Meta’s customer base leans toward the lazy and stupid end of the spectrum.

I can definitely see some likelihood that a lot (most?) of the people who might end up following a link to a Meta-owned instance are just going to get confused and frustrated, then scurry back to Facebook.

We’ll see…

Why choose?

I have accounts so far with five instances, and I’ll likely end up with more. I can and do just go to whichever one for whatever reason, as the mood hits me.

I presume that over time I’ll come to use some notably more than others, and I might even end up using one exclusively, but that’s something that’ll just happen organically, if at all.

I see nothing to be gained from forcing a decision, particularly at this early stage.

Additionally, that’s why I like the fact that the fediverse is sort of technically complex and not particularly user-friendly, and if I had my way about it, it would stay that way.

Bluntly, technical complexity serves as a barrier-to-entry for lazy and stupid people, and that’s a good thing.

I’m old enough to remember when the internet as a whole was like that - when you had to have some technical knowledge and determination just to get online at all. And I remember how much and how quickly things went downhill when that was no longer the case.

I currently have accounts with four different instances, and I expect to have more. I jump between them as the mood hits me.

I presume that if one of them is defederated by another instance, that will just figure in to whether or not I’m in the mood to spend time there at a given moment. And if one of them turns toxic enough to drive me away… it’ll drive me away.

I don’t think any of it’s worth worrying about. The whole fediverse thing seems to be very fluid, and I count that as a good thing.

Their intent is irrelevant to my point.

Opinion: If you’re telling other people what specific choices they should make in order to do stoicism, you’re missing the point.

I’m the same way. I have an essentially inverse relationship with ads - the more ads I see for something, the more convinced I become that it’s not something I might want. After all, my reasoning goes, if it was actually a product worth having, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to convince people to buy it.

Yes and no.

Broadly, at this point, I couldn’t care less what Reddit does. This is my new home.

In the weeks leading up to my move here though, it wasn’t so much that I was concerned about the third party apps specifically. I did use one - RIF - and the official app is complete garbage, so it would’ve impacted me negatively, but it was more than that. And yes - the certain increase in censorship was another issue, but still, it’s deeper than that.

Both of those things, and much more, are really just aspects of the process that Cory Doctorow has called enshittification, and that’s the thing that drove me away. And if I was still on Reddit, that would be the thing I’d be concerned about.

So it is the case for me that it’s not just about the third party apps, and that censorship is also a concern, but really those things, in my estimation, are just signs of a deeper, underlying issue.

Which I no longer have to care about.

I just want to be able to control what I see. I have no desire to control what other people see and I sure as fuck don’t want other people to control what I see.

That’s it. That’s my entire position on the matter.