That’s a super neat trick actually. Why the heck has RSS been losing popularity when it seems to be the only magic protocol you really need to keep up with what you actually care about?

Oh I just answered my own question: It must be harder to hijack RSS with intrusive ads and clickbait…

I still don’t think I understand the full utility of RSS. I guess it’s good for forum communication too?

Because my first thought was “RSS is cool but first we need human-written content and blogs to come back.”

Zulip sounds neat!

Shoutout to https://revolt.chat/ as a Discord alternative too.

Ah, that captures such a stark answer to why people use xitter though.

It’s not “so I can hear from you” it’s “So YoU cAn HeAr FrOm Us!!!11oneone”

Walled gardens? More like prison yard. Lol

I don’t think I used to do this. I feel like I used to be so eloquent!

But yet, now, I catch myself stopping mid-sentence, looking down and away at nothing in particular, maybe touching my temple like I’m Charles friggin’ Xavier, and twirling my hand in circles trying to search my head-database for the right words, or people’s names, or whatever.

I’m sure that’d just be aces in a job interview…psh. I feel like it has a negative charisma impact.

I want to think it’s just because I’m expected to know a ton more than before, but it also makes me worry about my mental acuity when I feel like I just feel like things I should know have leaked out my ears or something.

Hey friend, I really appreciate it. :)

That sincerity and love can change the world, and you’re all the more courageous for it. Even if things suck, I’m glad we’re not alone and there’s people like you here by our side, figuratively or otherwise. :)

I always come back to a few sources of timeless wisdom in the face of all this nonsense. A lot of it found in the Bible, which I know won’t get great reactions thanks to current events.

As a Christian anarchist, I’m also trying to do what I can to combat against the most evil cult of greed, hate, bloodshed, and misery that has become the American state-sponsored religion. It’s a lot of grief and pain to watch the Gospel of selfless love be trampled and peddled by fascists, and the reactionary hatred of it from the oppressed in turn, who’ve only ever known its perversion against themselves.

But I digress. Here’s a some wisdom I keep returning to, etched in my soul. Perhaps it will empower you as well. :)

I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

-Ephesians 6:12

“Do not pray for an easy life; pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.”

-Bruce Lee

And lastly , I’ve posted it many times before but damnit if this doesn’t remind us why we’re still here in the face of all this madness:

FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy. How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

–Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (film version)

All honesty, I tend to be optimistic to a fault and try really hard to be cheerful.

Everything starts to crack once socioeconomics comes up. The news lately is all about how everything is about to get worse. “This is collapsing, that’s more expensive, getting a slice of diminishing wages is going to be even harder now! They’re cracking down here and forcing ads there.” Etc etc.

When I’m knee-deep in fixing up my servers or making art or being with my people, everything is just peachy!

But yeah, “How next money tho?” Usually starts the mental downward spiral.

I love living, can do a ton of things, love learning, but I don’t get along with churning out a repetitive task for increasingly worthless currency.

The world outside of what I’m choosing to do feels entirely impossibly out of our control. So I try to balance being informed with staying sane.

Like damn I don’t need much, can’t folk just be left alone? Lol

Wonder if a lot of people feel like I do?

Hugs for you, buddy. <3 the world’s better with you in it.

I was diagnosed at the same age and identify with everything you said.

The most demoralizing thing is feeling worthless when society bases the justification for your existence on how well you impress in a “competitive job market”, judged by sociopaths against neurotypical standards. Expected to be the most charming person ever while maintaining machine-like consistency.

No amount of self "it’s okay buddy you’re just different"s change material reality. And it’s infuriating. :(

Hey that’s really helpful, thank you for taking the time to share! I really appreciate it. :) I really should take another crack at it.

Why is modern webdev such a clusterfuck?

Not a webdev.

Have tried multiple times to “finally figure out how this web stuff works because I’d like a nice website that isn’t a huge chonky slowpoke WordPress install with ad-infested plugins.”

I can’t do it. Gamedev is hard, but makes 1000x more sense than whatever cargo-cult bubblegum-and-hope the modern web runs on.

I probably should learn JS, but I’m very hesitant to even bother with it because it feels like an insane time commitment. Like getting a doctorate from scratch in something you’re not SUPER jazzed about or starting OnePiece from Ep 1.

“Oh cool, you learned that thing everyone complains about! But you know nothing until you get good at ~30 out of 400 different highly opinionated frameworks.”

The input to result ratio just doesn’t seem like it’s there. O.o Maybe I’m just a noob but this is my experience lol.

And don’t even get me started on RAM-munchy Electron apps.

“Why yes, I WOULD love a separate instance of Chrome running for every messenger app I use! And I love when Discord is the only support resource! :D”

–Nob’dy Ev’r, 2025 A.D

They wouldn’t want you to know it all depends on a Frankensteined chunk of spaghetti’d COBOL that hasn’t been updated since a guy they forgot about set it up before he retired in like 1996. And they’re just betting that, if they don’t look at it too hard, it won’t oopsie a cascade of critical failures.

Ha! Similar story, but Capoeira here. We’re all in formation and called to do “armada”, some arts might call it a “spinning back crescent”.

I whipped around and threw that leg and spun so hard that I caught just enough air to take my anchored foot out from under me and land on my butt. Oooow. Lol

I imagine some funny cartoonish “woopidy woop!” sounds would’ve completed the moment. XD

Dang, looking into Revolt seems like it’d be more in line with your use case. I wonder if it also has separate voice chat rooms?

I’d love to be able to get people to switch to something like this.

Sidenote: Lol I’m getting downvotes for mocking streaming giants and ads on Lemmy. That’s different 🤔.

Honestly, I hear you. Media isn’t easy to make and takes a ton of talented people a lot of hours to accomplish. I also drop off of subscribing to stuff if it was really nice but “enshittified” into forcing ads into every interaction.

Something needs to change fundamentally though, because we’re once again on the cable-TV slope of “20 minutes of entertainment extended to 45 minutes by interrupting it with the exact same ad of a mega corporation pretending to be an underdog influencer.”

My personal take is that if your average person were paid fairly, they’d have the money to spend on entertainment where ad-pollution wouldn’t be necessary, and if the entertainment distributors/platforms/whatevs asked the fair amount required to pay everyone involved fairly, everyone would be happy.

Lol a guy can dream.

"Ah, yes I see I see, and that’s very understandable. Thank you for paying us by the way.

Now, since you’ve been so loyal for all these years…what about [slides agreement across the table] you pay for it…AND you watch ads?"

– Basically every streaming service hopping on the bandwagon at this point

This year I haven’t worked any traditional employment, but have done various projects for friends in exchange for money.

When I just had a typical job, taxes were almost fire-and-forget easy…but I’m a little worried about that whole process this year to be honest.

A lot of times the free one only covers that “I have a typical job” case…but anything different and they’re like “OH YOU NEED BUSINESS-OWNER PREMIUM PLUS” or something.

(I haven’t started a business and earned maybe 4 figures this year…) 😅

[resists doing it again for like 15 seconds] [does a neat little pen twirl trick] [thinks “oo that was neat”] [tries it again] [pen flies across room] … sorry.

I’m a chemical (aka process) engineer.

Well now I’ve got this song stuck in my head again, which probably accurately describes life with particularly bad peoject management.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whdzP0GHuc4

Surplus clothes.

In highschool I liked having a lot of storage. So I liked things with pockets. Cargo pants were my jam! Turns out, military surplus BDU pants are somewhat cheap and VERY durable for around $30-$45 a pair. They can survive a tumble or two, can be repaired, wash easy, and breathe well depending on the blend.

Outdated or impractical camo is a fun aesthetic (can be punk as heck) and olive drab is a lovely color. (Thankfully I was never cringey enough to strut around in actively deployed uniform patterns unless it was on an airsoft field haha.)

Oh yeah, I have one of those funny tall-lanky bodies that you can’t department shop for pants for. Tac-pants come in a huge variety of fits.

I also hated shoe shopping. So a sturdy pair of combat boots lasted me ages without falling apart, were all-terrain, and supported the ankles! These boots were made for wear, so I never had to be upset over scuffs.

The BEST part? No (visible) brand names.

I still have some of those pants I wear since I graduated in the early 00’s. The ones with more cotton are a little threadbare now though. I just need some basic colors and my everday casual wardrobe is filled out. Acquiring replacements doesn’t break the bank either.

Form and function. Durability and mobility. Picking up some groceries or hiking the mountains. Incredibly versatile.

I don’t understand how the fashion industry continues to con people into expensive sweatshopped single-ply polyester that turns the wearer into a walking douchey billboard.