In good times, using free software, privacy-focused systems, and decentralized infrastructure can seem like an ideological, almost aesthetic, decision.
In bad times, all three are a necessity.
I've been told *so many times* that it's unreasonable for me to base decisions about the tools I use and the digital places I inhabit on ideology.
But that's not what I'm doing, by not joining Bluesky, by not going back to Facebook, by trying to ditch my smartphone. I lived through the collapse of the big XMPP providers; I lived through the Tumblr porn ban; I lived through the enshittification of Windows and the locking down of Mac OS and the subscriptionification of every piece of software out there. We all watched Twitter intentionally turn itself into a cesspit.
I'm making the most practical decisions available to me, by trying to insulate myself, at least a little, from the forces that made those things happen.
I'm not going to tell you what to do about your digital life, because I'm not you, and I'm not living in your situation.
But I am going to get pretty mad at the next person who talks shit about how free software users are all ideologues who don't care about the practicalities of software and computing. You want to listen to users? Listen to this.
For me, there is no worse user experience than endless opaque updates with "Bug fixes and improvements."
I don't care how nice your design looks. If I can't stop you from removing features I depend on, you can go straight to hell.
I'm not sorry for one second that I care less about full text search and snappy thread fetching than about never, ever letting Matt fucking Mullenweg or any of his ilk take my friends away from me again.
If my options are to use an OS that stops me from running whatever software I want and/or shows me ads I can't get rid of without paying yet more money, or never touching a computer ever again, I know damn well which one I'm going to pick.
To avoid turning my pancakes into your waffles, let's clarify some things I did *not* say in the above post.
I did not say that free software, as it stands today, can be everything to everyone. I did not say nobody should use Bluesky. I did not say that people with accessibility and functionality needs that are not met by [free software project you don't like] should use it anyway.
There are people who say stuff like that. They are wrong. I am not them and projecting your dislike for them onto me is not productive.
Thanks.
The primary way in which I've compromised on my commitment to free software is by using Discord. I really don't like Discord, but a lot of my local community uses it almost to the exclusion of other tools, so I am there.
I am aware that this is many people's situation in re: Bluesky. That's why, while I'm sad to see lots of folks go there, I am in no way mad at them; they are making the decisions that are right for them.
But I reserve the right to believe in and work towards a world where that is no longer the right decision for them, because the alternatives are good enough for their communities to use them too.
I feel the same way about ads in general, by the way. I'm less vocal about it here, partly because I think most people agree with me, but my metamour (with whom I live) doesn't feel the same way and often uses her phone to cast Hulu and Youtube to the TV, leading to ads. I've had to have a conversation with her about it because it's the only time in my life that I'm exposed to digital ads and it's genuinely really disconcerting to me, but I don't want to offend her by covering my ears or walking out for, apparently, no reason.
@noracodes the youtube ads thing is so grating. i actually find all of youtube to be grating (at least what my partner watches), so we have an agreement that he has to wear headphones if i’m in hearing range of him watching it.
@autumn Yeah. There's some good stuff on there, especially for photography, but if they ever really kill adblocking and SponsorBlock it won't be worth it for me anymore.