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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • According to some people on the fediverse, the Kagi forum thread that is linked in the toots I posted above and seemingly nowhere else.

    From a non political standpoint: I tried Kagi last year and it was ok but I didn’t get the big deal. And because I’m not in the US but the UK if you try searching where’s my nearest garage or stay the nearest result came up as 150 miles away. So it’s one of those things I’ll maybe return to it once it’s developed a bit more






  • That’s a very black and white way of putting it. As long as you’re an adult who can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and you’re not spending hours obsessed with it I don’t think it’s unhealthy. The way you phrase ‘avoid it completely’ makes it sound like you’re going out of your way to avoid it already.

    (I think the problems are coming through with the generation being ‘brought up on porn’, and thinking real sex is like it is in the videos online but that’s a different story really.)



  • I just started using it for Android the last month or so when Chrome dropped the flag feature that let you toggle dark mode for websites with system dark mode.

    I have a VPN with an adblocker so that aspect of Chrome never bothered me so much. Chrome felt like it worked slightly smoother but at the end of the day a browser is a browser and Firefox does the job. (Samsung’s browser is actually surpringly good for those with a Samsung device looking for a Chrome alternative)

    Firefox does seem more trustworthy overall, although I’ve learned by now that trusting tech companies is not a sensible thing to do.


  • Still use Google search, but switched out Chrome for Firefox recently and it’s working out well. I do still use their calendar, docs apps but I’ve never been a big one for YouTube. I do have some Google speakers though and use Maps all the time - so I guess out of big tech Google is the one I’m suckered into the most…

    Stopped using Facebook around 2016 and deleted my Twitter account a few years before that, basically when the novelty had long gone and it all seemed to be more toxic.

    In the UK around that time it was just everyone going on about Brexit on Facebook but even before then people weren’t sharing stuff about themselves (with good reason) so it was just low effort memes). Use Facebook once in a blue moon to get in touch with really old friends

    Didn’t miss either, although I recently signed up to Mastodon more just to see how the fediverse worked over there.

    Then Reddit - probably the social media I was most invested in just because it was so granular in it’s There’s A Sub For That ability to cater for virtually all interests. But the utter disdain they held for their own volunteers and the contempt they seem to hold virtually everyone in was a bit of a wake up call. I do go back and check on it but I’m finding that I check on it less. Fedi has less content so I am reading all those eBooks I should have been reading instead!

    My son is 7, I’m interested in how things are looking in 5 year’s time when he’s an early teen. He’s already got bored of watching YouTube videos, tiktok isn’t really a thing with us or anyone we know yet… time will tell I suppose. The main thing will be constant reminders that porn isn’t real and cyber security lectures



  • What if they realised they’d made a very stupid decision and if there’d been some more checks and balances that decision could have been avoided?

    The Third Reich, I think we can all agree was totalitarian. Hitler wanted to plunge into a war on two fronts against the USSR drunk on victory against France and expecting to beat Britain. Most of his military advisors weren’t keen. But being a Dictator he could just do it and hey presto war against Stalin. As time went on he got more erratic, made more random millitary decisions overruling his generals and made a pigs ear of things but whatever decision he made on a whim happened straight away anyway.

    That’s just a famous and obvious example of a totalitarian leader rushing into things and getting where he wanted to go faster which didn’t end well for the leader.



  • I mean I think this is why it’s an interesting scenario - that’s very much the view losing side of things but I don’t think the politicians have fully grasped that yet. I don’t know whether that’s because they think the tech companies will ultimately ‘come round’ - in which case they’re badly mistaken - or whether they’re really that badly informed.

    But politicians organise everything by WhatsApp as we’ve learned… I honestly don’t think they understand the consequences. But I’m just a poor humble member of the electorate, what do I know compared to intellectual titans like Jacob Reece-Mogg and Suella Braveman (who presumably as home sec has an interest in this?)


  • UK person here - my concern is that the opposition haven’t clearly stated that they would repeal the law if they were voted into power (to my knowledge, I’d be delighted to be corrected on this front!)

    So letting voters know about it is great but if none of the main parties are actually against the law coming into effect - which is being sold as an anti-paedophile/child abuse measure, which framed like that would be popular with a lot of non-techy voters who don’t trust an unregulated internet - a few little messages saying ‘yay encryption!’ aren’t going to do anything.


  • I think political communities in general tend to get quite heated if a debate gets going and because it’s unlikely people are going to change their mind it gets personal.

    In some ways the left wing ones are worse for this - I have been accused in my time of being too left wing and too right wing, there’s a lot of different splinter groups and factions.

    Tbh I just avoid politics on Reddit, Lemmy and similar, unless it’s just to share or comment on a news story maybe. I don’t think it’s the right format for reasonable conversation




  • This makes absolute sense until they get to secondary school (ages 11-16). All the kids at school have mobiles. You might have put the best parental controls on your sprogs phone but someone else hasn’t and his son - he’s the one showing pictures and videos at playtime. The problem is that kids don’t live in a bubble.

    I’m in the UK, don’t have a clue about what laws are coming in but am against this type of state intervention into private life of adults. Adults uploading id online is not something I am for.

    But I am pretty much in favour of banning smartphones in schools with kids that age these days - I’m a very liberal guy but I’ve heard so many horror stories from friends that are teachers.

    I actually think the main problem is the nature of the pornography itself. The stuff that comes up with choking and hair pulling and all that… There’s porn which is just people getting it on but it seems to be this violent stuff that gets to kids first and that’s the bit I don’t understand. I’m old. When I was their age it was magazines of naked people. A more innocent time.



  • I’ve only had one thread conversation which really felt like a proper Reddit one (and it wasn’t a political one, a TV related one).

    It depends on your definition but for me it’s roughly ‘able to have civil conversation/debate without descending into attacks or points being dismissed because you don’t like them and generally feeling like you’re dealing with a 14 year old’

    That said not every Reddit interaction is completely shit, it’s just more likely to become that way