paequ2

God I hate those stupid magic links. They're WAAAAYYY slower than just using my password manager. AND they kinda contribute to locking you into Big Tech. I sometimes have problems with those stupid links because I don't have a Gmail account. Somewhere along the stupid chain there's probably some stupid check that delays or blackholes emails to non-big-tech domains.

Whoa. There are actually consequences? ArsTechnica is actually sorry??

Everything from calling her a Russian asset to voting abuse.

So... is she gonna be the next president of the United States?

I've been using Signal more to test if I can recommend it to other people... it's mostly like WhatsApp, which is good... Except, can we please disable all of those god damn popups. Everyday: "Hey! Verify your pin!", "Hey! Verify your LONG ASS recovery key!", "Hey, plz donate!", "HEY! I couldn't start a backup", "HEY LOOK AT ME!"

It's literally on Fluxer.

Pros:

• AGPLv3, WITHOUT a CLA
• Familiar Discord UI
• Text and voice channels
• Images, attachments, gifs
• Emojis, reactions
• Screensharing and video calls
• Main server runs decently fast
• Federation is coming
• Not based in UK or US

Cons:

• Only 1 dude working on it
• You can optionally buy Plutonium, which isn't necessarily bad, they need money, and the code stays Open Source™
• No mobile app yet (they're working on it)
• The main server has had some downtime... which I think are just growing pains
• I don't have friends to invite to Fluxer

Fluxer is AGPv3, recently promised to remove their CLA so the software stays free forever, has an ambitious roadmap with federation, and is currently being worked on by one 22 yr old dude.

It's very different than Discord.

This chad needs help. I'm more than happy to support him. This is an investment in Open Source™ and the future. If he can't work on this full-time or near full-time, he's gonna need to work for Google or some shit. Then it's never going to be able to compete with Discord.

They're also not going to be able to run Fluxer on powerful enough hardware. Take a look at Stoat. Similar idea. No funding. Their main server is HELLA slow, which I don't think it's their fault. The app is written in Rust, but it feels like it's running on a potato.

paywalling features that other platforms don’t

I might be wrong here, but I thought you could self-host Fluxer to get around the paywalls. So you could do that. What a gift! And federation is on the way, so maybe one day you can self-host AND talk to other instances! Amazing!

Nobody ever does. All AI demos are just: look at this mountain of generated text.

• No checks if the mountain is correct
• No checks if the mountain is a maintainable design
• No checks if the mountain was even needed AT ALL

It asks to verify pin once a month. Which I think is fair, since it can help you recover from a lockout / transfer your device.

Even that is too annoying. OK, I just realized there's a way to turn off reminders. Trust me bro, I'm not gonna forget. I'm a big boy.

backups are important, but they can also be disabled

Ah! YES! Thanks! I just poked around deeper in the settings and disabled them. Backups are not important to me. I don't want to backup my messages.

I have never been asked to verify my recovery key.

Maybe it's because I had backups on? Let's see if this popup goes away.

Donating to open source projects is important, as it’s a large portion of their funding.

Agreed. Which is why I donate to them.... And I still get the popups! I'm already a donor, leave me alone.

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Overall, I want to give my attention to my messages, not to Signal. Leave me alone. Let me message people. I don't want to be nagged. WhatsApp doesn't nag people nearly as much. I know Signal is overall better, but user annoyances like the excessive popups makes it harder for me to try to convince normal people to use Signal.

Seems like they have something:

Honestly, yeah, I’d do the same. After several past jobs required Linux, even downgrading to a Mac feels pretty bad. Can’t imagine Macroslop Wangblows.

YAM Launcher