@clacke
> In Russian roulette, is the game harmless if you survived the first round?

Are you suggesting that someone who gets mild flu symptoms from one COVID infection could get killed by a later one? I see no reason to think that's true. AFAIK the people killed by COVID were killed by their first infection.

(1/?)

In #YoungSheldon s01e13, a TV news announcer says;

"... an unusually bad 'flu season is buffeting the country. Doctor say the strain, originating in China, is particularly severe. Children and the elderly are most at risk."

... and Sheldon, panicking, says;

"We're all gonna die!"

... then his mother Mary says;

"But you need to understand that sometimes the news says those things just to scare people."

Hmmm...

#COVID

The episode starts with Sheldon's germophobia bringing him into conflict with the authorities at his school. Then he escalates to making a bubble boy habitat in the garage. In the end, his grandmother convinces him to come out and face the world.

Sheldon is smart and he's not wrong that there's a real threat to his health. But his reaction is disproportionate, and it gets in the way of both his life and those around him. I want to show this to anyone still banging on about masks and boosters.

@bigblen
> masks and boosters aren't disproportionate compared to "making a bubble boy habitat"

You're missing the forest for the trees.

You're focused on the specific actions motivated by the response. I'm talking about the response itself. The zealous belief that life can never return to normal while infectious diseases still exist, and the fervour for converting others to the belief.

If COVID was still as deadly as the early strains, sure. But it's not, or govts would act accordingly.

@bigblen
I find it supremely ironic that it's some of the same people who insisted we follow the lead of the public health response when it was doing border closures, quarantine, and lockdowns (and rightly so), who are now insisting on an unsustainable state of permanent public health emergency. Thus totally rejecting the ramping down of the response by the public health system.

So... do the public health system know what they're doing? Or were the sceptics right not to trust them? Pick one.

@rolle
> Mastodon/Fediverse is still the best place to be on social media. Let's make this even better.

100%. One problem that causes friction for newbies is the expectation that Mastodon can be all things to all people. Somehow we need to convince people who want an InstaGram/TikTok-a-like experience to try PixelFed, or people who want more of a neighbourhood feel to try Hometown, or people who want Quote Posts to try FireFish. The fediverse has so much more to offer than Mastodon.

@wrigleyfield
No comment covers all criticisms. I was addressing criticisms based on the lack of features like Quote Posts, which can be used in almost every fedi app *except* Mastodon.

> the less toxic parts of Twitter

... is not something technologists can recreate for you. That's up to the people who want it, and there are *many* moderation tools available, at both account and server level.

@rolle

@wrigleyfield I've always found the fediverse less toxic than *any* part of Titter I've experienced. With temporary exceptions, when there's a huge influx of newbies hopped up on DataFarm algorithm nosecandy, and spoiling for a fight. But before long they always calm down. Or block me, or leave for lack of drama etc. Either way, it's a problem that appears to solve itself.

(Side note: Timed Mute is really handy for getting usually good people out of your face if they're getting snappy)

@rolle

@PavelVoronezh
My app translates your post as being concerned about the risk of losing your identity and network, if the server hosting it goes down.

The lack of account portability is a serious limitation of the ActivityPub protocol that defines the way servers federate. One that's getting a lot of discussion among devs. One of the challenges is how to make accounts and posts more portable, without making the network more vulnerable to spammers and trolls.

(1/2)

@rolle @wrigleyfield

@PavelVoronezh
One idea that app devs could look into, is embedding in third-party apps the ability to recreate your social network on a new server. In ways that will still work if the original server is completely gone. This could optionally include automating a regular backup of all your posts to your device. So they can be auto-posted to your new account, ideally with the date altered to reflect the original posting date.

Do you think this has legs @smallcircles?

(2/2)

@rolle @wrigleyfield

@natriumchloride
> browsing git repos has been my social media refuge, or a substitute way to kill some time, so this is sort of funny

Imagine all the little community forges being federated into one huge HitGub replacement. Protected from being bought by EvilCorp by all the baked in benefits of decentralisation using an open standard. With GitLab getting on board, that train looks like its finally leaving the station!

@liaizon

@astrojuanlu Two things. This ...

> the UI/UX of most free-as-in-freedom user applications is still terrible, with no signs of improving.

... is blatantly untrue. I can give multiple counter-examples. Your comment is based on what suits your argument, not actual observations over that time. Yet you call us zealots?

Secondly, you've ignored the actual point of my post, which is the role of free code competitors as a driver of UX improvements in proprietary products.

@conservancy

@astrojuanlu I agree that the UX of much free code software needs improving and lots of people are working on that. But keep in mind that one thing driving those improvements in the UX of proprietary software is the existential risk of users switching to the free code equivalent. If the vendors of proprietary software can scupper their free code competitors - eg by diluting copyleft protection - then there's a risk that those who sacrifice freedom for convenience will have neither.

@conservancy

@t23
I've been thinking I need to ask myself more often if I'd keep watching a movie or series, if it wasn't set in a narrative universe I've enjoyed in the past. I stopped watching Clone Wars a while back because the answer was clearly 'no'. I persisted with Boba Fett but the answer was 'no' there too. If it wasn't SW related I would have pulled the pin when the fluro moped gang turned up.

Finally got around to watching the first couple of episodes of the Obi-Wan series. The long string of flashbacks to the prequels wasn't a great way to kick off Ep1 (I really didn't dig those). I was bored through most of the episode and wondering if I might just skip this one. Then it got much better at the end and I quite enjoyed Ep2.

#SciFi #StarWars #ObiWanKenobi

@t23
I can see the need for establishing when the series is set relative to the SW timeline and filling in any back story necessary to understanding it. I just think a looong string of 'previously on' clips from old movies was a lazy way to do it. What about having Obi-Wan tell his story to that Jedi who finds him, so that whole interaction has a narrative purpose?

@polezaivsani
I find this intriguing and original, but I'm having trouble interpreting it. Can you expand on how this relates back to the OP?

@voidspace
> I long ago realised that "resistance is futile" ... I found that I couldn't just "suck it up" and get with the program.

This is exactly the bind I find myself in. It seems like I was mostly on point about the problems with business-as-usual, but none of the alternatives seem to have legs. This could be a self-limiting belief borne of cynicism, which is why I posted the OP; to see how others in the 'verse have navigated similar crises of meaning.

@alpinefolk

Now it's even a struggle to hold subcultures together and I'm starting to miss having a "mainstream" to define myself in opposition to. I guess thoughts like these are typical of aging rebels facing middle age. Most of my contemporaries long ago laid down their rhetorical weapons and started learning to 'fit in'. The remainder are either aging cranks or surviving in one subcultural niche or another while they last. But I can't help thinking, are these really my only options?

For years I railed against "the mainstream", blaming it for all the world's ills, and firmly believing that fragmenting it into a network of overlapping subcultures would allow us to solve those ills. Thanks to mass adoption of the net and the effects of digital convergence, that fragmentation pretty much happened. But the world's major challenges seem as intractable as ever. What now?