you wake up.

you're still a lizard sunning on a red rock. it was all a dream

the concept of selling "feet pics" to pay back "student loans" is already losing its meaning as you open and lick your own eyeballs to moisten them

time to eat a bug.

I've been working on divorcing myself from FB and finally hit the point of Oh Fuck It. So now I'm here.

I'm a queer indie author (nonbinary aro/ace) who writes books (SF, Fantasy, Mystery, mostly) and does watercolor and sewing as hobbies.

To say that I'm avoiding looking at the news right now is putting it mildly.

You can find me on Dreamwidth, on Pillowfort and on Mastodon as well.

All my books are available DRM-free from most sites. Still working on getting my website set up for direct sales but hopefully I'll manage that this year. *knocks on wood*

Anyway, I'm hopeful that this won't be misery the way FB has been for literal years.

*waves*

Disclaimer: I work in software, and I have been an open source proponent for decades.

So, I just want to think a bit out loud after some days of testing and enjoying and looking into Friendica.

To be frank, I think Friendica is mostly useful if you have a very specific use case Friendica is suited for, and you can run your own server. I think the killer feature is circles, which I don't use myself.

friendica.world is currently suffering under github.com/friendica/friendica… and reading it makes me wary about how the Friendica software is able to handle unpredictable load and upgrades.

The UI is... usable. It's fine if you're prepared, but telling your friends you have found a great Facebook replacement and asking them to come over... No, don't do that. Expectations must be managed.

Following other Fediverse accounts seems to work just fine. Other Fediverse accounts following your Friendica account... well, it's that GitHub issue linked above.

Groups uses some rather unusual abstractions, and I haven't found any strong moderation mechanisms. So, for a group where everybody knows everybody, or it's fine kicking out somebody after the fact, it's good enough, but for places where posts need vetting, I think it's not ready for prime time.

So? My 0.02€ is “Absolutely useful, but has some strange UX choices, and I'm worried about robustness and scalability. Not ready for prime time if that's defined as a drop-in replacement for Facebook for people who think genocide is insufficient reason to drop everything from Meta.”

Facebook has been an annoyance for quite some time. Though their recent censorship has gotten to extreme levels and I no longer feel I can be part of facebook or anything Meta. I am hoping to connect to friends here and make some new ones. I blogged on this topic earlier.

You can read the blog here if you want to: Censorship Gone Wild

I don't trust #meta will delete my #facebook or #instagram or #threads data when I delete my accounts. Until i figure out what to do long term, these are the steps I've taken:

* uninstalled facebook, messenger, and threads apps (kept ig initially)
* made sure my meta account is not linked to fb or ig (I have an oculus quest that is useless without a meta account and I have not decided what I will do about that)
* changed my name to something ridiculous on facebook
* changed my username to someone else (breaks the url I was associated with)
* disconnected from all apps and cleared history and fucked with anything else I could in the facebook settings
* started manually deleting media, posts, and comments (not sure if i will continue this since it's probably pointless)
* disconnected from all apps and cleared history and fucked with anything else I could in the instagram settings and then deactivated it
* uninstalled instagram

What have you done so far and what else are you planning? There is lots more to do.

Well, I learned one risk shared by both federated and non-federated platforms. Just as your account and its history can disappear on the likes of Facebook or Twitter, I was shocked to learn that my account on the Friendica instance at venera.social was deleted by its administrator without any individual notice to me. (Thankfully I didn't lose much posting history.) But a hard lesson all the same.

So, I am now trepidatiously re-creating a Friendica profile at friendica.world. (I'll have to investigate how to make backups so that my history doesn't vanish unexpectedly.)

Disappointing to learn that the likes of Facebook Connector script is no longer available (loss of API support). Ditto for the likes of Twitter and Instagram, too. But thankfully one can add individual WordPress accounts/sites to your contact list and be notified of new posts.

I'm still learning how Friendica works. I consider myself tech savvy yet there is some learning curve. Not surprised it has no mass appeal.

One thing that I would like to discover is how I could connect my Threads contacts (those who've turn on its federated/Activity Pub setting). It would be neat to come to friendica.world and follow and comment on connected Threads contacts.

Despite my resolution to keep the bad stuff out of my head this time around, too much has already leaked in. Not so easy to see the end of all we worked, sacrificed and struggled to accomplish.

But life goes on. The fragrance of roasted millet. The sparkle of sun on the snow. The laughing, little girl, wielding a pink snow shovel, fighting back against efforts to clear the sidewalk.

#USPolitics #Personal

The Nazis have arrived.

If I don't get fired, arrested, or executed, I just might survive the next fours years ... or longer.

I have nature, therapists, alcohol, meds, pets, and guitars.

Toward survival, I have a slim chance.

Bon chance

Lykke til

Today, you take five minutes to contact your Senators and Representatives, and tell them to push back again any and all executive orders from the Nazi administration.

House representatives

house.gov/representatives/find…

Senators

senate.gov/senators/