Literally came here to share this exact story and am so glad you beat me to it. So cool, the world is so weird and wonderful.

This is a great promotion! I switched to the infomaniak free email plan, ikmail, and have been very happy with it so far but this is also tempting.

I went from Google to Proton and then switched out for another provider. No offline mode/IMAP support allowing me to use an email client on my phone was bothersome as I need to monitor multiple inboxes. Email was fine but sluggish (in part due to decryption so partially understandable I guess). Still use the VPN which I think is their most mature product. Drive is basic but I didn’t need much more.

I was willing to put up with the annoyances when I really believed in what they were doing. But after the GOP comments, the crypto/AI stuff, and leaving Mastodon it just all became a bit much. I like that they are nonprofit, FOSS, and independently audited of course, but their messaging/priorities have been mixed to say the least. Wouldn’t blame someone for staying, wouldn’t blame them for leaving at this point.

Would much rather have Gracie be the mascot on the mega thread and such if for no other reason this is clearly a labor of love from a like-minded artist rather than cheap AI work. Amazing design!!

This is honestly the only thing I use gmaps for too. I feel like organic and other map apps are useful, but there are very few others for looking up restaurant/business info with the ease of gmaps

Was gonna mention this one soooooo good

Bought a second hand Pixel 7 in like new condition at the time for $250 on back market (dropped it, bought another, still cheaper than the equivalent iPhone 14 lol). That at least means I am not financially contributing to Google, but I do agree that I don’t think there is a way to verify that the hardware is completely foolproof even if its the best option we currently have.

I guess that’s true of any hardware though, and we have to make our assumptions based off known quantities such as Pixels’ unique hardware security features?

But yeah, it’s a minefield out there. Let’s get carrier pigeons.

Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for thank you!

Nothing clever to say except that this is fascinating and it would be cool to see mmorpg-like environments for other studies of virality, social phenomena etc. Anyone know of anything else like this?

Me. There’s just an irony in pointing out the failure of Steam to effectively moderate (true) when Twitter has a much larger footprint, seems to be actively encouraging hate speech not just tolerating it, and is being rewardered for such behavior. The article points this out too:

There’s an aspect of irony to the complaint: Elon Musk turned Twitter into a haven for racism and far-right rhetoric, after all, and he’s being rewarded with a high seat in the incoming US government.

Senators only have so much time to pick and choose which issues to raise awareness about, so Steam seems like a weird fight to pick given the wider landscape ¯_(ツ)_/¯ . Could just be there’s a much higher chance of getting an actual change from Steam than a larger social media platform.

Not to excuse any hate speech of any kind, but looking around at social media and the effect it has especially on young people and saying “steam forums are the problem” seems like missing the forest for the trees

Trying to bring that European holiday energy to my American workplace 😤

At this point I am ready to accept rule by caterpillar to the current state of things

Look I’ve bopped around bsky and do enjoy it. Wish Mastodon had picked up the eXodus but bsky isn’t the worst alternative.

Really hoping we get past the point where day old accounts are saying “bluesky is such a BREATH of FRESH AIR”. I would think so too though if I was breathing whatever is coming out of of Twitter up until now…