IntlLawGnome

The money quote IMO is at the end:

Reddit, like any commercial platform, is only a community until its owners need it to be something else.

That's a good reason to be mindful of what we're building here on Kbin, Lemmy, and other federated networks. We're not just trying to build a Reddit methadone, to help us down from our high after quitting cold-turkey. We are, I hope, aiming to build (or rebuild) a community -- one not dependent on the monetizing whims of a private owner.

The author is right: Spez lost site of the community aspect. Here's an opportunity to show them that the idea still means something to a lot of us.

In the short term, people will come by to lollygag. In the long term, there's only so much John Oliver anyone wants to see in a day, so traffic to those subs will likely fall.

Kbin is really only one instance (kbin.social - the only alternatives are alt language instances, I think?

Nah, there are like two dozen instances that are still accepting signups, and most of them are not language-specific in any respect.

Doesn't really solve the question of "how do I pick an instance," just substitutes one set of instances for another

Mastodon is primarily a microblogging social media platform akin to Twitter. The other two are primarily multi-forum board akin to Reddit.

All three rely on the ActivityPub protocol, so there is some intercommunication between them (esp. between Lemmy and Kbin). That's why they're often referenced in the same breath. That, and most websites operating under these standards are not run for commercial profit.

I can't speak to the newer models (and have heard bad things about the company's customer service lately), but a Rad Power Bike from a few years ago would probably be decent for most uses.

Probably good to specify some additional things so people can help: What country do you live in? How far is your commute? Do you need options for cargo (baskets, a rack for panniers, etc.)? Any preference for stepover frames vs standard? Does bike weight matter (lighter ones tend to be more expensive)? Storage options (apartment or house/garage)?

Yeah, I wouldn't call it misleading, but it's poorly written for sure. Active voice would be clearer and more succinct, e.g. "BlackCat claims to have hacked Reddit, threatens to leak data"

As I said above, I'm also on lemmy.ca. That has a donation link with funds going solely to the admins at that instance.

But even if every penny went to Chairman Mao Ze Lemmy or whatever, it wouldn't matter to me because I wouldn't donate a penny. So again, no one's profiting off my use.

I think you may have intended your comment as a top-level one rather than a reply to mine. But in case there's any confusion, there isn't a single thing about my comment above that suggests anyone should be "disrespectful" to police or anyone else.

Nor was disrespect at issue in article I linked. A guy demanded an attorney, as he was permitted to do under the US Constitution; he was denied that right; and a Louisiana Supreme Court justice articulated a frivolous reason for excusing that denial. Even if he had been disrespectful (and there's no indication he was), that should not be acceptable.

Some hypothetical about individual disrespect has no bearing on a systemic abuse like that. Which is why I assume you didn't mean your comment as a reply to mine.

Why should I care who made the software if they don't profit off my use of it? I'm not giving anyone at .ml a dime. Nor can they cash in and sell .ml the way (say) Reddit could do with its users -- at least not without risking blanket defederation and the flight of pretty much everyone using that site..

Neither Lemmy nor Kbin is a "system built for propaganda." They are systems built for community and communication. Which means they can certainly be used for propaganda, but also for many other things. I'm not going to write off an entire protocol just because a fraction of the people who use it are being jerks.

That's a bit much, isn't it? I mean, screw the weirdos at .ml obviously. But the folks at plenty of other instances, such as my home at lemmy.ca, are pretty chill, and startrek.website has some good goofy stuff.

You're not "supporting" bad actors on one corner of a platform if you use another corner of it. Like, I think we knew back over at Reddit that people who subscribed to /r/aww weren't "supporting" the crap going on at /r/jailbait when that was a thing. And critics had better cause to argue otherwise then, since Reddit profited off of visitors to both. By contrast, people on separate Lemmy instances are on completely separate networks, connected only by federation (or not, if an instance defederates) and each user's individual choices as to which other instances' communities to visit.

Lemmy, Kbin, others.... Let a million flowers bloom. And if one flower goes rotten, just trim it off.

Sadly, I suspect spez will see this as a win, since he's got a major celebrity name-dropping his site and encouraging people to visit it.

But of course, John meant "Reddit" the way we mean "Reddit" -- referring to the community, not the company or the product or whatever.