Benvenuto nel Poliverso

Australia overtakes China in the Pacific as the U.S vacates the lane: Public perceptions of influence see Australia surge ahead as the “permanent contest” unfolds | Lowy Institute poll

Something interesting is happening in how Australians think about their own country’s influence in the Pacific. According to the Lowy Institute’s 2025 poll, 39 per cent of Australians now see Australia as the most influential power in the Pacific Islands, a notable increase from last year’s result of 31 per cent.

Australia has overtaken China, previously seen by Australians as the dominant player, which holds steady at 34 per cent.

These figures suggest a shifting perception domestically, perhaps reflecting Canberra’s energetic “listening” diplomacy, through which Australia has ramped up diplomatic effort and significantly increased financial assistance to the Pacific over the past three years. Canberra’s approach of marrying generous aid packages with not-so-subtle diplomatic leverage on security matters appears to have resonated at home.

[...]

While Australia is undeniably the largest aid donor in the region, and uniquely maintains a diplomatic presence in every PIF member state, Beijing’s bare-faced influence-building is plain as day.

The China-Pacific Island countries Foreign Ministers’ meeting last month foreshadowed increased Chinese presence in security and policing, development, and stronger economic ties with those Pacific countries that recognise China over Taiwan. Beijing’s blend of visa-waivers, economic incentives, infrastructure financing, and diplomatic duchessing, ensures its presence is both felt and appreciated across island capitals.

In 2024, China registered 26 Coastguard vessels with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, signalling a more assertive regional maritime presence. It is not clear how China intends to deploy its more than two-dozen vessels, but if the dynamics in the South China Sea are any indication, it will likely result in Chinese vessels harassing other countries, while protecting its own fishing fleet – widely understood as often responsible for illegal fishing in the Pacific Ocean.

[...]

To Canberra’s chagrin, plenty of Pacific countries are evidently happy to buy what China is selling, even while some countries including PNG and Fiji are aligning more closely to Australia’s worldview.

Therein lies the rub: while perceptions do matter, it is Pacific countries’ own strategic choices that will ultimately be the deciding factor in who has influence and how the regional balance of power is shaped for decades to come.

Australia overtakes China in the Pacific as America vacates the lane

Public perceptions of influence measured in the latest Lowy Institute Poll see Australia surge ahead as the “permanent contest” unfolds.

^{www.lowyinstitute.org}

#Australia

MicroWave via World News

3 mesi fa • •

MicroWave
3 mesi fa • •

Chinese fighter jet in near miss with Japan military plane as Pacific tensions rise

J-15 jet took off from Chinese aircraft carrier and reportedly came within 45 metres of Japanese patrol plane

Japan has voiced “serious concern” over a near miss involving one of its military planes and a Chinese fighter jet in the Pacific, where recent manoeuvres by Chinese aircraft carrier groups have raised tensions across the region.

Beijing later rejected the criticism, accusing Japan of dangerous behaviour.

The Chinese aircraft took off from a moving aircraft carrier, the Shandong, and reportedly flew within 45 metres of a Japan Self-Defence Forces (SDF) patrol plane shortly afterwards. On Thursday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, urged Beijing to prevent a repeat of the incident, which took place at the weekend.

Hayashi said the near miss, which occurred in international waters, could have caused an accidental collision.

Chinese fighter jet in near miss with Japan military plane as Pacific tensions rise

^{Justin McCurry (The Guardian)}

#World

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in reply to dinren

ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝

in reply to dinren • 3 mesi fa • •

It's supposedly a reverse-engineered copy of the Russian Su-33, which is gorgeous itself, if a bit dated.

in reply to ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝

dinren

in reply to ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝 • 3 mesi fa • •

It could fit in my driveway!

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MicroWave via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MicroWave
3 mesi fa • •

‘This isn’t an isolated incident’: Trump’s show of military force in LA was years in the making

Trump had been waiting for this made-for-TV clash that allows the administration to ‘manufacture’ a crisis

Donald Trump is targeting Los Angeles, the biggest city in deep-blue California – a sprawling metropolis shaped by immigrant communities that the president described on Tuesday as a “trash heap” – with a show of force many years in the making.

After his first term, Trump expressed regret for not taking a more heavy-handed approach to the 2020 protests over George Floyd’s murder by police. So when demonstrations against his immigration crackdown erupted last week in Los Angeles, he turned to the playbook he wished he had used then – federalizing the national guard and deploying hundreds of US marines to confront what Democratic officials insist was a manageable situation, escalated by a president who the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has warned is increasingly behaving like a “dictator”.

It’s the made-for-TV clash Trump has been waiting for: visually gripping scenes of unrest in a Democratic-run city furious over his administration’s mass deportation agenda.

‘This isn’t an isolated incident’: Trump’s show of military force in LA was years in the making

The president had been waiting for this made-for-TV clash that allows the administration to ‘manufacture’ a crisis

^{Rachel Leingang (The Guardian)}

#politics

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in reply to MicroWave

ThrowawayOnLemmy

in reply to MicroWave • 3 mesi fa • •

Any soldier aligning themselves with Trump over their oaths is a turncoat and should be treated as such. No peace, no quarter.

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Blender Dumbass via Fediverse

3 mesi fa • •

Blender Dumbass
3 mesi fa • •

We have to solve the money problem!

On the Fireside Fedi interview with Jerry ( the admin of Infosec.Exchange Mastodon instance ) a scary truth was suddenly revealed ( on 34:11 ): Just to keep the instance up and running he needs to spend up to $5000 a month, pretty much out of his poc…

^{blenderdumbass . org}

#fediverse

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in reply to Blender Dumbass

Null User Object

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.

Ok? What on earth would be the motivation to let these people keep spending your money instead of letting them go spend someone else's?

ETA: Especially if their reason for leaving is that you had the audacity to ask them to pitch in for the cost of the resources that they're using. Oh, the humanity.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

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Blender Dumbass

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

So the question is, what the hell should we do about this? How do we solve this? How do we even approach to solving it? Should I setup a forum page, somewhere, or a chat, where people can discuss everything and start approaching something? Or are we simply doomed?

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in reply to Blender Dumbass

Null User Object

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

That's a decision for each server admin to decide for themselves. This particular admin has apparently decided that $5000/mo is worth it to them to run a server without ever asking people to pitch in, which I find absolutely bizarre, but whatever.

They can go a long way towards reducing that cost themselves by..... asking their users to pitch in. Some people will pitch in, and reduce their out of pocket expenses. Others will leave, further reducing their out of pocket expenses.

If they haven't done the bare minimum that they can do to help themselves, then this isn't a problem for the broader fediverse community to solve.

in reply to Null User Object

rglullis

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

The admin of the third largest mastodon instance is constantly asking for donations and still has trouble to pay his own rent.

If it was an exceptional case, I'd be glad to help. but when it happens every other month, it shows that this continued behavior of sacrificing your own well-being is irresponsible.

stux⚡

2025-04-19 12:07:35

Ooof 😟 this morning i got the server bills and currently im still a massive €470+ short..
Upcoming week I'm gonna dedicate go clean up servers, merge some to cut costs
Unofrt active users has gone down but the cost do keep return and even increase every month
Please, if you can and want, help me out with these bills
paypal.me/stuxOS
patreon.com/mstdn
ko-fi.com/mstdn
bunq.me/stuxhost
stux.me/donate
liberapay.com/mstdn
Boosts would also be a help❤️

stux.me:~$ Support By Donation
Most if not all the work I do (online) I give away for free! Personally I dislike advertisements so I won't apply those either.
^{stux (stux.me:~$)}

in reply to Null User Object

ikt

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

then this isn’t a problem for the broader fediverse community to solve

This is the natural end result of every volunteer run instance, you don't find it odd that over the last 40 years of the internet not one fediverse like server or community has survived or even been mildly popular?

I'll repost this because for some reason the other post got deleted, it was regarding lemm.ee shutting down, they were concerned that one of the largest Lemmy instances is shutting down and the future of Lemmy:

You're 100% right to be concerned and to be honest I have doubts lemmy will ever crack more than a few million users, the same thing happened with Mastodon, something that relies so heavily on volunteers running the infra almost inevitably results in burnout because the fediverse works on a disincentive basis:

Basically the more popular a server is, the more funding it requires, the more admins it requires, the more work it requires, and all of this is on a slim margins or more likely requiring on people to donate time/money/effort 'for free' is a huge ask.

The supply of people sitting around doing nothing all day who care enough to dedicate their time/effort/money to running a social network... for free... is a very small group, almost as small as the amount of people who are willing to donate every month to a social network.

You can find mods of communities are usually fans of the communities they mod, it's a topic they enjoy and so the incentive for them to invest their time is to keep their community clean and great. But running a social network which has hard costs not just time is a whole other thing

This is opposed to a regular website or social media network, where as it gets bigger, it makes more money through ads/subscriptions, the incentive is to get bigger to make more money

And then they can simply pay for the hard costs like hosting costs/bandwidth and people to do the shit no one wants to.

The reality for me is that the money has to come from somewhere, you can do a paywall like newspapers do or beg for donations every page visit like the guardian/wikipedia do, or the usual suspect allow advertising, but the money has to come from somewhere.

Thus the fediverse has a disincentive to growing larger, it is simply easier and more sustainable to remain small

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in reply to Blender Dumbass

rglullis

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Let's get rid of open registration instances and look for alternative models that are actually sustainable:

Small servers run by self-hosting enthusiasts for their friends and family.
Institutional servers (schools/universities running servers for faculty and students, companies running servers for their own employees)
Servers run by media institutions for journalists + maybe for subscribers (on a separate domain)
Servers provided by telcos, tied to their phone service (get a contract for mobile and that gives you access to our AP server)
Commercial providers who charge a flat subscription for access (mastodon.green, omg.lol, my own communick)

We need to get rid of the idea that we can have a sustainable Fediverse infra running on volunteers alone. It is not working, all the growth potential that we have is stunted because people keep lying to themselves.

Community is not enough

They can invite to join the party, but you are still going to need those nasty capitalists to fill your cup

^{Raphael Lullis}

in reply to rglullis

Null User Object

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Let’s get rid of open registration instances

How?

Nobody is stopping any of your bullet points from happening. Those are all options today. Any one of those groups can spin up an instance and nobody is going to stop them. Some already have

But isn't the idea of forcing someone to (not) run their own server however they want antithetical to the whole concept of the fediverse?

You can defederate your personal server from open registration servers if you want. But you can't "get rid of open registration instances." That's just stupid.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

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in reply to Null User Object

rglullis

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

I am not saying that there should be an executive order to make open registrations illegal, or to force anyone to do it.

What I am saying is that the admins themselves should change their attitude about it. I understand that most of them are doing out of generosity and because they hope that by offering free spaces they will get more people to join, but I'd hope that by now most people would have realized that this is (a) not sustainable and (b) counterproductive. The reason that we don't see a lot of the alternative models around is because the open registration instances suck out the air of everyone else in the economy.

If we keep working with this assumption that open registrations are fundamental to the Fediverse, we are going to continue is the slow decline to irrelevance. The Fediverse is never going to die, but it will be forever stunted in its potential.

in reply to rglullis

Null User Object

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

That I can agree with. But I think it's just inevitable growing pains. Free and open instances will, over time, shut down because they're obviously unsustainable, so they won't be sustained.

As they do, people will be left searching for instances to move to, and more and more, they'll find that free instances just aren't an available.

in reply to Null User Object

rglullis

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

Free and open instances will, over time, shut down because they’re obviously unsustainable, so they won’t be sustained.

How many of the 5.5k users from lemm.ee are going to say "Lesson learned. If I want an instance that is sustainable I should look for a professional instance or run my own"? I'm not going to say zero, but I really doubt it's going to be "more than 3".

The problem here is that while individual instances may die, there is always a new ~~sucker~~ enthusiast coming up thinking "my server will be different".

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to rglullis

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

The problem here is that while individual instances may die, there is always a new ~~sucker~~ enthusiast coming up thinking “my server will be different”.

Not the nicest way to talk about @ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone, @Shadow@lemmy.ca or @Demigodrick@lemmy.zip

in reply to Blaze (he/him)

rglullis

in reply to Blaze (he/him) • 3 mesi fa • •

Interesting... the more time passes and your previous arguments fall along with the instances that you supported, the more you are resorting to tone policing.

in reply to rglullis

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

If not insulting other people is tone policing, sure.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to Blaze (he/him)

rglullis

in reply to Blaze (he/him) • 3 mesi fa • •

I didn't insult anyone. You are putting names out there of admins of existing instances when I was talking about the general story of about how there are constant wheel of new people coming up.

You are gasping as straws, as if ostracizing me would ever validate your arguments. This is getting tiring.

in reply to rglullis

Demigodrick

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Lemm.ee didn't shut down because it was financially unsustainable though. It shut down because the admin team didn't want to do it anymore.

Plenty of people have offered to take lemm.ee on and AFAIK nothing has progressed, but handled in a different way there could have been continuity and no need for users to transition away.

Given that the issue wasn't one of finance and rather one of effort/will, how does charging for access change anything? The owner could decide they have had enough, walk away, and shut everything down anyway, no?

in reply to Demigodrick

rglullis

in reply to Demigodrick • 3 mesi fa • •

It shut down because the admin team didn’t want to do it anymore.

It shut down because the admin team didn't want to do it for free anymore. There were just too many people, too many bad actors for little reward. By charging for access, you manage to both increase the reward and reduce the amount of people, so the whole equation changes significantly.

how does charging for access change anything? The owner could decide they have had enough, walk away, and shut everything down anyway, no?

Sure, but the amount of pain that I get from my ~50 paying customers is infinitely less than the headaches that you'll be getting.

in reply to rglullis

rumimevlevi

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

You can't ask people to join small servers that have the biggest risk of shutting down without creating migration toola thst migrate all the content along the likes and comments

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in reply to rumimevlevi

rglullis

in reply to rumimevlevi • 3 mesi fa • •

Size by itself is not the main predictor of risk. My instance is the only one on the Lemmy/kbin/Piefed side of the Fediverse that is exclusive for paying subscribers. It has never had more than 10 active users. This week it is celebrating its second anniversary - coincidentally I set it up on the same day as lemm.ee - and it has outlived a whole lot of instances.

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in reply to rglullis

rumimevlevi

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I don't know how this dismise my point. Small instances dies all the time. I am more preoccupied by death of instances on oixelfed though

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rglullis

in reply to rumimevlevi • 3 mesi fa • •

Small instances dies all the time

Small hobbyist instances die all the time. Just like the medium ones and the large ones.

in reply to rglullis

rumimevlevi

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Small instances a lot more

in reply to rumimevlevi

rglullis

in reply to rumimevlevi • 3 mesi fa • •

Because there are more of them?

in reply to rglullis

rumimevlevi

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

My point still stand. People won't go to small instances that have change of shutting down thr most. Like i said in my very first comment we need better migration tools to encourage people to join small instances

in reply to rumimevlevi

rglullis

in reply to rumimevlevi • 3 mesi fa • •

There will always be "First we need this, then we will start supporting it" excuse. If you think better migration tools are needed, support the developers so that they can make it happen.

in reply to rglullis

rumimevlevi

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Suggest me devs who are willing to make such a tool to support it

in reply to rumimevlevi

rglullis

in reply to rumimevlevi • 3 mesi fa • •

The Lemmy devs themselves.

in reply to rglullis

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Isn't elest.io/open-source/lemmy still a thing? Different model from you, though.

Lemmy fully managed open source service | Elest.io

Deploy Lemmy on Elest.io and get a working dedicated instance in less than 3 minutes. You can Relax knowing that we are taking care for you of install, configuration, encryption, backups, software updates, os upgrades, live monitoring, alerts, live m…

^elest.io

in reply to Blaze (he/him)

rglullis

in reply to Blaze (he/him) • 3 mesi fa • •

Put those under "self-hosting".

in reply to rglullis

gedaliyah

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Institutional servers (schools/universities running servers for faculty and students, companies running servers for their own employees)

This is the best long term strategy. News orgs should be hosting their own Mastodon instances at the very least. Same with schools and government.

It solves a number of problems - for them. So many news organizations and government offices are reliant on Xitter. That means that they are at the mercy of the owner of the platform for their messages to the public. Hosting their own instance puts them in charge. They can get out messages reliably and the public can trust that they are who they say... Just like an email address or URL.

Schools pay lots of money to private corporations to run bespoke university messaging systems, and are likewise reliant on those companies to provide administrative services such as moderating. Moving those communications in-house will be cheaper and simpler.

We should all be pressuring schools and local governments to adopt these technologies.

in reply to gedaliyah

rglullis

in reply to gedaliyah • 3 mesi fa • •

But that can not be the only solution. My university offered email accounts for every student. In 1999 this was a very big deal because the commercial services were super limited - Yahoo! Mail offered 2MB, IIRC. But the account was only available while you were an student.

in reply to rglullis

Endymion_Mallorn

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

If you get rid of open registration instances and start charging, you'll immediately lose huge amounts of users back to Reddit or whatever alternative is free to them. The echo chamber will be even more pronounced, and whatever success Lemmy/Mbin/Piefed have had will dry up.

Most people don't want to self host. And most people aren't willing to pay. So you have an issue in front of you. Do you actually want users and interactions? Or do you just want a place where very dedicated nerds can crow to each other about whatever self-hosting tricks they pulled off while occasionally backed by an addicted whale (who, upon noting the monotony and small userbase, will probably move on quickly)?

Everything, especially digital things, is backed by a small group of whales supporting everyone else. It's a mix between addiction and community-building instincts. Right now, said whales are the server hosts and a handful of users. Because of the desire to lead a community, and the addiction of social media, it keeps going. You say it isn't sustainable. I say it's a cycle. The specific instances don't matter until it becomes a corporate situation. All that matters is that there's at least one instance with enough people active to provide the gratification to the whale.

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn

rglullis

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn • 3 mesi fa • •

If you get rid of open registration instances and start charging, you'll immediately lose huge amounts of users

That is not necessarily true. you can have for example just a bunch of people that like to self host and they will invite their friend. This will be just a small constellation of smaller instances and they don't have to be completely open registration.

Most people don't want to self host.

You don't need most. If 1% of the people can show initiative to self host and serve 100 people, it should be enough.

Everything, especially digital things, is backed by a small group of whales supporting everyone else.

Bad economics and bad incentives. What you are describing is not just a natural law that can be avoided, but it is part of the reason that we are in this mess.

Software has this amazing property of being virtually free to copy. But the things that we do it and the labor that is required of us still has a cost. We need to bring back some sense of human scale to digital platforms, and the only way to do it is by letting us set a limit to the size of the organizations.

in reply to Null User Object

tofu

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

The reason is easy: one likes the fediverse, wants to contribute for it and wants to enabled people to use it even if they can't afford to pay for it.

On a smaller scale, that's not much of a problem. I'm glad I can host for some people who don't have money at all. Some of the others donate and some don't and that's fine as well.

in reply to Null User Object

jerry

in reply to Null User Object • 3 mesi fa • •

I am not sure if the “he” reference is me, but I did ask and people did step up to support the costs of running the instance.

in reply to Blender Dumbass

rglullis

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

@jerry@infosec.exchange , I'm sorry to bother but is it really true? Are you paying almost $5000/month out of your own pocket?

If true, why? This is not sustainable. Don't you think that by letting so many people free ride on your generosity, you end up hurting yourself and the possibility of cottage-industry of professional hosting providers?

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in reply to rglullis

hisao

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I wonder why it needs so much money for infra? Last time I rented a VPS it was €7/month for 8 Core Xeon E5 V4, 12 GB DDR4 RAM, 150 GB SSD/NVME, Unlimited Traffic, 1 Gbps Port.

SSD/NVMe Servers: Ultra-Fast Performance for Demanding Workloads - Optimize Performans Düşük Bütçe

Unlock unparalleled speed with our SSD and NVMe server solutions. Engineered for high-performance tasks and data-intensive applications, our packages deliver top-tier responsiveness. Browse our options and elevate your hosting experience.

^{www.prientecloud.com}

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in reply to hisao

rglullis

in reply to hisao • 3 mesi fa • •

Storage. In the video he says that backups alone costs $500/month.

Also, given that the instance is called "infosec.exchange", you can be sure that he is not running this on some cheap VPS.

Endymion_Mallorn likes this.

in reply to rglullis

hisao

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Maybe the problem is that they are using ridiculously overpriced enterprise services like AWS or Azure, which provide their own solutions for a lot of common things like backups, replicas, logging, etc, but cost 100x more than what you can get with DIY on some cheap VPS if you're fine with spending 1.25x more time.

Also, given that the instance is called “infosec.exchange”, you can be sure that he is not running this on some cheap VPS.

Why not, though.

in reply to hisao

rglullis

in reply to hisao • 3 mesi fa • •

Why not, though.

because cheap VPS will not give you enough bandwidth, or they oversubscribe their datacenters and their advertised speeds are far from real, or they have terrible support and if something goes down you are going to have a hard time to bring things up while having to explain to 10-15k people why things stopped working, or because the reason they manage to get such low prices is because they are selling user data on the side...

I'm not saying that the only correct alternative is to go to the big cloud providers, but there is a reason why "cheap" is not the sole criteria to choose a service provider.

in reply to rglullis

hisao

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Yes, the cheapest ones might have some risks, I mostly presented it as an example of what the opposite extremity looks like. There is a lot in-between, something a bit more expensive is even more guaranteed win. For example last time I used Hetzner, I had a server with 64gb RAM, 2TB SSD, and 16 cores Ryzen for something like €34/month. Hetzner support is very decent and they're very well known, have decent reputation and been providing their services for a long time.

in reply to rglullis

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I'm currently watching the interview (quite interesting, to be honest, funny to watch an interview about Fediverse services). Could you please share the timestamp when Jerry talks about finances and costs?

in reply to Blaze (he/him)

rglullis

in reply to Blaze (he/him) • 3 mesi fa • •

34 minute mark. It says in the blog post from OP.

in reply to rglullis

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

Thanks

in reply to rglullis

Tropical Storm Jerry🌀

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I have donations from members that cover the costs.

in reply to Tropical Storm Jerry🌀

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to Tropical Storm Jerry🌀 • 3 mesi fa • •

Thank you for chiming in, Jerry!

Great interview, I only watched a part of it, but it was very interesting and refreshing to see your perspective on things. Thank you!

in reply to Tropical Storm Jerry🌀

rglullis

in reply to Tropical Storm Jerry🌀 • 3 mesi fa • •

Ok, so you are not taking anything out of pocket at all? That's better than most, I suppose.

Still, during the interview you touch on the subject of how the donation model is not sustainable and it can only works at the scale that Fedi is right now. Wouldn't you consider then switching to a different model?

in reply to Blender Dumbass

Steve

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

The only real option is to charge people.
Hosting isn't free. It costs money to run a website. That money needs to come from somewhere. If it doesn't come from advertisers, it must come from users.

There could be a verity options for that. But I like the simple annual subscription. Each and every user pays. Spread out the cost as much as possible. It's only fair.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

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Sir Arthur V Quackington

in reply to Steve • 3 mesi fa • •

Provided there is an "upper limit" on what scale we are talking, Ive often wondered, couldn't private users also host a sharded copy of a server instance to offset load and bandwidth? Like Folding@Home, but for site support.

I realize this isn't exactly feasible today for most infra, but if we're trying to "solve" the problem, imagine if you were able to voluntarily, give up like 100gb HDD space and have your PC host 2-3% of an instance's server load for a month or something. Or maybe just be a CDN node for the media and bandwidth heavy parts to ease server load, while the server code is on different machines.

This kind of distributed "load balancing" on private hardware may be a complete pipe dream today, but it think if might be the way federated services need to head. I can tell you if we could get it to be as simple as volunteers spinning up a docker, and dropping the generated wireguard key and their IP in a "federate" form to give the mini-node over to an instance, it would be a lot easier to support sites in this way.

Speaking for myself, I have enough bandwidth and space I could lend some compute and offset a small amount of traffic. But the full load of a popular instance would be more than my simple home setup is equipped for. If contributing hosting was as easy as contributing compute, it could have a chance to catch on.

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in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington

catloaf

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington • 3 mesi fa • •

I think that would just be a different instance.

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in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington

rglullis

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington • 3 mesi fa • •

This is not how the fediverse works. Each server keeps a whole copy to themselves of all that they've accessed in the federation.
Cost of hardware is only a fraction of the total cost. Even if we solved the issue of running the Fediverse at scale with negligible costs, we still are not accounting for all the labor of volunteers, instance admins and developers.

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in reply to rglullis

Sir Arthur V Quackington

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I realize that is not how the fediverse works. I'm not speaking about the content delivery as much as the sever orchestration.

That's why I'm saying if somehow it could work that way, it would be one way to offset the compute and delivery burdens. But it is a very different paradigm from normal hosting. There would have to be some kind of swarmanagement layer that the main instance nodes controlled.

My point was only that, should such a proposal be feasible one day, if you lower the barriers you could have more resources.

I myself have no interest in hosting a full blown private instance of Lemmy or mastodon, but I would happily contribute 1tb of storage and a ton of idle compute to serving the content for my instance if I could. That's where this thinking stemmed from. Many users like me could donate their "free" idle power and space. But currently it is not feasible.

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington

rglullis

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington • 3 mesi fa • •

Instead of going for these complicated architectures, it would be better to simplify and make activitypub less dependent on server software.

A Plan for Social Media - Rethinking Federation

This is part of a series of posts about the current state of Social Media. I talked about Mozilla’s failed str

^{Raphael Lullis}

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington

Steve

in reply to Sir Arthur V Quackington • 3 mesi fa • •

That's not really how it works. If it was made to work that way, it would still be a relatively small group donating their own compute resources to subsidize everyone else. Which is what we already have, and isn't very scalable.

like this

in reply to Steve

Sir Arthur V Quackington

in reply to Steve • 3 mesi fa • •

I responded above, but my point kind of was that it doesn't work that way, but as we rethinking content delivery we should also rethinking hosting distribution. What I was saying is not a "well gee we should just do this..." type of suggestion, but more a extremely high level idea for server orchestration from a public private swarm that may or may not ever be feasible, but definitely doesn't really exist today.

Imagine if it were somewhat akin to BitTorrent, only the user could voluntarily give remote control to the instance for orchestration management. The orchestration server toggles the nodes contents so that, lets say, 100% of them carry the most accessed data (hot content, <100gb), and the rest is sharded so they each carry 10% of the archived data, making each node require <1tb total. And the node client is given X number of pinned CPUs that can be used for additional server compute tasks to offload various queries.

See, I'm fully aware this doesn't really exist on this form. But thinking of it like a Kubernetes cluster or a HA webclient it seems like it should be possible somehow to build this in a way where the client really only needs to install, and say yes to contribute. If we could cut it down to that level, then you can start serving the site like a P2P bittorrent swarm, and these power user clients can become nodes.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to Steve

Endymion_Mallorn

in reply to Steve • 3 mesi fa • •

Most people are only willing to pay with non-monetary resources (PII, ad data, etc.). You can't approach this with charging money in mind, because people will just go back to the places where they aren't expected to pay. Start charging for Mastodon? The majority will go to Bluesky, Twitter, and Threads. Lemmy would just feed back to Reddit. Either that or they'll drop off social media altogether.

We've already got proof of this: PeerTube. Most PeerTube instances either charge a fee to upload (call it a 'donation' if you prefer, but if you're gating an action behind money, that's a fee), or simply don't allow any users not connected to the admin to upload. YouTube, Twitch, Dailymotion, and a few other sites are free. The sites where it's free to perform the core activity will keep winning, especially as we see rising inflation and increasing costs.

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn

rglullis

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn • 3 mesi fa • •

Do you know that the person you just responded to is one of the first subscribers of Communick?

in reply to rglullis

Endymion_Mallorn

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

No, I stopped looking at instance or software a while ago. The threadiverse has seemingly matured enough that the average user doesn't have to care anymore.

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn

rglullis

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn • 3 mesi fa • •

It's not about the software. I am just pointing out that Communick's instances are only available for paying customers, so his argument (everyone should pay a little bit) is at the very least backed by his own actions.

Regarding Peertube: I see the problem of Peertube on the other end of what you are saying. People are not using that much because even those that have a presence on PeerTube still depend on YouTube to make money. If PeerTube had a way to help with monetization, then more creators would be interested in publishing exclusively on PeerTube, even if they had to pay something to upload/distribute videos.

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn

Steve

in reply to Endymion_Mallorn • 3 mesi fa • •

If you charge, you also have to offer a better experience than the free options. There's no reason instances can't use ads for people unwilling or unable to pay. For me I'll gladly pay for an ad-free experience.

in reply to Steve

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to Steve • 3 mesi fa • •

I just watched the section of the interview where Jerry (admin of fedia.io and infosec.exchange), and he said that

There are a lot of people who aren't that lucky. Even charging a 1$ fee is too much. That is their lifeline, it's their way to connect to friends, and search for jobs. To me, I don't think it's appropriate to gatekeep it with a monthly fee.

video.firesidefedi.live/w/1yNa…

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to Blender Dumbass

Fizz

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

The thing is that ads pay almost nothing. I'd be very happy to pay 4x what an ad would pay. But the problem is I can't sent 0.12 to someone when I watch their video because 50% of that is gobbled up by transaction fees. So the only option is to bulk donate which either requires pooling money in a 3rd party or the user donating a bulk amount ($10). Users really dont like giving away $10 when it feels like they get nothing in return. Its all mental but its a very real problem. We will pay for $10 of dogshit food but not $10 for a software product we've used for 100s of hours.

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in reply to Fizz

rglullis

in reply to Fizz • 3 mesi fa • •

Join the Communick Collective. Set up a fixed budget (let's say $10/month) and then split that however you want between the people you want to help. This solves the micropayments issue and would show creators still addicted to Youtube revenue that valuable contributions will be rewarded.

Communick Collective: a zero-commission crowdfunding platform to support content creators in the Fediverse · Communick

^{blog.communick.com}

like this

in reply to Blender Dumbass

celeste

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

i know most of ao3's budget goes to server costs. they get by with volunteer labor and donations, but they mostly host text. i genuinely have no idea what a sustainable model would look like for the fediverse, that doesn't just treat volunteers like disposable rags we toss when they get inevitable burnout.

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in reply to Blender Dumbass

hisao

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

If Blender had a patreon or coffee or kofi, I would happily subscribe to something like $3/month. I know artists that have tens of thousands of paid subscribers and their minimal plan is $3. Blender could achieve hundreds of thousands of paid subscribers eventually imo. To make things interesting, they could release prebuilt binaries of some subprojects like NPR fork, only to subscribers, also they could do partnership and paid plugin giveaways every month to subscribers. It just needs a bit of dedicated SMM work. One-time donations just don't hit the same. I do those maybe once a year or two, and don't do another one until I get the feeling "it's been a while".

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in reply to hisao

rglullis

in reply to hisao • 3 mesi fa • •

Wrong Blender, my friend...

in reply to rglullis

hisao

in reply to rglullis • 3 mesi fa • •

I'm talking about 3d software one, and author obviously talks about that one too.

in reply to Blender Dumbass

nocturne

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

And if he will ask people to pay to use it, they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance.

I joined my instance's patreon and donate $1 / month. I know it is not a lot, but so far the admin says he is doing fine on cash flow, should that change I will up my donation if able.

like this

in reply to nocturne

ikt

in reply to nocturne • 3 mesi fa • •

He missed a bit:

they will, rightfully so, switch to a different instance ... or go somewhere else entirely

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

Endymion_Mallorn likes this.

in reply to Blender Dumbass

ragingHungryPanda

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Just to keep the instance up and running he needs to spend up to $5000 a month, pretty much out of his pocket.

Wtf!?

like this

in reply to ragingHungryPanda

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to ragingHungryPanda • 3 mesi fa • •

I just watched the section of the interview where Jerry (admin of fedia.io and infosec.exchange), and he said that

There are a lot of people who aren't that lucky. Even charging a 1$ fee is too much. That is their lifeline, it's their way to connect to friends, and search for jobs. To me, I don't think it's appropriate to gatekeep it with a monthly fee.

video.firesidefedi.live/w/1yNa…

For the host question, it's at 34:11

like this

in reply to Blaze (he/him)

jerry

in reply to Blaze (he/him) • 3 mesi fa • •

Hey all, Jerry here (from the interview). Happy to answer any questions.

like this

in reply to jerry

Blaze (he/him)

in reply to jerry • 3 mesi fa • •

No questions from my side, just a big thank you to mention Mbin, Lemmy, the Fediverse in that interview. It's probably the first time for me where I watch a video talking about all of this, which is curious with how part of my daily life it is.

I still haven't watched everything, but one of your quotes sounded resonated with me "We're only here for a short time. Why should we be a-holes to each other, and not just try to enjoy ourselves?"

Anyway, thank you for everything, take care!

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in reply to ragingHungryPanda

aasatru

in reply to ragingHungryPanda • 3 mesi fa • •

Seems to be some misunderstanding somewhere - Jerry states elsewhere that the costs are covered by donations.

The Mastodon instance I'm on has around 200 people (not all of them active), and received around €800 in donations last year,. Total costs were less than €300.

I think the problem of scaling kicks in when we go after demographics that are less charitable on average.

Tropical Storm Jerry🌀

2025-06-12 14:49:50

I have donations from members that cover the costs.

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in reply to aasatru

lagoon8622

in reply to aasatru • 3 mesi fa • •

I'm one of them 🖤

in reply to Blender Dumbass

jerry

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Hi all. It’s Jerry from the interview talking about infosec.exchange. I think it’s important to understand some apparently missing context in the discussions below. I was talking about a hypothetical future where we saw tens/hundreds of millions of active accounts on the fediverse. I don’t believe the current funding model can support that, and I also don’t think the “spin up your own host” model will work for the masses, either.

I host close to two dozen different fediverse services, from lemmy to mastodon to mbin to peertube and lots more, and all that takes some significant hardware to run at larger scales. My objective has been to provide a fast and reliable fediverse experience, and so I’ve focused more on that than on making my servers scream, and so I’ve landed on hosting the fleet on a series of Hetzner Dell servers with 10GB interfaces, and that is not cheap.

in reply to jerry

surewhynotlem

in reply to jerry • 3 mesi fa • •

Time to start putting ads in.

in reply to Blender Dumbass

dangling_cat

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Freemium is the way to go. All the essential features are free; you can pay for extra stuff like special emojis, coins(like Reddit silver/gold), or customizable profiles. It could be either a subscription or à la carte.

Simply giving something in return would incentivize people to donate more.

Unlike Reddit, the profit should give back to the communities by adding more features, paying developers to maintain open source projects, giveaways etc.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

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in reply to Blender Dumbass

nasi_goreng

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Misskey is probably the only fediverse software that actually allows admin instance to put ads.

Its flagship instance, misskey.io (which also the second/third (?) biggest instances on fediverse), use freemium scheme for running the server.
They have to do this as they have 600K users, with 20K visits per day.
Their paid tier upgrades are mostly adding non-essentials stuff, such as drive capacity from 5GB to 30-100GB, profile and avatar decoration (similar to Discord stuff), or more webhook.
They runs community ads, from indie games, vtuber promotion, comic release, or local art event.
They also have one corporate backer, Skeb.jp, which an art commissioning platform.

Not saying that all instance should do this, but it could be a great learning.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to Blender Dumbass

SorteKanin

in reply to Blender Dumbass • 3 mesi fa • •

Feddit.dk is not a huge Lemmy instance but I've managed to not have to pay anything so far due to generous user donations. It works quite well I think. I think Mastodon is just not quite as effective in gathering people like this to donate, that's my guess at least.

Pro via World News

3 mesi fa • •

Pro
3 mesi fa • •

Tonga Poised to Be the First Country to Recognize Rights of Whales

Tonga Poised to Be the First Country to Recognize Rights of Whales - Inside Climate News

At the U.N. Ocean Conference, Tonga’s princess called for recognition of whales’ legal rights. The move is one of several rights of nature initiatives happening at the conference.

^{Inside Climate News}

#World

like this

in reply to Pro

General_Effort

in reply to Pro • 3 mesi fa • •

For a moment there, I thought the UK was splitting up.

in reply to Pro

Mouselemming

in reply to Pro • 3 mesi fa • •

Makes more sense than corporations

MicroWave via World News

3 mesi fa • •

MicroWave
3 mesi fa • •

London-bound Air India passenger plane with 244 aboard crashes after takeoff from Ahmedabad, India

An Air India passenger plane bound for London with more than 240 people on board crashed Thursday in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, the airline said.

Visuals on local television channels showed smoke billowing from the crash site in what appeared to be a populated area near the airport in Ahmedabad, a city with a population of more than 5 million and the capital of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.

Firefighters doused the smoking wreckage of the plane, which would have been fully loaded with fuel shortly after takeoff, and adjacent multi-story buildings with water. Charred bodies lay on the ground.

https://apnews.com/article/india-plane-crash-cad8dad5cd0e92795b03d357404af5f8

#World

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

like this

in reply to MicroWave

anarchyrabbit

in reply to MicroWave • 3 mesi fa • •

This is terrible. I read all on board are dead. Also it crashed into a building so expect more do be declared dead.

We will need to wait for the investigation but I see it was a Boeing 787-8 dreamliner. Not sure if I want to fly on Boeings anymore

in reply to anarchyrabbit

kcuf2

in reply to anarchyrabbit • 3 mesi fa • •

Boeing has plenty of problems, including many issues with the 787, but air India is not an airline I'd trust. The airline is responsible for maintenance and ensuring their pilots are qualified, if I had to bet, I'd say the issue was in one of these areas.

in reply to anarchyrabbit

Moose

in reply to anarchyrabbit • 3 mesi fa • •

Apparently one guy survived, it's early on so I wouldn't be surprised if the story changes but he was in the exit row and allegedly jumped from the plane before impact, which is insane if true.

daydrinkingchickadee via Geopolitics

3 mesi fa • •

daydrinkingchickadee
3 mesi fa • •

Col. Larry Wilkerson: Is War with Iran the Final Blow to the American Empire?

^YouTube

#geopolitics

daniel_callahan via World News

3 mesi fa • •

daniel_callahan
3 mesi fa • •

UK and Spain strike ‘historic’ deal over Gibraltar’s future and borders

People to be able to move freely across land border, and airport to have Eurostar-style dual border checks

^{Eleni Courea (The Guardian)}

#World

like this

in reply to daniel_callahan

palordrolap

in reply to daniel_callahan • 3 mesi fa • •

It'll be interesting to see if they try this with Northern Ireland next. Politically a bit more of a hot, well, er, maybe "potato" isn't the best choice of word in this instance, but as far as sharing a land border with an EU nation goes, it could smooth over a few problems that Brexit created in that part of the Isles.

schizoidman via World News

3 mesi fa • •

schizoidman
3 mesi fa • •

Air India plane crashes at India’s Ahmedabad airport

London-bound Air India plane with 242 people on board crashes soon after take-off

The aircraft hit a medical hostel as it plunged to the ground. Read more at straitstimes.com.

^{The Straits Times}

#World

MuskyMelon via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MuskyMelon
3 mesi fa • •

GOP senator accuses Trump of "petty vindictiveness" after White House snub

But thats the whole MAGA brand! Petty, shitty people with power.

GOP Senator Accuses Trump Of 'Petty Vindictiveness' After White House Snub

"It makes you wonder about the quality of people you're dealing with," GOP Senator Rand Paul told reporters.

^{Sonam Sheth (Newsweek)}

#politics

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in reply to MuskyMelon

HulkSmashBurgers

in reply to MuskyMelon • 3 mesi fa • •

You're realizing this just now Randy?

in reply to HulkSmashBurgers

gAlienLifeform

in reply to HulkSmashBurgers • 3 mesi fa • •

TBF, seeing Trump treat someone else like shit, empathizing with their experience, and realizing how it could happen to them is really hard for Republicans because they're morally and intellectually defective

Sunshine (she/her) via Palestine

3 mesi fa • •

Sunshine (she/her)
3 mesi fa • •

More Gazans killed trying to get food, healthcare near to ‘full disaster’

Gaza’s health system is at breaking point, overwhelmed time and again by scores of people killed or injured near aid distribution sites, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

^{UN News}

#Palestine

AbnormalHumanBeing via Fediverse

3 mesi fa • •

AbnormalHumanBeing
3 mesi fa • •

Fediverse Support Line [Podcast] #2 - Migrating

Fediverse Support Line #2 - Migrating

Non-techy restless activist do-gooder Jeremy Flatt has found himself having to administer a mastodon instance at nwt.social and has some questions to ask of slightly more techy Paige Saunders. @jer...

^{AbnormalBeingsTube}

#fediverse

MuskyMelon via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MuskyMelon
3 mesi fa • •

Retired military leaders analyze Trump's deployment of Marines and National Guard in LA

TLDR; both disagree with what's going on.

Retired military leaders analyze Trump’s deployment of Marines and National Guard in LA

For perspective on the Trump administration’s deployment of active duty Marines to Los Angeles and the federal call-up of the National Guard, Geoff Bennett spoke with James McPherson, an under secretary of the Army during the first Trump administrati…

^{Geoff Bennett (PBS News)}

#politics

in reply to MuskyMelon

Placebonickname

in reply to MuskyMelon • 3 mesi fa • •

Starting to grind my gears to see the national press try to talk about Trump as though he’s an actual politician.

He’s not pivoting his stance , he’s a moron manchild he’s just winging it as he goes

He’s not executing a reverse on his policy , he’s just bullshitting us all so that he can make himself look big

And he’s not deploying troops to California he’s forcing a military control takeover of a liberal voting district

I support any action that leads to the end of his corrupted administration…. Not violence though I’m not encouraging violence. I don’t wanna get kicked off this platform like I did reddit

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

in reply to MuskyMelon

resipsaloquitur

in reply to MuskyMelon • 3 mesi fa • •

He was humiliated by his own tax (tariff) shake-down failure and wanted to bully someone to feel better. Analysis done.

Rozaŭtuno via anime_irl

3 mesi fa • •

Rozaŭtuno
3 mesi fa • •

anime_irl

Confessions for a Moron by Yasaka Shuu

#anime_irl

Saleh via World News

3 mesi fa • •

Saleh
3 mesi fa • •

Israeli gunfire, strikes kill 120 Palestinians in Gaza, many at aid sites

Palestinian death toll in Israel’s genocidal war surpasses 55,000 amid ongoing bombardment and killings at aid sites.

^{Al Jazeera}

#World

like this

fantawurstwasser via Technology

3 mesi fa • •

fantawurstwasser
3 mesi fa • •

Resurrecting a dead torrent tracker and finding 3 million peers

So I was uh, downloading some linux isos, like usual. It was going slowly, so I opened up the Trackers tab in qBittorrent and saw the following:

^{Kian Bradley (Kian Bradley’s Blog)}

#technology

adhocfungus likes this.

grant 🍞 via Fediverse

3 mesi fa • •

grant 🍞
3 mesi fa • •

Canvas 2025

July 12th, 2025 @ 4am UTC

2025.canvas.fediverse.events/

✨ just as it was last year, the entire Fediverse is invited ✨

follow via microblog @canvas@fediverse.events

join the chat on matrix or on discord (bridged)

are you an app developer? check out the fediverse.events api 👀 (matrix room also linked there)

What’s Canvas?

canvas is a 48 hour event were anyone apart of the fediverse can contribute to a pixel canvas, one pixel at a time

Matrix - Decentralised and secure communication

You're invited to talk on Matrix. If you don't already have a client this link will help you pick one, and join the conversation. If you already have one, this link will help you join the conversation

^matrix.to

#fediverse

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in reply to grant 🍞

squirrel

in reply to grant 🍞 • 3 mesi fa • •

Awesome! Looking forward to it.

Adding this to the list of relevant links !canvas@toast.ooo

like this

MicroWave via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MicroWave
3 mesi fa • •

Entire Fulbright Scholarship board quits, citing Trump admin actions

All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced their resignation on Wednesday, releasing a statement accusing Donald Trump's administration of political interference in the prestigious exchange program.

The 12-member board alleged the Trump administration "usurped the authority of the Board" by denying Fulbright awards to "a substantial number of individuals" who were selected for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The board also alleged the administration is currently "subjecting" an additional 1,200 international Fulbright recipients to "an unauthorized review process and could reject more."

Entire Fulbright Scholarship board quits, citing Trump admin actions

The government-funded, non-partisan program was established by Congress in 1946.

^{Leah Sarnoff (ABC News)}

#politics

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in reply to MicroWave

pulsewidth

in reply to MicroWave • 3 mesi fa • •

Sends a message for one news article, an action like this does. Then they all get replaced by lackeys and the new Fulbright Scholarship board does whatever Trump wants.

I'd think it's better to advocate change from within and use your power to shed light on the bullshit through years of leaks to media, while doing your best to shield the organisation from the worst decisions, than to just quit in a huff of solidarity.

in reply to pulsewidth

Nightwingdragon

in reply to pulsewidth • 3 mesi fa • •

The problem is that it puts you in a lose-lose situation.

MAGA doesn't give up. Their entire method of takeover is to flood you in a sea of shit to either force you to quit or make your life miserable if you don't. If they're in a position to do that, that means they're likely already in the majority and you'll never be able to accomplish anything of substance during your tenure, and they'll just ignore or shout you down during any kind of official meeting until you just give up. And they're playing the long game. They'll wait.

So you get to choose a tenure of frustration as you accomplish exactly nothing and watch as your name gets attached to every bad committee meeting the MAGA morons make (because you're still a member of that committee), or you can quit and watch all of your accomplishments be hand-waived away by whatever up-and-coming MAGA cocksucker takes your seat. It's like asking if you want to be shot or stabbed.

in reply to Nightwingdragon

Snot Flickerman

in reply to Nightwingdragon • 3 mesi fa • •

Also, letting them put incompetent people in charge will make the entire house of cards collapse more quickly, which in turn will help spur change when people get sick of their shit, which will inevitably happen.

in reply to Nightwingdragon

pulsewidth

in reply to Nightwingdragon • 3 mesi fa • •

MAGA are patient, playing the long game, they'll wait? These are the guys that wear diapers to virtue signal they're Trumpers, and charge into the Capitol building when they lose an election.

They're neither intelligent nor patient - they just have NEAR ZERO pushback from all the people in institutions around them, everyone turning to the person next to them going, "gosh that's .. can you believe they're doing that - that's unconstitutional and definitely illegal".

I read the article, and even the outgoing Fulbright board just handball the problem to the next people.

[With] the board calling on Congress, the courts and future Fulbright Boards to "prevent the administration's efforts to degrade, dismantle, or even eliminate one of our nation's most respected and valuable programs."

Why the hell are they not doing that? It's cowardly and its essentially a strongly worded letter.

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

vga via Technology

3 mesi fa • •

vga
3 mesi fa • •

Mudita Kompakt

A 4" e-ink phone that I hadn't heard of before. Seems like a promising low-distraction semidumb phone.

Mudita Kompakt, a minimalist E Ink® phone.

Mudita Kompakt is a minimalist phone designed for mindful living. Featuring an E Ink screen, long battery life, and distraction-free tools, this E Ink phone helps you stay focused and unplug with ease.

^mudita.com

#technology

Basso Daniele likes this.

MuskyMelon via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MuskyMelon
3 mesi fa • •

Pope to give a virtual address in Chicago at the same time as Trump’s military parade

The only good that might come out of this is the removal of tax-exempt status of Catholic churches

Pope Leo plans to give a virtual address in his hometown of Chicago – at the same time as Trump’s military parade

Tickets for the event, which is to be held at the Rate Field stadium, home of the Chicago White Sox (the pontiff’s favorite team), are being sold online at $5 each

^{Mike Bedigan (The Independent)}

#politics

like this

in reply to MuskyMelon

CH3DD4R_G0B-L1N

in reply to MuskyMelon • 3 mesi fa • •

Eh, this had more troll potential when I still thought it was an in person event. The first American pope giving his first American soil address would have more power behind it.

in reply to MuskyMelon

happydoors

in reply to MuskyMelon • 3 mesi fa • •

I just hope he actually condemns Trump and doesn’t add fuel to the fire and encourage right wing Catholics. Trust me, they are there in the shadows already radicalized like the southern evangelists

technocrit via politics

3 mesi fa • •

technocrit
3 mesi fa • •

Donald Trump Manufactured the Crisis in Los Angeles

The Trump administration claims to be fighting an existential battle against insurrectionary forces in Los Angeles. In truth, it created this cynical spectacle itself, deploying troops and inflaming tensions to distract from its policy failures.

Donald Trump Manufactured the Crisis in Los Angeles

^jacobin.com

#politics

like this

in reply to technocrit

Omega

in reply to technocrit • 3 mesi fa • •

All these images make it look like the whole city is on fire, but a majority of the protesting is going on here:

like this

in reply to Omega

undefined

in reply to Omega • 3 mesi fa • •

It’s really funny to me because I live six miles from the area. Each day working from home I wonder if I would even realize there were protests had I no access to the internet or people telling me about them.

like this

in reply to technocrit

echo

in reply to technocrit • 3 mesi fa • •

What? No way!

like this

essebi via Musica Agorà

3 mesi fa • •

essebi
3 mesi fa • •

Radiohead - The King of Limbs (2011)

Come si diceva, un nuovo disco va assaporato lentamente, se poi il disco in questione è dei Radiohead, allora la regola va moltiplicata. The King of Limbs non è un disco facile, chi conosce e ama i Radiohead è preparato a questo. Molte loro uscite hanno spiazzato e anche The King of Limbs, in parte, mantiene questa promessa... Leggi e ascolta...

ᗩᐯᗩIᒪᗩᗷᒪᗴ

2025-06-18 06:37:42

writefreely - Collegamento all'originale

Radiohead - The King of Limbs (2011)

Come si diceva, un nuovo disco va assaporato lentamente, se poi il disco in questione è dei Radiohead, allora la regola va moltiplicata. The King of Limbs non è un disco facile, chi conosce e ama i Radiohead è preparato a questo. Molte loro uscite hanno spiazzato e anche The King of Limbs, in parte, mantiene questa promessa. Chiamiamole ricerche, esperimenti, poco cambia, il loro percorso sonoro è sempre all'insegna dell'innovazione e dello stile progressivo... (Continua a leggere... artesuono.blogspot.com/2014/07…)
Ascolta: album.link/i/1109714965
Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit

Radiohead - The King of Limbs (2011)
di Silvano Bottaro Come si diceva, un nuovo disco va assaporato lentamente, se poi il disco in questione è dei Radiohead, allora la ...
^{Silvano Bottaro (Blogger)}

#musica

in reply to essebi

mindbleach

in reply to essebi • 3 mesi fa • •

"Morning Mr. Magpie" was so much better on

- YouTube

Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.

^{www.youtube.com}

thebetafish via politics

3 mesi fa • •

thebetafish
3 mesi fa • •

Brave New World

like this

in reply to thebetafish

SassyRamen

in reply to thebetafish • 3 mesi fa • •

Eyes and Teeth are all pointing the correct direction, he doesn't have hotdog skin full of giant viens, and the text is easy to understand, this is not my RFK.

in reply to SassyRamen

morphballganon

in reply to SassyRamen • 3 mesi fa • •

I figured it was just a rando maga reciting a buzz phrase

Stamau123 via World News

3 mesi fa • •

Stamau123
3 mesi fa • •

US puts Switzerland on watch list of trading partners

The United States Treasury Department has placed Switzerland on a watch list for currency and economic practices, along with eight other countries.

Switzerland and the eight other countries have a large trade surplus, according to a report by the US Treasury Department on the United States’ most important trading partners. The report was first reported by Swiss radio and television.

According to the report, Ireland and Switzerland are new additions to the list. Switzerland’s trade surplus with the US increased last year, according to the report. China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam and Germany are also listed.

The aim of the ministry is to take action against unfair currency practices. Last year, however, no major US trading partner manipulated the exchange rate of its currency against the US dollar in order to gain a competitive advantage in international trade.

US puts Switzerland on watch list of trading partners

The United States Treasury Department places Switzerland on a watch list for currency and economic practices.

^{Swissinfo API (SWI swissinfo.ch)}

#World

Unknown parent

AgentOrangesicle

Unknown parent • 3 mesi fa • •

Do they.call them, "Ranchers" down there or is everyone a farmer? Legit question, because no one in the states would bat an eye at that ambiguation save for farmers and ranchers.

cm0002 via Palestine

3 mesi fa • •

cm0002
3 mesi fa • •

Massive fire reported in Tel Aviv after Iron Dome missiles misfired and landed on nearby buildings setting them on fire.

Massive fire reported in Tel Aviv after Iron Dome missiles misfired and landed on nearby buildings setting them on fire.
People say the system was hacked, others say these are old units failing because they were expired and not ready for use.
#IronDome #TelAviv #Missfire #Meme #Netanyahu #Israel #IranStrikesBack #WarOnIran #FAFO #iran #military
@israel @iran @palestine@a.gup.pe

Free Free Palestine!

Free Free Palestine! A space for activists and Palestinians to connect and amplify their efforts for the liberation of Palestine. Promote Palestinian solidarity events, or document and share here.

^{Mastodon hosted on freefree.ps}

#Palestine

who via World News

3 mesi fa • •

who
3 mesi fa • •

Hong Kong bans video game using national security laws

Hong Kong authorities have warned their residents against downloading a Taiwan-made game called Reversed Front: Bonfire, which they're accusing of advocating...

^{Mariella Moon (Engadget)}

#World

like this

in reply to who

Zealousideal_Fox_900

in reply to who • 3 mesi fa • •

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Xinnie the Pooh Bear, burn the CCP forever, FREE TIBET, FREE HONG KONG.
I cannot encourage everyone enough play this game.

in reply to who

yetAnotherUser

in reply to who • 3 mesi fa • •

Sadly a mobile game so it's not really worth your time as it has in app purchases.

But what could be worth your time is Devotion, a Taiwanese horror game which is not available on any store front (but their own) after an easter egg criticial of Xi Jinping was found.

Bluefalcon via politics

3 mesi fa • •

Bluefalcon
3 mesi fa • •

Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance

Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump's recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male.
One unit-level message bluntly said "no fat soldiers."
"If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don't want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out," another note to troops said.

Cherry picking your fan boys, very Alpha move.

Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance

As President Donald Trump viciously attacked his perceived political foes, he whipped up boos from the gathered troops directed at California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

^{Konstantin Toropin, Steve Beynon (Military.com)}

#politics

like this

in reply to Bluefalcon

Optional

in reply to Bluefalcon • 3 mesi fa • •

For this story, Military.com reached out to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's office as well as the Army and the 82nd Airborne Division directly with a series of questions that ranged from the optics of the event to social media posts showing the sale of Trump campaign merchandise on the base, to the apparent violation of Pentagon policies on political activity in uniform.
Internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reviewed by Military.com reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump's recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male.
One unit-level message bluntly said "no fat soldiers."
. . . Service officials declined to comment when asked about the extent to which troops were screened, whether soldiers displaying partisan cheers on television -- a violation of long-standing Pentagon rules -- would be disciplined or if soldiers who objected to participating in the event, citing disagreements with the administration, would be disciplined or admonished in any way.
"This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution," one commander at Fort Bragg told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "This was shameful. I don't expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term."

in reply to Optional

snooggums

in reply to Optional • 3 mesi fa • •

If nothing comes of it nothing will be learned.

like this

in reply to Optional

pelespirit

in reply to Optional • 3 mesi fa • •

It's the army version of a really bad comb-over and shoe lifts while wearing a diaper.

in reply to Bluefalcon

fluxion

in reply to Bluefalcon • 3 mesi fa • •

The article is some great and ballsy reporting, and the other details are pretty shocking. The military is being rapidly corrupted to becoming a partisan force that serves Trump above America

in reply to fluxion

Bluefalcon

in reply to fluxion • 3 mesi fa • •

Military.com does a good job of reporting. I would assume more are anti trump than for him

in reply to fluxion

BassTurd

in reply to fluxion • 3 mesi fa • •

The military has always been heavily populated by some of the shittiest people. The prospect of carrying a weapon and killing others or just wielding power over others, attracts a certain type of person. In the US since at least 9/11, there's been a disgusting amount of military propaganda that has certainly brought in some people that care and want to do the right thing (for the ignorant wrong reasons) but also the shits that are all in because they think they're tough shit.

Service people don't deserve any more respect than any other profession, and I'd argue in many cases, they deserve less respect. There's hasn't been a draft in a hot minute, so everyone currently in is voluntary. Some soldiers do wind to in life threatening situations, but it's far from the most dangerous job and to me, killing innocence in the middle east for no good reason doesn't earn you any valor in my book.

They're all a bunch of pawns, and I've seen about 2 out of all of them actually stand up and oppose the Trump admin and thousands of others bend over, take it, and ask for more. This article and LA further reenforces my belief that being in the military isn't something noble, but more akin to being in a gang where all of the members are brainwashed and have no spines.

in reply to Bluefalcon

ReallyActuallyFrankenstein

in reply to Bluefalcon • 3 mesi fa • •

I'm glad this came to light. It's not surprising; this is Trump's whole fake-it-till-you-make-it game with his presidency, from the moment he actually paid actors to cheer for him coming down the escalator in 2015. He's always, always focused on the appearance of things rather than the substance.

like this

in reply to ReallyActuallyFrankenstein

Bluefalcon

in reply to ReallyActuallyFrankenstein • 3 mesi fa • •

Appearance is all he cares about, that and racism.

in reply to Bluefalcon

reallykindasorta

in reply to Bluefalcon • 3 mesi fa • •

Reporter didn’t hold back

in reply to reallykindasorta

Bluefalcon

in reply to reallykindasorta • 3 mesi fa • •

Swinging huge nuts.

Sunshine (she/her) via Palestine

3 mesi fa • •

Sunshine (she/her)
3 mesi fa • •

Firms led by US military veterans deliver aid in Africa and Gaza, alarming humanitarian groups

ON A PLANE OVER UPPER NILE STATE, South Sudan (AP) — Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sa...

^{feedloaderapi (Winnipeg Free Press)}

#Palestine

Tony Bark via politics

3 mesi fa • •

Tony Bark
3 mesi fa • •

West Virginia Republican Gets Cold Feet About GOP Plan to Make Families 'Poorer, Hungrier, and Sicker'

"Sen. Jim Justice says people 'might get upset' about SNAP cuts," said a government watchdog that's fought against the bill. "No kidding."

^{julia-conley (Common Dreams)}

#politics

like this

in reply to Tony Bark

SGGeorwell

in reply to Tony Bark • 3 mesi fa • •

It’s really surprising that it’s Jim Justice of all people. The man is known as something of a scalawag even before the Trump years.

in reply to SGGeorwell

ZombiFrancis

in reply to SGGeorwell • 3 mesi fa • •

Babydog's getting through, maybe.

irelephant [he/him] via Fediverse

3 mesi fa • •

irelephant [he/him]
3 mesi fa • •

lemmy.blahaj.zone has setup a piefed instance.

#fediverse

in reply to drspod

Catoblepas

in reply to drspod • 3 mesi fa • •

All the comments from all cross posts on a single page is great. You can also add your own user flair like you could on Reddit, which lemmy doesn’t support. I haven’t messed with it much yet, but the ability to make lists of communities into feeds also seems really useful.

in reply to Catoblepas

doctortran

in reply to Catoblepas • 3 mesi fa • •

Votes are private as well.

Sunshine (she/her) via Palestine

3 mesi fa • •

Sunshine (she/her)
3 mesi fa • •

Israel’s Attack on Iran and Its Potential Fallout

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a retired professor of international relations, most recently at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He taught courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

^{Inter Press Service}

#Palestine

Redditsux via politics

3 mesi fa • •

Redditsux
3 mesi fa • •

‘Oof…Just Bad Stuff All Around’: CNN’s Data Guru Shocked by Trump’s Brutally Low New Approval Rating

‘Oof…Just Bad Stuff All Around’: CNN’s Data Guru Shocked by Trump’s Brutally ...

The latest poll by Quinnipiac University had some grim numbers across the board for President Donald Trump, shocking CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, who described it as "definitely one of Trump's worst polls."

^{Sarah Rumpf (Mediaite)}

#politics

like this

in reply to Redditsux

prole

in reply to Redditsux • 3 mesi fa • •

And yet somehow the Republicans will win a sketchy number of seats at the midterms and nothing will ever come of it.

in reply to prole

tehn00bi

in reply to prole • 3 mesi fa • •

Elmo’s gift to get back in Dumps good graces.

in reply to Redditsux

ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

in reply to Redditsux • 3 mesi fa • •

does not matter. the ppl in the usa are still there and the suck.

Sunshine (she/her) via Palestine

3 mesi fa • •

Sunshine (she/her)
3 mesi fa • •

Why Abby Stein—a transgender rabbi raised ultra-orthodox—stands up for Palestine

“Queer people know what it means to struggle against the government, know what it means to struggle against the status quo. And, most importantly, we're not as easily controlled…”

^{Marc Steiner (The Real News Network)}

#Palestine

Tony Bark via politics

3 mesi fa • •

Tony Bark
3 mesi fa • •

Trump's DOJ makes sweeping demand for Colorado election data

#politics

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

like this

in reply to Tony Bark

bacon_pdp

in reply to Tony Bark • 3 mesi fa • •

They are asking for the documents because they need to destroy them before copies are made

like this

in reply to bacon_pdp

Lasherz

in reply to bacon_pdp • 3 mesi fa • •

I'm more convinced that they're just taking all of the databases and putting them in an ai bot and asking it to construct a pro trump narrative and then immediately turning it all over to Palantir to fulfill more of their master searchable file on every single bit of information on everybody. For what reason? Who knows? Only Peter Thiel and the other vampires in charge.

like this

in reply to Lasherz

masterofn001

in reply to Lasherz • 3 mesi fa • •

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,\
Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,\
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,\
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,\
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.\
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,\
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them\
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

in reply to masterofn001

ExtantHuman

in reply to masterofn001 • 3 mesi fa • •

I hate how so many evil companies are taking their names from nerd culture. There's also a weapons manufacturer named Anduril

in reply to Tony Bark

miss_demeanour

in reply to Tony Bark • 3 mesi fa • •

Meanwhile:

Kamala Harris didn't receive a single vote in one NY county...

kinther

2025-06-11 17:24:37

Lawsuit Challenging 2024 Election Results Moves Forward After Kamala Harris Received Zero Votes in a New York County

Lawsuit Challenging 2024 Election Results Moves Forward After Kamala Harris Received Zero Votes in a New York County
A lawsuit disputing the results of the 2024 election has moved forward after it was revealed that former Vice President Kamala Harris received no votes a New York county.
^{Maryam Khanum (Latin Times)}

like this

Saleh via World News

3 mesi fa • •

Saleh
3 mesi fa • •

What is the Global March to Gaza all about?

The Global March to Gaza aims to pressure world leaders to end Israel’s genocidal war in the Palestinian enclave.

^{Al Jazeera}

#World

like this

in reply to dinren

Saleh

in reply to dinren • 3 mesi fa • •

The convoi since has reached a size of many more people, with reports ranging from 7.000 to "tens of thousands".

in reply to Saleh

dinren

in reply to Saleh • 3 mesi fa • •

That’s uplifting. They can’t kill 10k. That’s a massacre. They can’t sweep that under the rug

Saleh via World News

3 mesi fa • •

Saleh
3 mesi fa • •

UK MPs react to report alleging David Cameron ‘threatened’ ICC withdrawal

Cameron told ICC’s Khan arrest warrants for Israeli officials would be like ‘dropping hydrogen bomb’, media report says.

^{Al Jazeera}

#World

like this

in reply to Saleh

Lyra_Lycan

in reply to Saleh • 3 mesi fa • •

Cameron told ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan that applying for arrest warrants for Israeli officials would be like ‘dropping hydrogen bomb’

Good idea, fucking drop one.

miss_demeanour via politics

3 mesi fa • •

miss_demeanour
3 mesi fa • •

Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump's Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance

As President Donald Trump viciously attacked his perceived political foes, he whipped up boos from the gathered troops directed at California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

^{Konstantin Toropin, Steve Beynon (Military.com)}

#politics

like this

in reply to vaultdweller013

grue

in reply to vaultdweller013 • 3 mesi fa • •

Well, and Constitutional legitimacy to exist for more than two years at a time, but who's counting?

in reply to vaultdweller013

AngryCommieKender

in reply to vaultdweller013 • 3 mesi fa • •

Marines are Navy! We aren't giving our special boys and girls to the army!

MuskyMelon via politics

3 mesi fa • •

MuskyMelon
3 mesi fa • •

Trump deploys National Guard after second day of Los Angeles immigration protests | CNN

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/06/us/los-angeles-immigration-enforcement-protesters?cid=ios_app

#politics

in reply to SharkAttak

Ice

in reply to SharkAttak • 3 mesi fa • •

How do you mean? Most authoritarian regimes are maintained with fear and violence. Even in democratic states that don't primarily rule through fear the government generally has a monopoly on using violence to enforce the law.

in reply to Ice

SharkAttak

in reply to Ice • 3 mesi fa • •

I mean that as we've seen cops are easy to start using pellets and gas, and when people respond throwing rocks, suddenly it's a 'violent insurrection'; that's why I said it's important to see who started it.

daniel_callahan via World News

3 mesi fa • •

daniel_callahan
3 mesi fa • •

Israeli PM Netanyahu tells U.S. he's interested in negotiating a full peace agreement with Syria. Many see former jihadi Al Sharaa as surprisingly rational and pragmatic

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/11/israel-syrian-peace-negotiations-netanyahu-barrack

#World

Questa voce è stata modificata (3 mesi fa)

Oofnik likes this.

Tony Bark via politics

3 mesi fa • •

Tony Bark
3 mesi fa • •

Republicans Plan to Ditch Trump’s Birthday Military Parade

Just seven of 50 surveyed GOP lawmakers are planning to actually attend the president’s birthday festivities over the weekend, reported Politico. [...] Those sticking around include some of Trump’s most stalwart MAGA supporters: Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (who told Politico “of course” she’d be there), Byron Donalds, and Elise Stefanik are all planning to celebrate. Representatives Cory Mills, Rich McCormick, John McGuire, and Lisa McClain are also expected to be in attendance.