After sharing an old discussion from an earlier internet that I found interesting on FB, it immediately got "disappeared" (& stayed gone) so I decided I've about had it with being watched and having to tiptoe around the tulips and finally hit delete. Still using Youtube for music & some things, but started looking more at Br!ghteon & B!tchute more for more free speech & to see some of what's being censored from the main streams.

The video I was watching this morning glitched & was just audio (which happens sometimes when I have too many tabs open, especially if 2 of them contain video) so I rebooted and when I opened Firef0x again, that URL I linked was on the welcome page. ...just a wee bit off-putting, but judging by the dates it looks like it could be an algorythm thing to notice when FB is deleted and present their alternative option. Could also have been algorythmically triggered by the searches I've been doing to see if there is some kind of community building platform that already exists where we could make & host sort of a website/local "cloud" of our own to build more free-communication, connections, resource, & media sharing in our local community. There used to be a small forum site for our town and it was extremely popular locally, though it was largely used for gossip and crazy talk, but for whatever reason it got shut down. Being naturally curious, I clicked on the "Listen To This" link on that page. https://irlpodcast.org/season4/episod...

It quite honestly seemed really interesting and very much like just the kind of thing I was looking for, so I listened to the next podcast and started looking into some of those alternative platforms. At only an initial look so far they seem interesting, compelling, and to be about good things like free speech & personal privacy, but I couldn't help but notice some little things in the intro videos, wording, & fine print that have been even more trending now (and not in very constructive ways), like "Yes, being an open source, not being tracked platform, with the responsibility on the individuals, we could have some "n@z!s" or bad actors slip through the cracks", and making it sound like a good thing that putting pressure on Utube & FB to remove "harmful content" (like Trump posts) got results from them (doesn't sound very free-speech-ish of them).

Mozilla(dot)org/decentralization (mentioned in the podcast) re-directs to a page on "!nternet Hea1th". A closer exam of the pr!vacy p0licy on one of those alternative community tools/platforms mentions a couple of the 3rd parties that data gets shared with so I picked a name, looked up "who owns", and found this page: https://www.shareprogress.org/blog/no... It seems more like training how to get people to do useful things for imaginary (digital) "awards" & prizes.

scratching my head wondering what to make of this rabbit hole I was presented with Again, all of these things seem to have been started quite awhile ago (that last one circa 2015 maybe?) and they DO sound like good free domain grassroots platforms (on the surface at least), yet they seem to be on the side that in current events has been causing the most chaos.

All it takes is one slight misdirection and/or faulty premise to shift blame and let a bad bean fall into the pot, wasting the effort (that's why the most effective lies lie very close to the truth), but these younger folks do also happen to be better than "boomers" at tech, so I may have to do a little more looking into some of these platforms' fine print & privacy policies to see if any like Ma$tadon are truly good, useful, secure tools for building some kind of connectivity within our local community.

Like, for instance, to put good workers in touch with good employers & "work needed" by others, local shoppers better able to vote with their dollars for local businesses by having an organized community-centered place to see what's offered, even little gossip circles if that's really what some folks feel they need & want, local meetups for niche groups like hikers or homeschooling parents to get together, local artist/musicians to share their work, or other such things. FB is just way too broad and encourages reactionary divisiveness with it's algorythms, so we really need a better alternative to focus a little closer to home on things that we might actually be able to work together on in order to affect more positive outcomes (at least for ourselves and those around us, whether SHTF or not). If you know of any good (privacy & free-speech protected) tools, or platforms for starting up something that's just focused on local community interconnectivity, I'd appreciate the recommendation(s).