Subj : Re: Notice that...
To   : DustCouncil
From : boraxman
Date : Wed Feb 09 2022 21:29:07

 Du> What's depressing about this is you don't even have to think in terms of
 Du> principle for this to be troubling.  What you have to realize is any of
 Du> these private companies can either tank financially, taking tons of
 Du> communities down with them, or shutter a service suddenly if it makes
 Du> financial sense to do so.
 Du> 
 Du> Yahoo Groups ("free" Yahoo-hosted mailing lists) is a perfect example.
 Du> Took two of my lists with it.  I mean, my fault for hosting them there
 Du> and all but the "too bad, bye suckers!" ending was depressing.
 Du> 
 Du> This is a big issue with Discord beyond their censorship/surveillance
 Du> policies.  It's like building on unstable ground.
 Du>  

It is building helplessness into the system by making people dependent on others.  By using open platforms with open protocols, we can avoid this.  And why not?  We all have more computing power than we dreamed was possible when the internet was new, and connections magnitudes of orders faster than the old dial up days.  Many magnitudes of orders faster.  Simple self-hosted solutions are very possible.  There isn't a good business model for that though, so those with marketing and business power will push centralisation.

 Du> I don't actually dislike the Discord client; it works fine as far as it
 Du> goes.  But it is centralized.  (Matrix is a much preferable alternative;
 Du> I am surprised how well it works as a more open alternative.)

The Discord client is a bloated piece of electron crap.  The pidgin plugin barely works, not sure what other options there are.  The software industry is the worst industry there is, just creating garbage upon garbage.

If structural engineers used the same philosophy, civilisation would literally fall apart.

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