Posts by roadriverrail@signs.codes
(DIR) Post #AraIyzR9YoxSVwA0Ce by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:39:48Z
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@gabek I'm blessed that @tgpo is now along for the ride; his rewrite has us in a place where I might deliver features more than once a year! Yes, once a year! FOSS contributors may not even consider the project their primary hobby, let alone be a career. Almost all of my FOSS contributions over the last few years came while I was on vacation! Imagine that...I took a vacation to work on a personal project and ended up shelving it to contribute to a different project along the way. 4/?
(DIR) Post #AraIz83NWaHvEo6dtY by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:42:41Z
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@gabek @tgpo Consequently, unless a project has matured to the point that it's securing funding to actually hire people for features (and that will likely be below market wage rates), it is, and will remain primarily a shared act of joy for those who contribute and power-use. Tech support is usually a shared effort among them, a result of users asking questions in chat or on mailing lists. The sincere hope of a healthy project is that users become contributors themselves in some way. 5/?
(DIR) Post #AraIzHDzQV7jgK8kBU by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:45:06Z
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@gabek @tgpo That contribution could be blogging, community newsletters, hype, or staying around to help answer newer users' questions. In fact, any user-facing FOSS project desperately needs those people because, as user bases scale, so does the amount of community support and engagement, and if it falls on too few heads, the project suffers. Indeed, if the core of the project loses the joy of working on the project, they burn out and the project either grows obsolete or becomes abandoned.6/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn5Tayl2izUDG7s by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:48:02Z
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@gabek @tgpo This is also to say that virtually no FOSS project, except those commissioned and funded from the start, set out to dominate, to capture millions of users, or to "win" against a commercial adversary. It's absurd to think that anyone honestly set their sights on "winning" over Alphabet, X, or Meta. Linus Torvalds didn't want to "beat" Microsoft; he wanted to play with Minix on his x86 machine. Linux, according to the original usenet posts, was never supposed to be a big deal. 7/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn64okMoiqvcz8y by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:53:20Z
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@gabek @tgpo FOSS projects "win" by existing and being meaningful to the people they help and enable. If they become a credible threat to, or a useful tool for, a capital-driven machine that can and will destroy anything it cares to, that is actually quite beside the point. We call those things the "success stories" because they're what people see. But any FOSS project that gives some people what they want and thrives at least for a while, was a "success." 8/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn6iWMkZmq4Ch1s by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:57:05Z
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@gabek @tgpo So, please don't think you're helping if you come around telling a FOSS community they ought to plan around the needs of a user base you've imagined and can't even prove exists. If you need, say, a Kodi client for your favorite streaming service, write it. Or pay a grant to someone for it; it's probably not much. Maybe find 9 other people who want it and split that cost 10 ways. Whatever it is, be the change you want, because you're the new energy. 9/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn7CeYigALWIkzo by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T17:59:43Z
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@gabek @tgpo And certainly don't think that scolding people with absolute user-base sizes will do it. As a Mastodon admin, I know that every new user costs me money. Where's the money to "beat Instagram/X/whatev" supposed to come from? Should we all plow our paychecks into it and impoverish our families? And why, so we can, vaguely, "win"?Should us #Owncast devs handle 100x increase in user support so we can "win"? Where's that labor going to come from? 10/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn7jca93Bzlj5No by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T18:07:16Z
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@gabek @tgpo Meanwhile, thanks to #Owncast, I have a thriving side career as a DJ. Thanks to #Peertube, @ajroach42 has developed a cable TV channel. Countless people have enjoyed their audiences on Owncast, and we've had some really lovely, wonderful times, and we're super happy to have others bring in their new energy, their new ideas, their successes, their joys, and their struggles. We know we can't "win" against the behemoths...who can often freely use our own work against us! 10/?
(DIR) Post #AraZn8RDy1veB07uLY by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-02-28T18:12:58Z
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@gabek @tgpo @ajroach42 We're just here and happy to try and make something for ourselves and our friends. It might become another Linux success case; it probably won't, but we're learning and making ourselves happy along the way. Don't lecture us about how to "win" in your eyes. Work towards your vision or don't, but your standards of success aren't owed to you. Be a FOSS person and make your own dream a reality, build community, and see where the journey takes you. 11/11
(DIR) Post #ArzgMBaThttIkvY9XU by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-03-12T17:12:07Z
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I'm currently trying to put together another #Owncast newsletter and I'm looking for a streamer, project, or event to put in the "featured" column. Please reach out to me if you know someone doing something cool and would like to see them get some recognition.Also, if you have upcoming events to advertise, let me know!Please boost for visibility.
(DIR) Post #Au1fr9Rw5yUlSdlJ68 by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-05-12T18:21:45Z
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The May 2025...and Owncast 5-year anniversary...edition of the #Owncast Newsletter is now live!https://owncast.ghost.io/owncast-newsletter-may-2025/
(DIR) Post #AxHCMYLKQyW8Zw6kwi by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-08-17T23:23:50Z
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@RevXenoFact Is there a way to just...subscribe to all your zines? It's getting hard to remember what I've bought and what I haven't, and ko-fi seems to want to do each one as an individual order with an individual shipping cost.Truth is I'm buying them to archive, so I'd rather just get one of everything as it's made.
(DIR) Post #Azsf1CKYJ3dC7h65aK by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-11-03T21:14:54Z
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@Computer Friend Computer, what is capital and how could a Citizen hoard it? I wish to ensure the occasional pile I see in the barracks is not capital.
(DIR) Post #B06UVHYXQ9n3U7nX4S by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-11-08T12:47:15Z
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@discatte "Looks like he...hit a tree trunk."
(DIR) Post #B0Ftz7OpmK03dSWKjg by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-11-15T02:20:48Z
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@futurebird Holy fucking shit I want this so much.
(DIR) Post #B0NIkSLzor6jnOhCV6 by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-11-18T15:45:11Z
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What's this? After a summer hiatus, the #Owncast newsletter returns! Updates about the Roku app, my interview on @firesidefedi, and our featured streamer, @ExpiredPopsicle!Joe Bob says "Check it out!"https://owncast.ghost.io/owncast-newsletter-july-2025/
(DIR) Post #B0jFPa2PaRtxvP4E52 by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2025-11-29T06:07:39Z
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@RevXenoFact Quite similarly, actually. It's the calm before the storm. I have 3 DJ gigs over the next 4 days.
(DIR) Post #B2XxUD9WvTLdL9Y37Y by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2026-01-22T14:12:22Z
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The January 2026 edition of the #Owncast Newsletter is out!https://owncast.ghost.io/owncast-newsletter-january-2026/
(DIR) Post #B2eYi1Vbas6vqod1km by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2026-01-25T13:48:46Z
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Any time I make a post that "does numbers", I get nervous. The Fedi is unfortunately full of "reply guy" types who totally break my peace and quiet.
(DIR) Post #B2g4dU3pOzSEe9TVxI by roadriverrail@signs.codes
2026-01-26T13:06:48Z
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@wjmaggos I get what you're saying, but by the time I report them, they've already made my day worse, so it doesn't help with the nervous feeling.