This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I recently blocked him because he is force-feeding me notifications even though I don’t follow him. Blocking him seems to have fixed the issue. Go figure. There’s probably a connection between him wanting to remove the feature and many of us using it as an ad blocker of sorts.
I eventually just uninstalled the app because of that.
Curious if anyone here is still finding a need for X network in their day to day lives?
I was never big on Twitter so had no trouble leaving when Elon bought.
I mainly use Mastodon now but sadly, my country's public institutions (such as meteorology and seismology) have no presence in the fediverse. There's also a particular fandom I follow that mainly interacts om Twitter.
The biggest problem is articles online still quoting, linking to, and embedding Tweets
I was only lurking but it was usefull to find out why a train is delayed and stuff like that.
Need? No
I do still have an old version of the app installed that I occasionally get interesting notifications from though
Yeah there's a lot of good covid info still on there.
Twitter's about to become groomer central like Kik.
They got a one letter app on the app store. They get special privilege.
I deleted my twitter account. Circus Elon is just more than I could be bothered with. I hope his platform goes and he just stops his madness.
Google takes away our ability to block ads. Elon takes away our ability to block content. HP takes away our ability to print with ink we purchased, unless we also pay a subscription. Adobe takes away our ability to own software. Interesting world....
Everything you mentioned is simply a subset of "[corporation] takes away our ability to own property" (i.e., trying to usurp our fundamental property right to control our computer). You can also add Apple and John Deere "right to repair" to the list, along with automakers trying to lock capabilities of the machine we already payfor behind paywalled subscriptions. It's all the same underlying issue.
Make no mistake: corporations are waging a war on the public's right to own property, and we're going to be forcibly returned to serfdom if we don't start fighting back.
You'll own nothing...
trying to usurp our fundamental property right
Clearly nothing fundamental about these rights if they can be so casually stripped away.
Luckily there are alternatives to all of these.
Duck duck go can replace Google search. Dropbox can replace Google drive. Firefox can replace Chrome.
Mastodon replaces x / Twitter
Go buy a brother printer instead of HP
As far as Adobe, we do have photopea... The rest are harder.
…
Illustrator → Inkscape
Lightroom → Darktable/CaptureOne/Rawtherapee
They may need some getting used to if you come from adobe, but they are all very capable.
DuckDuckGo contractually uses Bing's ad tracking.
Looks like you're wrong:
"DuckDuckGo removes carve-out for Microsoft tracking scripts after securing policy change"
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/05/duckduckgo-microsoft-tracking-scripts/
“Most browsers’ default tracking protection focuses on cookie and fingerprinting protections that only restrict third-party tracking scripts after they load in your browser. Unfortunately, that level of protection leaves information like your IP address and other identifiers sent with loading requests vulnerable to profiling. Our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection helps address this vulnerability, by stopping most 3rd-party trackers from loading in the first place, providing significantly more protection,” Weinberg writes in the blog post."
“Previously, we were limited in how we could apply our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection on Microsoft tracking scripts due to a policy requirement related to our use of Bing as a source for our private search results. We’re glad this is no longer the case. We have not had, and do not have, any similar limitation with any other company.”
“Microsoft scripts were never embedded in our search engine or apps, which do not track you,” he adds. “Websites insert these scripts for their own purposes, and so they never sent any information to DuckDuckGo."
Ahh yes, the legalese that says, "no we toootally weren't doing the exact oposite of what we said!"
Sure, they might not tag you with a unique ID that never changes like Google does, but to think Bing is untracked it to fundamentally fail to understand how privacy on the internet works, or doesn't work.
GIMP / Krita.
non-free bad.
I wasn't saying there aren't alts. And it's not just Google search. It's Google, as a company.
Also, brother is not a good alt anymore :(
As far as Brother, that appears to be an optional service. Our business has a contracted printer rental and service because the damn things are so expensive to keep running. Our old office printer used to break down all the time under light usage. We had the maintenance tech out at least 1-2 times a month.
Duck duck go can replace Google
Eh. We'll see how long that lasts. All these big firms tend to follow the pack.
Go buy a brother printer instead of HP
Honestly, best hardware decision I've made in a while.
@01189998819991197253 @band_on_the_run in all fairness the ability to block a user is a lot different than the ability to block ads as Google is selling you a service by serving you ads.
Musk will make it a pay-to-block feature. Block a user do 30 days for $5. Block them for a whole year for $20. Now watch the platform turn a profit!
While you’re at it, might as well add some lootboxes and cosmetics you can buy with Xcoins.
Spend money to get the coins. Spend the coins on the lootboxes and hope you can get a message booster. Without a booster, your tweets will be deleted in 10 minutes. If you have a booster, they will stay around for an hour before they get deleted. If you want better lootboxes, you have to upgrade them with with some more Xcoins.
Elon's done with people blocking his shit takes. You will be forced to see the bitcoin scams no matter what!!!
They've historically been some of his best clients.
Getting rid of the block function is like trying to run email without a spam filter. Elon musk/ Twitter was already out of control. Now they've completely lost their minds, even more than they already had.
Imagine being excited about publicly announcing the deletion of a critical feature. Have you even seen such a brazen and naked attempt at control from a CEO or corporation? Seriously, name one. Name one company that has done this sort of thing.
Any other company that would even attempt to remove a critical feature like that would try to sugarcoat it with an apology letter about how it was a tough decision, or have a bulleted list of reasons why they were forced to remove the feature.
No, not this guy. Just a blind, unfiltered matter-of-fact tweet. No explanation. No apologies. No signs of any remorse.
Name. One. Company. Who. Has. Done. This.
twitter gonna go parler
Those of you who use X on mobile should report the apps for violations
The app stores already know.
LOL over there there's a crazy concentration of toxic people, take out the block?
Also how all those politicians that block hundreds of people a day can continue to use the platform?
Honestly I think the future of the internet is in the hands of a few US judges, not billionaires who own these platforms.
Once Section 230 hits the courts, the entire way the internet works could get flipped onto its head.
How so? Honest question
Oh gosh, I just started typing out a response. The. Started sourcing and realized this would take me a ton of time. There are a lot of people way more educated on this, especially the actual potential legal outcomes if this is tried.
I am going to wait to see if someone more knowledgeable chimes in before going through the effort of making a well sourced and researched response.
Sharing links works, too, if typing the response is too much work
Well I apparently wasn't paying attention and the case that most were sweating about was settled in the Supreme Court earlier this year. Gonzalez V. Google.
But there are a number of worrying bills introduced to Congress recently like the CASE-IT ACT the See Something, Say Something Online Act of 2023 and a handful of others, with more being actively discussed.
There is also this case that seems destined to go to the Supreme Court. I think some worry that eventually if congress doesn't rewrite the laws the SC will feel the need to. Laws have finesse, SC decisions generelly have larger impact as they unravel a bunch or interconnected laws until new legislation is passed. A court decision could overnight mean everyone who hosts content is then liable, I don't think I have to explain to see how that will go sideways for any smaller players on the web.
To be fair, Musk said you’d still be able to mute users, which means you wouldn’t see any of their posts or replies, but they can see your posts.
It’s like you’re shadow banning them from your own app experience lol
So stalking, a much better outcome. Thank you overlord muskrat.
It's not like blocking was stopping that, since you could view the feed of a user who blocked you by just opening a link to their profile in incognito mode.
Yeah but with blocking, the user is made aware that they were blocked and can then try to circumvent it by making another account and whatnot. With mute aka "personal shadowban", the user isn't aware they were muted and will just keep using that same account to harass, not realizing that their target isn't seeing their crap.
Cool, suckle on old muskies nuts a little more, he might even give you a treat!
Wait, so are we still calling it Twitter to protest the stupidity that is the name X, or what?
Even if it's a dumb name, it's still correct.
Elon can die mad, I'm still calling it Twitter
I’m still calling it Twitter because it will piss off Elon Musk if everyone keeps calling it Twitter and I think that’s funny.
Playing devil's advocate, this is not entirely true. The ability to block users for DM remains.
Still, F Elon Musk!!!
Google play one specifies UGC (user generated content) so it definitely means being able to block someone entirely
