De-meta, De-musk ... apps to help!

T

tomO2013

Power User
Joined
Nov 8, 2021
Posts
128
Normally I don't get too political but I feel that saying nothing and just staying quiet has in my own micro-cosmic fantastically small way contributed to the current worldwide situation.

More importantly complaining quietly and still using products belonging to companies owned by the top 3 Ogliarchs that own more than the bottom 50% of the USA is not helping much.

Time to vote with my app choices....

To date I've been de-meta-ing on my phone...

Deleting :
Facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp

Replacing with :
PixelFed
Mastodon
Bluesky
Signal


Within my family, my dad is already trying to get rid of his Tesla (not a great car from a build quality perpective anyway, he's had lots of problems with the model Y - panels not aligning, electric windows not working etc..).

So far the app-transition hasn't been too bad and I have to say that it's refreshing not to be hit with infinite scrolling (pixelfed especially relative to instagram) , no adverts and not having data mined.

Wondering if anybody else here has done similar and what you guys are using ?

I'm also looking to move a little more out of my Apple One subscription to find a more cross platform open ecosystem that I can use across, mac, PC , Linux, Android, iOS etc...
I'm interested in knowing what apps you guys have chosen if you're on a similar path...
 
tomO2013 said:
Normally I don't get too political but I feel that saying nothing and just staying quiet has in my own micro-cosmic fantastically small way contributed to the current worldwide situation.

More importantly complaining quietly and still using products belonging to companies owned by the top 3 Ogliarchs that own more than the bottom 50% of the USA is not helping much.

Time to vote with my app choices....

To date I've been de-meta-ing on my phone...

Deleting :
Facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp

Replacing with :
PixelFed
Mastodon
Bluesky
Signal
Click to expand...
Great post and I'm with you with the exception of Instagram, which has turned into a revenue stream for me that I cannot replace, it takes years to build a quality following. However, I am 100% non-political and my feed is based on local art/cinematography. I did get rid of my accounts on Threads and FB though.

tomO2013 said:
Within my family, my dad is already trying to get rid of his Tesla (not a great car from a build quality perpective anyway, he's had lots of problems with the model Y - panels not aligning, electric windows not working etc..).

So far the app-transition hasn't been too bad and I have to say that it's refreshing not to be hit with infinite scrolling (pixelfed especially relative to instagram) , no adverts and not having data mined.

Wondering if anybody else here has done similar and what you guys are using ?

I'm also looking to move a little more out of my Apple One subscription to find a more cross platform open ecosystem that I can use across, mac, PC , Linux, Android, iOS etc...
I'm interested in knowing what apps you guys have chosen if you're on a similar path...
Click to expand...
I have the same delima with my Tesla Model 3, had no idea Musk was going to go full Nazi but am stuck with the payments for now, will have to wait a couple of years before moving on. That said this will be the last Tesla I ever own.
 
I waste time stupidly scrolling Instagram but, after seeing Zuck at the inauguration, I was ready to delete. My problem is that local businesses don’t seem to be posting on BlueSky yet. I hoping that happens soon, I’m ready to be BlueSky only. I waste very little time on there.
 
My dilemma is the image that showed Zuck and Bezos and there was Tim Apple standing in the group. I mean, I am almost entirely in the Apple camp, and it would be hard to get out of it, but as long as their work continues on its present trajectory, I will be ok. I would sure hate to see Apple turn all orange.
 
Edd said:
I waste time stupidly scrolling Instagram but, after seeing Zuck at the inauguration, I was ready to delete. My problem is that local businesses don’t seem to be posting on BlueSky yet. I hoping that happens soon, I’m ready to be BlueSky only. I waste very little time on there.
Click to expand...
Also on BlueSky but it seems pretty dead to me, it seems like none of had any success as a replacement.

When it comes to brain rot though I love TikTok, it's become a total comic relief/escape from the grind of everything else and their algorithm is worlds better than any of the others. In fact I'll often screenshare it out to the TV so we can all enjoy the videos.
 
Yoused said:
My dilemma is the image that showed Zuck and Bezos and there was Tim Apple standing in the group. I mean, I am almost entirely in the Apple camp, and it would be hard to get out of it, but as long as their work continues on its present trajectory, I will be ok. I would sure hate to see Apple turn all orange.
Click to expand...
Same issue here. Apple I don't want to do without and Amazon Prime is incredibly useful (don't care about the service beyond delivery). Social media though? Fuck all that, I'll do what I can there.

My wife has suddenly backed way off on Whole Foods though, which our bank account will thank her for. :ROFLMAO:
 
Yoused said:
My dilemma is the image that showed Zuck and Bezos and there was Tim Apple standing in the group. I mean, I am almost entirely in the Apple camp, and it would be hard to get out of it, but as long as their work continues on its present trajectory, I will be ok. I would sure hate to see Apple turn all orange.
Click to expand...
I really want to think that Tim Cook was there (he personally donated, not Apple...) only to show his presence but maybe he's not completely onboard , please let me believe that........
I'm off Amazon the whole nine yards, WAPO, Prime, WholeFoods
De-Googled already some time ago, Facebook&C never been with them since the second month they were around, Twitter neither
Forgot Apple: hardware all in , no subscriptions with them though, at least lately
 
From The Borowitz Report: for once he's pretty serious..but still.

My War With Facebook

As a force for good, Facebook has never rivaled Doctors Without Borders. But improbably, it just got worse.
First came the announcement that founder Mark Zuckerberg was going full Joe-and-Mika by donating a million dollars to Trump’s Inauguration.
Then parent company Meta replaced its president of global affairs, former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, with longtime Republican goon Joel Kaplan.
But this glorious shitshow reached a crescendo when Zuck declared that Facebook was firing its third-party fact-checkers—because, as any casual Facebook user knows, the platform’s biggest problem is that it’s just too darn factual.
Zucky, demonstrating a level of sociopathy that would qualify him for Trump’s Cabinet, said that Meta’s social media platforms—which also include Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads—would be moving toward the “community notes” model used on X. In other words, Facebook is now playing catch-up with Elon Musk’s chamber of horrors in a quest to become yet another safe space for misogynists, Nazis, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
I tried to process this latest development with comic detachment—my coping strategy for dealing with everything in our burgeoning dystopia—but then things got personal.
On January 9, the national day of remembrance for Jimmy Carter, I received an alert from Meta to “please reconsider posting” a Facebook post I wrote praising the fallen president because it was “similar to others that have been reported.”
Confronted with this reprimand, I had only one choice: to share Meta’s absurd warning, verbatim, with my million Facebook followers.
After my post went live, my followers responded with tales of their own experiences with Facebook censorship, including this account: “The other day I had a post removed—I’d been replying to a fluoride conspiracist who insisted that there was zero scientific proof for its effectiveness. My post provided three links to science sites with study results. Meta took it down because ‘with multiple links, it looks like you’re spamming.’ And of course, they allowed the original post containing false information to remain.’
Faced with this outrage, I had only one choice: to share my reader’s Kafkaesque anecdote, verbatim, with my million Facebook followers.

At this point, something happened that surpassed my wildest dreams: I got a response from an actual Meta employee. Not an AI bot, but a human person.
This is what he posted on my page: “Yes overinforcement (sic) is a problem, that's exactly the kind of thing we are trying to be better about going forward.”

Why was I sure this was written by a real person? Because a bot would never misspell “overenforcement.” (As one of my followers theorized, perhaps when Meta axed its fact-checkers they shitcanned spell-check, too.)

Never one to shrink from a good social media throwdown, I offered this rejoinder to Zuck’s semi-literate henchman: “You are not ‘overinforcing’ pro-Trump posts, or rightwing misinformation. They’re running rampant on Facebook. Zuckerberg’s statement (and donation to Trump’s Inauguration) make Meta’s agenda very clear.”

So here’s a question a lot of us have been asking: Is it time to leave Facebook?
Or, stated another way: why are we still on Facebook?

The most common reason people offer is that it’s the best way to keep in touch with friends and family. But didn’t we find other ways to do that before Facebook existed? Those methods—emails, phone calls, and yes, actual letters that you write on pieces of paper and put in envelopes—are still very much available.

Having said that, I can’t make you leave Facebook—that would be overinforcement.
 
tomO2013 said:
Normally I don't get too political but I feel that saying nothing and just staying quiet has in my own micro-cosmic fantastically small way contributed to the current worldwide situation.

More importantly complaining quietly and still using products belonging to companies owned by the top 3 Ogliarchs that own more than the bottom 50% of the USA is not helping much.

Time to vote with my app choices....

To date I've been de-meta-ing on my phone...

Deleting :
Facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp

Replacing with :
PixelFed
Mastodon
Bluesky
Signal


Within my family, my dad is already trying to get rid of his Tesla (not a great car from a build quality perpective anyway, he's had lots of problems with the model Y - panels not aligning, electric windows not working etc..).

So far the app-transition hasn't been too bad and I have to say that it's refreshing not to be hit with infinite scrolling (pixelfed especially relative to instagram) , no adverts and not having data mined.

Wondering if anybody else here has done similar and what you guys are using ?

I'm also looking to move a little more out of my Apple One subscription to find a more cross platform open ecosystem that I can use across, mac, PC , Linux, Android, iOS etc...
I'm interested in knowing what apps you guys have chosen if you're on a similar path...
Click to expand...

Outstanding!

We're doing the same with Zuckerberg services, there's nothing we're so beholden to it requires us to support him. In fact, it just happened this week, the wife shutdown her IG/Threads, I did the same, she still has a FB account, but that's going away this weekend as well.

A couple of local news subs and NextDoor easily satisfy any kind of local public communication requirements, and for friends/family, we're more than fine with Messages. I've been interested in Pixelfed, will look into that, but also see below in my BSky ramblings!

I don't know if you keep up with posts in the car related threads, but we bailed on our Tesla lease 2 months early, just took the hit, though it was minor (2 payments + lease dispo fee, ~$1800 or so). Basically the Wrangler 4xe lease was up, Tesla had 2 months, happily returned the latter, and kept the Jeep on a lease extension for 6 months which from just a pure ownership experience was better anyway (and cheaper over that decision period of 6 months), since the other vehicle we got at that time was a new BMW iX which is stellar (and the tesla would've just been a way shittier version of the same sort of vehicle). FWIW, we also wound up with another 4xe :)

One of my replies to the Tesla retention team asking, "Why return early?", was simple, "Musk a piece of shit. Any more questions?" :D

BlueSky / BSky is pretty fantastic.

Hit ~28M users, lots of terrific interactions, their topic filters in your primary stream are fantastic, infinitely better moderation, huge amount of science related content (recent article about the high percent of various science resources posting to BSky), the block feature is nuclear - and I'm sure everyone has seen all the forums, discords, subreddits who are now either banning Twitter posts or at the very least, no longer parsing them (so you're free to post static screen shots of a Twitter post).

And indie developer is building an Instagram alternative on the BSky platform, sounds very promising:

gizmodo.com

Bluesky Is Getting Its Own Instagram Alternative Called Flashes

Instagram users not enthused about Mark Zuckerberg's pivot to MAGA have a new refuge.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com

Oh, and while it probably doesn't need to be said :D ... we both, of course, deleted our Twitter accounts, heck, mine was from 2007, but they've been gone for months, zero loss for us :)
 
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This was very telling - instagram blocked anybody posting links to Pixelfed ...
pixelfed.social

dansup (@dansup@pixelfed.social)

Dear Mark,
pixelfed.social pixelfed.social


1737857424472.png
 
tomO2013 said:
This was very telling - instagram blocked anybody posting links to Pixelfed ...
pixelfed.social

dansup (@dansup@pixelfed.social)

Dear Mark,
pixelfed.social pixelfed.social


View attachment 33583
Click to expand...
Seriously man, the dude has 3 billion users and he's blocking a site with 205K active users? The egos of these billionaires are fragile.

Right on for them sending this out, Reddit and a lot of others have picked it so everyone knows just what a punk Zuckerberg has become.
 
Eric said:
I'll miss the groups the most but over the last several months most of them have dwindled anyway.
Click to expand...
Yup. That was shared with me and was what tipped me over.

pixelfed.org

Pixelfed Server Directory

Find the perfect Pixelfed community to join with our Server Directory
pixelfed.org pixelfed.org
Due to the way that active pub works and the decentralized nature of mastodon, pixelfex, the numbers are actually a LOT higher than 300k - Pixelfed.social has about 300k users alone (a huge spike in the last week or two of new users like me flooding the server forced the Pixelfed.social server to need to expand its infrastructure - thank you mr Zuckerberg! However there is also Pixelfed.fr, Pixelfed.nz etc...
I believe that the actual user count is closer to 550k active users (spanning the fed-iverse !

It's not instagram size , but at least if you are into photography , it feels like getting back into the roots of real photography VS people trying to influence, sell stuff, in-between being bombarded with adverts etc...
 
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