Congrats guys! We did it!

Thanks for joining in!

Seriously, enough was going on with the project that the AI was just the final nail (or the deepest nail) in the coffin. What’s important is that we denounce AI where we see it, as this (and not “usage”) is the only non-violent way we have to try and lead a change in how AI is developed and deployed in the first place. The problem is not simply “someone can use AI in their spare time”, it’s what even has to happen as a prerequisite for that to even be a thing in the first place (code theft, mass license violation, environmental destruction, RAM shortages, erosion of civil and digital rights, exemptions for big corpo, you name it).

We should all feel ashamed that an open source project was shuttered because of how our community acted.

Open Source means the source is open, not that you can do whatever ass-unethical thing you want. That weird impression of the world is something that techbros, cryptobros and liberals are trying to push. Don’t be fooled. We defended ourselves, and we managed a tie.

That’s precisely why they have to be resisted and/or we have to look for alternatives that Do One Thing Well. Among many other issues, the networking effect issue with EverythingApps is quite double-faceted in that, because they do everything, their “weight” not only acts as gilded cages to prevent people from leaving, but also to prevent developers, working on their spare time, from developing something that can be reasonably understood as an “alternative” (because the alternative has to also Do Everything).

It’s basically playing a loser game to lose, see eg.: Mozilla always at best playing catch-up to Google, or why we can’t seem to move from BloatedWebWithReact to something like Gopher (or even make a proper Gopher 2.0).

All that said, I feel like XMPP and Matterbridge are approaching this from the right perspective. Just implement a global communication protocol and leave to platform makers (or platform users) the task of bridging from and to whatever directions they want.

Hmmmm voice chat eh?

Well then it’s time to recommend Mumble!

I hear Snikket makes it really easy to host XMPP (aka Jabber).

Bringing back a meme from the very early '00s (if not earlier), I’d say something like “Cloning Discord is my passion”.

It really looks like every programmer wannabe is trying to bumrush a Discord codeslop for free internet fame points these days!

Even if the “has an optional AI assistant” was not a thing, the repo includes an AGENTS.md file, which is also listed in the criteria, and more than qualifies it as slopware.

It might be, but for some people that might, understandably, be already bad enough, a line in the sand if you will.

I’m reminded of this statement about LLMs and the kind of people who use them in the first place. It’s an early indicator that quality (and sovereignty) of the software is going to go the incline down.

Geez… problems never end, do they.

I’m barely active in Codeberg. Unless someone beats me by, say, end-of-month, I might file an issue about it; that said, I’d like to be able to offer at least one (1) functional alternative rather than simply +1’ing to the complains that this or that is Never Good Enough.

Damn it!!! 😵

Quick! Someone add it to Open Slopware!

Truly an actor of all time. Sometimes I think Oscars and Emmys and all that shit should be able to be granted retroactively (hellooooo, “you broke your little ships” scene).

You could, in the meantime, simply not upgrade to the version that uses AI.

Since, from what I’m seeing around, people are having issues looking for an alternative.

Oh, time to issue one of those Easily Ignorable Arrest Orders, right?

Proton is in the bad, or at least in the wrong, for keeping PII about a client to identify via payment option (and did extra wrong by not securing it enough). Honestly, this could all have been avoided if Proton offered a one-time payment service, like SDF does, so that once the payment is received the connecting information can be deleted or expired (or even better: never collected). But a rent-seeking grift model such as subscriptions likely precludes this capability.

Fair point. I feel like the last thing we want is the bodily fluids of those pedophiles further violating the Earth as a final gesture.

Sending thlose lunatics to Mars costs resources we don’t have and cause pollution. IMO, running them through with a machinegun is easier.

Terms of Use / Terms of Service are different from Licenses. That said, even if it was compatible that would be a good thing, as the impression I’ve got is that the “hard-liner” Free Software licenses are becoming a thing of the past now that what is needed is “Ethical Source” licenses, that eg.: restrict usage in AI.

Yup! And, if you are careful and lucky when picking your instance, you won’t need to migrate in the short or medium time either.

But also, like in the forums of old, nothing precludes you from keeping more accounts if it’s useful (eg.: for keepig different topics or subs). I’m just too lazy to.

I’m using sdf half because they are part of a service I already paid for and half because I’m too lazy to make myself more accounts somewhere else.