Mastodawn

I don't want to be on the blockchain. I don't want to mint NFTs, I don't want to vibe code. I don't want to beg you to hit the 'subscribe' button and ring the bell. I don't want to game the algorithm for your likes or your views or your shares or to be on the first page of results or to get recommended. I don't want you to gift Nitro to my server. I don't want the thumbnails of my videos to have a red circle and question mark next to a faked expression of surprise, I don't want to pay for items that give me an advantage over other players. I don't want you to take a moment to hear about today's sponsor. I don't want to pump a meme coin, I don't want to craft prompts, I don't want to influence. I don't want you to watch me react to watching a video.

I'm seriously sick of this shit. All of it.

keirFox May 23, 2025

"That makes you old."

Maybe. But more and more I feel a lot of this is about exchanging self in response to a perceived need to monetize one's world and/or to find people are desperate for: community.

@keirFox Yeah, i feel the same tbh.

tranarchy_punk_nonbinary_wartime

@keirFox in my opinion, the best thing you can do is to try building it yourself, if you can.

neocat_floof__w_

trisweb May 24, 2025

@keirFox the identification of all of this being a desperate attempt to find and participate in community is spot on. Maybe mixed with the desperate attempt to survive in a capitalist hellscape that makes it this particular shape.

Maybe people need more examples of what real community looks and feels like. More good role models in large form. I don’t even think the fediverse is that thing, it’s just a free and distributed version of the existing type of online. I don’t know.

Western Exposure May 25, 2025

@trisweb @keirFox
We have a small (very rural) neighbourhood meet-up on Saturday nights - mutli-generational, maybe 6-8 folks. Most bring some food - home-made cake or something. And we just sit around the ol' cottage kitchen, drink tea, and chat for a few hours. The same people recently stepped up and in in all sorts of marvelous and kind ways and also took care of my animals when I suddenly landed in hospital for 10 days. There's nothing like real community.

Kinene⭐🐻May 24, 2025

@keirFox "The revolution will not be televised."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwSRqaZGsPw

Gil Scott-Heron - Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Official Audio)

http://acerecords.co.uk/the-revolution-begins-the-flying-dutchman-masters#GilScottHeron #RevolutionWillNotBeTelevised #officialaudio #audiovideo #acerecords

YouTube

unlofl [Promoted Toot]May 25, 2025

@keirFox I have fantasized about living in a small town or commune of burned out/escaped techies.

We'd have a great intranet with useful tools that serve actual human needs, at our fingertips from any public or private terminal, and just block everything else. The only distractions would be silly shit your neighbors are up to. The only legal form of advertising would be a sign on the front of your shop.

Gregly May 25, 2025

@keirFox I was just recently thinking about the “death of local”. Main Street mostly died before I was born, but even since then we’ve seen the vast decline of third places, of local newspapers and television, of true connection. Churches have traditionally served this function for the religious, but as societies have become more secular (a good thing, mind you) there hasn’t been much to take their place. (One might argue this is intentional; churches do not want competition.)

keirFox May 25, 2025

@gregly I have been struggling with starting up a local tinkering group to meet and share creations but one of the challenges of this is that people who have these kinds of hobbies tend to be largely online and don’t actually do the in-person thing.

Gregly May 25, 2025

@keirFox I sympathize. There is a local-ish makerspace I have been meaning to attend, but the “you’re just a poser, everyone will think you are weird and annoying” type negative self-talk keeps stopping me.

keirFox May 25, 2025

@gregly Not at all my experience. I don’t know what makerspaces are like, but places where there are creative nerds have always been wonderfully accepting and enthusiastic.

Gregly May 25, 2025

@keirFox Oh, I’m sure! I know my fears are unfounded and unreasonable, but they stem from a bunch of different life events and childhood trauma. Takes a lot to push past them. 😅

Kevin Russell May 23, 2025

2025 Declaration of Independence,

Just needs a When in the Course of human events.....

⚧Kunikleto Celeste⚧May 23, 2025

🤗

Kay Ohtie 🔜 FWA May 23, 2025

@keirFox I get teased sometimes by my partner that I'll eventually be invited to the Partner program on Twitch, and the idea kinda terrifies me. I sometimes get it showing me stats on "Path to Partner" and it's like... I don't really care. I don't want to have to beg for audience or work harder to maintain viewers or whatever.

I just wanna have fun baking and sharing my knowledge and learning more in the process as well. I just want to have a nice time and make other friends who've wanted to bake but have been unsure to jump in and do their own thing.

The day I have to work for it is the day I'll hate doing it.

Heathen 🐈May 23, 2025

@KayOhtie @keirFox
I always say "I'm not here to win, I'm here to make friends."

Kay Ohtie 🔜 FWA May 23, 2025

@heathen_cat @keirFox Something fun streaming baking on Twitch introduced me to was the greater Twitch baking community. A subset of that runs a monthly cooking challenge called "Kitchen Gladiator", primarily baking, but other cooking too.

I got asked if there was a prize for 'winning' and I was like "I...don't think there's winners." The point of a challenge is just to complete the challenge to be able to say you did. And in this case, maybe learn something new in the process -- like learning about making pasta some when making chocolate pasta, or even moreso making Irish brown bread and then turning that bread into the best bread pudding I've ever had in my life. The challenge for that month was just "Make Irish brown bread (flexible) and transform it". One person did Boston brown bread instead, other folks did other takes or boules with a stew. I liked the idea of bread pudding because I'd never really made it 'right' before.

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@KayOhtie @heathen_cat @keirFox a non competitive food challenge? sounds fun!

I poured my heart and over $100 into a pot of charro beans for a work competition with like 10 people and did not place. It really soured the whole experience of introducing Ohioans to this particular Tex-Mex dish.

Heathen 🐈May 24, 2025

@monstercollie @KayOhtie @keirFox
Ooohhh, I know three Ohioans who'd love to try if you have a link to a recipe! My husband and girlfriend both LOVE to cook.

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@heathen_cat @KayOhtie @keirFox I don't have a recipe! I winged it! It's about having a sense of what you like, what flavors mix well, what the original tastes like, and then looking up recipes and basing a little bit of it on that.

But I'll list some stuff!

Knorr beef bouillon is a key ingredient, I loved that shit back then. I currently put garlic powder in everything I make, or use minced garlic. Spicy stuff if you want it, both sauces and powders.

Bacon, ham, whatever meat you want.

Pinto beans, of course. I also used pico de gallo.

TIP: Test flavor combos and proportions out in a small bowl before you add it to the recipe!

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@heathen_cat @KayOhtie @keirFox oh yeah, and msg. (make stuff good)

I do remember using cumin! Also paprika. I didn't use chipotle powder, but I would if I did it today.

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@heathen_cat @KayOhtie @keirFox I don't think I used msg back then, at least not as liberally as I do now. It might already be in the bouillon. If you can't find knorr, use whatever works.

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@heathen_cat @KayOhtie @keirFox Also pretty kitty :3 wamna pet kity

Arcturax 🦇May 23, 2025

@keirFox I would take all that and add "I hate how everyone just wants to run a hustle on me these days"

keirFox May 23, 2025

@arcturax I don't understand how this continues, I guess, nor how we continue to accept all of this as it creeps more and more into our lives in a way that seems to insist that we *have* to do these things or else we're going to miss out, fall behind, or be rendered obsolete.

It's fucking disgusting how so much of it is a grift.

Arcturax 🦇May 23, 2025

@keirFox Yeah, I'm dealing with it at work with the whole FOMO about ai.

Skritch Monster Collie May 24, 2025

@arcturax @keirFox "This 10 minute video will change your life"

Coffee May 24, 2025

@keirFox @arcturax

Dyn Hafren - NSFW 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺🔞May 23, 2025

@keirFox I don’t even understand what these things are. I’ll just get on with ‘the idiocy of rural life,’ as Marx put it

Ruby Tails > FWA May 23, 2025

@keirFox Yeeeeep. I’ve always been a huge tech nerd, but this exact behavior and trend towards hustling to chase a grift or appease the algorithm is part of what’s killing the joy of it for me.

I’m so fucking sick of it too. To the point where I just want to unplug everything and go enjoy nature instead.

Yora May 23, 2025

@keirFox What do you want to do?

frigginGlorious ✅May 23, 2025

@keirFox these are great song lyrics.

Jack Zhang (📹🦝 Raccoon)May 23, 2025

@keirFox @tilton while Odysee is nice in concept, we need a distributed file system based video sharing protocol that doesn't use blockchain to store videos. It's already clear most people can't self host videos on Peertube without massive bandwidth costs.

Vimaire May 23, 2025

KZorroFuego May 23, 2025

@keirFox And be sure to like and SubScribble and hit the bell and HOW ABOUT I GOUGE MY OWN EYES OUT AND FALL OFF A CLIFF....

I feel you. I really do. I'm beyond sick of it as well.

Roger Moore May 24, 2025

@keirFox
This is the real scourge of social media. It pushes people to publicize their whole lives. Even worse, it pushes everyone to judge each other's lives, which makes the people who buy in feel like they have to present the perfect image. Nobody can live up to the standards of social media, so their lives become a curated performance rather than an actual life. It's "Keeping Up With The Joneses" turned up to 11.

Pteryx the Puzzle Secretary May 25, 2025

@VATVSLPR @keirFox
Somewhat related: I feel like the root of my popularity on IRC in the late 90s and early 2000s was being significantly creative. But then YouTube came along and my popularity as a person faded, since nobody can compete with all of YouTube and few people seemed to find me interesting outside of that.

I could have tried going the influencer route, sure, but I already felt like my IRC channel was a little too centered on me and not a connected community I was simply part of...

Wombat For Hire May 24, 2025

@keirFox You can monetize my eyeballs when you pluck them from my cold, dead skull.

Humphrey Archer May 25, 2025

@keirFox
I hear you.
I just want to write short stories and let people read half of them for free.
I don't want to have a website for my books. I don't want to be on Facebook. I don't want to send queries, or search for agents, or publishers.

Johannes May 25, 2025

@keirFox So so true!

The Evil Chocolate Cookie May 25, 2025

@keirFox I do the content creator thing, but I do it because it’s fun. I do it because of those chat messages that pour in that say keep doing what you’re doing because you’re making my life better. I do it for the other messages that come in that read something along the lines of every time I come in here I have fun.

Douglas Edwards

@keirFox Amen to ALL of that! #EnshittificationOfEverything

Ben 👋May 25, 2025

@keirFox Browsing the web used to be a fun adventure full of weirdos.

Mira May 25, 2025

@keirFox Preach it, Brother!

We repeat this tech cycle at least every decade, and for what? Just so some suit in the C-Suite can make more money, not because it contributes to society in general, advances our civilization’s culture and/or knowledge, just for some pump and dump scheme. And the fools out there that lose it all don’t learn anything other than “I just need to exit the market sooner to make a killing “

@keirFox +9001%

SO FECKING TRUE!

@keirFox 🤘^

^ but reaction vids can be fun if they’re just for the sheer delight of watching another human delight in watching something new to them (a.k.a. they’re one of today’s lucky 10,000) especially if they’re watching something that you already love 💕

(for me, watching opera singer / vocal coach Elizabeth Zharoff listen to bands she’s never heard before is a great example of this)

Norbi Peti Jun 3, 2025

@keirFox while I'm aware that these things exist I'm barely exposed to them thankfully. For YouTube I use SponsorBlock and DeArrow which gets rid of a lot of the sensationalism and ads.