confusedpuppy

Digg and the mass exodus happened a long time ago so I could be wrong at parts. The very simple story is that Digg stopped allowing most people to submit links or something like that. I think they wanted to curate their own links instead of user submitted content.

Since Digg took away what made it popular, most people migrated to Reddit which at the time was more tech/developer focused.

Reddit filled the gap quite well and was more proactive about freedom of expression and knowledge. That slowly faded as time went on and it's userbase grew. Throw in a few controversies and we have the Reddit of today.

That's one of the reasons why leaving for Lemmy was so easy. I have seen it happen before. I'm already one foot out the door with Lemmy. PieFed has been making amazing progress and I know there's interest and progress in making a migration tool for Lemmy communities/instances to switch over.

I had been on reddit since the Digg exodus. My last Reddit account was 6 years old with less than 50 comments total. I guess because I curated my own list of subreddits where I lurked that I was quite insulated from that type of behaviour.

It was quite the shock to me when I got such a hostile reaction. It shouldn't have been such a surprise, the signs were always there. I was there the entire time. Experiencing that post and reaction really grounded me to the reality of who used Reddit and why other people had such a negative view of Reddit users.

I once posted to a collapse/mental health subreddit shortly before the Reddit API changes. I was dealing with a lot of stuff personally on top of helping a friend deal with a former friend/coworker who was being a total creep towards her. I needed to vent and was sharing my experiences on that subreddit.

Half of the comments were a mix of support, thankfulness for the actions I had taken or thankfulness of simply acknowledging what women go through.

The other half... I was being called names and was accused of spreading hate speech. The moderator, a woman, spoke up and every angry commenter piled on to her since she was a woman.

Over 200 up votes and over 100 down votes in a 24 hour period. The moderator deleted my post and messaged me directly to apologize. She told me I broke no Reddit rules or subreddit rules but she feared her subreddit would be taken down by all the threats about spreading hate speech. I had no issue with her decision, I didn't want her hard work to be taken away and I already had my chance to vent.

So my last post and interaction on reddit was removed due to hate speech for acknowledging women and their experiences. Wild.

Leaving reddit was pretty fucking easy after that.

I took the opportunity in around 2016-2017 to live in Germany for a year on a work and travel visa. As the name implies, I was allowed to live and work in Germany as a way to support myself while I stay in Europe. I chose to stay in Berlin.

During the first couple weeks I went out with a couple people I met in my hostel. Went to a club that was this tiny, cramped little hole under a bridge called Golden Gate. First time being at a techno party ever. The vibe was so chill, the music was amazing and it was very obvious the people there were just for the music.

It felt so comfortable. I ended up going to so many different clubs and parties during my time there. Honestly one of the best years of my life and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to go.

I'm pretty autistic and loud noises really shut down the social part of my brain. I usually spend my time dancing and enjoying the music by myself in the crowd.

It must show because so many people come to dance by me, women especially. I never really say a word but the company is nice either way. Multiple times, women who were being bothered by guys would come dance by me so that the annoying guys will go away. Which is fine by me, even without saying a word, I can help people and it still feels good to me. I'm sure they appreciate it too because I assume they are there for the music too.

I tend to stick to smaller warehouse techno parties, they seem to keep out a lot of people who go to clubs to be showy rather than enjoying the music. I find the vibe to be overall more enjoyable.

I'm not too worried for my friend, she goes to parties and metal shows by herself all the time. I know she can handle herself. I think more than anything, she is just happy to have a safe person nearby.

This isn't something unknown to me, I've helped so many other women that have come and gone in my life with creepy or manipulative men. It's really nice when my friends show appreciation for me being there for them. I'd much rather spend my time being with them in the moment though.

These guys are living in a state of near absolute hypocrisy. What they say rarely ever matches their actions.

They tell everyone how strong they are but are terrified of dealing with any deep emotions. They call women weak, submissive and emotional yet will tuck their junk between their legs as soon as a guy with a hint of authority walks into the area. Once that authority figure leaves, they let out all that emotion. Not once will they connect that they are acting out every accusation they place on women or woman-like people. They hate anything gay but they never ever stop trying to get the attention of other men. Even when they talk about women, it's purely for the attention of men.

It's frustrating to the point of exhaustion.

And honestly, I believe they are voting for who they are told to vote for but I have my doubts about them wiping their asses. That might be too gay for them.

Had a really nice weekend. Was going to a techno party with a friend but she also wanted to visit a friend for their birthday. So she invited me along to the birthday party before heading off to the party.

Everyone at the birthday party was super nice. It was very diverse group so I didn't get overwhelmed by my autistic anxiety and was able to mix right in. Played a few games and had a really nice time.

After that we went to the techno party and had a really nice time, mostly anyways. There was a guy that was trying to get with her and not taking the hint that she is gay. Tried getting in between us by thinking I was competition. Physically placing himself between us or blocking her line of sight to me. I made an effort to stay near her and visible to her which she seemed to really appreciate. After she finally shook him off, she gave me a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek in appreciation. I even asked her if she wanted help next time but she seemed fine dealing with him herself. Just seemed happy I was there and able to tell that I saw what was happening and was acknowledging what she usually has to deal with.

Spent the morning and afternoon afterwards at her place chilling, talking and her showing me a bunch of stuff that she enjoyed sharing. We are so opposite of each other but are also so accepting of each other and our own flaws. Such a relaxed and easy going friendship and I'm so happy to have met her.

I've spent time over the years wondering why I receive hostile or angry criticism. A few ideas float to my mind. Judging by the responses I do receive, many seem to be uncomfortable giving up any current personal comfort in order to address deeper questions about health, safety, how we work with the environment around us and who actually benefits from our current technology.

I've made no attempts to suggest solutions. The automation industry is far too complex for me to even try. The covid lockdowns showed me just how vulnerable the automation industry is to disruptions. Something that's vulnerable to disruptions should be questioned. Especially when so many lives are dependent on it.

Those deeper questions may just lead us in a completely different direction. That is nothing to fear. In the process of that, we may just find a comfort zone between technology, nature and human creativity where it can all exist with minimal pain for us and everything around us.

Decreasing our dependence on technology will allow us, the ones who do not hoard wealth as a means of power over other people, to gain control and independence in our personal lives and our immediate communities. When we can be independent, we can become more resistent to disruptions in our communities.

All this requires us to be open, honest and to have the the will to attempt change. From my personal experiences and perspective, doing more of the same only enables to current situation.

Automation is so incredibly resource intensive and generates so much waste. I can't see how letting ourselves become more dependant on automation is as beneficial as businesses and mislead common people make it out to be.

As demand increases, so does maintenance, upgrades and power consumption. Everything electronic requires plastic. Which is shipped in more plastic. Which is shipped on skids wrapped in more plastic. And when those electronics fail, then that is just more waste plastic because it's easier, quicker and cheaper to replace rather than fix.

Electronics and automation are so fun and interesting. It's amazing watching a line run at full speed in production. But it's so painfully depressing how awful it is for our environment. The dust and oils are awful for the living beings that work in those environments. The repetitive jobs that it creates is absolutely awful for the mental wellbeing for the people who work there.

The mental damage of being there was so bad to me that when it came time to discuss severance pay at the labour board meeting after my wrongful termination, I purposely let the lawyers keep in a part in the contract/paperwork saying I could no longer work at any company under that international organization. They thought I would fight that so they would have reason to lower my severance pay. Nah. I took my winnings, which included getting the HR manager fired, and fucked right off.

Years later and I still feel a deep shame and regret for the time I spent in the automation industry and for all the damage and waste I caused while being in there.

Along with eliminating wealth hoarders who generate extreme amounts of waste, lessening our dependence on technology and automation are things I personally believe will be key to a liveable future. It's a bit shocking to me how often I receive negative or angry criticism when I share these thoughts though.

I have a 15+ year old lamp on my desk which has a bulb that gets quite hot. Didn't realize my laptop was directly under it one day. Melted the laptop lid slightly directly where the camera is located.

Everything else works fine except for the camera. I always disabled it in BIOS but now it's physically disabled. Sometimes the adhd solves problems on it's own.

Going to check out a techno party tonight with a friend. We were talking to a couple guys at the last party we were at and they mentioned they were both DJs and promoters.

I always enjoy going out with my friend. She's way more talkative out of the two of us so I get to meet all these new people. I'm way more organized so I keep her on track and make sure she doesn't lose everything. Lots of other people seem to really enjoy our energy and vibes which also feels pretty good.

Looking forward to tonight :)

Been slowly prepping my two garden beds. They've got so much mushroom mulch and compost that it's gained some height.

I made compressed soil pucks and some of the seeds I planted in them are starting to grow. Hopefully more seeds start to grow as the weather warms. They are in the garage right now because the mushroom mulch was too smelly for them to be indoors where it's warmer.

I'm also about 95% finished writing a bunch of scripts which will backup my computer, phone and my two raspberry pi devices on my home network from a single script that's ran from my laptop. I've spend too many days just to save such an insignificant amount of time.