NaibofTabr

It’s not utterly clear what spaces and politics he aligns with. That would just be wholley unknowable.

Well you’re right, of course, his alignment is knowable. In fact, if you read the article I linked, there’s lots of context for knowing his alignment. Maybe you should try reading it.

You’re going to have to bring receipts for those other claims.

Ah yes, I too require everyone else to only express views that agree with my own or else keep silent. Of course, I am the only person allowed to have nuanced opinions.

🤡

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/

Does Proton really support Trump? A deeper analysis

One thing to note is that while on Reddit, people are alleging that Proton is a company run by a fascist, pro-MAGA, pro-dictatorship CEO, users on X are accusing Andy and the company of being anti-MAGA/anti-Trump.

So, in the face of all the evidence I’ve found, to compare Andy to a tech oligarch like Zuck and Elon, who are now bootlicking on display for all to see, is not supported by the evidence.

[…]

However, being disillusioned with one party on one issue doesn’t mean that all of a sudden Andy Yen changed all of his stances and that now he’s actually pro-Republican or pro-MAGA. All of the evidence gathered suggests the exact opposite.

Considering how many users here have expressed similar disillusionment with the current Democratic party, it seems a bit hypocritical to judge Andy Yen for having the same feelings (or expressing them on occasion).

This whole “Proton supports MAGA” thing is another example of internet mob-think where everybody has an opinion informed by no facts at all, actively ignores or dismisses the larger context in order to protect that fragile opinion from reality, and most haven’t even looked at the original statements that sparked the controversy.

Amazon is basically glorified dropshipping

This premise is not correct. As I’ve described, Amazon’s business is providing services to other businesses, many services, which make their platform attractive for sellers due to ease-of-use. Therefore…

Let’s make an amazon alternative.

This objective is not really possible. An alternative that does not provide all of those services is not actually an alternative.

Sellers need to sell there to survive

Amazon is a service provider. Sellers sell there because Amazon provides product advertising (every product page is essentially an ad), order processing, payment processing, warehousing, order fulfillment (via the warehouse staff), shipping, dispute resolution, return processing (which is its own logistics nightmare), and even resale of returned/refurbished products in some cases, and all of it is coordinated through their data systems.

It is extremely convenient to sell a product on Amazon because they handle all of the customer-facing parts of selling, all you have to do is describe what you’re selling, and arrange for Amazon to get the product somehow. It’s the convenience that keeps sellers on their platform. It’s the convenience that makes it worth the cost of doing business with Amazon.

Now yes, each individual service could be replaced, but splitting them out is going to cause coordination problems. It’s going to slow down the order fulfillment, and it’s basically shunting the operation cost (both time and money) back onto the seller. That’s going to mean fewer sellers interested in using the alternative, because now they have to do for themselves what they could simply pay Amazon a percentage of their sale price to do. And because this alternative is slower and can’t provide the same kind of return guarantees that Amazon can, fewer customers are going to want to use it.

The thing keeping people locked in amazon is amazon, nothing else.

So yes, you’re right, but I don’t think you’re giving enough weight to what Amazon is as an organization. Amazon is a lot more than just the retail website. Having all of those services under one roof makes the operating costs lower, which is a big part of why the prices are so competitive. If the seller has to take on those costs then they have to raise the price of their products.

I think there’s some misunderstanding here. Amazon is a massive logistics system. The retail storefront is a tiny part of what Amazon is today.

AWS exists because Amazon needed to solve an internal data handling problem in order to solve their logistics problems so that they could scale up. After building that system, they started selling it as a product to other businesses. The point being, Amazon’s real success is based on providing business-to-business services. The retail website is the tiny public-facing bit, but it depends on the rest of the organization structure in order to operate properly.

What you’re proposing is more like an eBay alternative, where the system is basically just the storefront, and the sellers listing products are responsible for their own logistics. eBay still provides dispute resolution for buyers though, and that’s hard to achieve without some centralized control.

There’s also the legal problems. At some point someone will use such a system as a silk road - probably sooner rather than later. Whoever is administrating and hosting it will be liable for criminal activity in the countries where the crime occurs. It will not end well.

Do we want ‘mass adoption’? and if so, why? and what would that look like, if we had it? how would we know that we had got it, and what good would the getting do us?

hexbear (RIP)

Rest In Perdition

Beyond just the general tankiness that others have mentioned, I think the worst thing about Hexbear is how they aggressively claim to be pro-LGBTQ+ while zealously supporting Russia and China, nations which actively persecute anyone who is not hetero-normative. Putin actively jokes about killing homosexuals, and the PRC will black-bag you and put you in a reeducation camp.

I’ve always felt there was something deeply sinister in this hypocrisy, probably having to do with intentionally targeting marginalized people and attempting to influence and/or radicalize them - your basic cult recruitment tactics.

Heh, you think DNS is bad? Buddy, let me tell you about pig butchering…

Tell me you have no idea how DNS works without saying you have no idea how DNS works.

At least they stopped dumping the yellow pages on my porch every year…

The elders of the Internet?

No no no, see, DNS is bad, that’s the whole point. No touchy.

Can’t have any of that neoliberal stuff, gotta delete the hosts file.

Ah, you’re right, I should just look up IP addresses in my NAT table. Maybe I should add comments to it so I know which IP is which.

Well then you just take whatever you get, it’s website roulette.

See? If you don’t like DNS, you don’t have to use DNS, it’s not so hard.

And IPv6 won’t be that much harder, it’s only… uh… 32 hex digits you’ll have to remember, for each website. No big deal.

I mean… OK then just remember the IP addresses of the sites you use and don’t use the domain names?

Wait, does “generate profit” include selling products that don’t actually exist yet? Like, has the “AI” generated profit if Sam Altman’s unrealistic promises pull in more investments, even if none of the promises are ever delivered?