Everyone called us paranoid nerds and laughed at our concerns. We spent 20 years trying to tell the people we care about how to be safe and they didn't listen because the tech is ugly, with rough edges, and doesn't have rage bait and trillions of dollars of ad-tech money supporting it. I personally stopped advocating as loudly because I realized that it would take much, much more pain for regular people to get out of their comfort stupors and start giving a shit. Meanwhile, p2p tech slowly progresses in the shadows where the mainstream can't see it, can't support it, and doesn't care.

The best time for advocacy is when people get burned. It's not a matter of if, but when. People learn through pain.

New billionaire owner takes over your favorite microblogging platform? Pain. Your clubhouse has been destroyed. You suddenly realize you didn't own anything.

New billionaire owner decides they don't like the topics you talk about and bans you? Pain. Your ability to express yourself and communicate and make connections with like-minded people has been destroyed. You suddenly realize that you actually need to get permission to talk to the people you want to talk to.

Massive data leak that includes your intimate personal information, photos and videos? Pain. Your privacy and personal life have been irrevocably violated. You suddenly realize that you don't control any of your own private information, and it actually isn't safe out there in those clouds. Even your most intimate whispers are recorded forever and will eventually be listened to by strangers or published on the cover of the New York Times.

The list of reasons to get the fuck off these corporate, centralized apps is growing every day.

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saurik 3 days ago | parent [-]

I'm even more demoralized than you, as I feel the problem with "the best time for advocacy is when people get burned" only manages to convert a handful of people and then a month later more new people have entered the system to replace them who know nothing about this and will adamantly claim that such a problem is impossible until it happens personally to them, which takes years and years, at which point the same thing repeats.

	▲	noman-land 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I understand the feeling of demoralization, but converting a handful of people is better than converting no one. Those people are now safer because of you, and that's something to be proud of.