Learn to host your own services now. Because in the future you might not be able to discover how.
Since folks have asked, I'll elaborate a bit.
I believe Google/Microsoft/OpenAI/et al will increasingly work to strip search results which provide alternatives to their own products, and that includes self-hosted media.
I've seen this when I've attempted to cover using RSS feeds instead of YouTube subscriptions- I have no reason to trust Google to surface Google alternatives in good faith.
There will come a point where you ask internet-oracle-of-choice "how do I self-host a Netflix alternative" and they will intentionally give you bad advice in order to discourage you.
That point is coming sooner rather than later, and we need to train *an entire generation* of internet users how to get out of this trap.
That's *our* work to do, RIGHT NOW.
You don't need google to get installation instructions directly from a github or the software website.
@vkc OpenAI does this now with AI related questions. I used it, very early, to help build a site using Generative AI and parameter optimization. I would have never been able to do it without ChatGPT teaching me and then in the next few updates they nerfed the ability to get it to teach you about practical AI programming (LSTM training even).
@vkc Forbidden secret knowledge... Time to establish "underground" info sharing channels too.
(writing as self-hoster myself)
@vkc We need to regulate them. And we need to produce our own alternatives, just like we used to before they existed and stole that from us.
@lmorchard @vkc I believe you, but I would really like to see some of these “illegal” claims, so I have screenshots to use when it suits me.
@mos_8502 @lmorchard @vkc it's not quite about self-hosting, but there's a recurring theme where, when cops put out statements about people they've arrested, they emphasize that the person owned a 3D printer
@mos_8502 @lmorchard @vkc we haven't paid close attention to "dark web" rhetoric but we can well imagine some of it being kinda that same tone of trying to portray anything that isn't sanctioned by a corporation as inherently suspicious
Ideally, they should be compeling on their own, so that distribution doesn't even need to be actively encouraged beyond licensing them appropriately for risk-free replication and remixing (keeping them up to date matters, as does spreading the general mindset).
The association "corporate = scum" needs to become second nature to people, so that they appropriately doubt any information broadcasted by such entities.
Compare it to wearing full-transparency clothes all the time or something similar, if some weird emotional reaction is necessary. To me it simply doesn't need to be really explained /why/ opaque envelopes are necessary, a good idea, and that they should be entirely tamperproof.
That being said, one should ideally use the term "anonymizing overlay network" or "privacy-preserving overlay network", since that is in truth what they're about and a lot more explicit about it.
Directing people to lookup the link between corporatism and fascism would also be helpful. Most print encyclopedias should contain such information.
> it's not quite about self-hosting, but there's a recurring theme where, when cops put outstatements about people they've arrested, they emphasize that the person owned a 3D printer
Of course authoritarian enforcer scum will complain about anything that provides any sort of personal agency and ownership of the tools of production.
In this particular case though they're emphasizing it because of "ghost gun" or "3d-printed gun" scare bullshit, while ignoring that the important parts needed to be made through metal ECM/CNC/milling/lathing. Building them out of plastic is nothing but suicidal and is more likely to lead to mutilation of the user than a successful use. And even so, the Shinzo Abe incident showed that advanced tooling is entirely optional.
Some old guy with a machine & tool shop in his shed is a *lot* more capable of producing guns quickly than some random apartment dweller with a 3D-printer.
They're also ignoring that guns are loud and ill-suited for the majority of situations that haven't already gone entirely FUBAR to start with.