Bonum Certa Men Certa

Everything is Becoming Slow When Users Aren't the Top Priority

Right at home (turtle)

Summary: The Web in 2020 is a divisive click-bait machine with censorship and state/corporate propaganda; but there are things that we, collectively as Web users, can do to take the Web back and make it work for users, not monopolies and people in positions of power (with endless and ever-growing wealth)

THE news is slow, news sites are slow to load/open (too many spurious objects), and people are slow to type because they use lousy devices that lack something as basic as a keyboard. How did we come to this? Aren't we supposed to become faster and more productive over time, given that technology is progressing and -- one might hope -- getting more compact?



"Well, adopting Free software is the first step, but it's not enough."Sometimes it may seem like technology is moving not in a positive direction, not for users anyway. People are measured by terms like "screen time" (the goal is to keep you staring at the screen as long as possible, irrespective of actual need) and to spy/shove ads rather than inform.

How do we get out of this unsocial/antisocial trap?

Well, adopting Free software is the first step, but it's not enough. Suffice to say, using a 100% Free software browser to access the walled gardens of Facebook is like becoming a vegan who works in the slaughterhouse. It just doesn't make sense, does it?

"For one thing, explore the use of (almost exclusively) RSS feeds and readers."So, speaking in very general terms, software freedom goes beyond licences and tools. A lifestyle change or an online habits change (like Richard Stallman queuing downloads for pages he wishes to read, for a remote server to fetch for him) may be required. Nowadays I read E-mail only once a day -- sometimes more, sometimes less -- because streamlining like this is better for the mind, conductive for workflows. To Twitter I navigate at most once a day only to see replies that I receive but nothing else. Anything else would slow the mind down, or add endless clutter to it (Twitter is nowadays far more noise than signal; it is mental pollution and it makes it next to impossible to limit scope to one's choosing, more so after they deprecated APIs back in summer of 2018, then blocked some RSS scrapers).

Do you feel like your navigating of sites is getting slower?

Do you feel like it takes you longer to separate the signal from the noise in today's World Wide Web? Or the "Social Control Media" much of it became?

"Let's flip things around and make the Web work again for surfers or users (not "useds"). It's doable if enough or us do it and convincingly encourage others to do the same."Looking for advice? For one thing, explore the use of (almost exclusively) RSS feeds and readers. There are many side benefits to them, other than eliminating cruft and stuff such as "likes" (which probably doesn't mean a thing anyway; it's proportional to popularity/scale of sites and status of people rather than the underlying message and its accuracy).

If the goal is to make technology faster, healthier, more informative and less conflict-fuelling, we need to rethink how we access it and how data is processed. Middlemen such as Twitter and Facebook view people as products (whom they connect with the real clients, their advertisers). Let's flip things around and make the Web work again for surfers or users (not "useds"). It's doable if enough of us do it and convincingly encourage others to do the same.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
 
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Promoting Microsoft and Proprietary Software Using Microsoft Operatives
Because nothing says "Open Source" like GPL violations facilitated by Microsoft
Another Site Bites the Dust: "Open Source For You" Becoming a Slopfarm (LLM Slop)
What a shame. Another dead site.
Links 23/04/2025: Crackdowns on Dissent, Palin Loses Libel Retrial Against New York Times
Links for the day
Links 23/04/2025: Hard Times and Digital Amnesia
Links for the day
The GNU/Linux Site Formerly Known as "linoxide.com" is Back... as an LLM Slopfarm!
Better for linoxide.com to go offline than to do this
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Richard Stallman to Speak in Oxford University Exactly a Day From Now
outsourced to GAFAM
Links 23/04/2025: "Hiding Corruption" and "The Cost of Defunding Harvard"
Links for the day
Microsoft 'Studies' Again? Leon Musolff is Writing Papers With Microsoft.
Even if one can see/find a link to "the study" (in the Bezos-controlled publication), most people won't look any further and just take everything at face value.
Towards GNU World Domination
The FSF led by Geoffrey S. Knauth with his friend Richard Stallman in the FSF's Board [...] Let's encourage people to adopt GNU/Linux. There has never been a better time.
statCounter Helps Visualise Just How Deep in Trouble Microsoft is (Especially in Africa)
Microsoft sabotaged efforts to connect Africans and equip them with GNU/Linux laptops
The Register is Using Linux-Hostile Clickbait in Articles of Linux Proponents
Don't be a "whore" to advertisers, team El Reg
Microsoft Windows in Cyprus Lacking a Future
Most people access the Web there from mobile
Matrix Has a Severe Problem With Illegal Images
If Matrix cannot get the CP problem under control, many projects and people will dump Matrix
Never Try to Justify Strangulation of Women (Not in the US and Not in the UK)
Joint post by Mrs. Rianne Schestowitz and Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Links 23/04/2025: Tesla Profits Plunge 71%, Intel Ready to Lay Off 20% of Staff, Microsoft and IBM Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Most Profound Issue is That People Moved to 'Mobile' and "App Stores" (Microsoft's Presence There is Negligible)
Expect a wild ride for Microsoft this year
Google News is Amplifying FUD and Lies About Linux (and OpenSSH/SSH) by Promoting Slopfarms With Machine-Generated FUD and Slop Images
Google should know better
Gemini Links 23/04/2025: Librarians, Anubis, and Refactoring a Gemini Capsule
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 22, 2025