Note to #fedi that #Catodon is being relaunched but is being built via #LLM because Panos believes being poor means he shouldn't be shamed for using a tool he acknowledges is extremely harmful. He also thinks that because airplanes are bad for the environment it's fine to use #AI

People need to be aware that the relaunched Catadon is both unsafe and unethical. Panos has also claimed that it's "elitist" to criticize LLM usage.

https://ibe.social/notes/aiir4gakmx

@davidgerard

Note to #fedi that #Catodon is being relaunched but is being built via #LLM because Panos believes being poor means he shouldn't be shamed for using a tool he acknowledges is extremely harmful. He also thinks that because airplanes are bad for the environment it's fine to use #AI

People need to be aware that the relaunched Catadon is both unsafe and unethical. Panos has also claimed that it's "elitist" to criticize LLM usage.

https://ibe.social/notes/aiir4gakmx

@davidgerard

Yesteday I said #Catodon is returning, and I'd like to say a few more things.

Let me get this out of the way: I am building it with LLMs. To a big extent I don't know what I'm doing, and I am very aware of that. This will be an experiment. If any of this outrages you, please move on, this project is clearly not for you. If you are disrespectful in the comments, you will be blocked. Please don't tell me what I should or shouldn't do with my time. Thank you.

Those who have followed me for a long time, know that I used to be in #Firefish, then its lead dev moved on to different things leaving the project hanging, then we tried to start Catodon with another dev from the core team of Firefish, and I know that created great expectations and excitement to a lot of people (including me), until our lead dev also realized in the process that they couldn't dedicate the time needed for such a project. Then I was involved in Iceshrimp for a while, which was... let's say not a good fit, and since then I have been trying to find a dev who would like to work in a team effort. It has been years now, and I had no luck. But I still loved the first period of Firefish, I'm still interested in fedi, I still have a lot of ideas that I would like to bring to life. I am also still involved in a greek community server, and I want to build something for my friends and comrades there as well.

But I am not a software engineer, and this is not my calling. What I'm drawn to is design and UX. So I had more or less given up on the idea of Catodon, until I recently started experimenting with LLMs. Mind you, this whole AI craze left me cold until now - I had no use for it, so I stayed away. But for coding, in my case, it turns out to be an invaluable tool.

Would I have preferred to do this with an actual human instead? A thousand times yes. However, I know I really, really tried.

I also know it's bad for the environment. Planes are too, but we use them when needed. And anyway, I am not rich, I will be more or less as screwed as anyone by the ongoing destruction of the planet by the bourgeoisie. So I refuse to be victim blamed. The sad truth is that it's not an individual issue, it's a collective issue. No matter what they have told you, you will not stop the climate crisis if you stop using LLMs, airplanes, plastic straws or electricity altogether.

1/2

Catodon.social and Catodon closing down

I thought whether I should post this from @catodon 's account but I'd like to speak on a more personal level, since it's now just me in Catodon anyway. So, I'm pretty sad about it coming to this, but what can you do - things like that can happen in group projects. We started as a fork of Firefish, then rebased to Iceshrimp, and then we froze development waiting for Iceshrimp's C# rewrite to be completed, since the announced timeline at the time said that the first stable should be out before the end of 2024. This target wasn't met - of course, they don't owe anyone anything, I'm just describing what happened. Combined with the bitter aftertaste my involvement in Iceshrimp left to me, it's not a project I would like for Catodon to rely on. If Catodon was to continue, I would like it to be, or at least start off as, a more minimalistic soft fork of Sharkey, without the local-only features etc.

However, at this point all devs who were interested in Catodon have moved on to other things, so it's not feasible for the project (and the server, which was mostly meant as a showcase for the software) to continue. On November 10 the domain name expires, and I'm thinking of not renewing it.

If any of the existing members wants to maintain the server, either as an Iceshrimp or as a Sharkey instance, drop me a line, if you're serious then I'd happily transfer the domain and vps so that the server can stay online.

I apologize to anyone affected by this, I hope you don't find it difficult to find a new home. I have to say that we never accepted donations, so we practically run a free service for two years. Wish it could go on, but I simply don't have the technical knowledge to run the server responsibly. I am not a sysadmin or a dev, and it's not something I feel very drawn to - I'm sure ADHD also hasn't helped me to learn more about running a server. I'm ok with it.

So there you have it, in around 50 days catodon.social goes kaput, unless something improbable happens - like if someone wants to take the responsibility of running the server, or if a javascript dev thinks that a scaled-down version of Sharkey sounds like something they'd like to try.

Thanks for being part of this, I really believe this could have been a fun project - I loved being part of Firefish and I wanted a chance to do some things better this time, but it seems that it wasn't meant to be! Oh, well =)

#Catodon

Catodon.social and Catodon closing down

I thought whether I should post this from @catodon 's account but I'd like to speak on a more personal level, since it's now just me in Catodon anyway. So, I'm pretty sad about it coming to this, but what can you do - things like that can happen in group projects. We started as a fork of Firefish, then rebased to Iceshrimp, and then we froze development waiting for Iceshrimp's C# rewrite to be completed, since the announced timeline at the time said that the first stable should be out before the end of 2024. This target wasn't met - of course, they don't owe anyone anything, I'm just describing what happened. Combined with the bitter aftertaste my involvement in Iceshrimp left to me, it's not a project I would like for Catodon to rely on. If Catodon was to continue, I would like it to be, or at least start off as, a more minimalistic soft fork of Sharkey, without the local-only features etc.

However, at this point all devs who were interested in Catodon have moved on to other things, so it's not feasible for the project (and the server, which was mostly meant as a showcase for the software) to continue. On November 10 the domain name expires, and I'm thinking of not renewing it.

If any of the existing members wants to maintain the server, either as an Iceshrimp or as a Sharkey instance, drop me a line, if you're serious then I'd happily transfer the domain and vps so that the server can stay online.

I apologize to anyone affected by this, I hope you don't find it difficult to find a new home. I have to say that we never accepted donations, so we practically run a free service for two years. Wish it could go on, but I simply don't have the technical knowledge to run the server responsibly. I am not a sysadmin or a dev, and it's not something I feel very drawn to - I'm sure ADHD also hasn't helped me to learn more about running a server. I'm ok with it.

So there you have it, in around 50 days catodon.social goes kaput, unless something improbable happens - like if someone wants to take the responsibility of running the server, or if a javascript dev thinks that a scaled-down version of Sharkey sounds like something they'd like to try.

Thanks for being part of this, I really believe this could have been a fun project - I loved being part of Firefish and I wanted a chance to do some things better this time, but it seems that it wasn't meant to be! Oh, well =)

#Catodon