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:autism: Aurin needs馃捀:antifa:
@Aurin_the_classtraitor@climatejustice.social  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

Tech people talk about tech too much.

I really really REALLY want to use all the awesome privacy friendly FOSS (and similar) stuff, but I am not a techie person! I don't know how to program, nor do I want to.

And every SINGLE time I try to find out even what thing (OS, program, app, service, etc) to use, let alone how, and I search for it... I get techie-focused answers.

It's complete gibberish to me! Absolutely useless. It makes me feel actively unwelcome even though I really care about using alternatives to Windows, Meta, X and other dystopic nonsense.

For example: I'm like "How do I start a non-enshittified group chat to talk about a thing?" and all the results are technobabble to me. I don't even know if the words they use are supposed to be normal english words or if they refer to orgs or groups or apps or some weird coding wizardry.

I am so lost, every single time.

I stick with it though. But like. I wonder if the tech people realise that this is happening???? Because they probably understand what they're talking about. And they seem to not realise that not everyone does.

I'm not trying to blame or shame anyone or even complaining as such (a little bit complaining, ngl), mostly just giving feedback. This is not an issue with a singe thing but with ALL of it as a whole! Including #GNU/#Linux the #Fediverse #Matrix and most #FOSS apps.

My sincere wish: Give non-techie people an EASY TO FIND and easy to read and easy to understand and easy to implement guide about how to use the things as an alternative to using big corporation services, ie, "I just want it to work" and not have to worry about the technical side of things. (examples in thread)

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Diane
@alienghic@timeloop.cafe replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@Aurin_the_classtraitor

uh... so mostly programmers contribute to free and open source software and are mostly talking to other programmers

But it'd be really great if there were ways for technical writers and UI designers to be contribute, (which may take some more maturity from some of the software people)

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:autism: Aurin needs馃捀:antifa:
@Aurin_the_classtraitor@climatejustice.social replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@alienghic
I'm talking about specifically how they talk TO USERS. Not to other programmers or contributors, but to (potential future) users. And if they only want programmers as users, ok, fine, but then they should be a bit more honest about that imho.

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Leonard Ritter
@lritter@mastodon.gamedev.place replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@Aurin_the_classtraitor @alienghic i had this problem with computer science papers. i really wished they would stop using math symbols.

experts assume that all terms you don't know, you can google. once you know, then you know, and text becomes readable. this allows for a dense style of communication, where explaining to a novice takes about ten times as much text, and can be obfuscating.

this is where i find automated "technobabble <-> english" translation helpful.

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:autism: Aurin needs馃捀:antifa:
@Aurin_the_classtraitor@climatejustice.social replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

I'm currently trying to start a group chat. I don't want to use discord, but maybe something with similar features could be useful. So I hear [matrix] is probably the best alternative to that???? At least it's one I've heard about from being in the fediverse (which is annoying and at times complicated to use tbh, even after having cleared the biggest hurdle of getting started).

So then matrix.org tells me that the easiest way to start is to just join their big group. Which seems to defeat the purpose of being federated???

I have questions like: What are the pro's and con's of using the biggest instance/provider/whatever the heck it's called?

Is it going to be slower for being in a different country?

Will the privacy laws of different countries between provider and me and group members affect us?

Do I have to pay for making a group happen? Am I planning on "hosting" a group? Or does "hosting" mean something coding/programming related and not the social thing of "I'm the host and invite people over to my house as guests for a dinner party (except virtually)"? I DONT KNOW MastoSob

Would using the biggest provider be free but other providers cost money? (What exactly are they charging for? Using discord doesn't cost money, do these alternatives?)

Will people on matrix.org SEE my public group when they search for groups?

It's not impossible to find these things out despite not being a programmer, but like. Really fucking hard.

Why is it always so hard MastoSob

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Rachel E. S. L枚sche
@resl@mas.to replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@Aurin_the_classtraitor It is always so hard because finance capitalism destroys everything. But I hear you and am going to be in touch soon to assist. You are excellent.

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Russ Sharek
@RussSharek@mastodon.art replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@Aurin_the_classtraitor

I have been reading your thread and have similar technical frustrations...especially when trying to find tools which simple enough to pass the "usable by a nontechnical person" test.

I've recently been using @delta for secure social comms, and it's been a really good experience for the less geeky folks I've been chatting with.

It's free, open source, and run by kind people. If you're interested, I can invite you to a chat and do a little demo for you.

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:autism: Aurin needs馃捀:antifa:
@Aurin_the_classtraitor@climatejustice.social replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@RussSharek
Thank you! 鈽猴笍
I did it and it was super easy. Don't feel like I need a demo. I made a group for abuse survivors (and anyone fighting against abuse, rape culture etc). Lmk if you want to join.

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Belasco
@danbelascorogers@mastodon.art replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

@RussSharek @Aurin_the_classtraitor @delta I would also avoid Matrix (too complex and now dodgy I heard) and advocate for @delta. I've used both and delta definitely much much more user friendly.
They also have some pretty awesome features like apps that add functionality like polls etc to the chat. Super useful for organising.
Can't understand why more people don't advocate for it.
#deltachat

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