cassetti

Damn! I hope you're doing better.

I ride 10 miles daily on my bicycle and drivers scare the hell out of me. I always assume they can't see me and are going to do the wrong thing because they usually do!

I had to sell my old coupe to buy a pickup - but it was necessary for the homestead to haul dirt and other supplies for the farm. Although I rarely drive it (I'd rather be bicycling and burning calories while saving gas!). I'm waiting for the EV industry to evolve and then my plan is to buy a nicer older small EV with very limited range so I can scoot around town when needed - something like the BMW i3.... but less ugly hahaha

In my experience, most people outgrow the secret clubs phase eventually. But I’m sure not everyone does. Who doesn’t like feeling special, no matter how unjustified it is?

** looks around at the Free Masons, Skull and Bones, and Illuminati **

"Lawnmower dies when it runs out of gas, homeowner says 'it's annoying as hell' more at 11..."

sighs

Or maybe they're saying it out loud to mess with Putin - because how can he trust anyone now?

Getting old sucks, but everyone's doing it.

Phew I feel old remembering webrings lol. Crazy to think how much the internet has changed since those early days thirty years ago.

Anyone else remember Infoseek? It was my favorite search engine because you could select to search within results to refine your search down to a single page of relevant results.

Yeah if I ever lose Feedly, I'll likely have to go the same route

Lol funny you mention RSS. I LOVE my RSS feeds - I've been building my subscription list for decades. I used other services before Google Reader, now I use feedly (what do you use?).

I subscribe to hundreds of RSS feeds of all sorts - from technical blogs to news feeds. I always try to explain to people that I get a "firehose" of content sorted by timestamp. I don't have an algorithm choosing which data to prioritize.

Did you know that Aaron Swartz (one of the original reddit developers) was also a leader who developed the RSS standards? God the word lost a great man - imagine what he could have done for humanity if he lived a full life.

I suspect it will be the same story with Youtube for me. I really don’t need to be watching Youtube 95% of the time. I tune in to videos because it’s convenient. If Google is going to make it inconvenient, the value proposition changes and I’d rather do something else to fill my time. I wonder if there will be backlash from creators now that many users are inherently disincentivized from visiting Youtube…

Funny thing is that I usually use Youtube for DIY repair videos. Now ChatGPT and simple google searches (to confirm info) have replaced most of my needs. I even use Chat to teach me how to use new software (which I would formally watch videos to learn).

Besides, I really don't watch television/videos in general. I have far more important things to do with my free time like running a small business and micro homestead to live an almost fully self sufficient lifestyle. I find skimming RSS feeds and reading selected articles a far more efficient use of my free time (I only used to visit reddit for the occasional social interaction with fellow enthusiasts of whatever topic, and hope that kbin/fediverse will replace that 'itch')

Ouch. Yeah I still spend $0 in advertising. All my business comes from satisfied customers and word-of-mouth referrals (the way I believe it should be - I loath paid advertisements forced upon people). At one point I a few years back I was one of the top 500,000 websites in the world (Alexa verified).

I've taken multiple hits over the years when other platforms (like Youtube) swept through their content and eliminated unpaid "ads" as they see it. I have no clue what the future will hold, and extremely thankful that I have a few distribution partners helping keeping me afloat during these slow times. Maybe the federation's content will be logged by google and my site will regain it's popularity.

Best thing you can do to help us small businesses is to give a shout out wherever appropriate (not spam, naturally). Just remind people that XYZ business or brand exists is extremely beneficial and worth more than any paid advertising.

Yeah, Reddit has been pulling unsponsored ad content for the past year. I've been struggling with sales since I don't pay for advertising - all my business comes from word of mouth referrals. Same thing happened in 2018 when Youtube swept through and erased a bunch of content.

Fortunately I run a tight ship with minimal overhead so as long as I get some business weekly I can keep the 'doors' open. But damn it's been tough the past 14 months both with the recession and the changes to Reddit. But that's fine - the slow time gives me a chance to get back to what I enjoy - innovating cool new widgets for the market.

If you want to help us small businesses (all of us are struggling right now), just remember to leave an honest review or mention the business/brand online. A simple word of mouth referral is worth infinitely more than a paid advertisement.

Maybe just stop watching youtube? I don't even watch an hour of youtube tutorials a month. Go ahead and kick me off, I'll just stop visiting the site. Just like I'm doing with reddit (which I've even blocked at the router level to avoid it)

I have a small business and about 20-30% of my traffic/sales came from Reddit. That's completely disappeared. I've seen a huge impact on my business already