Technically: less often updated, may have less of the shiny features. Some see it as positive: Lemmy stays out of the user's way.
Ideologically: devs are far-left, but the project itself is neutral. Wherever you find yourself politically, you'll find a place.
Main dev: @Nutomic@lemmy.ml
Overall: Lemmy is a good option if you want to see the "raw" Threadiverse. Less bells and whistles, no content or moderational filters pushed on the user aside from what instance admins and users themselves decide.
PieFed
Technically: fast-paced development, "move fast and break stuff", highly experimental, but feature-rich.
Ideologically: Liberal/moderate, enforced. All PieFed instances filter out "radical" left- or right-wing content (see no-qanon PieFed list), all user filters come on top of this list instead of replacing it. It also suffers from the backlash on some of the decisions made, such as vote throttling.
Main dev: @Rimu@piefed.social
Overall: PieFed is a shiny and new, fast-paced, but also opinionated and controversial project. Whether it's going to be a "peace of mind" or "power tripping dev hellscape" software is only for you to experience.
Potential compromise: PyLova
PyLova is a fork of PieFed designed specifically to cut out opinionated pieces while keeping the technology.
However, it's only currently present on quokk.au, which is itself opinionated (anarchist, far left).
As of June 30th, 2025 (this years report is pending), Wikimedia has $213 million invested in corporate bonds, stocks, mutual funds, mortgage-based and US Treasury securities. This is about a $30 million uptick from 2024:
Meanwhile, their actual hosting expenses sit at $3,5 million. Should they cut benefits and grants, they can last indefinitely on their assets appreciation alone.
Before then, download and keep and offline Wikipedia copy via Kiwix. It doesn't take as much space as people imagine - 111 GB for the English one, with pictures, if I recall collectly
Even better, do not fracture the already weakening Wikipedia community. Keep fork as a backup, but fight for Wikipedia itself.
Also, download an offline Wikipedia copy via Kiwix or similar tools. The entire English Wikipedia takes less space than a modern game, and having a snapshot might come in handy.
Absolutely essential going forward. People need to learn their way around it - and around LoRa devices, too. Reticulum can operate on all sorts of channels, but LoRa is what keeps you connected to your city/neighborhood no matter what.
I'd even say try Meshtastic/Meshcore first, depending on what's more developed in your area, and then get to learn Reticulum.
With all of this prepared, still, IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR POLITICAL ACTION
It will get worse. Harder. More inaccessible. More and more people won't be able to live in a free net, and with that, the prospects of fruitful coordination will wane as well.
And this is by design. If they make it inescapable, people rise up. If they slowly make it less and less accessible, people end up in disarray.
Going the Tor way is not a saving grace. It's a band aid.
Sincerely,
A person living in Russia, one who has already witnessed it unfold.
Aurora causes weird issues for me, and also the anonymous access seems to be no more for everyone, so doesn't help me in particular.
But I'm one user, and overall, having it on Aurora means a lot! Besides, having it there means someone eventually shares the .apk itself, and that's something I can certainly work with, even if I'll have to update manually.
Haha, true!
Honestly, yes. I've never seen parmesan go bad
Lemmy
Technically: less often updated, may have less of the shiny features. Some see it as positive: Lemmy stays out of the user's way.
Ideologically: devs are far-left, but the project itself is neutral. Wherever you find yourself politically, you'll find a place.
Main dev: @Nutomic@lemmy.ml
Overall: Lemmy is a good option if you want to see the "raw" Threadiverse. Less bells and whistles, no content or moderational filters pushed on the user aside from what instance admins and users themselves decide.
PieFed
Technically: fast-paced development, "move fast and break stuff", highly experimental, but feature-rich.
Ideologically: Liberal/moderate, enforced. All PieFed instances filter out "radical" left- or right-wing content (see no-qanon PieFed list), all user filters come on top of this list instead of replacing it. It also suffers from the backlash on some of the decisions made, such as vote throttling.
Main dev: @Rimu@piefed.social
Overall: PieFed is a shiny and new, fast-paced, but also opinionated and controversial project. Whether it's going to be a "peace of mind" or "power tripping dev hellscape" software is only for you to experience.
Potential compromise: PyLova
PyLova is a fork of PieFed designed specifically to cut out opinionated pieces while keeping the technology.
However, it's only currently present on quokk.au, which is itself opinionated (anarchist, far left).
Reputability and reliability will absolutely take a deep dive.
The greatest asset of Wikipedia is not the trove of data (I have the copy on my computer), but efficient moderation, neutrality, and trust.
None of the clones are nearly as trusted, as they're edited at a whim of whoever owns them, or simply poorly moderated.
Exactly what the other commenter said. Grandma level, all necessary tools are straight inside Kiwix app itself.
As of June 30th, 2025 (this years report is pending), Wikimedia has $213 million invested in corporate bonds, stocks, mutual funds, mortgage-based and US Treasury securities. This is about a $30 million uptick from 2024:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/3/3f/Wikimedia_Foundation_FY_24-25_Audit_Report.pdf
Meanwhile, their actual hosting expenses sit at $3,5 million. Should they cut benefits and grants, they can last indefinitely on their assets appreciation alone.
One of the reasons I am on the Fediverse is that it often highlights pieces not widely reported on mainstream media. This is not just one case
Wikimedia Foundation does not have problems with funds, quite the opposite.
There was a scandal about it a year or two ago. They have plenty, and this is where it goes.
You can also download Wikipedia for offline use via Kiwix, so that you always have the snapshot that won't ever change and enshittify.
The whole English Wikipedia takes up about 110 gigs, and it's 110 gigs well spent.
Before then, download and keep and offline Wikipedia copy via Kiwix. It doesn't take as much space as people imagine - 111 GB for the English one, with pictures, if I recall collectly
My rule of thumb is: donate to small developers, not large established projects.
Wikimedia Foundation does not run low on funds, and your donation is a drop in the bucket on their balance sheets.
For small projects and indie devs, your donation will have a much bigger impact.
Even better, do not fracture the already weakening Wikipedia community. Keep fork as a backup, but fight for Wikipedia itself.
Also, download an offline Wikipedia copy via Kiwix or similar tools. The entire English Wikipedia takes less space than a modern game, and having a snapshot might come in handy.
i am NOT clicking that link
That's some very obscure place to take apks from, but ultimately it works, thanks :D
Love the harvesting minigames!
Can confirm. Hosting a large media collection, 500.000 books, offline Wikipedia, tons of offline game installers, and it all fits into 5 TB.
Got a used 10 TB HDD in very good condition for just $120, plan on buying a second one for redundancy.
Also, a 3D printer and a bunch of useful models are certainly on my future list.
A VPN doesn't build a chain of nodes and doesn't rotate them.
The VPN provider knows your real IP. Tor exit node doesn't.
Absolutely essential going forward. People need to learn their way around it - and around LoRa devices, too. Reticulum can operate on all sorts of channels, but LoRa is what keeps you connected to your city/neighborhood no matter what.
I'd even say try Meshtastic/Meshcore first, depending on what's more developed in your area, and then get to learn Reticulum.
With all of this prepared, still, IT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR POLITICAL ACTION
It will get worse. Harder. More inaccessible. More and more people won't be able to live in a free net, and with that, the prospects of fruitful coordination will wane as well.
And this is by design. If they make it inescapable, people rise up. If they slowly make it less and less accessible, people end up in disarray.
Going the Tor way is not a saving grace. It's a band aid.
Sincerely,
A person living in Russia, one who has already witnessed it unfold.
Aurora causes weird issues for me, and also the anonymous access seems to be no more for everyone, so doesn't help me in particular.
But I'm one user, and overall, having it on Aurora means a lot! Besides, having it there means someone eventually shares the .apk itself, and that's something I can certainly work with, even if I'll have to update manually.
Overall, a good development! :)
You probably think of Bazzite. Same gaming focus, but on immutable base, also very popular :)