After years of just feeling like it was an overwhelming task to take on, I recently figured it was time to make some changes. I figure any change is good change, so started with things like moving to Firefox (and Kiwi on mobile) and adding some privacy focused add ons.

I spent a weekend moving from LastPass to Bitwarden and changing tons of passwords.

Then I spent a day setting up Nextcloud on a spare RPi I had around, so now syncing photos, contacts, and calendar there.

This week, I opened a Protonmail account and moved my personal address there instead of using Gmail.

The Privacy Guide link someone posted looks great. I’ll definitely use it to keep me thinking about what I can change. One step at a time, you know?

I’ll put my thoughts on this post as it showed up as I scrolled to get to the one from a day or two ago…I have 5 different Lemmy apps installed right now. Figure that there is going to be a lot of experimentation and work being done right now, so it’s nice to see what everyone is doing.

• Jerboa - Personally, I really like Jerboa. Being the most mature of the bunch shows. It’s well laid out, has just enough UI options, and works. Except that now Beehaw isn’t on v0.18.

• Connect - Not open source at this time, I get why that matters to people, but not a deal breaker for me. Typing this comment in Connect. Just updated this morning with additional and redesigned settings. There is about a thumbs width of space between this comment box and my keyboard. That’s kind of yucky.

• Liftoff - I’m hopeful for this one. It LOOKS the best to me, but there’s some weird UX issues. Biggest being that the only place to see your replies/notifications is the top of the Home feed with no quick way to get there if you’ve been scrolling.

• Thunder - I can see the potential, but it’s not for me right now. No buttons on comments, you have to use swipe gestures. But posts have buttons. Changing UI options doesn’t actually change anything 95% of the time.

• Summit - You want a zero frills, dark mode way of browsing and interacting? This is that. I’d love a FEW options (like light mode), but it’s fast and easy. Uhh…just realized I can’t find a way to make a new post…

• Wefwef.app - Last one. Really slick looking and responsive, but too iOS-y for me. It also claims to have light mode, but I can’t figure out how to switch it. Really polished though.

I really dislike the theming and buttons at the top of the page on Lemmy mobile. The tildes theme is better, but some of those targets are pretty tiny for my not real large hands. Jerboa uses my system colors and allows for a little customization.

Every now and then I do find myself needing to leave the app to do or find something on the actual site, but it’s mostly been good for me so far.

I like going the lemming related route…

• Lemmini
• Lagurus
• Muskrat

Or in a different direction: Lemmyn. With a yellow citrus 🍋 logo.

No mention of Metafilter or Fark? Pffff.

Yeah, I’m not sure what isn’t connecting with me. You know how when you try to get into an early, influential work - be it a book, movie, whatever - you see the origin of all kinds of tropes and you KNOW this thing came first, but you can’t get over the tropiness of some things? I think that’s kind of what it is.

I’m determined to finish it this week though, I need to move on to other things.

I had spun up a Lemmy instance a few weeks ago with a focus on only books, music, movies/tv, and games. There are enough general use instances.

I’m currently the only user and even I haven’t been posting. 🫢 I’d be happy to open it up if people want.

I have 2 going right now:

• Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
• Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash is good, but IDK. It just isn’t pulling me in the way I expected it to, so it’s taking me too long to get through.

Then I have some Jack Reacher novel on my bedside table waiting to be started, and I was just eyeballing a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories on my shelf.