diff --git a/src/assets/css/main.css b/src/assets/css/main.css index bdf63ec..3e2e9c6 100644 --- a/src/assets/css/main.css +++ b/src/assets/css/main.css @@ -52,6 +52,6 @@ img { max-width: unset; } .footer-name { - display: inline-block !important; + display: inline-block !important; padding: 0px 6px 0px 6px !important; } diff --git a/src/shared/components/about.tsx b/src/shared/components/about.tsx new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc71e25 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/shared/components/about.tsx @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +import { Component } from "inferno"; +import { Helmet } from "inferno-helmet"; +import { i18n } from "../i18next"; + +const title = i18n.t("about_title"); + +export class About extends Component { + constructor(props: any, context: any) { + super(props, context); + } + render() { + return ( +
+ + + +
+

{i18n.t("about_title")}

+

The idea to make Lemmy was a combination of factors.

+

+ Open source developers like myself have long watched the rise of the + “Big Five”, the US tech giants that have managed to capture nearly + all the world’s everyday communication into their hands. We’ve been + asking ourselves why people have moved away from content-focused + sites, and what we can do to subvert this trend, in a way that is + easily accessible to a non-tech focused audience. +

+

+ The barriers to entry on the web, are much lower than say in the + physical world: all it takes is a computer and some coding knowhow… + yet the predominating social media firms have been able to stave off + competition for at least two reasons: their sites are easy to use, + and they have huge numbers of users already (the “first mover” + advantage). The latter is more important; if you’ve ever tried to + get someone to use a different chat app, you’ll know what I mean. +

+

+ Now I loved early reddit, not just for the way that it managed to + put all the news for the communities and topics I wanted to see in a + single place, but for the discussion trees behind every link posted. + I still have many of these saved, and have gained so much more from + the discussion behind the links, than I have from the links + themselves. In my view, its the community-focused, tree-like + discussions, as well as the ability to make, grow, and curate + communities, that has made reddit the 5th most popular site in the + US, and where so many people around the world get their news. +

+

+ But that ship sailed years ago; the early innovative spirit of + reddit left with Aaron Schwartz: its libertarian founders have + allowed some of the most racist and sexist online communities to + fester on reddit for years, only occasionally removing them only + when community outcry reaches a fever pitch. Reddit closed its + source code years ago, and the reddit redesign has become a bloated + anti-privacy mess. +

+

+ Its become absorbed into that silicon valley surveillance-capitalist + machine that commidifies users to sell ads and paid flairs, and + propagandizes pro-US interests above all. Software technology being + one of the last monopoly exports the US has, it would be naive to + think that one of the top 5 most popular social media sites, where + so many people around the world get their news, would be anything + other than a mouthpiece for the interests of those same US coastal + tech firms. +

+

+ Despite the conservative talking point that big tech is dominated by + “leftist propaganda”, it is liberal, and pro-US, not left (leftism + referring to the broad category of anti-capitalism). Reddit has + banned its share of leftist users and communities, and the reddit + admins via announcement posts repeatedly villify the US’s primary + foreign-policy enemies as having “bot campaigns”, and “manipulating + reddit”, yet the default reddit communities (/r/news, /r/pics, etc), + who share a small number of moderators, push a line consistent with + US foreign-policy interests. The aptly named /r/copaganda subreddit + has exposed the pro-police propaganda that always seems to hit + reddit’s front page in the wake of every tragedy involving US police + killing the innocent (or showing police kissing puppies, even though + US police kill ~ 30 dogs every day, which researchers have called a + “noted statistical phenomenon”). +

+

+ We’ve also seen a rise in anti-China posts that have hit reddit + lately, and along with that comes anti-chinese racism, which reddit + tacitly encourages. That western countries are seeing a rise in + attacks against Asian-Americans, just as some of the perpetrators of + several hate-crimes against women were found to be redditors active + in mens-rights reddit communities, is not lost on us, and we know + where these tech companies really stand when it comes to violence + and hate speech. Leftists know that our position on these platforms + is tenable at best; we’re currently tolerated, but that will not + always be the case. +

+

+ The idea for making a reddit alternative seemed pointless, until + Mastodon (a federated twitter alternative), started becoming + popular. Using activitypub (a protocol / common language that social + media services can use to speak to each other), we finally have a + solution to the “first mover” advantage: now someone can build or + run a small site, but still be connected to a wider universe of + users. +

+

+ Nutomic and I originally made Lemmy to fill the role as a federated + alternative to reddit, but as it grows, it has the potential become + a main source of news and discussion, existing outside of the US’s + jurisdictional domain and control. +

+ Written by Dessalines, December 2020. +
+
+ ); + } +} diff --git a/src/shared/components/link-line.tsx b/src/shared/components/link-line.tsx index da0dd5f..3797483 100644 --- a/src/shared/components/link-line.tsx +++ b/src/shared/components/link-line.tsx @@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ export class LinkLine extends Component { return ( <> {i18n.t("join")} + {i18n.t("about")} {i18n.t("apps")} {i18n.t("support")} diff --git a/src/shared/routes.ts b/src/shared/routes.ts index 956a5f6..ee9e634 100644 --- a/src/shared/routes.ts +++ b/src/shared/routes.ts @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { Apps } from "./components/apps"; import { Instances } from "./components/instances"; import { Contact } from "./components/contact"; import { Support } from "./components/support"; +import { About } from "./components/about"; export const routes: IRouteProps[] = [ { @@ -16,6 +17,11 @@ export const routes: IRouteProps[] = [ exact: true, component: Apps, }, + { + path: `/about`, + exact: true, + component: About, + }, { path: `/instances`, exact: true,