From 30fe802896cc5e0d73d4b6b723a56d9d3eb53d1b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Dessalines Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2021 17:46:48 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Externalized about page text. --- src/shared/components/about.tsx | 107 +++++--------------------------- 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 92 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/shared/components/about.tsx b/src/shared/components/about.tsx index cc71e25..0da9161 100644 --- a/src/shared/components/about.tsx +++ b/src/shared/components/about.tsx @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ import { Component } from "inferno"; import { Helmet } from "inferno-helmet"; import { i18n } from "../i18next"; +import { T } from "inferno-i18next"; const title = i18n.t("about_title"); @@ -16,98 +17,20 @@ export class About extends Component {

{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. + +

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+

#

+ # +
);