Mastodon has taken the strategic decision not to accept venture capital investments for growth <…>

I really don’t like the framing of this. It really sounds like an accusation the the users for not accepting this.

It’s good alongside F-Droid, doesn’t really work as a complete replacement.

Visting internet without an ad blocker is literally impossible these days. It’s simply mandatory.

It’s defintely that. They went even further before until it was pointed out to them that it was a bit to obvious.

Bricked might have been a wrong word to use, but you get the point. Fact remains that it’s closed beta, since access is limited, not public beta as claimed in the title of the article.

Secondly, open source software having a bug doesn’t make it not open source.

You’re right, I missed that they split it off to a different repo.

And I’m not attacking or vilifying them. I’m happy they exist, especially since they make portability possible unlike similar proprietary platforms. But that doesn’t make them infallible, and we should openly call out the inconsistencies or issues.

The software yes, but the ActivityPub integration is not yet. It’s bricked on self-hosted version and only works with their PRO hosting.

It’s closed beta. You have to be Ghost Pro user to access it.

There are several modern forums that are adapting to that. Notable NodeBB and Discourse are integrating ActivityPub into their software.

To be clear, none of their services are in any way compromised or no longer safe. Their products were independently audited. So the privacy is not supposed, but real. It’s just the company culture and vague answers from non-profit foundation if they have enough votes to kick the CEO of the for-profit Proton AG company that’s making people migrate.

Do your own research, but some other options:

• https://mailbox.org/
• https://tuta.com/

EU has a similar program called Horizon Europe, which spent around €95.5 billion so far. Though it’s broader in scope, not limited to just software, but includes various open source research too.

From what I have seen, it more stems from the activism vegans are engaged in more than the actual veganism.

That entirely depends on the client. Some doesn’t even have notifications. So I would look for a different client, a good list available here.

On lemmy-ui (official client) other than ignoring them, there isn’t. Lemmy is built around engagement instead of voting, so it’s kind of integral feature.

https://federation-checker.vercel.app/