My understanding from what you’re writing (and from this article) is that the phone number is really the account number. That’s all well and fine, but then they force you to verify that the number is yours (or at the very least, one that you have access to because you need to receive a confirmation over SMS), so you can’t use something more private. And sure, it makes it a little harder to find your new contact, but I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal - just exchange your other “account number” via some other channel.

Besides, don’t think for a second that when this identifying information inevitably falls into the wrong hands that it will benefit you in any way. “What are you hiding, citizen?” and all that bullshit.

The part of it that bothers me is the sense of entitlement that these companies exhibit. The “Give us your phone number or fuck off” sentiment is something I just refuse to accept. If Google forces us to do the same and we refuse, what makes Signal think that we’ll do it for them when they’re so much smaller by comparison? Especially when you’re trying to claim you’re more secure and private to people that much more tech savvy than average, this just comes off as not understanding your audience very well. I’m sure I’m not the only one that is holding out against using Signal because of this.

I’m surprised this hasn’t been said yet… but what I hate most about Signal is its requirement for a phone number. I don’t want to be identified, and I want to be able to create multiple separate accounts with different identities if I want to.

I also hate the fact that it’s a mobile-first service. Yes, there is a desktop application (and just one really crappy one at that), but it’s clearly designed to revolve first and foremost around your phone and be virtually impossible to use without one. As someone who hates writing on a 3-inch screen, this is a also non-starter for me.

I understand the arguments about perfectionism, but this is too much. I’ll stick with XMPP, Matrix and IRC, thanks.

but I no longer believe that it is possible to build a competitive federated messenger at all.

The fact that we have a telephone system that works with separate providers contradicts this sentiment. If I want to pick up the phone and talk to my cousin’s puppy in New Zealand, I can do that without creating an account on his provider’s service.

I don’t understand why we’ve forgotten this as a society. Yes, it was difficult to upgrade the phone systems over the past century, but it’s worth it in my opinion. I really wish we’d start seeing government regulation that says “you should be able to talk to someone on a service without having to create an account on said service.” I thought the DMA would do this, but sadly, Whatsapp still requires an account to talk to people using that service. Very disappointing.

The colors in the peertube logo are pretty hideous.

Are we claiming now that Activity Pub is the only protocol that we can use for the fediverse? I think XMPP is roughly 30 years old at this point, and I’m pretty sure Activity Pub is much younger than that. I could be wrong though.

But regardless, I don’t see why Activity Pub has to be the only protocol we accept to be considered a part of the fediverse. It’s not even like different AP implementations talk to each other all that well. My understanding is that Mastodon doesn’t federate that well with Lemmy, and I haven’t seen Loops or Pixelfed on Lemmy yet either.

I’d be happy to be corrected on any of this though, I haven’t looked too closely into exactly how AP works or how it’s supposed to interoperate with different applications.

Beautiful Game 3 between GG and Tundra. I always feel like GG’s strategies are very fragile, but they proved that it’s more resilient than I thought. A really nice demonstration of how they can still push their early game advantages late and win, and overall, their map movements lategame looked amazing. I’ve also been very impressed with how Quinn has been playing. He does so much for them in all of their teamfights.

I’ll be cheering for GG in the final, but can’t be upset with whoever wins. All 10 of them deserve it so much.

I hear what you’re saying regarding the production, but I like it. Overall, it feels like it has been a very chill and enjoyable TI. Sure, Valve is in vesting less and less in TI over the years, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s sustainable to make TI a huge event every year. We had that for the first ~10 TIs, but now I would be happy to just see a fun event each year that’s great while not being over the top.

CIS is still pretty good in my opinion. BetBoom exceeded my expectations, and if they had an easier draw, I think they would have made top 6. They did look pretty terrible against Falcons though. And Spirit had a pretty good season overall - they did win a few tournaments if I’m not mistaken. They just looked like they didn’t understand the meta all that well. I also wonder if they have been a bit spoiled by success, and maybe lost their drive to win to some extent. 1W didn’t look that bad either to be honest.

But agreed on the other regions. It really sucks because it just doesn’t feel like Dota is a global game anymore, sadly.

I’m hoping for the best for Cloud9. Falcons didn’t feel like they were on top form at the beginning of the tournament, but a lot has changed since then. But I do think that whoever wins that match will still most likely beat XG/Tundra.

WEU dominance is ridiculous. We started with 5/16 teams in the tournament - the most from any region. And now that we’re down to only 6 teams overall, but all 5 from WEU are still present. And fully occupying the winner’s bracket as well.

A bit sad to be honest. I really hope we see a revival in some of the other regions in the coming years.

Both teams played great. Game 1 was a bit one-sided, but Game 2 was a really fun game and (in my opinion) proved that they are definitely competitive against one of the best teams in the world. Really hoping Cloud9 make it to the lower bracket final - their games are really fun to watch and it feels great to cheer for them.

I think that series was more about whether GG showed up than anything else. Nouns played well, and showed that they can be top teams if those teams don’t play at their best. But when they do, they still get outplayed. Gaimin showed a lot more discipline and respect in game 2 to even up the series, and then it seemed like they broke them in game 3.

Nouns are still a good team, and I think with experience, they can continue to improve and place well in tournaments. Fly looks like he’s doing a good job captaining them, and they are playing very well as a unit (which is what I think plagued NA teams the most historically). But still, they have a lot of work to do before they can beat the best teams in the world (assuming they give them the respect they deserve).

I didn’t get a chance to see the earlier matches, but I think Cloud9 could be a sleeper to win it. I was very impressed by Watson in the qualifiers and the rest of the team is playing incredibly well too.

And I really love seeing teams that ignore the meta and just do what they think is strongest. I think that makes the most fun and interesting Dota, and blindly following the meta makes it really boring. I’m cheering for them most, personally.

Gave me big TI8 upper bracket finals vibes. A 2v5 ancient defense is perfectly viable as long as you have the right heroes and use them correctly. Also, isn’t it crazy how Topson finds himself in these kinds of games?

This game is beautiful.

Falcons vs Tundra Game 2. Such an insane game. This is why I love Dota

I think Nouns are a bit underrated. They seem to be beating teams in their own division, but not only that; they also took a game off Falcons and another off Zero (another team that’s a bit underestimated as well in my opinion).

Good for them! I really would love to see a resurgence in other Dota regions - while I’m a big fan of WEU dota, this level of dominance is just not good for the game.

Team Spirit went 6-0 in the group stage, in a group that had Liquid and Aurora (both of whom made the upper bracket).

Then they lost 2-0 to Nouns.

Can someone explain to me how that happened???

It will be interesting to see how facets affect drafting. I think it will make drafts a lot more interesting to watch because it will be harder for teams to make predictions and counter-pick accordingly.

Also, I’ve only gone through a small fraction of the patch notes, but has status resistance been completely removed from the game now?

Nice post! I didn’t get to watch too much, but in the few Lifestealer games that I saw, he looked very strong. I wonder why he wasn’t picked up more. Sven looked very overrated in my opinion - a pick rate that was not very deserving given his winrate. Luna was also picked a lot in the carry role and looked pretty solid.

I’d also say that Falcons’ ability to win came mostly down to how efficiently they were able to farm the map. Skiter got a lot of farm pretty much every game and carried them very reliably. A huge part of the reason why they lost so few games in my opinion.

Also, it was pretty surprising how unsuccessful Gaimin Gladiators were. Pretty much all of their core heroes have been nerfed very hard in the latest patches, so it’s not too surprising, but it looks like they’re going to have to take some time to figure out some new drafts/strategies to adapt to the current meta.

I would have thought that all the stupid things he’s done would make him a bit more humble, but too much to ask it seems. Easily one of the most unliked players on the scene now.