This makes sense. I can’t see Trump being willing to back down, but I can see corporate pressure doing it.

I’m also new to this and have been using Mint for my server, since it’s what I am using for my desktop. I’m planning on testing out moving it to Debian. If I’m being honest, the real reason is because the logo is cooler.

I agree that we need to find a way to make this communal rather than individualistic, but government backing isn’t that. It would be nice if that happened and all, but with a thesis like that it feels like it’s missing the mark calling state-hosting "community ". How do we make self-hosted services something that can serve at the level of the community? Like a load balancing reverse proxy that points to the servers those in the community can host and everyone invites their friends and neighbours.

Thanks!

The more concerning thing going on is Debian potentially embracing AI, which I am very much not a fan of.

Can you elaborate on this, or point me to where I can read about it? Getting away from AI was a part of the reason I ditched Windows :/

Thanks for explaining. There is a lot of conflicting information out here - do you have any sources for where I can learn more?

Were you using a VPN at the time? I was under the impression that the issue is at standard anything involving ports just doesn’t work with a VPN because it would be trying to get to the port on the VPN, which the VPN would rightly refuse unless you’d set it up to forward that port

Do you know where I can learn more about this? That’s a pretty important detail to be as glossed over as it is in this community

Doesn’t that completely defeat the purpose of using a VPN?

Mullvad is great if privacy is your only metric, but it’s not unique in that respect and no port forwarding is a serious limitation in this context. I’ve been looking into alternatives and AirVPN and OVPN both look reputable.

See my response to feebleneedle. It works, but it’s not just that it’s slower. Port forwarding is important for the health of the community.

AirVPN and OVPN are options that seem to be of similar integrity to Mullvad.

I think it’s both? I’m assuming you get fewer seeds you can connect to as well.

Either way, seeding issues are leeching issues, in the grand scheme of things.

Edit: I only stress the seed side because I’ve found I get things plenty fast even with Mullvad, so not explaining the issue and just talking about down speed can make it seem unnecessary, when it is in fact critical to the health of the community.

Without port forwarding you can only connect to those who do have it set up. Doing so yourself allows you to be a better citizen of the internet and share with people who don’t know what it is.

(Caveat: I am one of those people who don’t understand it and am just parroting what was explained to me when I asked about this)

Humans do indeed contain multitudes, but I think this gives too much credit to the influence of corporate (and their political interference) interests. Enshittification is an active choice made in board rooms. Disinformation is an agenda. They’re not inevitable grassroots outgrowths.

Lemmy, curated to avoid AI, curtail corporate news, and where the admins and community are fighting bots and trolls is an example of the reclamation attempt.

And you know what? It’s kinda nice here.

Tldr: capitalist efficiency

There is a neat piece about the OS side; worth reading.

As someone who went with the Mullvad suggestion despite having heard about port forwarding, I think a big part of why is because whenever it comes up people don’t take the time to explain why port forwarding is important. Until I asked in this thread the only thing I’d seen is some vague handwaving about it being faster.

I’ve only just dipped my toes in so maybe this is off base, but the community seems to have an elitism problem. If the people who know are dismissive of ignorant noobs who want to learn, the long term health of the community suffers for it.

Oh yikes. Thanks for explaining!

What’s wrong with not using port forwarding?

The prison industrial complex: hold my beer

These resources are really all you need, but they’re all individually quite focused so for a new person it can be hard to see the forest.

An overview:

For movies, streaming sites are fine.

To start torrenting safely:

• get a paid vpn (i use mullvad)
• download qbittorrent or the like
• find a public tracker from the megathead, general ones are easy/convenient for starting imo
• virus scan/use common sense/be careful