Panos Damelos (Catodon) / is on Nostr

He/They. Living in Greece. Anticapitalist/anarchist/liberal communist, vegan for the animals, #polyamorous, #genderfluid.
You may know me from my involvement in #firefish.
#Catodon co-founder and project manager or something.

Last Notes

2024-04-13 14:58:43

Some news from the #Firefish front! Kainoa (former lead dev who has been absent for several months now) finally passed control of the donations platform to naskya, the new owner of the project. I'm happy to report that Firefish is becoming a healthy project again, and that members of the community have stepped up to get the development going. For those who didn't migrate to other platforms during the project's crisis: You're safe and in good hands.
RE: info.firefish.dev/notes/9s1n283sb10rh869
#note16j4…nmcw

2024-03-15 01:36:26

So, if #USA bans #TikTok because it serves another country's interests, should #Greece ban all social media platforms, since none of them serve Greece's interests? Would that be considered, on an international level, as the legit right of a "free country" or as an authoritarian move?

2024-03-12 00:52:47

The problem with #AI is the problem with #capitalism.
I'm not against the technology - it can really be useful and fun. Will it mean loss of income for some creators? Yeah, probably. Are they justified to be angry about their copyright being violated? Sure, capitalism promised them income based on their copyright, and now they see learning algorithms being fed every copyrighted work ever because breaking the previous agreement means opening up new markets and new ways to make profit for the large capital. This system was never "fair"; it's the profit of the ruling class that leads society. The rules can change at any minute, if our rulers' priorities and needs change.
Copyright overall, though, doesn't make much sense. All human inventions and creations were based on other humans' inventions, creations or behaviours. There is no birth out of nothing. And what people create should belong to humanity to benefit from and improve upon it. The problem is that artists might not be able to make a living in capitalism without copyrights (and most of the times they can't make a living with copyrights either, as companies keep most of the profits).
So I think that the problem is not "AI". The problem is that we haven't built a world where you can be an artist and not worry about your survival, so that you can create whatever the fuck you want, and people can ask for your help or they can use AI and everyone has their basic needs covered and doesn't need to have passionate discussions about copyright and profit and all that silly stuff we've distorted our lives with.

2024-02-09 13:06:01

I've started watching Google's UX Design course and, while it's well made and easy to understand, I hate how it's all about getting a job and creating more sales. For example, it talks about how accessibility helps websites be "consumed" more easily. I know it's made by a company, so I guess it was to be expected, it just has great reviews, and I guess courses from colleges will more or less have the same mindset, after all they're also businesses and need to ensure you'll get profit from your "investment". It's another example of how capitalism shits on everything we love. I'm trying to learn more about UX to help build a better experience for people, and I'm getting taught how to become profitable for a company. The education system is education on the system.

2024-02-06 12:27:09

New #Firefish release! And this is the new official account for the project, under naskya's leadership, give them a follow if you want to stay updated. Best of luck in the new beginning! 🚀
RE: info.firefish.dev/notes/9pdqi3rjl4lxirq3
#note19f6…j7wl

2024-01-28 15:35:04

- reply

@npub1ks4…x88p I'd also add the ability to broadcast radio, fw has a feature called radio but it's not live, like a radio broadcast, it's just playing uploaded tracks. This would have been one of the first things I'd want in a music-related server. Peertube otoh has live broadcast, I haven't tested it but if you can only broadcast audio, then that's basically like an online radio function right there.

2024-01-27 23:35:17

I'm looking into #ActivityPub platforms to share music on, and it seems like only #Funkwhale does that. But to be honest it does seem a little confusing to new users for me. I wonder if anyone's using #Peertube for audio files/music and what's their experience. Its youtube-like interface seems far more familiar to me, and I still mostly listen to music on youtube tbh (never made a spotify account). Any thoughts/suggestions welcome, thanks.

2024-01-13 14:54:32

The talk about US #politics is very interesting in a sense (or very boring, in others). Capitalism has brainwashed people this much, that even people with good intentions fall for its ideologies and support them. So most posts I see on the subject are about how important it is to go vote for the "democratic" candidate in order to fight "fascism". The democratic candidate who supports a genocide in #Gaza - but apparently people think that defeating #Trump is more important than killing children.
I'm sorry, both sides support fascism. Break out of the brainwashing. I know Trump is much worse in many aspects. But both sides represent billionaires who don't care about your lives. You have no reason to support them. If you want to beat fascism, go find real people and do it together on the street, not through the state's ballot. Organize with your local antifascists and anarchists. Or be a consumer and supporter of billionaires' politics, as they continue destroying our lives and the planet.

2024-01-06 03:56:35

On a more personal note, for what Catodon means to me: The anarchist movement in Greece hasn't widely adopted the Fediverse yet. Most of them are at least using Signal, but for social media they still use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at large. The changes I am pushing in Catodon are also considered in that context: What will make it easier for more people to come to fedi communities, what will make their transition smoother? How can I bring my queer friends and my comrades here? This is, in a way, my letter of love to them.

2024-01-02 16:11:46

- reply

@npub10qf…lx77 that's a great suggestion, as a matter of fact we originally wanted to name it Spermwhale but we were afraid it would get confused with Funkwhale. So we chose something that doesn't sound close to anything else instead.
😼

2023-12-31 16:22:37

- reply

OK, since this post exploded (which means there is a lot of interest in #Firefish!), and since some people might have misinterpreted some of the things I said, let me point out a few things:
I am NOT saying that Firefish is necessarily dead. I hope that this post works as a wake up call for Kainoa - whenever he sees it. If nothing changes (either Kainoa getting more involved again or sharing responsibilities or whatever), yes, it will be dead. Really hope something changes drastically, a lot of people love this project.
I am also NOT saying that #catodon is a continuation of firefish, but a different project. Honestly, if that's all you're looking for, there are other project which might be more suitable - we don't want to mislead anyone. We will gradually change quite a few things, the goal is to make it a great and easier to understand all-around software for fedi communities, so for example some of the misskey-specific features will go. In a way, it will sit somewhere between Mastodon and Misskey. So our goal is NOT to replace/continue firefish but to find our people, who will be interested in what we -and not firefish- are trying to do with the platform, and maybe do it together.
Hope this clears everything up.

2023-12-31 00:12:47

Alright, now that catodon.social is live (welcome new members!), let me explain some of the first changes we've done so far in #Catodon, compared to #Firefish.
We really tried to make the platform easier to understand and less overwhelming for new members. So we changed some icons and also some basic terminology:
- Antennas are now Custom feeds
- Channels are now Forums
- Pages are now Blog posts
- Boosts are now Reposts
- Local timeline is called "This server" and Global timeline is called "All servers"
We also tried to cut down on menu items. So Lists and Custom feeds are now only accessible from the timelines, Groups are only accessible through Chat (which is the only feature they are used in anyway), Clips are now called Collections and are placed in a tab under Bookmarks. That's four menu items less, without losing any functionality! But we also removed a fifth item, Gallery, which was very half-baked and rarely used in most Firefish servers. Its functionality can more or less be covered by Blog posts.
There is no "Social" timeline: Instead, we have incorporated Social's functionality in Home. Posts from the local server are now displayed by default in Home, so that new users aren't greeted with an empty timeline. You can change that in Settings, so the Home timeline either works as follows only, or as "Social" in Misskey/Firefish.
There are other changes as well and there are more coming as we're preparing for our first official release, but these are some of the most striking ones you will see!
:catodon:

2023-12-30 15:03:23

Ugh, I really tried to stay out of #fediverse drama but I guess I have to say a few things. Most of you know me as a #firefish core team member, so I think I owe it to the admins of almost 500 firefish servers out there and to the almost 5000 members of firefish.social.
So, yeah, if you haven't noticed, things aren't looking good for firefish. Its owner, Kainoa, has practically abandoned the project, which had its last stable release out on July. My last message to them was a week ago, and I haven't heard back since. Firefish.social, besides the other severe technical problems it's had due to mismanagement in the last few months, now also has serious federation issues. I hope Kainoa is well irl, but this is irresponsible and unacceptable.
I hear some of you saying "but you're in the core team too, don't try to put the blame elsewhere!". So I have to explain what being a core team member in firefish meant. Kainoa invited me, Namekuji and a few others to be part of the "core team", but kept all decisions and responsibilities. We didn't co-own this. We never shared donations. We were just volunteers, who were honestly trying to make it a great project. This didn't work well due to concentration of power to one person, who didn't keep their promises. I don't mean to be harsh to Kainoa, I mean we knew they were only 19 when they started the project. Still, it's a bummer to anyone who chose to trust and support Firefish. This includes myself.
I don't know if it's early to consider firefish a dead project, but it sure seems like that for a few months now. Maybe it can be resurrected, idk. It's all up to Kainoa.
In the meantime, Namekuji and I are starting #Catodon, which will have some differences with Firefish, and will include many changes I had discussed with Kainoa but were never implemented. If you decide to stick with us, we promise to be serious about this. I strongly believe in the fediverse and its potential, and I want to build a great platform for it. This was my goal when I chose to be involved in Calckey/Firefish. It's still my goal with Catodon, only this time I can stand behind it 100%, as the project will be co-managed by Namekuji and me. If Firefish left you with a bitter aftertaste, we hope we can build a better relationship and prove ourselves worthy of your trust. Catodon will go public in a matter of days, possibly even hours. We'll have more to say about its direction then.
In the meantime, I just wanted to share my apologies for any inconvenience regarding Firefish, as I'm still technically a core team member, whatever that means. But frankly, I tried so hard to make things go differently - but there's only so much you can do when it's someone else's project. I'm really sorry for how things went.
But this is not the end of the fedi journey for me. I'm super excited about the chance to do some things right this time with Catodon. Life goes on, I guess! Hope to see you soon on our #codeberg repo, so we can start a new creative adventure together =)
:catodon: xx

2023-12-24 13:05:48

I'm super excited about the #Fediverse. I've been online since the 90s, been through most evolution stages of the internet, and it feels like we're changing it once again - and this time in a good way.