Derek Powazek 🐐

I used to make websites. I wrote “Design for Community.” I designed the original Blogger. I created JPG Magazine, Fray, Kvetch, Cute-Fight, and so many more.

Now I grow flowers and turn them into CBD products for https://milkbarn.farm. I also take care of 30-something chickens, 13 goats, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and my wife and myself, on 2 acres in Boring, Oregon.

Nazis, TERFs, and Republicans can fuck off.

He/him.

Public Key

npub1ce20zyuajx6cwtp70s6t5qt3u7td3r4u7unka3gsae33tzkdlahslz65uh

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvv483zwwerdv89sl8cd96q9c709kc3670wfmwc5gwucc43txl7mcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsytdvnp

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ce20zyuajx6cwtp70s6t5qt3u7td3r4u7unka3gsae33tzkdlahslz65uh

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Last Notes

2024-07-31 06:58:59

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@npub1avc…pq29 no, the opening was a week ago. This is the flower dying

2024-07-31 04:56:12

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@npub1avc…pq29 aw! She lasted much longer than predicted.

2024-07-16 06:52:41

I turned the lights on in the greenhouse so we can watch her while she sleeps.
It's not weird, it's botany.
https://milkbarn.farm/pages/titan
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/794/372/878/070/989/original/ef9890bed06d5a50.png

2024-07-14 18:25:04

Nobody knows what the fuck is going to happen. Everybody knows it’s fucking important. Whatever happens, we’ve gotta stick together.
That’s all I’ve got.

2024-07-14 00:30:57

Hey for no particular reason let’s all read up on this, kay?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

2024-06-24 20:39:34

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@npub16yk…gh74 social media can be something other than the terrible examples of the past.

2024-06-24 20:05:33

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@npub16yk…gh74 that’s not the only option

2024-06-24 18:02:14

For a long time I couldn’t imagine a world where Twitter wasn’t a daily hangout for me, and now my account is deleted. I couldn’t imagine a web without Google and now I don’t use it because they ruined it. I never used Facebook much, but it was a powerhouse for years and now it's a shit-filled shambling zombie.
These digital behemoths, they’re temporary. And their time is almost up.

2024-06-10 07:34:00

154 plants in!
#hemp #MilkBarnFarm #FarmLife
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/590/689/425/686/356/original/f802e7152cc62d12.jpeg

2024-06-07 19:07:57

Three things:
1. Jack Dorsey has always been stupid as fuck. He ran Twitter into the ground and then handed it to Elon. The reality we live in now where Twitter is the new stormfront is entirely because of him.
2. Nostr is garbage and no one should touch it.
3. If your free speech ideology keeps putting you in league with fascists, you don’t have a free speech ideology, you’re just a nazi who likes plausible deniability.
https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-fiatjaf-nostr-donation-2024-6

2024-06-02 19:05:22

Become compostable.

2024-04-17 00:34:04

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If you thought this post was supposed to be an insult to El Caminos, you missed the point.
Also I don’t care if you love that car.
Also don’t love cars.
It’s weird.

2024-04-16 20:34:44

If you still use Twitter, STOP. You're supporting a nazi platform.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/x-twitter-elon-musk-nazi-extremist-white-nationalist-accounts-rcna145020

2024-04-16 06:59:18

Saw someone refer to the Cybertruck as an incEl Camino and, yup, that's what it's called now.

2024-03-24 22:52:40

Summer’s tomatoes start as spring’s seedlings.
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/112/152/876/071/611/911/original/452b020e8bcc6b69.jpeg

2024-03-23 19:29:39

I don't think that changing terms solves anything, but I'd love to see Democrats start referring to asylum seekers and immigrants as "American applicants," because that sure as hell was what my grandparents were, and it might satisfy the egos of the "best country ever" types.

2024-03-21 19:56:12

And this is why you cannot outsource your community management.
https://hackers.town/@aendra/112134488541168178

2024-03-21 01:23:23

If you run a company that depends on users to create things, and you add a “generate AI garbage” button, you’re telling your users that you hate them and will replace them with a computer the moment that option becomes available.

2024-03-19 01:44:21

Reminder: American Jews are 2.4% of all Americans and most of us are Democrats who disapprove of Israel's current far right government. Trump is playing on the ancient antisemitic dual-loyalty myth and creating an excuse for conservatives to ignore actual Jewish voices. The moment you say something like "Jews are the real antisemites," you're just a nazi saying nazi shit.
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/us/politics/trump-israel-jewish-voters.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dk0.84wb.AIbp-r9cayXx&smid=url-share

2024-03-13 22:48:05

Don't hold events in states with fascists governors. Don't attend events in states with fascist governors. If your state has a fascist governor, organize and support the opposition.
https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2024-03-12/sxsw-responds-to-artist-dropouts-following-tweet-from-greg-abbott/

2024-03-11 20:08:18

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"We're at the end of a vast, multi-faceted con of internet users, where ultra-rich technologists tricked their customers into building their companies for free. And while the trade once seemed fair, it's become apparent that these executives see users not as willing participants in some sort of fair exchange, but as veins of data to be exploitatively mined as many times as possible, given nothing in return other than access to a platform that may or may not work properly."

2024-03-11 20:06:43

"The Reddit IPO is one of the biggest swindles in corporate history, where millions of unpaid contributors made billions of posts so that CEO Steve Huffman could make $193 million in 2023 while laying off 90 people and effectively pushing third party apps off of the platform by charging exorbitant rates for API access."
https://www.wheresyoured.at/are-we-watching-the-internet-die/

2024-03-11 02:43:29

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@npub13vv…0sze oh I love this change. I wish we’d stay here permanently.

2024-03-11 01:09:08

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@npub13vv…0sze oh we don’t have clocks. More that the phones and computers all changed.

2024-03-10 22:34:17

I feel gaslit by all the auto-updating clocks in the house. Only the microwave told me the truth this morning.

2024-03-09 19:32:24

Any success by a beautiful young white woman is proof of wokeness being dead, according to the people who both hate wokeness and don't know what it is.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/09/sydney-sweeney-snl-republican-misogyny

2024-03-06 19:38:18

Get yourself some Sweet Sleep (and anything else you'd like) for 20% off. Use code "sweetsleep" or just go here: https://milkbarn.farm/discount/sweetsleep
#smallfarm

2024-03-01 20:29:34

"This firehose appears to be distinct from any direct data sharing deal with Midjourney and OpenAI, in part because the documentation makes clear that data being sold via this firehose is not limited only to posts on WordPress.com, but also can include posts on self-hosted WordPress.org websites that use Jetpack, a wildly popular plugin that millions of sites use and that users are encouraged to install when setting up a WordPress site."
https://www.404media.co/wordpress-firehose-allows-ai-companies-to-buy-access-to-a-million-posts-a-day/

2024-02-29 19:39:04

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@npub1lrv…tth9
5) The next generation of community sites all retreat behind logins and paywalls to avoid getting sucked into the machine. This is already happening - people use private Slacks and Discords the way we used to use public Tumblrs and forums. New ventures like 404media require emails to access content.
6) The public open web as we've known it just dies, subsumed by robot-generated garbage.

2024-02-27 21:12:59

The irony of Wordpress, the self-described guardian of the open web, causing anyone who gives a shit to pull down their old Tumblrs and blogs to avoid getting sucked into the AI bullshit machine, is really something.

2024-02-11 06:30:24

I fucking hate the way people talk to each other online. Who raised these people. Who taught them how to talk to strangers. Who told them that a stranger’s idle thoughts, once posted, are a target for their every assumption and deserving of their judgement and an appropriate place to put their bile?
No, I’m not talking about anyone here. At least, not at the moment.
But next time you feel like lecturing a stranger, maybe just go on with your day instead.
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/111/911/186/418/402/951/original/d6bc91fecb29ecbd.jpeg

2024-02-09 20:34:14

The golden rule ever since people started talking online is that everyone is always talking to, and about, themselves.
I wrote about this (omg) nearly 20 years ago and it’s still just as true today. Maybe more.
https://powazek.com/posts/374

2024-02-06 22:20:50

The casual cruelty that comment sections (and social media replies) enable toward total strangers makes me despair.
It's like you're driving by and see someone's house that they've worked so hard to build and you just throw garbage out the window. The moment passes so quickly for you, but they're left cleaning up the garbage and wondering why you did that.
It sucks. Don't do that.

2024-01-23 06:17:45

I don't understand how this data visualization doesn't inspire everyone to stand outside Elon's houses and businesses with a torch and a guillotine.
Or at least vote for someone who will tax the motherfucker.
Image from here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/american-oligarchy-introduction-essay-russia-ukraine-capitalism/
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/111/803/545/881/699/184/original/1f92952e9c4e600a.png

2024-01-12 05:16:45

What Twitter and Substack are gonna learn the hard way is that when you coddle the fascist assholes on your platform, ultimately fascist assholes are all you have left.

2024-01-11 03:20:47

“When you respond to comments from the fediverse on your blog, they will now be federated. This allows you to finally engage in (threaded) communication back and forth directly from the comment section of your blog!”
So, we’re doing context collapse as a service, then.
Fuck this is such a bad idea. Blog comments have a context. You remove comments from that context, you harm your commenters and your sanity.
https://fediversereport.com/wordpress-activitypub-plugin-updates-to-v2-0/

2024-01-07 18:56:49

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@npub1anu…4xen Can confirm.
Also that freak level is when posting here becomes way less fun.

2023-12-24 20:23:25

Happy Totally Ordinary Sunday to all my comrades in the War on Christmas. I hope you're having a nice, completely normal weekend.

2023-12-22 20:43:45

Two things:
1. This is a great summary of how morally and ethically bankrupt Substack's actual position is. They currently prohibit calls to violence, doxxing, harmful activities, and porn. So they clearly think speech is something they have every right to limit on their platform (and they're right about that). They just don't want to limit nazi speech because, well, we're left to assume that they just like nazis.
https://popehat.substack.com/p/substack-has-a-nazi-opportunity

2023-12-21 18:36:24

People who say they don’t like nazis, but turn around and take money from nazis, and give money to nazis, do in fact like nazis.

2023-12-18 06:32:29

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@npub1xzm…eykm @npub13dc…qg8l We all know how evil Meta is. That’s why many of us are here and not there! But that’s also why we’re worried about their motives in the fediverse. It would be good for you to show some empathy to that concern.
In your example above, you perfectly explained why it’s against their business interests to fully federate. So, honestly, why would they? What do they get for giving up the money they can make from users within their walled garden?

2023-12-17 21:27:14

Lord save me from people who think maintaining separate accounts to access different community spaces is somehow the greatest tragedy to befall the internet and such a terrible infringement on their convenience that to suggest it has some good effects is some kind of personal blasphemy.
You've never had an identity you had to hide for your own safety and it SHOWS.

2023-12-17 04:29:14

Oops I talked about mastodon on mastodon again.
Why do I do this to myself.

2023-12-14 23:06:47

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@npub1uw8…88kr Well it started with understanding that the cannabinoids need a fat molecule to bind with, which means we start with a coconut oil base. Then we needed something to firm it up, so beeswax. From there it was trying out scents that were strong enough to cover the smells that come along with all that. It was honestly months and months of testing different combinations to get to where we are, and we’re still always trying new things (hence the new stick format).

2023-12-14 22:45:31

Reviews like this are why I do what I do.
https://milkbarn.farm/products/spiced-salve#judgeme_product_reviews
#MilkBarnFarm
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/111/580/941/459/088/397/original/ea90f1b5193d88b5.jpeg

2023-12-08 01:10:31

If someone posts their Chanukah menorah and you respond with something anti-Israel, that's antisemitism. If you don't understand why, do some reading about how Jews are an ethnicity and Israel is a state with a government that most Jews don't even support.
If you're tempted to argue about this with me, just save yourself the trouble and block me. I don't want bigots following me, anyway.

2023-12-01 00:39:59

This is how librarians say "fuck you, you racist piece of shit."
https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2023/11/30/why-were-dropping-basecamp/

2023-11-30 21:00:15

Me: Elon Musk is a fraud and a huckster like the doomsday tent preachers of old.
Elon Stans: HOW DARE YOU.
Elon: Digital God is coming.
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/11/30/elon-says-copyright-ai-lawsuits-dont-matter-because-digital-god-will-arrive-before-theyre-decided/

2023-11-20 18:55:58

OpenAI is a bullshit company run by a huge bullshitter making a product that is entirely bullshit and anyone worrying about it today needs the bullshit cleared out of their brain.

2023-11-20 02:36:19

Elon routinely interacted with and retweeted nazis on Twitter long before he bought it. After, he fired the content safety staff and courted nazis who had been banned and put them back on the site. Earlier this year he started PAYING THEM to keep posting.
It's nice that people are noticing his nazi shit now, but it's a journalistic malpractice that it's taken this long and most omit this history.
This WaPo story is the exception: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/19/antisemiticism-internet-elon-musk-israel-war/

2023-11-16 23:00:02

IBM has suspended ads on Xitter because duh. If you work for Apple, time to ask your boss why you’re supporting nazis.
https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle

2023-11-13 19:00:27

On the one hand, Biden is old and hasn't done everything I want.
On the other hand, literal fucking fascism. https://archive.ph/k9ZPL
If you find it hard to make this decision, I'm gonna find it hard to listen to anything you have to say.

2023-11-12 19:41:17

I could live a million years and never know the joy of a goat in autumn.
#Goats
https://xoxo-media.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/media_attachments/files/111/399/038/026/938/360/original/cff26ef9dd28e340.jpeg

2023-11-11 23:38:48

Living in a rural area has made me understand the conservative mindset a lot better, and it's simple: they love America and hate Americans. That's it.

2023-11-08 19:44:00

This is fascinating in a lot of ways but kinda bizarre to not mention that YouTube is not supposed to be used by anyone under 13 without explicit parental permission.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/07/kids-youtuber-influencer-camps-creators-learn-how/

2023-11-05 23:44:20

These people are all absolute freaks.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-son-monitor-porn-intake-covenant-eyes-1234870634/

2023-10-20 23:00:48

Apple cancels Jon Stewart's show because execs were pissed at his criticism of AI and China.
Tech companies shouldn't be in the content business at all.
https://archive.ph/aIFX5

2023-08-23 18:55:32

So I watched eps 1 and 2 of Ahsoka and it made me realize what a key role Favreau played on The Mandalorian. Filoni is so in love with the Star Wars lore that every shot is framed like it's Huge and Important, but the show just hasn't earned that yet, so it comes off slow and ponderous. Filoni really needs a co-creator next to him saying "this is boring, how can we make the audience care?" That was Favreau for The Mandalorian and his absence in Ahshoka is palpable.
#StarWars #Ahsoka

2023-08-22 18:31:38

Gosh it's so weird how, when you build something for "Christian conservatives" it always turns out to be full of nazis. Isn't that just so weird?
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-crowdfunding-givesendgo-white-power-problem-1234809799/

2023-08-19 21:07:40

Any organization fully dependent on Facebook for traffic is a poorly managed organization that has already abdicated their duty to build their own community. https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/17/media/facebook-referral-traffic-reliable-sources/index.html

2023-08-18 19:44:23

I know this is just dancing on a grave, but everybody who promoted NFTs as a way to support artists was a fucking conman and a lot of us tried to tell you so. https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/17/23836440/nft-creator-royalty-fees-are-dead-opensea-optional

2023-08-14 23:18:17

Really glad I moved away from SF before driverless cars were a thing because I would absolutely be in jail right now for throwing rocks at them. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-12/cruise-robotaxis-come-to-a-standstill

2023-08-09 00:12:13

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@npub1mdk…aptk I definitely follow people who reply well - including you!

2023-08-08 03:04:02

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@npub1qmc…v6gx @npub1eys…6x02 100%. JWZ’s recent post mirrors what I was recommending earlier this year. The comments, as ever, were dreadful.

2023-08-08 02:08:59

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@npub1qmc…v6gx Yeah replies should be their own class with their own rules.

2023-08-07 18:44:06

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@npub1qmc…v6gx it also bothers me how, in the same interface, not all people have the same constraints. Because, as you say, the constraint shapes the content.

2023-08-06 20:03:16

LLMs are programmatic sociopathy.

2023-06-23 19:28:17

Watching the schism between the “make fun of liquified billionaires” people and the “everyone deserves empathy” people has really made me appreciate growing up as the first American born son of Jewish Holocaust survivors, because I’ve always known that there’s evil in the world, not everyone deserves empathy, and it’s fucking great when you get to laugh at the bad people getting what they deserve.
If you haven’t experienced enough tragedy to know these things too, I hope you never do.

2023-03-25 00:59:30

I wonder if people using mastodon know that, without section 230, no one could legally afford to run a mastodon instance. Section 230 protects what we do here every day. Politicians threatening 230 are threatening free speech on the internet.