Yes, this is the point: Search engines are harvesting YOU and YOUR SEARCH TERMS! TOR prevents that, and they don’t like it.

But if I can’t search for something simple like World Cup Results, without it timing out or blocking a suspected bot, what good is search? It feels sometimes like we are going to have to back to memorising URLs! 🤣

Mojeek in particular I find very challenging. Unless I put in a very specific and multi word search term, I never get close to what I want. And yes, I know I know, thats the point. Google makes it so easy that you only need to think your search term and they give you exactly what you want, but you pay the cost in privacy. If Mojeek is a model for how raw/clean search engines work, then its people that need to change, almost more so than software. We need to be more patient and tolerant, be more specific in our search activities, and keep in mind that its a pain in the hole because we care about our privacy.

Its a big change though, lots of behaviour change required, almost like a detox or rehab, to be unconditioned from the convenience we are accustomed to.

I tried Tor for a while but it was too clunky and when used in conjunction with a search engine like Mojeek, was unusable. Whatever it was doing in the background made it impossible to search, with most failing due to suspected bot activity.

Using Ironfox now and its a bit better. I agree, the underlying stuff is complex so maybe I dont have as much protection with Ironfox than Tor, but I dont know enough about that to know enough about it, if you get me.

So I read what people are saying in posts like this and make a call based on that. I’m happy that I’m better protected than Chrome etc. so that is enough for now.

Its really SO complex the whole privacy (umbrella term) area, boggles my brain, but I’m thankful for people on here that know more than I do. Appreciate y’all.

I get that a lot also. I wonder is it because I’m using Tor browser. Anyone found a way around this?

Hey Grazie for following up, appreciate it. Sounds even more impressive now that I understand it fully.

I was thinking about it after I posted and I suppose the fact that its complex is part of why the big corporations can benefit so much from our data. They have full control and a million services to host your site, manage your email and analyse your data, and all it takes is a two minute sign up and you are in. Sounds great for the basic user, which is most of the world, but the price you pay is that your data and privacy is effectively gone. They have a captive audience and we go running to them. Its a shame.

I suppose if self hosting was easy, many more people would be doing it. I still love the idea but i think its still a bit technical and that puts me off.

Again, appreciate the response and time taken to explain. I can almost feel feeling of satisfaction you must have, knowing that you are saving money, protecting your privacy and running part of your business in such an excellent way! Great work.

Ciao!

I like posts like this (certainly the spiffy world map looks like you are in a movie!), and I like the self hosting idea, but here’s the issue I see with self hosting stuff…

Its so complex. To me its bordering on inaccessible for the regular user. What you have described is very technical, and I see this all the time in the self host section; very cool looking dash, doing cool stuff, but then the description is like its literally in a different language. I’m usually lost before I have read three lines.

In your post, I’m actually not even sure what you have built. Mail server? Website? I’m fairly techie but I find it hard to understand. Is “software house” your business?

Its great and I commend your work, but its mind boggling and my overarching feeling when I see these posts is usually: “damn, way too complex, I wouldn’t know where to start”.

Thanks for the post however and for taking the time to document and answer questions. 👍🏼

Lawnchair is great. I was able to 100% replicate what I had with Nova.

https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/app.lawnchair

No trackers.

Anyone having an issue whereby the GUI continually says you can’t add a G account as theres one there already?

• There isn’t one there already. Message comes up at the end of the addition process.
• Tried different browsers and different machines.

Its really worth trying to ditch some of them. Its a good feeling to not feel like reaching for the phone all the time. If I do, its just a quick look at Voyager, maybe Email (although I use it for very little) and before I know it I’m sitting there with nothing else to open, hovering my finger, or staring at the screen wondering what I will open next. Then I realise theres nothing else there vying for my attention and I out the phone down. Thats a good feeling.

I have found that I spend more time looking at family photos from over the years, which is lovely.

You can do it!

Totally agree. I have been away from all social media for years, with the final two, LinkedIn and Reddit nuked last year. I spent a full year being as helpful as I possibly could on Reddit, in specific subs, went out of the way to help people etc., but fuck me the toxicity in that place was unreal.

I spend very little time on my phone now, with Voyager the only app I use that connects me to communities, i.e. this one, but its still hard to get away from the heavy stuff. I don’t know where people have the time and energy to be so obstructive and challenging. If they put a fraction of that energy into helping people, it would change the world!

Being on the phone less has been great, but its just a pity that the only place I do go is a bit of a challenge at times. There’s so many good people here, its hard for them to keep their heads above the surface at times.

Maybe I need to curate even further!

To be honest, I came here to get away from the toxicity of algorithm driven social media, reddit etc., but I find myself as angered here as anywhere else. While the algorithms play their role in generating anger, I’m finding more and more that people are as much of the problem as anything else.

Yes it’s great that I can tailor my feed to exactly what I want, and that works fine, but it seems they are riddled with disgruntled, pissed off, angry, paranoid people that don’t seem to be happy with anything before them, and seem intent on annoying everyone around them.

It was a breath of fresh air at first. Subscribe to X, Y and Z, only receive updates on X, Y and Z, but it was quickly ruined by the people, not the algorithm.

It’s getting increasingly difficult to exist online now without this toxicity, and we can’t keep blaming the algorithms.

Anyway, maybe I was a bit naive about what to expect, but its disappointing. We are running out if enjoyable spaces to exist in online and thats a shame.

Settings >>> General >>> Default Sort

Lol, what I’m hearing is that unless all my family and friends move to a better messaging app, they are dead to me.

Seems legit.

Edit: How many livers have you stolen?

I’ve been using LibreTube and it’s the pure solid finest.

Am I right in understanding that if you move to Session, Element, SimpleX etc., you can still only message people on those particular apps? So if you (say) move to Session and only 5 of your 300 contacts are on it, you can only message those 5 people and have to use WhatsApp for the other 295, because let’s face it, they are probably on that?

I ask because I see so many people say “I moved to X app”, but surely it’s more complicated than that if the critical mass are still on the likes of WhatsApp?

It can’t be as simple as just moving to another app, surely?

Home Assistant have their own device that can provide Thread.

Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2

It does ZigBee also bit you can only run one protocol at a time.

I bought one for yhe exact reason you stated; trying out IKEA stuff. My setup is similar also.

Good luck!

Thanks! Installed!

Do you know what personal info gets landed on their server when you send an Email to a Gmail account? Presumably Email address and name, but is there much more, hidden stuff?

I never actually thought about it from this angle. Moreso about how much they have access to by having a Google account, but not the exposure if yiu Email someone on their servers.

If you are concerned about your information getting on a Google server when you send an Email to a Gmail account, is the issue still the same no matter what provider you use? Or am I misunderatanding? You are still to a Gmail address no?

OK thanks for that. The build is beyond my skills to I’ll wait a while and keep an eye on it in case it becomes available.

Anyone having trouble downloading the APK from the Git page? Tried a couple of browsers.

This is the link text:

https://github.com/getnopeek/nopeek-android

Keeps circling back to the same page.