Colonel Flatulence doesn’t have any friends.

This is consistent with the historical record.

What then - THEY steal it?

Nuisance is the legal term.

It predates your story by at least five years, 2007, when a Silicon Valley engineer revealed that a backbone line had been spliced and all traffic was passing to government machines.

That revelation also inspired an outraged public backlash of ‘meh.’

Like so many things, they only seem expensive until you try to make your own.

It’s an important life skill, being able to plant a thought in the mind of another and in a way that is likely to be accepted.

It crossed my mind since my last writing that, in the 80s, I got a money back guarantee for any counter-surveillance equipment purchased that didn’t reveal surveillance equipment in a Fortune 100 facility. It was that pervasive back then. And my perception is that morals and business ethics have not improved in the interim. Far from it.

Good luck and thanks for the valuable, respectful input.

Points well made and taken, thanks. No hostility perceived at all.

Reasonable minds can differ and frequently do. And it could be that people may think my suggestion is unrealistic or even silly.

There’s no shortage of miscreants out there who just like to mess with things, thrown wrenches into spokes, etc. And these types could well be behind the daily local issues.

But here’s an important point, and no offense intended. Corporations are like The Terminator. But instead of getting Sarah Connor, they purse profits. And regardless of CEO intelligence or accumen, every Fortune 500 company has a department that deals in these areas. They all have their skunk works and use them. It’s been this way for centuries. A primer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_espionage

So whether they’re operating here atm or not, there is nothing paranoid about assuming they are. If they’re not, they will be. It’s what they do.

Thanks for the input. :)

Every account they lose hits them in the pocketbook. The bigger the fediverse gets, the more adherents, the greater the momentum it will have and the harder it will be to stop.

Nipping it in the bud is the best, easiest, and least expensive place to nip it.

The downvotes suggest their operatives are reading the comments.

Shamelessly stolen Rescued from that other site.

You’ve done the right thing. It will live a much better life here.

I wonder if the owners of deddit, fb, tweetster, et al, might think it financially worthwhile to cause disruption in the fediverse, and even its ultimate failure.

Well, would ya lookit that.

If I had to guess, I would have thought it was situated in Innuendo County.

Sorry, I’m not familiar. Where would I find that?

No idea. Purloined from the internets.

Yes, watching the implosion. But there’s nothing implosive about this move. Hence, ‘don’t sweat the small stuff.’

They’re not shooting themselves in the foot again. It’s just an administrative function, moving on with what remains of their business, like paying their electric bill.

And here’s a friendly observation. Telling others what they should do comes across as grandiose.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s dead. Let it go.

The discomboulator is that the changes could have been had without need of a scapegoat.

It took a shocking amount of arrogance and contempt for the builders of that playground (the ‘little people’ who made this all possible) to so badly foul such a simple thing.

And opening the mouth only to change feet.

Extraordinary failure. One for the history books.

I volunteer admin my own public service gig elsewhere, >10 years x 365 days. It requires some diligence to try and prevent scammers and fraud - there’s a bit more at stake than just memes. It don’t pay much, but it’s honest work.jpg

I appreciate that people keep up the groups I follow just for amusement. And I’m definitely not looking to put those mods out of a job. I know it’s work, and I appreciate those who do it.

I’ve wondered since the grumbling started why people weren’t establishing their subs elsewhere, even if just a place holder.

I have an ethical conundrum. There were a couple subs I liked. I didn’t like spaz’ off-putting move. But when I learned of deddit’s treatment of a mod, I’d seen enough.

I moved here and setup a landing place for the members of one sub to land. It was not ‘my’ sub. I didn’t start or mod it. But I wanted it to continue. Not much has happened with it. And the founder, whom I DMed, hasn’t come over afaik.

Another sub I liked was still dark when I left, and can’t find any indication of it restarting elsewhere.

I don’t want to step on toes or steal anybody’s sub or the credit due. I also don’t want those groups to die.

What’s The Right Thing to DO?

I wonder what they’re in charge of (and hope it’s not much).