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I'm behind on listening to your podcast, because I decided to listen to a book, and my autistic-and-not-ADHD brain can only do one thing at a time. So I just caught this episode and, as usual, found myself nodding vigorously all the way through. YES yes yes. We need to, as Charlie says, build alliances outside the spaces that are algorithm-driven. I truly do miss RSS feeds and independent websites and blogs and media that we actually controlled. But I notice that many people (myself included) have gotten in the habit of not having to put in as much effort for what feels like community as that required. As our overwhelm goes up, we lose the capacity? willingness? both? to keep a list and check individual websites for individual pieces of work/media.

But i'm getting just fed up enough to consider switching my mode. I just need some folks to switch with me. What if I had a bookmarks folder (or notion, or clickup, whatever) that had a list of websites that I liked to check on? And what if my expectation for updates was monthly, or biweekly. And what if those websites included whatever that person was creating--video, podcasts, essays. And what if--here's the hard part--we had good, active comment sections and self-hosted bbs sites again? Because THAT is where the communities built. There, and email lists. We have the tech. We just have to drag our brains away from the apps. "just". As if it were that easy. But...what if though?

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I love the idea of algoactivism and banding together.

It goes back to a conversation I remember having a few years ago about paying for ads or paying for affiliates.

One is more of a "solo activity" that rewards the platform, and the other focuses on building relationships and off-platform communities, like email lists. Both have their pros and cons, but I've seen people move to "ads only" and it's interesting to see the effects on business and relationships following that.

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