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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by admin@exploding-heads.com to c/main@exploding-heads.com

Two years ago when I launched Exploding-Heads, Lemmy offered a way to let me play a small role in fighting back against:

  • censorship
  • deplatforming
  • propaganda
  • Big Tech tyranny, and
  • to help spread suppressed stories.

I knew Lemmy had its challenges, but I hoped it would evolve for the better. Sadly after 2 years, the culture of censorship through defederation has only grown stronger.

Meanwhile a better alternative has sprung up in the form of Nostr:

  • it lets you own your own profile - if you move to another Nostr app or site, you still keep your content and followers
  • it makes censorship very difficult
  • it is not perfect, but is evolving for the better very quickly.

As a user you should not be at the mercy of instance operators who are

  • petty tyrants, or
  • benevolent dictators (who may turn tyrannical at any moment)

I do not feel I can alter the tyrannical direction Lemmy is heading in and I want to dedicate my time and resources to a better alternative.

So Exploding Heads is moving to Nostr.

Exploding-Heads.com will go offline August 31st 2023.

Please join us on Nostr.

Exploding Heads address on Nostr is npub1qprptnnuwnqc6h6wxc2q07rfwcmj7cfc6g4r5dgnlkxaysmpr0mqc5365p

Sounds complicated, but it is pretty easy. Here is what I recommend to get started

Amethyst App

  • Lets you follow people
  • Lets you follow #hastags (I have been using communities as a substitute for #hashtags on Lemmy
  • Has evolving support for communities

Habla.news

  • a Nostr alternative for Medium for long form content

Damus app (Apple IOS)

If you have any questions about getting up and running on Nostr, please ask them here https://exploding-heads.com/c/nostrblog

In closing, I sincerely apologize to all of you who are going to lose their profiles and content (please get anything you want off by August 31st), but it proves my warning about the problem with relying on benevolent dictators.

Please make sure to say hi to us on Nostr.

I hope the majority of our wonderful Exploding Heads community will make the move to Nostr with us.

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Not again. Can't we just keep the instance and host the Nostr relay on another domain? This will be a big loss for lemmy and the whole fediverse since there are not many free speech reddit alternatives.

[-] Sexypink@exploding-heads.com 12 points 1 year ago

Yea I kind of agree. I'm scared EH will fall apart of left on nostr alone. I'm use to it now, but the Twitter style is a huge turn off. I'm just waiting for a legit reddit nostr style app

I also don't like the twitter style or at least I am not too familiar with it. I would much more prefer to stay here untill a better app has been developed.

[-] Sexypink@exploding-heads.com 6 points 1 year ago

Yea dude I feel the same. I fucking hate the Twitter style can't fucking stand it. I only deal with it because it's like no one wants a reddit clone I don't get it

[-] markeuzu@exploding-heads.com 11 points 1 year ago

This... I dont want to lose what we have right now and I dont care about others defederating us 😅

[-] PraxisGeltabs@exploding-heads.com 10 points 1 year ago

yeah, not pleased about this as somebody who set up shop to start a community or two which goes against the current shitlib hivemind consensus 🤷

[-] Fisuxcel@exploding-heads.com 8 points 1 year ago

F it aint real alternative cuz rip our communities here

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[-] Gritzollen@exploding-heads.com 11 points 1 year ago

Are there any non-leftist communities on lemmy after EH dies?

[-] Fisuxcel@exploding-heads.com 8 points 1 year ago
[-] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 11 points 1 year ago

Hey there. BasedCount admin here! I can confirm, we are not a leftist instance. We are also not a rightist or a conservative one. We are just pro free speech. Our admin team is made of people with different political affiliations and we try to not let that get in the way of how we run the instance. Although I don't consider myself one, I probably would be a leftist myself, from an American point of view.

Anyway, we opened our instance to give !pcm@lemmy.basedcount.com a new home safe from the tyranny of the Reddit admins, but we are open to creating new communities. Anyone, feel free to shoot me a PM if you'd like to build anything on our instance.

[-] markeuzu@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Any chance you can defederate from the instances hosting iffy material? I would like to host an account there (I like the rules) but some stuff is just plain illegal to have or see in my country and I dont want it on my pc tbh.

exploding heads has them deferated so its easy to copy them over.

[-] Nerd02@lemmy.basedcount.com 3 points 1 year ago

Could you define "iffy material"? Are we talking porn or what? We can discuss it, but generally speaking we are against defederating unless the instance is malicious or is hosting illegal stuff.

If you are worried about the legal implication of having an account on an instance that (potentially) hosts content illegal in your country you should be alright, we are the ones hosting the stuff, it's saved on our server. If you don't visit the bad communities and stick to your "subscribed" feed you aren't downloading anything illegal. However

I dont want it on my pc tbh

Is a more than fair argument.

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[-] GeraldEstaban@exploding-heads.com 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I really wish you would consider keeping Exploding-heads active for a bit longer, Nostr has a lot of potential but the Twitter format isn't ideal. We need something like Reddit on the Nostr protocol (like how Lemmy is based on ActivityPub) that has communites and emphasis on those communities and thread based discussion, currently on Nostr we don't have that, I know recently it seems like they've started supporting communites but that still seems like it's in its infancy. Would be great if we could just hold on a bit longer until we get the full forum experience on Nostr, I really hate Twitter and the cluttered feeling of having posts just free-flow and can be about anything at all instead of being organized in communities and having clear subjects in different communities.

Hashtags aren't like communities either because they're just a sorting tool for the random hodge podge of posts spread to the world, they aren't a place like communities where people deliberately post about specific things, they're really just fancy flairs for annoucements.

I know that Nostr has put effort into communites but honestly I don't think it's quite ready yet, which is why in my opinion we should try and hang on a bit longer, otherwise I guess it's goodbye for me on August 31 😢

[-] lemming001@exploding-heads.com 10 points 1 year ago

I tried it. I don't get it. It's like a shitty Twitter with content I don't care about. I prefer the Lemmy format.

Check back in 1 year

[-] logen@exploding-heads.com 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yea, bad twitter doesn't really seem like it's fits my style. I'm a simple machines kind of guy, reddit and these reddit clones are close enough to scratch that itch.

Twitter though? I've disliked twitter since the day it came out. Microblogging is the worst and I don't understand why there needs to be about 15 different versions of this shit. Guess the world fell in love with it that one year when all the news media told us to use it. Seriously, I remember getting a Twitter account, not understand what good it's for other than status updates, like, when a server goes down. Then suddenly every radio station was blathering about how they can't stop sharing how they're eating a sandwich and how many times they shit so far that day.

Edit:

Nice meeting y'all, doubt I'll last on the new platform.

[-] Lovstuhagen@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago

I also specifically really liked the reddit style format and thus the very nature of my posting will change in the new place lol

Oh well.

Not a bad thing but u know.

It'll be different.

[-] Sal@mander.xyz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm disappointed that federation has not proven to be censorship resistant enough to make your presence here feel worth while. I hope that the Nostr protocol lets you build the community that you want to build without being cut-off from the broader network due to centralized decisions. I think that censorship resistance is an important property that needs to be baked into the infrastructure of our future networks.

Good luck ✌️

[-] Dio@exploding-heads.com 7 points 1 year ago

I finally went back and utilised my nostr account for ye, so I am there.

[-] admin@exploding-heads.com 5 points 1 year ago

Cool, share your address so we can follow you

[-] BreadTanky@exploding-heads.com 7 points 1 year ago

Man, and I was trying to get a fathate subreddit rival going. Oh well.

I'll check out Noster, but it doesn't seem like a great forum format. Any instances y'all think I should try and remake fathate in?

You can try on https://satellite.earth Unfortunately atm it's set up to where all post must be approved by the mod.

[-] BreadTanky@exploding-heads.com 6 points 1 year ago

yes but

  1. I'll have a bot up within two weeks to auto approve post
  2. You can still browse unapproved post. It's more of a spam control system than anything else. Nostr being so open is more open to bots
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[-] Fisuxcel@exploding-heads.com 6 points 1 year ago

What's your public key? What apps are you using?

[-] Fisuxcel@exploding-heads.com 5 points 1 year ago

amethyst and i follow you already npub1j7svsr855aq5razyl0jmjqwve590ur74gku3crx57hqyf5ysg3rqxnjgln

[-] BreadTanky@exploding-heads.com 6 points 1 year ago

I do have a follow up question for y'all, what's your favorite community and instance (asides from EH) on lemmy?

Obviously mine is fathate, but my second is probably cooking (on world or shitjustworks), and home improvement. I also like the literature instance, and I hope it grows cause I want more book talk in my life.

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Hey I'm back finally.

I don't mind moving yet again, but can one of you please explain why we have to move exactly? other than getting defederated, where is the faggotry coming from? I'm not in the loop. I know @Wigglehard@exploding-heads.com said something about server owner trannies being gay or?

Also why did the server keep going down?

What's the best way to get on Nostr on TOR?

[-] admin@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

The server problems started again when we upgraded from 18.3 to 18.4. I spent a few very late nights trying to keep them up without success.

So I would prefer to invest my time in the future (censorship resistant and user owns their I'd) rather then pouring more time into the Lemmy platform where censorship and defederation are growing in popularity.

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Sorry I havn't gotten the ansible stuff done. I'm not great with ansible which is why. And the command line tool to generate certs took me like 2 hours to set up locally. I'm happy to set up a relay manually for you if you are ever in the mood but you are always welcome to use mine and all the other free ones out there.

[-] admin@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

I will use yours for the time being and see how Nostr evolves

[-] pawtuger@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just registered my alternate here (just to see the contents here) few minutes ago, and now, this site's going to transfer, right?

[-] Sexypink@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

Don't leave just yet I hope you come to nostr with us

[-] admin@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

Yes we are moving to Nostr.

Please join us.

[-] Lovstuhagen@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

Kapow, honestly just got a little misty eyed for a minute. You are a champ. Just like master of balls.

Followed you on Nostr.

I know the admin and many other users have put a lot of time and effort here.

Let's keep it up on Gab and Nostr.

BTW I have this weird thing where I don't like to be super active on a dying site when the nostalgia is kicking me in the balls so expect a downturn in posts.

[-] LarrySwinger@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Since many are expressing disappointment in this site going down, can I take this opportunity to promote my forum, Rabbit Hole? It's a simple phpBB forum that supports free speech, allows guest posting from Tor, and aggregates the content on the landing page. I'm afraid many won't make the transition to Nostr and the community will fall apart. I made RH partially as a Saidit alternative, since that site has many problems. However, it hasn't taken off. Saidit still works so people seem to be sticking to it in spite of the flaws. If this community migrates there, there will be enough activity to make it more appealing for other users to join and I can more easily advertise it on a couple of related communities. My goal is to combine the conspiracy / freedom niche with imageboard culture and an imageboard-like design (but using phpBB for the extra features).

[-] expand@partizle.com 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This has a list of all clients including desktop and web for those of you who still actually use computers. I don't use my phone for anything social media at all. Tiny screen and shit keyboard. No thanks. edit: woops forgot to post the link https://nostr.com/clients

[-] ihatetroons@exploding-heads.com 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks. I'm basically in the same boat and have been using Linux+vpn+Firefox. Will check out some of the clients you linked to

[-] detoxlife@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago

Man this sucks but I'm glad you at least gave it a shot for all of use to join. I'm guessing this Nostr is similar to Mastodon? If anyone is interested in joining a cool Mastodon instance noagendsocial is having open enrollment to join. If your not familiar with the no agenda show podcast I would just say give it a shot.

[-] admin@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago

Mastodon has all the censorship and defederation problems of Lemmy.

Nostr doesn't

[-] ihatetroons@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago

Forgot to ask earlier if I understood correctly, but is it safe to assume that you and MOB are not the ones running the satellite.earth server and the EH room there is basically backed up via relays?

E.g. the community on that server is essentially a guest but if they ever decided to censor, we'd just grab our posts/etc from the relay and move the entire thing, history and all, somewhere else?

Neither of us are hosting the web ui satelite.earth. I could host a instance of it if you we need one. But someone else is developing that ui. I host a relay and some others here do too. Which is the backend. the wss://relay.nostrwolf.com We can backup my relay. I'm happy to give you a copy of the whole database if you want. And source code. But the way nostr works is you can broadcast your post to as many relays as you want and those post will be copied on all those relays.

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[-] squashkin@exploding-heads.com 3 points 1 year ago
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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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