Post #15977

2025-11-25 00:37 UTC

I left mainstream platforms completely burned out and found the fediverse, and god it felt like I could finally breathe again without someone tracking every single thing I did. But even here I kept wondering who actually protects my data when someone comes asking for it, and I realized I didn't want to trust anyone else with that answer. So I run https://goingdark.social now because I wanted that certainty for myself and my community. When someone demands data or tries to shut down what we talk about, I'm the one who gets to say no and take whatever comes with that. I pay for this out of pocket because it matters to me, and your admin is probably doing the same thing, maybe a father of three running a server from his home office, a single mom keeping her community safe between work shifts, an older gentleman who remembers what the internet used to feel like before corporations owned everything. That's how this whole thing works, regular people running small spaces because they care, all of us building something no single company or government can control. We're doing this together and every small instance matters. Support your local instance admin however you can. They're keeping this alive for all of us. #Fediverse #Privacy #Decentralization #supportyourlocalinstance #mastodon #socialmedia

Replies (6)

@kevinrns@mstdn.social 2025-11-25 00:40

@watchfulcitizen Hat tipped

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@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange 2025-11-25 03:13

@watchfulcitizen :blobheartcat:

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@SusanneDoering@zirk.us 2025-11-25 05:08

@watchfulcitizen Looks great - you make me think ...

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@DresdnerForschungswerk@dresden.network 2025-11-25 12:33

@watchfulcitizen Nicely put!

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@the_turtle@mastodon.sdf.org 2025-11-25 23:44

@watchfulcitizen i was that old guy for years. My old server is sitting patiently in my stereo room downstairs, waiting for me to light it up. IBM Domino hosting all my email and over 20 domains. I'll get around to it. Bandwidth is basically free, paid for by Jean's employer because she's on calls and zooms all damn day.

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@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot 2025-11-26 08:49

@watchfulcitizen Congratulations, but it helps to build a team around you to share the load when you get ill or burned out. I speak as an 'older gentleman' who used to run a mastodon node, and still runs some internet services for his community, but who is facing the fact that my ability to do so is increasingly brittle. Best wishes and good luck!

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