Savaran

Sounds like a great reason to re-nationalize the public utility companies.

Word it the other way, “we’re the official country we’ve always been, but if those upstarts on the mainland want to secede then fine, we’ll let them”

Either way it’s just propaganda phrasing.

Except one is a useless celebrity that can be ignored into irrelevance, and the other is a Supreme Court justice with the direct ability to aid in destroying our democracy.

Company blatantly violates terms of service, surprised that access is shut off.

I wish I could get my cat to bring the toys back after she stalks them

The point is this isn’t a quick thing. Go long enough in an environment as a regular and you’ll feel safer and more able to open up.

But if you’re going to argue with the advice provided then why ask?

So part of the coffee shop advice is true. Even if you feel it’s superficial to start. There’s actually a lot to be said for “fake it until you make it” type socialization. Showing up regularly at the same place, be kind to the staff, learn their names, and little by little you’ll find you start recognizing other regulars and the you. It’s okay for connections to start out not super real or deep, it still works those social muscles out. After that it’s just time investment.

The largest problem I see is that I would use reddit to keep up on local events, since at the time I preferred it to using Twitter or FB for the same. Now I avoid all three but the community that posted for the local stuff in my city didn’t move to Lemmy or Mastodon. I don’t have a way to post the local stuff myself because if I had a good way to keep track of it I wouldn’t have needed reddit for it in the first place!

Which I guess is just me unhappy that more of the communities didn’t move over, I really don’t have a solution to the problem. Other than continuing to engage here as often as I can and hoping for the best.

I’m in a similar boat. The only major issue I’ve found people are likely to run into is mass IP blocks from MS/Google. Where do you host it? Cloud provider these days or colo type place?

My current cat hates whistling, same thing, she makes it very clear to stop

I finally ended up going to a larger mail service (paid, but free) that just provides an outgoing smtp relay for me. Even on a busy month I send far below the 1k emails they require before they start charging, and their servers IP ranges aren’t blanket blocked by the Google’s of the world.

If you know me you would have messaged in some format that is more reliable than calling on the phone.

If you called you either don’t know me or it’s important enough you can leave a message.