Hello world!

We would like to start by saying thank you ❤, no really 🙏 THANK YOU to ALL the moderators out there!

Without you folks, we would have no one to help keep our community safe and help build the communities both here on Lemmy.World and on other fine instances. To this end, we want to make sure your voices are heard 📣 loud and clear📣.

So, in the spirit of transparency, we would like everyone to know that we are looking to help out the folks working on Sublinks. Over the last several months we have grown to be more than just Lemmy.World. We’ve added platforms such as Pixelfed and Sharkey to help offer our users more diverse options for expressing themselves online. We still are very committed to Mastodon as well.

We DO NOT plan on moving away from Lemmy as a software platform at this time. Any changes in our core services would need to be discussed extensively internally AND externally with our community members. We firmly believe in the growth of the Fediverse and without the users, there would only be software, and that’s no fun!

Sooo…

The Sublinks team has written up a little survey, which we feel is both thorough and inclusive. It covers a wide range of topics, such as user privacy, and community engagement, along with trying to gauge things that are difficult when moderating.

Also please be aware the information collected by this survey is completely anonymous. As many of us in the social sciences background know, if you want the REAL feelings of individuals, they need to feel safe to express themselves.

👉Moderation Survey HERE👈

Please feel free to comment in this thread, we will do our best to respond to any genuine questions.

We look forward to hearing from each and every one of you!

=Sincerely,
Fedihosting Foundation

PS … also if this sounds like a corporate press release to you folks, we still punk 🤘😜🤘

  • Zangoose@lemmy.one
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    3 months ago

    A lot of people here seem to think that Java code is awful and disgusting and no projects should ever use it. The thing about popular languages is that more code existing in a language inevitably means a lot of it ends up being bad. The same thing will likely happen to rust as it gets popular, but that isn’t exactly a problem. It’s possible to have a well-maintained Java codebase.

    Debate between functionality of the actual programming languages at this point is pretty meaningless, if they have good development standards then a Java program could end up just as well maintained as rust. Any time saved by compiler enforcement of specific standards (like no using null) would be lost by the fact that the devs don’t know rust tooling. You could just have a requirement in PRs that null isn’t used. Both Java and Rust have usable frameworks for REST API development, so using one or the other comes down to familiarity.

    The idea that programming languages make code suddenly good or bad is pretty silly. Different languages have different language-level guarantees which can help produce good or working code. That being said, it’s not like it’s impossible to write good Java code, just like it’s not impossible to write bad rust code. Most people seem to be conflating guaranteed functionality and safety with maintainability, stability, and readability. Rust is still a new language, so although it’s great, Java will probably be the better choice for the latter 3 qualities.

    That being said, something like Kotlin would probably have been a better starting point since it can interact with Java (and works like Java in most cases) but also has some nice improvements like stricter null checking (Kotlin nulls are treated similarly to rust’s Option<T>, it’s just described as T? instead and the syntax is generally a lot more concise). There’s also the benefit of being able to write some code in Kotlin and some in Java since they are mostly cross-compatible.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      The idea that programming languages make code suddenly good or bad is pretty silly.

      I generally agree, you can write good and bad code in any language.

      However, I also think it is equally naive to think that the tool you use has no influence on the end result. It does have an influence. In my experience, exception-based error handling like that used by Java and many other older languages just doesn’t work that well. It’s too easy to forget to catch them and make mistakes. And there’s a host of other stuff that Rust improves on.

      This really shouldn’t be surprising. Rust is a newer language, of course it would try to improve the status quo with the experience we’ve gained from previous languages like Java. It even went and invented whole new concepts like ownership and the borrow checker to make it work. I imagine that future languages will have similar concepts, just like many languages today have garbage collectors or other common functionality.

      So yes, programming language choice is a tenuous thing… But I don’t think it’s correct to say it doesn’t matter.

      Also if we do entertain the notion that it doesn’t matter, the reasoning for Sublinks get even weirder, as the argument that Java is a better choice falls out the window.

      • Zangoose@lemmy.one
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        3 months ago

        Sorry for being unclear, I wasn’t trying to say language doesn’t make a difference (e.g. static vs. dynamic typing would make a big difference). I also personally like the error handling of rust a lot more, even if it does take a bit getting used to when my education has mostly been in languages with Java-style exception handling.

        I mostly meant that the language-level performance and features aren’t necessarily holding the codebase back in a debate between Java and Rust for a lemmy-like REST API. As long as the developers are aware of the pitfalls of Java (null, mutation, error-handling, etc.), it’s possible to have good code.

        I just think that from a maintainability standpoint, a Java-style codebase is much easier for most people to read, understand, and maintain because that’s what most people are familiar with. Especially when many of the developers are volunteer contributors, that type of thing could make a big difference.

        The main problem with Rust is that it’s only starting to get adoption now, it isn’t taught in most education curriculums, and it’s industry use is pretty small at the moment. It’s kind of a catch-22, because rust adoption won’t increase unless large projects like lemmy exist. But that’s also why I think having more options is also fine. Sublinks might get more developers short term because of its language, but that also doesn’t mean it’ll completely replace Lemmy. Both projects can exist at the same time, and hopefully benefit from each other’s development.

  • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I’m excited to see more and more activity pub compatible software. These projects are created and maintained by just a few people and could stop being maintained at any point. Many of these platforms lack features that make moderation a reasonable task among other less desirable quirks. It’s one of the reasons I decided against hosting my own instance.

    I think it is a shame that the creators of these projects lead with stating which programming language and methodology they’re using. IT DOES NOT MATTER. This is a major sticking point for the pedants. Just tell us what it does, leave the technical aspects of the project in the docs for the people that it actually matters to.

    The mix of microblogging and threaded posts should be interesting. Kbin has both, but they are not intermingled. I personally don’t use microblogging, but I do see screenshots of posts on here, which is basically the same thing I suppose.

    As far as complaining about fracturing of the userbase, well, this is an issue across the Internet. There’s Facebook groups, Reddit, message boards, YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and too many other platforms to list, all fracturing topic enthusiasts and competing for users. I believe that more projects will allow the fediverse to contribute to grow and eventually mature into something a lot of people will use. More projects and forks means more ways to try new ideas and improvement without a single project owner preventing growth of the entire ecosystem.

    • Jelloeater@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      That’s the whole thing. It’s not about the software per say, it’s about the users and the whole concept of a federated internet. We all really believe in bringing back the best of the old internet.

    • Jelloeater@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Comments like this are why that survey was created in the first place. Needing info on how to do things better.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    PS … also if this sounds like a corporate press release to you folks, we still punk 🤘😜🤘

    "YES FELLOW KIDS, WE ARE ALSO, HOW YOU SAY, STILL DOWN WITH “IT” "

  • 柊 つかさ@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I don’t see why the moderation tools couldn’t just be improved on Lemmy. The new moderator view has been very useful for me as a moderator. We already have Lemmy and Kbin. The Sublinks about page doesn’t say how it is going to be different/better than the existing options apart from moderation tools. On top of that it is made in Java instead of Rust? That’s just going backwards in my opinion… This post also does not state why you guys are interested in a Lemmy alternative. You could have named some issues you have with it and why something else would be better(just like the Sublinks guys could have done in their about page). I started my communities here and put a lot of effort in them. I can’t just switch instances without destroying most of the work done. The language used here really makes it sound like this instance is on borrowed time. Being able to transfer communities to another instance would be nice…

    • Rooki@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Hi,

      thanks for your ideas, moderation isnt just a community, its the whole instance. The moderation lacks for instance admins the most. For example reports, with the current setup it is impossible to search for one specific report or sort by community,person,reporter,types. The sort order is currently somewhere else where it should be, it sorts on the server by old => new and client side new => old. I dont know if this was wanted but it just creates additionally to the lack of sort or filter options a issue for instance admins, that want to look for urgent reports at the top of the reports.

      The programming language is just a preference, i already said this to mutliple people, this was a choice of convinience and it is still a valid option for a rest api.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      3 months ago

      I don’t see why the moderation tools couldn’t just be improved on Lemmy.

      There is no reason it couldn’t. The main problem seems to be that the Sublinks devs don’t like the Lemmy devs and they don’t want to bother learning Rust either and would rather rewrite the whole thing in Java.

      They are of course totally free to do that, but it does seem easier to just improve Lemmy instead of building a whole new Fediverse service just to improve mod tools.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Honestly though if they need to learn Rust to do that, it might not be a good idea. I’d rather have a very good implementation in Java than a very amateur one in Rust. Depending on the implementing dev, of course.

        • nutomic@lemmy.ml
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          Its not necessary to learn Rust to improve mod tools in Lemmy. There can be external mod tools implemented as api clients using any language, such as LemmyAutomod. Its also possible to add plugin support for Lemmy, which again can be implemented in various languages thanks to webassembly

  • Sprawlie@lemmy.world
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    There are definitely some federated servers that need to be removed from network

    Lemmy.ml in particular is being used to push specific voices and banning anyone else

    Banned apparently from asklemmy on there because one asshole interpreted me supporting Israel. When my comment exclusively was pointing out that the past the use made was low effort trolling meme in a thread complaining about trolling

    So thank you [email protected] for directly evidencing that you, and your node are hateful little agenda pushing shits.

    I want to love lemmy

    But the federated model will fail if nodes like the .ml continue to online and assholes like this mod have zero accountability

    I honestly don’t feel like because I’d these problems this site is any better than Reddit.

    We also need the power to block a node completely from our feeds.(found it in filters) Also to block and ban entire nodes from our own communities as i don’t want any lemmy.ml users in my sub

    Keep being salty little shits ml users. Your proving the point to the rest of the lemmy world

    The biggest mod tool: manual ban entry for preventing certain users. Looking for a way to ban from a community an individual before they show up.

  • laverabe@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Is there an alternate survey site that could be used other than Microsoft? The site is pretty much impossible to see in dark browser mode as well (light grey text on white background).

    Aside from that though, what is the difference between Lemmy and sublinks?

      • Rooki@lemmy.world
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        Better mod tool and a more common and well known programming language. A seperate team for UI/Design and API, so that the development goes faster and goes to multiple checks before it gets released. It is lemmy api compatible, so your iphone or android app will still work.

        Sublinks has a roadmap too, to give everyone a glimpse where everything is and what is planned. And Sublinks developers welcome everyone that want to support the project, even non developers that want to input their ideas or personal experience.

        Sublinks will add some moderation tools for mods and instance admins, to have a better control over their instance and to reduce spam, trolls or illegal content ( not pirated but that BAD porn stuff )

  • recursive_recursion [they/them]@programming.dev
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    While I’d like to contribute to the survey, I’m not comfortable using a Microsoft form in addition to providing uniquely identifying info

    I’m still willing to contribute in other ways tho🤗

  • m3t00🌎@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    thanks to instance-wide mod efforts. take the drudgery out of chasing most spammy types. out here getting fat.

    • Jelloeater@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The mod team here works very hard to filter spam out, it’s actually really bad if you don’t have automation and a large team.

  • Serinus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If I’m looking to build skills in a new language, that language is probably going to be Rust and not Java. One of those languages has a bright future. The other is going to look a lot like Fortran in 15 years.

    I expect real performance issues with Java at some point, especially compared to Rust. The initial difficulty in picking up the language is worth it if I never have to see another Factory pattern that only returns one type. Why just use a constructor when you can use idiopathic idiomatic java?

    • Rooki@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      We chose that, as we already saw the things that can be done wrongly with rust. And no one of the sublinks team can do rust really, so it was just a matter of what languages can be learned faster and/or have already good knowledge about a programming language.

      If you really want performance, please write your code in binary, then you have no compiler, no runtime just plain binary code, it will be fast but unreadable ( like rust if wrongly done ). Java is just a good old and known programming language. There are already some techniques to improve performance and / or cluster your application up. With an load balancers. Something like lemmy tried, but a little bit easier and extendable.

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Java isn’t inherently better at running as a distributed system than any other language is. If you want a service that can horizontally scale infinitely, learn Erlang and use the BEAM VM.

      • LeroyJenkins@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        way to tell devs to fuck off and stop complaining. ngl I’m interested in this space, know java well, and still was immediately turned off by Java. SPRING BOOT no less. does your internal team work with anybody that has experience in building TEAMS and not just software? if you did, you guys should know what devs want and it’s NOT writing java sb for free. this is a bad take, especially coming from an engineering leader.

        • Rooki@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          We have a bigger main developers team tham just 2 guys. Everybody has their favorite language. Its a gopd take especially in tge statistics.

      • ripcord@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        If you really want performance, please write your code in binary, then you have no compiler, no runtime just plain binary code, it will be fast but unreadable

        What a stupid, dismissive, and worthless take.

        • Rooki@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Its a stupid take, to dismisy java and JuSt UsE RuSt. We chose java for a reason, we want to get going with development, that cant be done with slowly building up a rust team. As they are already bussy on lemmy. So it would be just a fight for developers too.

    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
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      I expect real performance issues with Java at some point

      FWIW I think the performance is probably not the biggest of deals. Java isn’t like Python, it’s not super slow or anything.

      That said, there are other reasons to favour Rust. It’s a newer language that has learned from the mistakes of the past, such as overzealous OOP with inheritance and the billion dollar mistake, null pointers. Add to that a host of problems many programs run into with concurrency and shared memory and you’ve got a whole lot of potential bugs.

      Potential bugs that are quite impossible in Rust (assuming you don’t use unsafe Rust but you definitely don’t need that for a web server).

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        In normal use cases I’d agree about performance. But on the scale of Lemmy it’s absolutely likely to make a difference long term.

        And if you’re going to use a managed language, why not something that has less baggage and a brighter future, like C#? It’s as open and multiplatform as Java these days with less of the overzealous, Java-specific OOP culture.

        • Blaze@dormi.zone
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          3 months ago

          Feel free to start your own, to be honest I feel it’s like the only major language missing now, as we have PHP with Mbin, Rust with Lemmy, Python with Piefed and Java with Sublinks

  • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world
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    I literally just got permanently banned from reddit because I criticized some mods who mass reported it as “harassment”. I’m looking for reddit alternatives and found this. Please tell me the mods here are respectful civil and levelheaded?

        • Jelloeater@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          An instance is a server that provides both a place to login and communities to browse.

          You can have a account on Lemmy.World, but browse and comment on communities on servers such as lemm.ee. Likewise folks that have accounts registered on lemm.ee can post on communities on lemmy.world.

          The servers talk to each other via the ActivityPub protocol. I’ve seen folks use the email analogy, but I think it confuses more folks referring to it like that.

          • Jelloeater@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Just to clarify for more techy folks, it can also be a group of servers as well, it’s all based off a single domain name for inbound requests. Outbound, they just need to announce the right return domain.

    • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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      If it helps at all, I have had a much better time on here than I ever did on Reddit. It isn’t perfect, but I at least feel like I am not going to be punished for existing, even if people disagree with me. All mod logs are public, so there is at least some transparency there. So far, I like lemmy.world and dbzer0.

  • Imperor@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    So if someone has a community on lemmy.world, would they need to move to sublinks at some point? Where and how would one do that? Asking for myself.

    Thanks for all your work here.

    • Rooki@lemmy.world
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      This will be done automatically, with a migration script. The user doesnt need to do anything.

      Nothing should be lost, we will have a announcement up when it comes up. But this will be still at least few months to that day.

      • hungrycat@lemmy.world
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        This is the first comment I’ve scrolled to where someone has asked about what moving to Sublinks means in terms of practicality, so I’ll hitch my question here too.

        To be sure I understand, are you saying that any existing community will be automatically migrated to Sublinks? Would I need to also create a new user account with Sublinks or would this also be migrated? Posts, comments, up/downvotes? Are those all migrated?

        I’m just having trouble understanding what a move to Sublinks means in a very practical sense for users and communities. Is this just a backend change that I—as a user, as a mod—would likely not notice? Thanks for any clarification you can provide.

        • Rooki@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Everything will be migrated, you will only see some minir downtime when the migration happens. But it will be announced and it will still take some time

  • Rose@lemmy.world
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    I run a community of over 11K almost by myself on reddit and I can’t say I struggle to moderate it. Here on Lemmy I post to one I set up, but I’m the only one doing it. That said, I saw virtually no moderation tools, so it would definitely help to have something. However, I don’t want my posts to get lost or be spread across two or more communities, as opposed to having everything searchable in one place. What would be the technical obstacle in copying the posts and preserving the dates? If size is an issue, they could be capped to a specific size, only with the metadata transferred in those cases.

    • Rooki@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      We will be looking into that after the current form is over.

      Thank you for your great idea! This could give sublinks just a little bit better understanding on the overall situation.

  • j4k3@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    After mulling this post over for awhile:

    • .world has many instances in the fediverse and existed long before Lemmy.world. Ruud has never, to my knowledge, posed anything like this post about another potential fedi service. The other fediverse services have coexisted without need to position them against each other. This difference in approach implies intentions, if not outright actions with the illusion of user input.
    • The prevalence of Linux users on this platform is common knowledge. So much so, it is a common complaint from users that feel excluded or uninterested in Linux. The use of Linux implies a distrust for Microsoft, and for the most part megacorporations. While the survey creator (sublinks) may receive anonymous data, Microsoft is absolutely correlating information that comes across their server and selling that data. In my opinion, this should have been an obvious thing most of the Linux community will not participate in, (myself included as one of the most active users and a mod). And it reflects poorly on the FOSS nature of sublinks. A FOSS survey system is needed badly for effective engagement.
    • As many of us in the social sciences background know... Please explain the intention of this statement. I don’t mean to be cynical, but to me, this implies I have been part of some science experiment of unknown intentions and implications; at the extreme end of possible meanings. I thought we were a FOSS community, many with a self hosting interest. A social sciences interest and background has entirely different motivations and raises concern for me.
    • Ruud@lemmy.worldM
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      .world has many instances in the fediverse and existed long before Lemmy.world. Ruud has never, to my knowledge, posed anything like this post about another potential fedi service. The other fediverse services have coexisted without need to position them against each other. This difference in approach implies intentions, if not outright actions with the illusion of user input.

      I see my name mentioned here, but I don’t understand the remark. Positioning fediverse services against each other? The team has posted this to get input to assist the Sublinks development team in getting moderation tools in their software. I think it’s good there’s many options in software to choose from. Lemmy, Kbin, Main, Piefed, Sublinks. I also run mastodon, but also similar platforms like firefish, sharkey, akkoma etc. Users can choose. Nothing is positioned against each other. They all work together as 1 large Fediverse. And, the more instances, the better. The fediverse ideally should exist of many instances instead of a few large ones. (Yes, I agree that having 1 big Lemmy server isn’t ideal. But that’s another discussion.)

      • AchtungDrempels@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Aaah, so the plan is to run sublinks on, say, sublinks.world and keep lemmy.world running with lemmy? Like you do with the mastodon alternatives?

        • Ruud@lemmy.worldM
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          I don’t know yet. I think that’s something we need to discuss with the team and get input from the users. (Yes, I did register sublinks.world :-) )

      • j4k3@lemmy.world
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        Hey Ruud. Overall the post comes across as if it has odd intentions. It does not clearly state the purpose of the post but it explains a bunch of what it is not. In corporate America and American politics we are constantly getting these kinds of messages. It almost always means everything that is addressed in the message is about to happen. The person that wrote the information is trying to tell the reader how to think instead of providing information and allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

        You have mentioned your other servers in the fediverse in the past, and it was always in this type of informative, “draw your own conclusions” type of post. I appreciate that, and can respect it.

        The proper way to introduce sublinks would be in a similar vain, to simply state that it exists and what its merits are versus Lemmy. If change may be coming to Lemmy.world, simply explain the reasoning behind those decisions. It is great if you can involve the community, but the involvement should be following the principals and alignment of the community to engage with them. Microsoft as a service for providing my personal details is not aligned with my values. Perhaps if I lived in the EU I would feel differently, but in the USA I have little choice but to avoid these companies entirely.

        A survey is often a tool used to gauge how to administer a change that will be unpopular, and this usually means the change in direction addressed in the survey has already been decided.

        My concern could be completely misplaced. I have not punched a hole in my firewall for Microsoft or agreed to their terms of service to see the content of the survey. The only information I have is what is posted here.

        My concern has nothing to do with the obvious joke. I am concerned that this post does not describe its purpose clearly, it implies major changes are coming, and it promotes feedback in a way that does not align with my principals as a very active user here. On a separate note, the comment about sociology is curious for its unsolicited randomness. Do you run any scientific experiments in the background or allow other to do so?

        I default to a skeptical line of questioning , but I am not trying to be negative or accusatory. It is mostly a desire to learn and understand what is happening under the surface.