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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • This hits close for me in a slightly different way.

    I kept up with very few high school friends past college, but one was my best friend who, to my knowledge, is straight. We regularly exchanged messages, and even though we were geographically challenged (he moves around the country/world a lot), I fell harder for him year after year.

    About 18 months ago (14 years we graduated from HS) I finally expressed my feelings, shortly after we got together in our hometown for the first time in a while. I received no response and haven’t heard from him since. He’s not homophobic and the worst I expected was some temporary awkwardness, so I was totally unprepared for that.

    While the crush has mostly worn off because of this, I’m still devastated that I seem to have lost my longest and best friend. So mine isn’t so much a story about one who got away as it is being spurned by one I trusted. I’m a bit bitter right now but I do hope to reconnect with him some day.









  • The “collapse” of the government in a parliamentary system means the government no longer commands the confidence of a majority of the (typically) lower house, in this case the House of Representatives. Nothing immediate happens, although the prime minister may (or may not) resign, a “caretaker” government takes over until a new elections are held.

    Here, it sounds like one of the four coalition parties has pulled out due to disagreeemnt over immigration, which the coalition parties had never agreed on.











  • You’re right that historically there has been one dominant player at a time, and that it is typically in a period of stagnation or complacency when something new comes along to initiate the shift to the next player.

    Social networks are great examples of natural monopolies, largely due to the aforementioned network effect. Without a large, diverse user base they tend to become echo chambers.

    But you helpfully point out that there are other new players in the market, to the point that a successful reddit may not be necessary to spur competition for the next great thing.



  • I don’t necessarily want reddit to die, or even see its user base devolve into dregs. I view competition as a positive. Lemmy and the broader fediverse is competition for reddit and vice versa. Both existing and thriving may make each better over time.

    Perhaps one reason we got to this point is that reddit has control over the market on this format, or at least has the dominant network effect. Many seem view this as a zero-sum game, where for one player to advance another must fall away, but I find that perspective short-sighted.

    I respect (and share, to a certain extent) the opinions and frustrations of recent defectors, but urge everyone to take a long-term view.