Thank you for the update!

I don't see why we should restrict "regional" communities. Maybe when Lemmy gets bigger this can be done, but now, if creating more regional-specific communities bring more people to the Fediverse, I don't see a problem. Surely you can enforce moderation standards if required?

There may be factors about solarpunk that for some reason only apply to regions, and supporting other languages might not be a bad idea surely? Ideas and good articles will bleed through to other communities eventually, surely?

"This is awful, but what can we do?"

er, I can think of a simple thing to do about it....

Well that's shit. They used to keep loads of old documentation (even though they kept moving them and breaking links) for corporate stuff. It was great to be able to look up specs of old servers etc and get drivers.

Haha! I reported it to ebay. Man that was a faff, there's no category to report dangerous / lying listings. The chat system was crap too. I had to say "I want to speak to a human", and it put me through.

Not sure how Porn = Terrorism. Sounds like mission creep to me.... Oh well, I guess it makes a change from using Anti-Terror laws to stop people putting the wrong things in wheelie bins: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3333366/Half-of-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-bin-crimes.html

He may have a point, but as someone else pointed out, a lot of these self-hosted services are running on out of date equipment that wouldn't be used for anything else.

I run all my Fediverse stuff on an old Dell R620 that a friend gave me. Mine is totally specialised for hosting.... Yes, it is overkill for my ~10 users, but hopefully more friends will join. Also, it's not the most efficient way of doing it - the device is probably 10 years old and uses ~130w 24/7. A newer NUC or equivalent would probably only use 40-50w. However, who else is going to use this machine? No company would touch it, "everything" is going cloudy, so it would either be stripped for parts and the rest dumped either in landfill or sent to some 3rd world country.

You can claim it's a waste of electricity to use it, but a lot of energy and materials were used to create the server in the first place, and most of that will be lost, even with recycling.

People run Fediverse (and other services) on a Raspberry PI - fine for a couple of users, but too restrictive for my use. These things only use 5-20w, which is amazing.

My electricity supply is from a "green" supplier, and I have a local SolarPV system that powers the system when there is enough sun. Last summer I managed to run it for over a month using my local system only. There's no reason that we can't build more renewable sources of electricity. Here in the UK there's a proposed 140 DCs in in the planning phases, which is ridiculous, all for AI BS.

Self-hosting isn't for everyone of course - not every household should do this, but there's no reason why groups of friends, families or "activity" groups couldn't do this effectively.

It's absolutely optimized for the long term - how many Google services have been discontinued when there are still users, just not enough to be profitable? Self-hosted services can run as long people are interested. A mail server created 20 years ago is still compatible and useable today because it uses ratified, slow-moving standards.

no kidding. Even 35A is enough to melt a 12v plug spring into the plastic surround.... don't ask me how i know....

yeah, welcome to the new order :(

Still, it would be nice to see. Nothing wrong with second hand hardware - most of my setup is second hand. Here is a rather rubbish diagram and short explanation of how it is set up: https://mammut.gogreenit.net/@chewie/113075530030174991

I've never seen that connector in a car......

Sounds good to me! Luckily I have been able to WFH recently, and as the weather is nice, I can sit outside with my laptop, and listen and watch the birds in the garden ❤️

I also have a Birdnet PI set up which records and counts them, and you can listen to the audio stream from anywhere. A few people have their Birdnet systems accessible from the internet, so you can listen in to birds in other countries!

Sorry! Added 😊

Looking at nature in our garden, helping my other half grow vegetables and herbs (not enough to ever be self-sufficient, but it feels nice to eat the results). Trying generate as much solar power as possible (which again, isn't enough to be off-grid, but enough for an emergency). Watching our rabbits grow and interact with each other ❤️ Finding interesting people on the fediverse, and trying to get other people to try it (which isn't very effective at the moment!)

Edit: We are watching Clarksons' Farm, which is entertaining, but also raises important points about our food system.

No, some things last for a long time, others don't.

For example:

1. We bought 3 pallets of Almond milk (by mistake! I only wanted 1) at an auction a few years ago. It is all in 1L tetrapaks, and although it went out of date in August 2024, it is still good, and we use it every day.
2. Crisps - We have a pallet of Walkers cheese and onion crisps in "aluminium" (mylar?) bags bought at a similar time. They are still crunchy and taste fine. Some Morrisons own-brand dorito-type corn chips in normal plastic (with see-through section) bags which came in the same package, didn't fare so well. They lasted less than a year after their BBE date.
3. Organic Seaweed sheets - these were also packed in "aluminium" (mylar?) bags too (with moisture inhibitor "pillows". They lasted well past their BBE date, but don't taste nice when eaten straight from the bag - maybe this is something to do with the oil that was used (and possibly the same reason as why the "doritos" didn't last long)?
4. Beer - different types age differently. I don't like beer, but I had loads of Fosters and Stella left over from a party. Both had similar BBE dates. After about a year past their BBE, the Fosters cans started frothing when opening (even though they weren't shaken), and made my stomach feel a bit weird (I was trying to make shandies out of them as I can cope with that!). Stella Artois, on the other hand, was still fine at the same point, and for several months after.
5. Pepperami - I ate one that was 10 years out of date. It tasted fine, and I didn't die, which was a bonus.

I don't risk it it with meat so much, but you can usually tell as it changes colour obviously.

As I'm trying to eat less meat and more vegan alternatives, a lot of the alternatives to sausages and burgers etc. last a long time after their BBE. Recently one vegan burger had a bit of mold on it, so I scraped it off before cooking it and it tasted fine - I wouldn't have done that with a meat version :/

It really annoys me when people throw stuff out the day after something goes out of date. Whatever it is won't become immediately radioactive/poisonous, are they that stupid?? grrr

I wish I could recommend Fairphone. I bought a "2" new a few years ago as my first smart phone, and while it worked, it wasn't very robust. I had to replace the "bottom module" (USB charging port and microphone) because it broke, which is ok, these things happen. Then, about a year ago, it went wrong again. I went back to the online shop, and the bottom module was there again. I went to buy it.... "out of stock"... "please try asking on the forums"... seriously? Go to the forums, loads of people wanting a replacement module, nobody selling theirs.

Soon after I get an email saying, "good news, android is now available for the Fairphone 2", and they were singing and dancing about how it was a load of hassle etc. etc. to port. Great, but no use to me if I can't get spares.

Much to the annoyance of my other half, I bought a Fairphone 3. After a while that started going buggy and not charging. There were a few other issues with it, so I thought I would send it back to get fixed. When I read the details of sending it back, they said to make sure it was backed up as it will be wiped "due to GDPR".. wtf??? That has nothing to do with GDPR - that's your poor data hygiene.

My Fairphone 3 isn't rooted, and I don't use google accounts, so it would be very difficult to back it up properly. I understand, if it's totally broken, there may be no way to retrieve the data, so you might loose it all, but that has nothing to do with GDPR.

I've not bothered sending it back, so it's yet another chunk of e-waste. A mate gave me his old Samsung s20, so I'm going to use that until it breaks.

I really want the company to succeed, but at this rate, it's cheaper and probably better for the environment if I just buy a second hand old "flagship" phone instead.

I am never buying Fairphone again 😢

Done, but I feel there could have been more questions about the sustainability aspect.

Just "will your instance be running in 12 month's time" wasn't really granular enough imo

It looks like even the forum is gone now, and generates 403 errors for me 😞

I like the MorningStar brand, but they aren't cheap. I wrote a review here if you're interested: http://www.gogreenit.net/index.php?page=morningstar-tristar-60a-mppt

Got a link? that name isn't very unique :(

Yes, I first found out about MorningStar when I was trying to find a charge controller that had a proper network port and didn't need a stupid app to configure it. I bought one and I really liked it, so I have 4 of the now.

I've spent a couple of years trying to find a decent inverter (eg. not cloudy and supports standard protocols), and it has been hard work. So far so good with this one, although their modbus support is buggy :(