Gregory's Server
But all of that makes everything I'm watching right now fill me up with a million emotions. It's great to see success. It's frightening to think that being too successful might make you a target.
There's another thing I haven't said, I think: I almost didn't transition because I *knew* I'm a prominent trans engineer, and I know what happens to prominent trans engineers. Fucked up, right?
And like, I guess it's just *weird* to see this thing I've poured myself into, killed myself over, that I've never stopped trying to figure out how to figure out how to get to the next phase, suddenly get all this attention. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE A RICH DUDE GOT UPSET AT A BAD JOKE SITE GETTING KICKED OFF FOR MAKING A TRANSPHOBIC JOKE
You wanna hear a joke? That a bunch of people who are claiming they're all for "freedom of speech" are kissing the feet of *centralization* now that it's at the end of a despot who might get away with letting them say racist, sexist, queerphobic bullshit.
Just watching all this, it's all too real. It's all too personal. It's hard to look away from.
I'm proud of the fediverse, as it exists. I'm not responsible for it, but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I'm one of the many people who helped make it happen. I don't need to be famous for it... being famous for it is probably even unsafe. The people who need to know, know. That's good enough. There are a lot of other people who worked on the spec, like Jessica, Erin, Evan, Amy, who don't get nearly the amount of recognition I have. I'm grateful the right people know what I did and will listen to me.
But also the fediverse, as it's rolled out, is simultaneously the best option we have for this moment in history and also not ready. It's not the long term answer. We're working on that though. Hell, I'm lucky that I got to co-found an organization that might be able to build that future.
A few years ago I was working 60 hour weeks trying to make this damn ActivityPub thing happen even though all I heard all the time was that there's no way it was going to make it. Now I'm working 70 hour weeks trying to build the next thing. I'd really like to, ya know, get it down to a plain and simple 40. But even more so, I'd like this work we're starting, for the next step of things, to survive.
And someone else will probably be known for that work, but in general... that happens. Hell, you're lucky to make an ounce of impact in this world, let again get some recognition. And recognition isn't always so great either. It can be a real curse. Especially if you, yourself, are somehow against the grain of things. But also just in general. I care more about getting things done than anything. I only need to be well known enough to get the things I care about moving forward, and that's it really.
Anyway, rant over. I've been holding this in for a while. Thanks for listening, to those who did. I'm glad ActivityPub is taking off. I'm looking forward to the future. The state we're in is just the beginning. You'll see. And thanks for being here. Thanks for making it all worthwhile, making these efforts worth their while.
I'm proud of the fediverse, as it exists. I'm not responsible for it, but I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I'm one of the many people who helped make it happen. I don't need to be famous for it... being famous for it is probably even unsafe. The people who need to know, know. That's good enough. There are a lot of other people who worked on the spec, like Jessica, Erin, Evan, Amy, who don't get nearly the amount of recognition I have. I'm grateful the right people know what I did and will listen to me.