Ok, so I’m wondering how you explain the billions of dollars profit corporate sites generate from scraping and selling our private data? I’m also genuinely interested in how you might explain how TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or anything Google are more privacy friendly than Lemmy?

I’m not suggesting any Federated service is private. However, we should be aware of and always working towards preventing Lemmy (in context) from becoming anything like those abusive corporate data selling clusterfucks.

No, you don’t need to, but I was interested in what you might say.

Can you elaborate how making Lemmy like current popular sites will prevent tech and “tankie” content?

Total agreement. I left Reddit years ago because I thought it was toxic long before the big migration. I really dislike seeing post after post of bot created Reddit content here. It makes me angry actually. I block it as best I can, but it should just fucking stop!

How can we make it more popular?

By not doing the things that corporations do to make things popular. Do we even need Lemmy to be popular? I think we concentrate on trying to keep the Fediverse and Lemmy user focused and privacy friendly and people will naturally come over as they get burnt on the ever increasingly enshitified corporate data-theft sites. We need to be something different than the big sites. A breath of fresh air. I think people will be OK with putting up with a few quirks to escape those toxic environments. I think Lemmy is progressing just fine and I’m enjoying it.

There are some open source tax software around. Depending on your country’s requirements you should get by with it. It might be “clunky”, and you might have to persevere with some kind of inconvenience, but I’m of the opinion that any open-source transparent software, preferably a local installation, is worth using. The alternatives are usually hostile to you despite selling as convenient and friendly. Remember that any cloud solution is basically “someone else computer”. Would you put your most private financial information on some random person’s computer? Any assurance of security is a farce. There’s been many data breaches of tax prep corporate databases. Having said, that’s not the worst aspect of using most app based or online tax prep software. Most of them look at your data, profile you, and then sell that information (your private financial information) to data brokers! If you’re using the app you likely agreed to them doing that whether you’re aware or not. Check the privacy policy and terms of use. Additionally, many hold your records for ransom! You need to keep a certain number of years worth of records, and if you aren’t keeping a local copy for yourself they are the only source. Many will deny you your tax records if you haven’t payed for their services. It’s extortion. Something that belongs to you cannot be attained unless you pay them to give it to you. It ensures that you remain a customer forever. If you want to quit them, they know they will get years of payment out of you because you need access to your own financial documents. This is an insidious practice and I don’t know why anyone puts up with it. Find an accountant who is willing to work with alternate open source software. They exist.