Folks just post whatever link they want to share without thinking. Then thousands of people have to grapple with some enshitified paywall or a shitty Cloudflare CAPTCHA. We need smarter users. It just takes one lazy/naive motherfucker to cause a lot of work for people collectively.

This is inspired by archive.org going down. The sole digital public library we have in the world is a hack around shared links to shitty servers – servers that expect US to serve THEM. Servers that piss on their role as a /server/ and fail to serve us.

So here are some methods/rules that will make you a better contributor:

① Realize that the same story is often published by several sources. Whatever source you first encountered, it’s probably not decent. The web is designed to get the most enshitified page in front of you. Instead of spreading that garbage, go to Ombrelo:

https://ombrelo.im5wixghmfmt7gf7wb4xrgdm6byx2gj26zn47da6nwo7xvybgxnqryid.onion/

Search for the story there. Ombrelo will down-rank the exclusive Cloudflare garbage so the more inclusive links float to the top.

② Copy the whole text of the article into your post. This will become the most convenient and most accessible version of the article. Maybe not convenient for you but the reader’s convenience is more important (because there are thousands of them).

③ Don’t link archive.is. That’s just another shitty exclusive walled garden. Link to archive.org if it is online.

④ Don’t create an original thread on a Cloudflared community or you are just worsening the problem of jailing more content in an exclusive place. These are some of the mainstream shitty oppressive Cloudflare instances:

  • lemmy.world
  • lemm.ee
  • sh.itjust.works
  • lemmy.ca
  • lemmy.zip
  • aussie.zone
  • lemmy.one
  • lemdro.id
  • programming.dev
  • literature.cafe
  • beehaw.org ← not Cloudflare, but Tor-hostile thus exclusive

Most people are ignorant and have no idea that by using those places they are jailing content in the worlds biggest centralized walled garden. Now that you know, you can choose more wisely. Use lemmyverse.net to find the community you’re after. And use the filter to nix the above nodes. If it does not show the community you need outside of the above giant walled garden, then create the community in the open free world. If you are desperate for visibility you can cross-post to those shitty places above. At least some of the subscribers in the walled garden will learn of your more free venue.

Follow the advice RMS gives to people who insist on feeding Facebook, but substitute the above Cloudflare list. Ensure everything you author is reachable somewhere in the open free world. Only show a minimal number of posts on Cloudflare-pawned or exclusive nodes. Keep in mind when you post to those places, you are feeding an oppressive corporation while blocking some demographics of your fellow human beings from access. That’s some fucked up boot licking when done knowingly.

⑤ If you want to link a youtube video, yikes. That sucks because (at least at the moment) the free world resources (Invideous) have been rendered dysfunctional by Google. But in the very least, you can copy the Youtube transcript into the body of your post. If you have the video up in Youtube, you can click into the transcript. I forgot how… something like expanding the description then details, or some buried place. There is also https://www.tubetranscripts.com/

⑥ If you want to link a NY Times article, we’re all fucked… plz don’t do it. Look for the story elsewhere. NYtimes has this onion: https://www.nytimesn7cgmftshazwhfgzm37qxb44r64ytbb2dj3x62d2lljsciiyd.onion/

which used to give full access to content, but now it’s as enshitified as the clearnet site. For BBC, there is:

https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/

I don’t recall if BBC’s onion is free-er. For medium.com, there is https://scribe.rip/ (many instances thereof). I suggest also searching here:

https://search.fabiomanganiello.com/search

That guy has gone to some trouble to do link replacements with better versions. Though i’m confused because he is no longer replacing Reddit links with mirrors… wtf.