Please Stand By: Technical Difficulties

The great loss of the Libre Solutions Network PeerTube instance

Bad news: The PeerTube instance is (irreparably) broken.

While doing an upgrade I mistakenly wiped my database. Due to being short on time, this was being done over several days which meant my regular backup overwrote the old data. It only became clear when this morning I noticed my instance would run but all the data was gone. To be frank this is pretty disheartening. Winter has always been challenging for me, but this one especially so. I’ve taken on a lot and it has taken a lot out of me. While my personal weight loss journey continues going well, it seems that the ‘big picture’ of the ‘freedom fight’ has gotten far more dire.

The good news is that I haven’t lost any of the videos. I have all of them in some form or another, It’s just the Fediverse instance itself that went down with all the associated metadata. While I am very pleased with the fact that I’ve managed to get a few views via my own self-hosted PeerTube instance, it never actually got any significant engagement. Therefore I’m not in a huge rush to simply reconstitute it on a different subdomain, but that may happen in the future.

I’ve had very little time lately to address the technical debt I’ve built up over the course of this project. Over the course of working on this, I have learned a great deal. On the optimistic front, I’ve learned that the free and open web is truly much more alive than I had hoped. It is genuinely good to know that the ‘old web’ is very much alive and being rebuilt by many phenomenal people and I have been delighted to participate in some small way. On the darker side, I’ve learned so much more about the traps and pitfalls well-meaning people can get ensnared in. I’ve come to realize how much more difficult battling for anything worth preserving actually is.

This is not the end.

This disruption is as good a time as any to take on some readjustments that I had been putting off for quite some time. Many assumptions that had been made when I started this project are no longer tenable. With generative AI “flooding the zone” of online discussion and governments instituting their controls over cyberspace it very much feels like the ground has shifted in challenging ways. It seems that I am being presented with a concrete reason to reinvent this project for the years ahead.

I’m going to need some time to really rethink how I want to engage on this front moving forward. There’s a much bigger picture than mere digital freedom that has become integrated with my understanding of many things. I had already considered a “rebrand and relaunch” to encompass a broader set of themes, and I’ve also been wanting to focus more on building meaningful tools than “screaming into the void”. With my time being spread very thin these days, I need to above all really focus on restoring my passion and energy for where I believe I can actually make a difference.

So I’m expecting to be more quiet for a while. I’ve been frustrated at my growing backlog of half-written articles, but I’m posting this to grant myself permission to really dedicate my focus on building what I need to continue. I’m going to need some time to recuperate on many levels and focus intensely on what I want to construct. I’ll be doing a lot of rethinking and planning, because the game has changed in ways that I believe need to be properly adapted to.

Libre Solutions Network 2.0

I am hopeful that I can make best of this opportunity to reinvent this passion project with everything I have learned. The war against digital autonomy is here and is being won by the tyrants. Sadly, the general public is still largely apathetic if not entirely in the dark about the real stakes. Thankfully, the (real, independent) web is a powerful force for good and we have to fight for it. There is so much ’low-hanging fruit’ that could be built to meaningfully liberate people from hostile cyberspace. Even better, the bar for actual progress is so much lower than doomsayers, shills, and purists would have you believe.

I’m absolutely frustrated to be in a bit of a bind these days as my real-life priorities have shifted and technical debt has me behind, but I want you to know that I am quite optimistic. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned while doing this is to meaningfully appreciate the great work being done by others. It has been a great relief to get involved and realize that those of us who care about digital autonomy are not at all alone and there actually are quite a lot of us out there. As bleak as things are I am thrilled to share that I have found a great many reasons to be optimistic in our ability to make a difference.

While we wait

I’ll definitely be back. In fact, I’m hoping to publish some off-the-cuff “walk with me” rants about how I see our critical point in time. I’m adapting this project to my life circumstances, but I’m doubling-down on the mission. I’m very much down, but don’t count me out! I want to thank you and the many people who have engaged with this project one way or another, it has been a phenomenal adventure and I am intensely focused on how I can continue to work for what matters.

• If you haven’t already, now is absolutely the time to bookmark the website and import the RSS feed because that’s going to be the best place to stay up to date.

• If you’ve got a show/podcast and want to pick my brain, now is definitely a good time if you’re fine with recording on a Saturday.

• Suggestions, feedback, and anything else would mean a great deal right now. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.