Alex Gleason

What I believe

I'm an atheist. Well, I guess I'm agnostic. I think they mean the same thing, it's just that agnostic means "atheist, but not an asshole." But it's not that I

Pleroma is dead

It's time to install Soapbox BE. Pleroma is a microblogging platform meant to compete with Mastodon. After 2 years of contributing, I've been banned from its GitLab. To be fair,

internet

Your alternative web browser is horrible, and I like it

Developing for the Fediverse, users complain about bugs in all kinds of obscure web browsers. As a developer, it's endlessly frustrating. Why can't you just use a normal web browser

internet

Parler’s epic fail: A crash course on running your own servers on a shoestring budget

First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,

pleroma

What is Pleroma's MRF, and how does it work?

MRF, or Message Rewrite Facility, is a way for Pleroma to trigger side-effects on ActivityPub messages, unlocking nearly infinite possibilities. When you author an up-to-5000 character post on Pleroma, it

open source

Pleroma's Transmogrifier promotes peace on the Fediverse

The most novel and nonviolent piece of code in Pleroma's codebase does not try to impose itself on the outside world, but rather passively accepts and adapts without hatred or

gaming

Animal Crossing is a decentralized federated social network

Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be proprietary, but it points to a future of open virtual worlds. The new Animal Crossing is social. It's easy to see who's online and

F-Droid slipped the slippery slope, banning feminist app Spinster

F-Droid deleted the Spinster app from its repository, abandoning important principles of sharing that FOSS was predicated upon. Spinster is a Mastodon-based AGPL-licensed feminist site that I co-founded along with

Starting a Fediverse server

So you want to start your own Fediverse server? This guide will walk you through it step-by-step, including the concrete details. 2021 UPDATE: I now recommend using Pleroma+Soapbox instead

open source

Mastodon deplatformed me, but they don't want me using Gab either

I got deplatformed from Mastodon for supporting women's sex-based rights. Now Mastodon is trying to stop me from using Gab. On April 19, 2019, I was deplatformed from Todon.nl.

open source

Mirroring your Matrix rooms to prevent outages

The matrix.org homeserver went down for nearly 24 hours due to a security breach. Here's what you can do as a user to protect yourself in the future. BackgroundMatrix

Why I don't support transgender ideology

Transgender ideology is a dogmatic cult that has brainwashed leftists into condoning violence against women. My story9 months ago my partner and I were forced out of our house for

open source

Why I sold my Magic the Gathering collection to fund Arcmage

Magic is an extraordinarily deep and rewarding card game, but aspects of it have always felt uncomfortable. After investing thousands of dollars and years of my life into the game,

gaming

The perfect game controller

Game controllers have evolved over time. But you know what hasn't? Common sense. This is one of those things that really pisses me off. Really grinds me gears. I'm not

open source

Why your crowdfunding campaign should be open source

These days, Kickstarter is a different place. We understand we're funding the creator to try their best. Sometimes things don't work out, and that's okay; we take on that risk

big ideas

Free Culture Fighter, idea for a fighting game featuring libre characters

Big Idea: create a libre fighting game that features characters from free culture games, comics, and movies. Note: This is part of my Big Ideas series, a backlog of ideas

big ideas

Free Culture Shop, idea for an online store that rejects copyright

Big Idea: create an online store that sells physical goods, such as canvas prints, music CDs, books, and even cola that foregoes copyright all the way down to its packaging.

big ideas

Libre Game Spotlight, idea for a video series about libre games

Big Idea: improve libre game awareness with an online video series that illuminates different libre games. Note: This is part of my Big Ideas series, a backlog of ideas that

open source

Photoshop: support OpenRaster file format (*.ora)

When people make graphics, they rely on layers. From digital artists to web designers, layers have become a necessity. Layers let you put graphics on top of other graphics and

open source

Designers, stop letting Adobe brainwash you

Adobe Creative Cloud is not a tool, it's an abusive relationship. It has seeped into higher-education, presenting itself as "the real thing," and convinced a whole generation of designers, teachers,

open source

Game consoles that respect your freedom

This article is a list of so called "open source" handheld gaming devices. They will be judged by the following criteria: Free OS: All of the software that ships with

solarus

Create bombable doors in Solarus Quest Editor

Here's how you can bomb doors to open them in Solarus. The trick is to name the entities correctly. Carefully read the Solarus docs for Door for more information. 1. Create the pathwayCreate your pathway as if the door were already opened. Make sure

open source

Voat hates "censorship", but censors people they disagree with

In lieu of /u/spez, the CEO of Reddit, violating users' trust by editing their comments, people of Reddit have been rethinking their association with the platform. The 'Go' programming language, for instance, has talked about deleting their /r/golang subreddit. Voat is a

vegan

I hate doing animal rights activism.

It’s not a “passion.” People have commented that they admire my passion for animal rights activism. This is especially disheartening if they’re not going to stop eating animals.

vegan

Why eating animals is not inherently morally wrong

But why you should also probably stop doing it. Look; I don’t know you. Maybe you live deep in a rainforest. The afternoon sunlight seeps through the fractured branch patterns of the canopy layer as you crouch to the forest floor — your image