> Do we still need it?

Only if relaunched with ActivityPub support.

> All traffic using the cloudflare-ipfs.com or cf-ipfs.com hostname(s) will continue to work without interruption and be redirected to ipfs.io or dweb.link until August 14th, 2024, at which time the Cloudflare hostnames will no longer connect to IPFS and all users must switch the hostname they use to ipfs.io or dweb.link

So, we will have many died links on internet again.

> I wonder if this is related to the shift in media consumption habits more than anything.

In the past I was active torrents user but now I just lost interest in movies and music, I'm tired of it. I already saw and heard almost everything, nothing "new" will impress me.

But isn't your device’s radio powered up all the time anyway?

I think it’s on all the time but the phone has different power levels that it gives the radio, all this to optimize the battery usage.

So depending on how much the phone needs to utilizes the radio, the higher the power level is?

That’s just my theory though.

I don't think keeping sockets open waiting for incoming data have big impact on battery usage because there is no data transmission at that moment so radio shouldn't consume much energy in stand-by mode.

I use K9-Mail app for email working 24h a day, it has multiple accounts on different IMAP4 servers. You know, IMAP requires one keep-alive socket per subscribed folder and I have no problem with battery usage.

I don’t think IMAP is a good example here. Your email client will try both subscribing and classic polling. Subscribing is not a MUST. And from the point of view of end user, the difference when polling in a classical way is simply that the user will be notified later, so it’s hard to tell what the client really did in the background.

> way is simply that the user will be notified later, so it’s hard to tell what the client really did in the background.

I receive emails instantly. There is polling option in settings, I've disabled it.

Firefox's builtin DoH ignores /etc/hosts. I'd prefer systemwide DoH instead.

> I have developed ActivityPub software, I am aware exactly how difficult it is to implement - which is less than what Hrefna's thread would lead one believe.

I have developed too but it wasn't very difficult for me. Well, in most cases all my problems were due to my laziness to read ActivityPub rfcs carefully.

> But I don't want the mods running the instance choosing what I can or cannot see because they don't like eg. Harry Potter. That's my individual decision to make.

Yes, such a phenomenon takes place there sometimes, mostly this problem occurs on some little servers with few active users. I don't think it's a big problem for fediverse, there are servers with adequate moderation you can choose or just run your own.

After Ubuntu moved Firefox to snap, I started using official tarballs for Firefox and Thunderbird.

> And what kind of security do AppImages offer you?

It shouldn't. Security should be implemented as a separate tool, not tied to any package management system.

> Sanctions against regular Russian citizens are morally bad. They stop Russians who flee and protest the war from moving to other countries and give more power to Putin and his fascist regime, and make it easier for it to wage war in Ukraine.

It's not only bad morally but also increases their support for the war.