I left mainstream platforms completely burned out and found the fediverse, and god it felt like I could finally breathe again without someone tracking every single thing I did.

But even here I kept wondering who actually protects my data when someone comes asking for it, and I realized I didn't want to trust anyone else with that answer.

So I run https://goingdark.social now because I wanted that certainty for myself and my community. When someone demands data or tries to shut down what we talk about, I'm the one who gets to say no and take whatever comes with that.

I pay for this out of pocket because it matters to me, and your admin is probably doing the same thing, maybe a father of three running a server from his home office, a single mom keeping her community safe between work shifts, an older gentleman who remembers what the internet used to feel like before corporations owned everything.

That's how this whole thing works, regular people running small spaces because they care, all of us building something no single company or government can control. We're doing this together and every small instance matters.

Support your local instance admin however you can. They're keeping this alive for all of us.

#Fediverse #Privacy #Decentralization #supportyourlocalinstance #mastodon #socialmedia