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It may be obvious to say it but no, it's not really going to be an article about alternatives to happy anniversary wishes! Today is in fact the first anniversary of the site and I take this opportunity to make a small point and to summarize its history a little.
A year has already passed, it was October 17, 2019 when the project came to life (virtual) TheAlternatives. The first article published, on October 18, 2019, was Alternatives to Google Search.
TheAlternatives wants to offer ethical alternatives trying to do privacy goes viral. It also wants to talk about the simplicity of these operations.
People often give up on protecting their privacy online because they believe it is inevitable to give it up or that only they geeks oh fixed they can do it. The idea of this project is that everyone can, with small precautions, protect their life and privacy online. Starting with small steps like using a alternative to Gmail or to Google search, for example. A decidedly utopian project even if things went better than expected. Between ups and downs, the site now stands at around 8,000 monthly visits. A good result for a project born from scratch, without any kind of push, without any budget and which talks about a topic that is at times very boring: privacy.
Alternatives to happy anniversary wishes 🎂
Something that not everyone knows and that many often ask: who is behind the project? How many are you? Why do you do it? One florin.
TheAlternatives was born as a personal project and is still managed by a single person: from graphics to contents.
One of the reasons why the project was born is that I realized that on the internet, when it comes to privacy, there is little talk of compromises and there is always a sort of competition to see who is purer than others. Almost everywhere the mantra (correct, but limiting) is: Self-hosting! But it is not a solution that is feasible for everyone and there are also those who only take the word for it Self-hosting he feels dizzy. TheAlternatives wants to address precisely this last type of people.
The idea and hope is that over time a community will be created attentive to online rights and to privacy. For this reason a was also created subreddit. Reddit, however, is not the best place in the world, on the contrary. Their privacy policy is definitely questionable, but it has anonymity on its side. To date, in fact, a real name and surname or mobile number are not required. It is therefore a discreet compromise despite it being terrifying as far as i tracers and privacy 1.
Reddit, forum or Telegram?
I received some criticism for this choice precisely because Reddit However, it is a closed social network and definitely far from perfection. The project TheAlternatives but he wants to speak to as many people as possible. I also thought about creating a forum: it's closed, don't try to sign up, it's just a test. However, I thought that further registration for a new service is a big obstacle for many and the risk is that of becoming a niche forum and this is not the objective.
Another request we often received was to add a Telegram group to be added to channel. It is a project that I decided to implement especially when comments on posts on the channel became active 2. The group was officially born a few days ago: if you want to join this is the link: https://t.me/LeAlternativeEN. Currently you can only write one message every 15 minutes also to avoid arguments and an excessive expenditure of energy to moderate it, especially while I am alone.
Lastly, it must also be said that I would not like it to become an overlap with other realities, such as the group of Digital Ethics. So if you are interested in a real-time chat I recommend you join their group.
Telegram is most used and should not be overlapped with Reddit. The target and methods of use seem very different to me.
Warning: the part below was written before the decision of accept donations. Not so much to repay the site server but to be able to create new and beautiful things as has in fact been done with the new server dedicated to Feddit and we hope for much more!
No donations, thanks anyway
TheAlternatives it is not a for-profit project and the server costs, as long as it is possible and as long as they will be humans, they will be covered without asking for anything in return other than the sharing of a passion.
As long as it's fun for me, I'd rather spend a hundred euros a year on a server that allows me to share with everyone what I've learned and what I discover every time.
In this regard: a few days ago the site was moved to a completely green server, the Swiss servers of Infomaniak. The costs are slightly higher than the previous one but since the project has found its own identity it is essential that the servers are now used they are green (when the site was born it could have even been a blog with 4 articles and that's it, but things then took an unexpected turn). And Switzerland is perhaps the best place to go outside 14 Eyes. Furthermore Infomaniak is the promoter of #NoBlackFriday.
So, despite having been asked several times, there is no possibility of donation, there is no Patreon nor anything similar. The only current active possibility are the anonymous micro-donations of Brave 3 but as you may have noticed you will never be asked but will only be spontaneous and only for those who already use Brave. Among other things the Browsers suggested first is Firefox, Brave use it only as a second choice or if you really like it Chromium.
Alternatives to happy anniversary greetings: an archive of projects
Another of the reasons why it was born TheAlternatives it is the sharing of discovered projects. Too often I have found myself faced with beautiful projects without having anyone to tell it to. And they remained hidden, devoured and buried by the internet. Too often we see something very beautiful and forget to note it. Then we forget it forever. TheAlternatives it also wants to be an archive for all those projects found online and which have an interesting history.
Do you want to collaborate?
If anyone wants and thinks they can be useful both occasionally and possibly continuously, they can join this project. If you want to write articles or help in managing social networks to make them more active and less cold and passive you can write at any time to the address info@lealternative.net.
Plans for the future
The premium version of is also about to be ready Tutanota so you can have emails with a personalized address @lealternative.net. Tutanota is in fact another service I talk to often and it is right to give it a hand especially during this period.
A new one will be released very soon privacy tests, I won't tell you anything but it would be nice if you shared it with those who are not familiar with it and with those who really know nothing about it!
The other idea is to be able to specialize a little more on applications Open source for Apple. Unfortunately I don't have an iPhone and have little way to test anything on MacOS. It would therefore be wonderful if someone wanted to join testing applications for iPhone and Mac.
THE viral videos they went well but not very well and the arguments for "alternatives in a minute" are starting to run out. Initially it seemed too simple, now it seems too complex. Also in this case any suggestions are welcome, I hope to be able to get them back soon because I really liked the idea. The same goes for all other projects like the infographics on Instagram (more infographics). All things that if anyone wants to take hold of and try to reawaken, they are welcome.
Alternatives to happy anniversary wishes 🕯️
I thank both those who had a word of encouragement and those who promoted criticism. In fact, every comment is important and helps to keep the project alive, let's blow out this first candle together, hoping to add more in the coming years.
- Reasons for YOU to NOT TRUST INCOME WITH YOUR DATA[↩]
- Search filters, anonymous admins in groups, comments in channels and more[↩]
- Brave Rewards[↩]
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