I decided to start a sub called AnywhereButAmazon, but after some searching I found that exact sub already exists.

However, the last post was 7 months ago, and you have to ask the mods permission to post. I sent in a message yesterday and got this auto-response:

Welcome to r/AnywhereButAmazon. Thanks for joining!

Please share with us your thoughts and suggestions for diversifying away from Amazon.

Also, feel free to post specific items you're looking to buy. We're pretty good at online shopping.

However, when I tried posting this morning, I got the same pop-up that I need permission from the mods.

So I'm thinking I could just start a different sub with the same purpose.

The big question is...what happened to the original sub, and does my experience just prove that a new sub would meet the same fate?

(I could REALLY use this sub myself as there are a few things I'm looking for that are hard to find off of Amazon/Walmart/Target.)

This is a bit of a personal post, but I don't know other spaces to talk about this and I feel like it is important.

So, I don't have Facebook, X, Instagram, etc (I also avoid TikTok), and I refuse to ever make an account in one of those awful sites again. This makes me feel like I'm very isolated from the world. I can't easily meet new people or even know which social/activist events are occuring where I live (Spain).

I used to go to certain anarchist places where I could do a lot of things, last time I went to one I asked someone "how can I know which upcoming events are you organizing?" because I live >1h away from there (slow public transport/no car). And their answer was "follow us on instagram", I answered that I don't use that, and they said that they didn't know any other ways to be informed so I literally can't go to random places to ask "what's going on today here". I feel like I'm missing on both activism and social life because I refuse to have a stupid account on a stupid company. I've been seeing the society shift towards caring less and less about digital privacy/footprints, about digital rights, about being a product yourself... Even in places where people are supposed to have similar values?

I've been talking with a friend and they have the same view, like (at least in our country) considering that many people refuse to have a phone/social networks, mail lists and phone lists were a thing only 5 years ago (right before the pandemic) to include people like us.

I know alternative sites exist, for example the whole Fediverse, and I like it, but if the society doesn't shift towards more user-friendly places, then you have no one to talk, only from other countries.

Tldr (the point of this post): Do you also feel isolated (or missing many new things) because you refuse to have FANG-like networks, and how do you deal with it?

Hi! Someone from r/BigTech recommended I post this here.

A couple years ago I wrote DISENGAGE: Opting Out—and Finding New Options—to Reclaim the Internet from Spammers, Scammers, Intrusive Marketers and Big Tech.

I don't charge anything, you don't need to enter your email address, and I don't track downloads. The book got a shout-out from Cory Doctorow and also appeared in Deleteme's newsletter, which was exciting!

I've been working my butt off to update and revise the book in light of the new administration. I'm looking for readers who would like to beta read the book once I'm finished. Please message me if interested! Thanks.

P.S. I may invest or try to raise enough to also have it made into a physical book that I can send to volunteers to share in their local Little Free Libraries. I did this with the book On Tyranny and it was quite successful. Guerrilla marketing is my favorite type of marketing. :)