"I don't click on unfamiliar URLS"??? was: Ubuntu installers?

[M. Fioretti]

TL;DR what has the open web come to, even among people who should be
all for it?

On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 12:42:49 PM -0500, Little Girl wrote:

> M. Fioretti wrote:

> >1) Why the hell all this talking (only) about snap? It almost seems
> >done on purpose to ignore the actual issues I've already described in
> >this thread, after posting a link that apparently nobody bothered to
> >read.

For those who missed it, that link is
https://stop.zona-m.net/2022/01/the-sorry-sorry-state-of-linux-packaging/

> ....
> I would love to read your content, but that's an unfamiliar URL and
> I don't click those. You might get more clicks if it was on a
> universal platform. I don't speak for everyone, though. I'm just
> cautious about which sites I visit.

NOTHING personal of course, and I am asking this here instead of
off-list simply because I (and every other independent publisher)
*MUST* understand how common this attitude is. This said...

My jaw literally fell off reading "unfamiliar URL, I don't click on
those"

As far as THAT specific "unfamiliar URL" is concerned: it's no
CNN.com, but it's not malware either, for sure. I would never expect
or demand that it is a household name, or that people like any of
those posts. But that's one of more than 1500 posts, ALL about free
software, digital rights and digital literacy, on a domain that has
been online for ~16 years now.

But never mind me or my website, really. The only topic here is that
with such an attitude, nobody should have downloaded Linux in 1991
because it was from an unfamiliar kid, nobody was ever fired for
chosing Microsoft, right?

I am writing, that is, only because "I don't click on unfamiliar URLs"
is incredibly depressing to hear IN GENERAL: for the web, for free
speech, for plurality of opinion, for freedom from being tracked...

It's depressing because it does not come from the top ("publish with
us, we guarantee uptime, support, exposure etc") but from the bottom
("going off the beaten path is scary")

If it came from someone who knows better than FB or Instagram, it
would at least be unsurprising. In the middle of a discussion about 
freedom of choice, the beauty of alternatives etc.. it's astonishing,
really (and also the reason why I did not put "OT" in the subject).

So allow me to ask (to the whole list, not just LG, and for EVERY
current and future independent publisher, not just me):

1) how many of you are equally cautious, never clicking on "unfamiliar
URLs"?  What about your acquaintances? How common is this?

2) what on Earth is "familiar" enough for you? Where should one
publish so people aren't scared by the URL? Facebook, Medium,
LinkedIn, what?

To save everybody's time: me, I will NOT publish on those platforms
and the full explanation is already at another unfamiliar URL but one
that, I promise, will not make your computer explode or your limbs
fall off: https://stop.zona-m.net/tag/medium/

But those answers would mean a lot for me, so thanks in advance for
them.
		Marco
-- 
Help me write my NEXT MILLION WORDS for digital awareness:
https://stop.zona-m.net/2021/10/funding-2021-2022/