...

So many stressful things going on right now, and I don't want to talk about most of them. I'm wondering what will come of this Discord age verification fiasco. Will they back down from all the pressure? People are certainly voicing their disapproval through mail and their wallets, and unlike in the UK, it's not being done out of legal requirement.

Will they be stubborn and stick with it instead? Will Discord users (like my friends and I) have to throw out years and years of memories and jump ship to some other app, whose history is inevitably as uncertain as everyone else's? Fluxer and Stoat look pretty promising, but this is still absolutely infuriating. We shouldn't have to do this. We shouldn't have to evacuate personal spaces and wipe our histories because of corporations being greedy.

Still, I guess in the end it's all fleeting anyhow. We had to abandon Skype when it became unusable (quite a feat, as it was pretty unusable from the start), leaving those memories behind. I had my original Discord hacked and utterly mutilated in 2022 (shortly before having a nearly lethal tonic-clonic seizure), losing the memories on that account. I had to delete my Twitter (sorry, "X") account when the site was overrun by fascism, losing my memories there. If I have to lose the memories from my current Discord as well, I suppose I'll ultimately move on from it. It will be a pain to dig through and save anything vitally important first, though.

What a year this is shaping up to be, and we're only in February. I feel hopeless most of the time, but I have to remember to hang on for as long as I can. If things ever improve, I want to be around when they do. I want to be here for my loved ones for as long as I can and support them in these painful times. I want to bring light into the world, however small.

Also, today is Valentine's Day! Neat.