lemme_at_it

Sounds like this is to keep the citizens in a passive, compliant mental state, where they fear to do anything because it is out there watching at all times. If anything, it waits outside to prevent a thought from becoming a crime - "I see you leaving your door late at night to visit your neighbour's wife . . . again". It only travels at 7km/h, so it is not there to apprehend, only to deter.

Start with an idea of something you'd like to make.
Start with a simple idea.
The clearer you describe the idea,
the easier it will be to code it.
Learn Python.

It is much easier not to

And now, when the law is finally catching up to them, do we get to the part where a higher power, God, is on their side.

Bits of data, ie user accounts when viewed singularly or in small numbers are information. In the 100 000s to millions, they become intelligence.

Do they do the same if you download Firefox? I remember using IE exclusively to download FF immediately after installing XP, Win 7, 10 or whatever it was.

Or seek to implement those features in a free & open way; but the features have to necessitate the effort & if the features are not clarified then no effort, especially a distributed one can even begin to replicate them. What do you suppose ought to be done first when building an app - the feature request or the code?

In any case, I wrote this right at the top of the post before getting to the good stuff, so you could have stopped there if you wanted to:

“We will release the design and/or reference code to the public when the initial version is stabilized.”

I was doing it more as a wishlist or an idea board to draw opinions from. However, as stated; as nice as it sounds, I'd rather admire the code than have the features without the code. Whoever did this though, was quite thoughtful about risks, including the - the 'bus factor'.
As a comparison, I really liked the "Connect For Lemmy" app when I first joined up.
It has some great features, some of which are still not on Jeboa. The dev even said he'd open the source if there was interest. I gave up on waiting, uninstalled & now use Jeboa on mobile exclusively because Connect is still closed, as far as I know.
I am FOSS or nothing, if I an help it - especially in communications apps. If the source fails to materialise then I will forget this too - even if I can indulge in speculating on the methods used. There is a fair amount of skill & thought required to pull this off. The best part though, I'm hoping, is that as a protocol, it would be a great chat accompaniment to & not a replacement to Lemmy or Mastodon. Again, without the source, I can only guess.
Regardless, the fedi is young enough to be influenced by good ideas early, before it becomes too costly in time, effort & complexity, to undo or implement changes later.

No but when he Googles himself - which I am sure he does daily, then he'll know to stay within the confines of his X domain. We're claiming back the internets. :)
Seriously though, some young person might still look up to him as a space role-model without ever knowing that the guy is a waste of space.

That's what he wanted everyone to believe - offering 420 jokes as a share price he was willing to pay. He was ready to pay anything & even said so in an interview - that X is not about money, it's more than that. Though he complained about how much he paid for it, he got a bargain for the ability to centralise, control, monitor & distort the dissemination of knowledge, perception of culture, international wars, to prolong or incite culture wars.
Imagine one guy deciding which governments could use it as an emergency response tool, tracking millions of accounts; many of whom were in positions of influence ie politicians, law enforcement, judiciary, reporters, authors, financial types, companies of all sizes, government agencies, local councils & everything in between.
I remember thinking what a bargain he got that ability for. How much would any dictator pay for this sort of ability?

Reddit had no bluetick businesses, journalists, authors, government reps, entire countries used it for emergency news etc . . . he wanted to destroy those, while shit-posting at the same time.

They do fail - upward. Everyone else gets to bounce off the ground & climb up again, they just move on to something better.