tmpod

These are some good suggestions! The most crucial one is perhaps a ditching Gmail, but using alternative apps, such as newpipe and stuff, also go a long way. Unfortunately, the system is fighting against you and you'll have to really use a freer operating system to properly get away from Google. Still, these are good steps to take.

what are some proposed solutions we think Valve can implement to solve this crisis?

One of the most critical things they have to revert is the voice command mute of F2P. This kills a very important game mechanic for newcomers, while not really stopping botters, since they will just spend money and unlock the features for their accounts, as it's evident when you join a casual match.
Another obvious thing is: improve VAC. And to reply to your next point, yes, it is a joke. No, it's not a joke because it's not a client-side anti-cheat. Lots of community servers operate essentially with no cheaters, because they employ better protection SourceMod plugins and empower users further. For example, Uncletopia and Skial are very much bot-free, and creators.tf was too, before it shut down some months ago (due to unrelated issues). If the community can develop these effective server-side plugins, so can Valve, and most likely do a better job at it. They have incredibly talented people working there, I'm sure they could make a way better VAC if they wanted to.

And yes, community servers are currently the salvation for people who want to play TF2 unencumbered by swaths of bots. I play mostly on Uncletopia nowadays because I agree with most tweaks they apply (it's not 100% vanilla casual) and the skill ceiling is a bit higher as well, which pushes me further.
Some sort of federation of community servers, where bans and whatnot are shared between instances sounds like a pretty good idea.

Edit: Ultimately, however, Valve should fix the vanilla casual mode, that's where the vast majority of players are, and where newcomers will first go to.

Interesting, my Discord profile is also very hardened, and while it prompts me for confirmation, it's always doable in a moment

If you're on Tor, that's the very unfortunate reality atm. If you're on a VPN, you may try switching providers or servers inside the same provider. I can recommend Mullvad, which works very well, even if you get some CAPTCHAs.

Not a lot, I don't think long usage of social media is beneficial to anyone in the long run, even though I've been running a (small) instance for quite a while now.
I have integrated checking social media feeds (just Lemmy and HackerNews nowadays) into my daily routine, usually only happening in the morning and evening. Because of my admin and mod duties, I end up opening Lemmy more than twice a day, but only to check on reports, applications, etc.

Yeah, they have upped their "paranoia" quite a bit in the past couple of years. A while back, I discovered smspool.net while trying to register for Claude (wanted to give it a shot, was disappointed) and was so satisfied by their interface and prices I've used it again in 3 other occasions. There may be other similar services out there, you should give one a try next time Discord prompts you for a number.

Depends a lot on your threat model, of course, but here's what I do:

• use a temporary (but recoverable) email
• use smspool or similar to verify my phone for less than a dollar
• run Discord in a hardened Firefox profile (hardened browser settings + uBlock)
• turn everything relevant off in Discord settings just in case
• don't share PII in conversation
• use a VPN (or Tor)

Using a hardened browser and not giving them your real phone are likely the most effective steps, everything else is either less relevant or overkill. As I said, depends a lot on your threat model and on your requirements (some things may be unachievable if you're forced to use Discord by your employer, for example).

:D

Já deve estar tudo em ordem

Ainda estou com uns problemazitos no que toca às interfaces web com SSR (Server Side Rendering). Há qualquer coisa muito misteriosa que as faz ligar ao localhost em vez de ao servidor HTTP na rede, mas enfim. As outras interfaces web (p/m/a.lemmy.pt) funcionam todas, incluindo aplicações móveis.

Não, que eu saiba, porém é algo que tenho interesse em promover no futuro (de momento não muito próximo :p).

Estou com grandes expectativas relativamente a esta migração 🙏
Vê o meu outro comentário tb