It might surprise you, but I do actually have Facebook and Google user accounts. However, I avoid using them as much as possible, since I'm not a fan of AI, Big Tech, and surveillance Capitalism. I do feel that not having an accessible and visible antisocial media presence is quite likely hurting my reach (and thus I'm denying myself potential earning opportunities). Even with those, I'm not using my real name, but I changed my Google account, anyway, since a number of former friends know my old alias.
During the course of last week, I was watching a video (yes, on YouTube, but I was logged out and using a dedicated container) by Anthony Padilla, part of his "I Spent a Day with ..." series, in which he spoke to a number of VTubers and also set up his own VTube avatar/persona. (It's also available as an Apple Podcast. I trust Apple more than I do Google, although I'm not sure how to subscribe and if it's on the Fountain app, which I haven't used in a while.) I then watched a video by Nux Taku (apparently quite a popular VTuber), in which he (Nux) introduces Mr. Padilla to the world of VTubing. The thought occurred to me that perhaps this is a compromise I'd be willing to accept, so I went looking for voice-changer/morpher and VTube software that could help me get on the scene. I didn't have to look far, since there's "free" software on Steam, if one does a couple of searches for "VTube" and "voice morph". (I still have to comb through the EULAs and ToU agreements, to make sure there's nothing untoward in them.) At any rate, as I type this, Steam is downloading some software.
I've not been using Discord for a long time, since it's hosted on AWS and doesn't respect user privacy. It's also proprietary and makes recording audio difficult. (It mutes the voices of people with whom I talk if I record the audio output, so much so that I bought external audio splitters and directed one of the lines to line in. That cost me a pretty penny, since they're gold-plated. They're also not ideal, since they split stereo to mono and stereo-preserving splitters either don't exist or can't be bought in my part of the world.)
While I've had Mumble mentioned to me before, I've not looked into it as an alternative until today. From comparisons and reviews alone, it looks like just what I want: self-hosted (Linode even has a tutorial on how to set it up on Debian), end-to-end encrypted, peer-to-peer, open-source, has an audio-recording feature. It seems that the name is a misnomer, since the audio quality is apparently quite high and sounds sharp.
The only real issue is that I don't have anywhere suitable from which to record (yet another reason why I need to get my own place) and I'm crap at raising money for what I need. Not having permanent employment and having to rely on contract and freelance work means I don't have the job security to know for how long I'll be working on any one thing. Signing a lease in those circumstances will be highly stressful (even if I end up earning enough to pay rent) and I'm not prepared to do that yet.
Post thumbnail image: Succubus Harbinger, on Wallpaper Safari (If anyone knows in which game this can be found, please let me know. I think it's Mabinogi or Vindictus, but can't confirm since the only writing I've found associated with it is in Asian script, probably Korean.)
