Liam HoganNov 4, 2022
Hello world. Twitter migrant and new #histodon #librarian here possibly leaving behind approx 60k good souls on the platform that sold us all out to Musk. I put in a lot of time and work on that site for over 10 years and made many great friends & contacts, so it’s sad and a bit surreal to have to start again.

But such is the nature of the unregulated social media industry, where global information systems can be upended on the whim of an erratic, uncurious and narcissistic billionaire.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 4, 2022
It’s clear to me that Musk purchased twitter in order to destroy it. The blue checkmark is a verification mark for authenticity. This is particularly important in terms of identifying sources. To make it pay-to-play is to burn twitter's reliability as a news source, and it's reliability in general, to the ground.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 4, 2022
Then again such social media companies are not, and have never been, a “public forum”. They are privately owned networks that have a single priority: harvesting profits. Primarily from selling their users’ information to those who which to target them. Everything else is secondary. They have shown that they cannot be trusted in any meaningful sense. We deserve much better.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 4, 2022
Remember Google Fusion Tables? I spent many months building digital humanities resources around it. One was a WW1 map that identified the final resting place of the over 1,000 people from Limerick who lost their lives in that conflict. The other was a resource that mapped the sites of Collective Punishment of African American communities in the U.S. Many other historians built fantastic resources using it as a way to visually and spatially educate about the past. It was accessible and effective.
Show threadLiam Hogan
Then in 2019 Google erased this product. Just gone forever. I realised then that these companies are the antithesis of libraries, cultural institutions and the open source movement. They see culture, and our free labour in using their (temporary) tools, as instantly and permanently disposable ephemera to attract attention for the purpose of advertising. All that power and wealth put to use to fulfil such an empty mission.
Nov 5, 2022 at 12:08amWeb
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
Some further thoughts on my Mastodon experience: it has made me step back and reevaluate how social media should operate. We built entire communities on Twitter but were ultimately treated like a product for trade. It does not have to be like this.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
We should demand that our social media platforms reflect and serve their communities rather than exploit them. Currently billion dollar tech companies engage a suite of psychological and algorithmic techniques to manipulate what we see in our feeds to boost advertising metrics. That’s not a conspiracy theory btw, it’s a long established business model.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
Mastodon is not a panacea (nor does it claim to be) but it is a non-profit, ad-less, localised and federated social media platform. ‘instances’ are administrated and moderated by volunteers. When the #twitterexodus started yesterday this Irish instance (mastodon.ie) was clearly, and ofc understandably, overwhelmed by the huge influx of new applications and traffic.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
The admins reacted quickly, opened an open collective financial contribution page (opencollective.com/mastodonie) and within a couple of hours they had raised enough funds to upgrade the server/service and sustain functionality and speed. And everyone who contributed is now a stakeholder. Because I think we see the potential for a better way to do this. And that community is growing. I also appreciate that Mastodon has decided on an interesting ‘viral dampening’ approach to their UI design.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
Twitter has become more and more like a type of outrage engine. In Mastodon there are no quote tweets, the oxygen of the pile-on. The metrics of reshares/likes are also dampened so that they are not prominent at all beneath a post in your feed. It’s a very different place. And I like it.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 6, 2022
I think I also forget just how much work it took to make Twitter a bearable place to be. I ended up blocking something like 55,000 different accounts, received death threats, constant trolling, spam, &c. It took years for any semblance of meaningful and consistent moderation to exist. It was in essence a libertarian website that had to dragged kicking towards reform. We had invested so much effort over the years for it to be useful & now it is being torn apart heedlessly at pace. Final straw.
Show threadLiam HoganNov 6, 2022
So I guess that was my first thread on Mastodon. Did I do that correctly? 🙂
Show threadLe sexe et les gars biNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 Yes you did!
Show threadIan MoranNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 great thread, yes you nailed it 😃
Show threadColm Ó DonnchadhaNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 i saw your first post of the thread earlier but didn't know it was a thread (now you mightn't have posted the rest of the posts when I looked)
But the end of thread post showed the thread
Show threadLiam HoganNov 6, 2022
@ColmDonoghue thanks Colm, that’s good to know.
Show threadBarry O'BrienNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 Yes indeed, and thank you for the work you do.
Show threadFionn DempseyNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 On the off-chance you haven't read it before, this interview of Francesca Bria on some of the themes you were discussing, including the history of radical alternatives for the Internet and the way each of them has been buried by the capitalists, is well worth the read.
https://the-crypto-syllabus.com/francesca-bria-on-decentralisation/
Francesca Bria on Decentralisation, Sovereignty, and Web3

Of all the promises made in the name of Web3, two stand out as particularly radical and democracy-enhancing. First, some expect it to accelerate the process of decentralisation, which is already apace in many institutions, industries, and infrastructures. Second, we are assured that, in liberating artists from the extractivist data

The Crypto Syllabus
Show threadLiam HoganNov 6, 2022
@fionndempsey thanks Fionn.
Show threadDiane PattersonNov 7, 2022
@Limerick1914 and now I’ve seen proof that threads will go on! Yay!
Show threadKarl SteelNov 6, 2022

@Limerick1914
now wishing I had a list. probably not 55k, but still! Yes!

I'm with the set who take Musk as someone who just didn't know what made twitter interesting or worth visiting. Incompetence primarily, then malfeasance.

Show threadMó PasaránNov 6, 2022

@karlsteel @Limerick1914
With hindsight, I think it's more that we had a different vision we were trying to work towards than Jack.

I think Jack's closer to Elon, ethically, than he is to those of us who wanted a public good, but Musk's a clueless baby, too pandered to with unearned power to understand how anything actually works.

Show threadTaryn de VereNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 this space feels much safer & it looks like twitter is going to get very ugly 😔 A 500% increase in the n word being used within days of Musk taking over says it all
Show threadBethanyNov 6, 2022

@TarynDeVere @Limerick1914

I don't feel the stress being here that I have felt at Twitter lately.

Show threadAnnetteNov 8, 2022
@Limerick1914 This perfectly describes the history of Twitter. It had become more bearable recently and now they have sold it for parts.
Show threadiamBullivantNov 8, 2022
@Limerick1914 Well said Liam.
Show threadSinéad HanrahanNov 8, 2022
@Limerick1914 It seems almost absurd that we all just accepted that that was a reasonable price to pay for use of the platform.
Show threadPunctilious TrixDec 21, 2022
@Limerick1914 So glad I found you here. Looking forward to continuing to learn from you.
Show threadAlex Z | WriterNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914
Yep
Show threadMarshh 🉐️™Nov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 couldn't agree more.
Show threadHtaggertNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 yep - Im in love….
Show threadDoctor HistorianessNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 I’m liking it too. I’m finding it soothing.
Show threadDoctor HistorianessNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 although sometimes weird things happen bc I have no idea how that pic of Pepper wound up there!
Show threadPVs- DR. Artist Marcia XNov 6, 2022

@Limerick1914 I would be aware though of the culture of subtooting meta discourse or ppls posts.

Its happened many times in which people shitpost but theyre actually talking about something happening on the tl and then it starts a gossip mill of discourse about a user or instance and throws the truth out of the discourse.

Show threadMatthew SmithNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 @oftencalledcathy You can still include the link to the post in your post though; people were doing this b4 Twitter cottoned on to it. https://mastodon.ie/@Limerick1914/109293646085750815
Show threadNancy M RuffDec 22, 2022
@Limerick1914 Me, too.
Show threadAlanNov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 being the customer rather than the product is quite liberating
Show threadKevNov 6, 2022

@Limerick1914 the ideal mastodon world would be a situation where everyone has their own mastodon instance running in their own hardware with their own rules.

Obviously there are tech barriers. Not everyone thinks raspberry pi enclosures are sexy :-(

But sometimes I let my imagination run wild with how the world would be. The power in the hands of the people and true actual freedom. And the safety. Oh here I go again.

Show threadDatarainbow Privacy Assistant✅Nov 6, 2022
@Limerick1914 can we have such social media for free?
Show threadLiam HoganNov 6, 2022
@clarinette no, we need to pay for it by financially supporting whatever instance/server you are on (and are happy with)
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 5, 2022

@Limerick1914 Oh god, I'm sorry.

I remember years ago seeing @faduda saying (possibly on twitter, ironically) that everyone should have their own hosted website/blog/space online, where they post their work, and use social media/platforms to share it. Because on a whim, Zuck and pals can tweak some code, and all of 'your' work is gone.

(I should've heeded that warning, too.)

Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
@clickhere @faduda absolutely. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Show threadFederated RuxtabNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 @clickhere @faduda Things like those tables ideally should just be open source projects. So at some point you might not get Firmware updates but they still work offline etc. Think it's half the reason there's a huge device hacking movement tbh. Other thing to remember is the likes of Tesla etc oppose things like the right to self repair etc.
Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Nov 5, 2022
@clickhere @Limerick1914 Own your words. The purpose of every external site should be to point people back to your own site. And to give credit, I was only echoing what @Tupp_ed said.
Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Nov 5, 2022
@clickhere @Limerick1914 @Tupp_ed Speaking of which, I confidently predict that the day will come when Google deprecates GMail.
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 5, 2022
@faduda @Limerick1914 @Tupp_ed Feck.
Show threadDes EganNov 5, 2022

@faduda @clickhere @Limerick1914 @Tupp_ed

Anyone remember 'Ireland.com' email? I had my 'formative' years of email stored there. It went subscription after they cried about storage costs.
I paid. They still sold the primary asset (the domain name) and closed the service down.

All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.

Show threadKieran GlennonNov 5, 2022
@clickhere @Limerick1914 @faduda But isn't there an equal risk that WordPress or whoever owns it or the likes of it could just turn around and change their terms of service, or fold their tents altogether?
Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Nov 5, 2022
@DrNightdub @clickhere @Limerick1914 As I understand it, Wordpress is on a GPL.
And by "own your words" I mean your own site. I own the faduda.ie domain, for example.
Show threadKieran GlennonNov 5, 2022
@faduda @clickhere @Limerick1914 OK, I get you. In that sense, it's the age-old tussle between creator and publisher. Even with old-skool books, you're still beholden to the publisher to bring what you write to a wide audience so they get to edit to an extent. WordPress folding would be the equivalent of the book you've written going out-of-print.
Show threadGerard Cunningham ✒️Nov 5, 2022
@DrNightdub @clickhere @Limerick1914 GPL means that "out of print" is less likely. There will almost certainly be new forks if the original iteration folds.
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 5, 2022
@faduda @DrNightdub @Limerick1914 Oh? - what's "GPL"?
Show threadFederated RuxtabNov 5, 2022
@clickhere @faduda @DrNightdub @Limerick1914 License type on WordPress, so pretty much free to do what you want with it. Linux distros would typically be under similar license.
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 5, 2022
@Ruxtab @faduda @DrNightdub @Limerick1914 Oh right! - excellent! Thank you.
Show threadBobNov 6, 2022
@clickhere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 6, 2022
@TroubleBob Thank you!
Show threadThe Modesto KidNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 Remember Google Reader?
Show threadÁine LNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 Professor John Naughton on "the long view" that librarians need to take in the context of new media channels. Fascinating man https://youtu.be/wpTOQr1jqFk
LIR Seminar Series - Shining a light in the Post Truth Era, Professor John Naughton, 29 April 2021

YouTube
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
@ainenilionsigh thanks for this.
Show threadLarry CebulaNov 5, 2022
@Limerick1914 Yeah I had created some neat classroom activities in Google Fusion Tables. I never did find a replacement, did you?
Show threadLiam HoganNov 5, 2022
@larrycebula nothing that was suitable or as easy to use.