About a month ago, I observed that two main things I found lacking here vs. Twitter were accounts from professional creatives (artists, etc) and discussion of breaking news.
The creatives have definitely started to arrive. But the breaking news has been much slower. However, it also seems like breaking news is starting to disappear from Twitter.
I wonder what will fill that gap. Perhaps it will be here, eventually.
The implication, explicitly stated or otherwise, is that if I want those things, I don’t belong here; I should go elsewhere.
I’m staying. Deal with it.
@mattblaze Okay? But if you mention the word “twitter” my filters are going to block you.
Just saying…
The question isn’t whether the news (however it is defined) should be discussed. The question is whether I should be forced into participating in someone else’s doom scrolling.
@mattblaze heh. But that raises the whole issue of social bubbles, I guess.
I just went back up the thread you’ve been writing (Previously I only saw the toot I replied to…) and I guess I understand your question about what replaces news on Twitter - but that’s a real hair ball of a problem. Even in Twitter’s heyday no one was getting “all the news”, they were getting the news that they had chosen plus some subset that Twitter’s algorithm’s had decided was commercially interesting to them.
/1
@mattblaze (I can’t believe I’m doing a multi-part toot…)
Which brings me f2f with my own convictions - I’ve always been a technoliberal of the “information wants to be free” and “the answer is always more speech” school… but how do you reconcile that with the reality of trying to stand under the firehose and absorb it all?
/2
@obvioustroll @mattblaze one person's doom scrolling is another person's area of interest or study.
Also, what's the line on news that should be filtered? JWST launch was definitely news, but I doubt few people would consider it appropriate for discussion or celebration.
The continual collapse of crypto? I'm not interested in it, but there are tons of other people who enjoy it.
Should it be good news only? Who gets to define what good news is?
@mattblaze @plasticbiker
> one person’s doom scrolling
Well, yes. Did you read my whole thread? When did I imply all people should use the same filters?
The problem is “how do we decide what is important”? Followed closely by, lwho gets to decide what is important?”
@obvioustroll @mattblaze Mastadon doesn't seem to make that possible, and I can only see the one thread where there are just two posts from you.
*shrug*
Probably doesn't help that I consume Mastadon in 8-12hr chunks, so it's sometimes hard to catch-up/follow busy threads. At least they way they are displayed to me.
@mattblaze I’m quite sure this statement wasn’t intended to be a strawman argument, but it is. To gather up the torrent of disinformation , propaganda, oligarch-owned-and-driven bile and multiply-by-a-billion unthinking personal opinions and call it “news” is, itself, misinformation.
A few Socratic questions: if Twitter is such a great place, why are “News” people leaving? Arbitrary banning, muting, pile-ons, doxxing, bots, trolls and all the other pathologies have been there for years, no?
Perhaps people here don’t want “journalists” who already have huge platforms and megaphones, and oligarchs who own and run troll farms to bring “news” over here as well?
Pretending that “news” is just-the-facts-ma’am is continuing the fable.
@mattblaze My only objection to news on here or the other site is repetition. I follow multiple journalists and subscribe to multiple newspapers. It’s a cost of who I follow though - I get to see 30+ takes on Biden meeting Zelenskyy, many with similar info.
I could probably figure a way to cull this, or separate a news-reading persona, but I don’t bother. On me. Not Mastodon.
That said, I was reading my parents’ NYT in grade 6, so I love the news.
@mattblaze I could be wrong but posts show up in federated timelines mainly because the post got boosted by enough people, right?
Or, it shows up on someone's follower's feed because that someone boosted right?
In other words, posts to non-followers show up because people (not just the OP) thought it's worth sharing. Me personally, I'd just mute/block/filter rather than asking a bunch people to not share, with the exception of things which require actual moderation like hate speech. 🤷♂️
We're glad you are here and are glad that you're staying.
Some of the nuanced conversations and perspectives are already here. But it will take a little time for some of the policy folks & experts to find us -- and then some time for the "fediverse" to find them.
But: once that is achieved and we are firmly in our groove we will be set.
We will no longer rely on the whims / vagaries of a single entity to keep a good thing going.
@mattblaze I've been glancing at my instance's Federated Timeline every once in a while and have started to notice more and more discussion of (even non-Musk-related!) current events, fwiw. Definitely agree it's not on the old-Twitter levels, but it feels like something that might be slowly fixing itself.
Maybe we should also be the change we see in the world. My current event: I just ate a great burrito! Happy to discuss.
Me, too.
In particular, since I contributing my share towards it. 😉
But then, someone who is apolitical would never follow me.
i missed the poll due to real life ™ interfering with Social .
Strong YES.
@mattblaze
are you getting a lot of the scoldings?
i haven't seen any yet so this is a genuine question
Access to breaking news and commentary was one of the things that drew me to Twitter.
Having it here is necessary.
Matt Blaze
PeoriaBummer
Mikko Alasaarela
Quinn Norton
Amy D 
john d. moore
Porkchop D. Clown
Wtime
plasticbiker 
Vicky Harp
jpvantuyl
Peter Barnes
Marc Jacobs
The Owl of Minerva
Maki Shioya
Brian Hawthorne
f1ubl (Stéphan)
Jonathan Evans
Nini Bonbon
Drew Crecente 
Zardus
std::polar
TL Jordan
George William Herbert
Tim Palmer
HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴
Steve Herman
Bathsheba Blue
Assiduous Rabbit
Cranky David
Neo-Athenian Empire
Bill Ricker
DopeGhoti
Small1ldy
John Minnihan
Nonya Bidniss 🥥🌴
James Gardner
Rabid Rabbit 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦
Lee Gray