JamesMonroe
Rob BellingerIt's becoming pretty clear after *two weeks* on Mastodon that the Other Place deliberately promoted conflict but sold it as conversation.
just Ash@rbellinger yes! Exactly!
Dan Sugalski@rbellinger @gregpak I’m reminded of the warning we give people at work when they do experiments that all metrics are proxies for what’s actually going on, and sometimes what you think you’re measuring and what you’re actually measuring are two different things. This is exceptionally unfortunate when you then optimize for a metric that you’re misunderstanding.
Jarvis Slacks@rbellinger Dude yes.
Toxteth O'Grady@rbellinger So did Facebook. And for some reason promoted guys selling survival rations and body armor...
Comics Outta Context@rbellinger @dznz Daniel taught me this. I bookmarked and screenshot it to share with friends. It fits here too:
Daniel@ComicContext @rbellinger happy to share the term - I think I stumbled on it on TikTok and it matched a thing I’ve been trying to express for a minute. Also useful: “parasitic mimic” and “predatory mimic”, which have implications of purpose.
Bellison22
TrisResists@rbellinger 100% accurate!
Leslie 🇺🇸🌻🌈 🌊@rbellinger I would be furious after just a few minutes on twitter. Here, not at all? 🤷💕
El Duvelle
Aviel Roshwald@rbellinger @AndyPerfors No it didn’t!
WZA@rbellinger it was staggering the difference after Elongated Muskrat took over. I was very careful about curating my feed and it all went to shit within days
@WileyKimball Last week I was shocked when a daily digest email contained porn spam.
jenifer daniels ♎ :verified:
Aliceonboard@rbellinger he was baiting people in my experience, wretched manipulative so and so.
Joseph Dennis@aliceonboard @rbellinger just like the Apprentice
AndThisIsMrsPeacock 🏳️🌈@rbellinger The good news is that the bad brain chemistry this gave us all seems to be quickly reversible!
@rbellinger Elmo turned twitter into basically the Apprentice Survival Island Style.
Scott Daniel@rbellinger This was true even before Muskrat took over.
Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor
Mark VandeWettering 📡@rbellinger Outrage and anger are good at boosting attention and addiction (which can be measured and sold to advertisers) but do not actually make people happy. I'd like to think that with the profit motives basically eliminated from this medium, Mastodon will allow purer, more genuine voices and conversations to occur.
WANDERING🏴☠️LENS@rbellinger "sure you had 10,000 individual accounts sending you death threats, but that was 10,000 individual users looking at our ads and ~dRiViNg EnGaGeMeNt~!"
Quokka (on the move...)@rbellinger it was all about eng/ragement
Brad 🇺🇸 🇺🇦@rbellinger I agree. 👍
keeps vis.social running@rbellinger that's not to say we can just ignore current events. But we have more control over our experience here.
I highly recommend following an of your reliable local news publications if they are here.
I'm in San Francisco, so I follow @sfchronicle, @MLNow, @NPR_USNews, and more.
@kristinHenry @sfchronicle @MLNow @NPR_USNews Wish there were reliable NYC outlets to follow on here.
NeverthelessShePersisted@rbellinger I’m not sure how to get any interaction here though.
@EnaHippie Hashtags (using them and following them) seem to be key.
Ку 
🇧🇬🇪🇺 @rbellinger I’m still not entirely sure it’s just that. There are a lot of people that moved and while that changed, but I still think it’s mostly people that were looking for an excuse tondo so anyway. I don’t think the truly conflict-prone people have moved. If (when?) they do we’ll see how much of the problem is the algorithm promoting conflict vs just not actively stopping it given enough people crave conflict as a default mode of communication.
All that being said, it’s still obviously a far more enjoyable here now.
Aphrodite (recharging)all commercial sites veer towards increasing controversy as angy keeps eyes on screens
but the funny thing is good convos like in elephant world keep folks around longer :)
Sternwarte Vach (Andy)@rbellinger that's right. and this is one of the reasons i left "the other place" 🙂
Ewan@rbellinger welcome to the party!
husbandpanda 🐼@rbellinger the difference in politeness of conversation here has been distinct to me, most definitely. I literally enjoy interactions again and see far better ones.
Elias Mårtenson@rbellinger it's not called conflict, it's "engagement", isn't it? 🤔
Ben Hager@rbellinger I have noticed this as well. I follow basically the same people here and see way less (basically none) of the nasty stuff…
nosferatu4444@rbellinger Feels like an echo chamber at times. Lots of pile ons, paranaoia and flaming and that's just between people who say they agree with each other.
@nosferatu4444 Yes, and endless gatekeeping where people who apparently agree with each other only want others to express similar thoughts using the exact same language and vocabulary they use
Looking for explanations…@rbellinger Angst increases outrage, engagement & advertising value. We were being played big time.
Karina@rbellinger it is a rage machine....and sets stages up for fights to start. The more fights that break out the more $$ the rage machine makes.