Cory DoctorowGod Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter
https://www.wired.com/story/god-did-us-a-favor-by-destroying-twitter/
lisa c
Alexander ShendiI sometimes think the curse of "social media" isn't the echo chambers, but algorithmically exposing us to extreme, opposing views to anger and engage us.
Randomjeweler@alexshendi @lmc @pluralistic yes I curate so I can read trusted sources. That's why I still enjoy social media
Dr. Lola Politicka@alexshendi as a longtime researcher, I concur heartily.
marina gorbis
neutron_chick@lmc @pluralistic Wow, what a great description of how it feels for me here on Mastodon! ๐
reallyJim@lmc @pluralistic it seems like the perfect thing to build a town square on. Sharing knowledge, beneficial to others, and generally being decent to one another?
Let's live there.
Alexandre B A Villares ๐
nikolawannabe@lmc @pluralistic I live in a small town. The towns next to me are even smaller, and might be better referred to as "hovels".
You know what these towns are full of? Broken septic systems, roofs caving in, elderly people living in worsening squalor, disabled people and children being taken care of by the one family member with a stable job.
I appreciate the concept of de-Babelizing, but the size of the town isn't the primary factor when it's all built on sand.
sigi714@lmc @pluralistic Except from that smartphones, from my infosec-perspective ;)
Led By Gilded FoolsHey, @TheTweetOfGod, you following this account?
Antonio Santos ๐ต๐น@pluralistic @cstross The article is biased concerning a US-centric and privileged view of the world.
Bike Enby@pluralistic I like this idea of fixing bicycles
tiago@pluralistic yep. "It seemed that the difference of opinion, tastes, and purposes increased just in proportion to the demand for conformity ... It appeared that it was nature's own inherent law of diversity that had conquered us... our 'united interests' were directly at war with the individualities of persons and circumstances and the instinct of self-preservation." - Manifesto - A Libertarian Document (1841), Josiah Warren
Katma@pluralistic
I like the idea that corporate world wants an unhappy, insecure (reasonably-affluent?) consumer class because happy people arenโt as profitable
I disagree that Twitter is any kind of town/city square. Healthy local public centers are meeting spots, sites of public buildings (e.g. libraries, school, also free), places for local businesses, etc.
Elon Twitter is more like modern airlines: packed to the gills, understaffed, and prone to service crashes
#Twitter #federation
OldeNaturalist@pluralistic here in the UK, operation of a mastodon instance will soon be a minefield, thanks to the ill-conceived, all encompassing "online harms" bill.
The duties imposed upon even the smallest operators are extremely onerous, and come with significant penalties. Crazy.
zeruch@oldenaturalist @pluralistic thats because the UK, when it comes to tech policy, is more idiotic than any other EU state. It's the blind leading the easily led.
@zeruch @pluralistic oh yes. I suspect the only reason Nadine Dorries championed it is because she wanted to be able to stop people being mean about her.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic as a yank, my knowledge of Dorries is basically limited to the hullabaloo around her visit to Equatorial Guinea, but now that I'm reading up on her more I can honestly say she seems adorable in the same way that head-butting the ass of a porcupine is adorable.
Jonathan McKeown@zeruch @oldenaturalist @pluralistic /any/ EU state. Britain infamously (and almost certainly catastrophically) left the European Union.
@thetruejona @oldenaturalist @pluralistic sorry, bad habit, I'm meant any European state. Obviously the EU is only a subset.
Virtue signal ๐๐๐๐บ๐ธ ๐บ๐ฆWell, Rupert Murdoch can have all of your minds to himself.
Rob Randtoul@oldenaturalist @pluralistic this shower arenโt competent enough to enforce it.
eons Luna (Eonity)@oldenaturalist @pluralistic this reminds me of a similar-in-principle law passed not too long ago here in Singapore which dictates that social media platforms take down material considered โharmfulโ by the government, regardless of where they are hosted; the government can direct ISPs to block access to that platform if their directions are ignored. It would be interesting to see how this could work for Mastodon/Fediverse.
Singapore can now order social media sites to block access, as 'online safety' law kicks in
Effective from February 1, Singapore's Online Safety Act comprises a new section that regulates online communication services--specifically, social media platforms--that must comply with directives to block local access to "egregious" content or face potential fines.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic eg: suppose material deemed harmful by the Singapore government is found on a particular Mastodon instance. Would the government then direct only that particular instance to take down that content, or direct it to all Mastodon/Fediverse instances? If that instance refuses to take down the content, would the Singapore government block access only to just that instance? Direct everyone to block that instance? Or block ActivityPub altogether?
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic I can already see that law being difficult, if not outright impossible to enforce on decentralised social media platforms like Mastodon and other Fediverse-enabled platforms. To be honest I myself find it a pretty stupid law; while the intentions are good, it could be very easily abused to silence rightful criticism and more, not to mention the difficulty in enforcing it.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic thing is, this is just the latest in a series of laws recently passed here that have been widely seen as trampling on free speech. While Iโm no free speech absolutist, and while I agree with the intentions of these laws, the way they are implemented are just potential cans of worms waiting to be opened; the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has already been proverbially opened several times these few years.
@eonity @pluralistic it's clearly aimed entirely at censorship, under the time honoured tradition of "protection". It solves nothing, whilst handing over vast sums of money to age verification companies and vast troves of personal data to who the hell knows.
A bill that the CCP would be proud of.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic itโs really upsetting that more and more governments around the world are implementing such laws, even those in countries traditionally seen as being quite open on free speech. Itโs one thing to see my own country of Singapore passing such laws (free speech is generally not, and has never been a thing here), but itโs another when countries like the UK and Australia passes similar laws.
Elliot@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge great. Even more legislation that creates barriers for everyone except the mega rich.
DNAvinci@elliot
Pretty easy to just let any other nation run Mastodon instances then, right? The ol' Schengen gang actually run an official instance themselves.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge
Pretty easy to just let any other nation run Mastodon instances then, right? The ol' Schengen gang actually run an official instance themselves.
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic @ianbetteridge
The Vampire Fish Queen@oldenaturalist @pluralistic Well that if they can even get it up and running, the bill is a unworkable mess that it is likely to collapse under its own weight just look at the last UK age verification law that was delayed over and over again until it was quietly scraped.
There also the fact that the UK is about to enter a recession meaning Ofcom is likely to be super underfunded and unable to enforce 90% of the bill.
Dark Sage Torunka 
@oldenaturalist @pluralistic Would any of that nonsense apply to single-user instance operators? I doubt the UK intended to criminalize *blogging*.
On the other hand this is also a country that never had free speech. And not in the "omg you can't be a Nazi in Germany anymore!!1" sense, but the "I'll sue you in England! You are so sued!" sense.
At any rate should I start installing GeoIP rules to ban England
ุงูุชูููููุณ@pluralistic second screenshot is gold.
System IV, Building K@pluralistic OMG. Eternal thanks.
william.maggosI need to read the article but some pretty cool shit needs lots of people, I think. I love big cities. maybe the tradeoffs are not worth it, but I'd probably be bored AF. would we even have bicycles? in small groups, exceptional people struggle harder to find their niche. but I guess hateful people also can't build their armies.
John Samuel@pluralistic When I read this article, it reminds me of the human nature to do, forget, redo, re-forget, and continue this cycle. I guess this is one of the first lessons of political science.
enmodo โ๏ธ ๐งฌ ๐บ๐ฆ ๐@pluralistic "God"? That's not a term I'd ever use to describe Elon. More like Dr. Evil.
But to the point in the excerpts (can't read the linked article) I'm inclined to agree. Just look at small companies that grow from the point of everyone knowing each other to hundreds and thousands. There's always a very different change even as they fight to retain culture or values despite size.
Quitty@pluralistic Do I have to believe in the Fediverse utopia?
Not every idea changes the world, and I'm just here because it is a better service, for me, at this point in time.
I spent years in ad-tech, and my bottom line is that consensually monetizing humans is better than paywalled access to information. I give Google my ass, they give me a good map service.
The fact they have more money than me has little bearing over that barter.
Richard K Niner ๐ FE@pluralistic "The reason the Babel story matters is not that it happened once but that it happens over and over: We Babelize and de-Babelize. The internet is an engine of both processes." Sounds pretty accurate (Hey, remember when email was everyone's main communication method? Or when IM services started connect using XMPP before pulling the rug out?)
I TRIED TO TELL YOU@pluralistic Twitter is dead to me, but I'm not so sure about it having been destroyed.
Jan PenfratWhat a tremendously enjoyable piece by @ftrain:
"The Fediverse apps are all built on a set of rules called the ActivityPub standard, which is a little like HTML had sex with a calendar invite."
-- God Did the World a Favor by Destroying Twitter --
https://www.wired.com/story/god-did-us-a-favor-by-destroying-twitter/
Denise@pluralistic Not sure God was involved. Mr Musk seems to be managing to wreck it all by himself! ๐
MarylandDentist@pluralistic that second person sounds awesome
Cassandrich@pluralistic Birdchan as the tower of babel, seeking EA shitheads' basilisk god. ๐คช
Dan Gillmor@pluralistic The business model for Mastodon, in most cases, will the same as the business model for community theater. That is a wonderful thing!
Pseudo Nym@dangillmor @pluralistic not every hero wears a cape, and not every service has to have a "business model."
Domestic Supply 
@dangillmor @pluralistic But community theatre not dependent on physical proximity. If the theatre three time zones away is the one doing what I care about, I can be there.
Panic! At The Mastocon@pluralistic my main problem with this is one thing that always thrives in centralized spaces are marginalized folks who are spread out and disadvantaged in nature.
a small town is paradise for the homogenized, hell for the unique. we don't have a homeland when we're queer or trans.
CharlieG@pluralistic @atomicpoet I just love this:
โHappy people, the kind who eat sandwiches together, are boring. They donโt buy much. Their smartphones are six versions behind and have badly cracked screens. They fix bicycles, then they talk about fixing bicycles, then they show their friend, who just came over for no reason, how they fixed their bicycle, and their friend says, โWow, good job,โ and they make tea. That doesnโt seem like enough to build a town square on.โ