Mike Masnick ✅

So I was mostly offline (and therefore, off Mastodon) for the past 3 days, and catching up with stuff now... and am NOT AT ALL SURPRISED that yet another centralized social media platform (Spoutable) is speed running the content moderation learning curve. This ALWAYS happens.

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/02/hey-elon-let-me-help-you-speed-run-the-content-moderation-learning-curve/

FWIW, it happens with fediverse instances too, but at least here we have choices, and it creates incentives for instance admins to be better.

Hey Elon: Let Me Help You Speed Run The Content Moderation Learning Curve

It’s kind of a rite of passage for any new social media network. They show up, insist that they’re the “platform for free speech” without quite understanding what that actua…

Techdirt
Feb 23, 2023 at 8:21pmWeb
Show threadDerek Powazek 🐐Feb 23, 2023
@mmasnick by all accounts he just picked up a Twitter clone from off the shelf, installed it, and has been on a drama-fueled publicity tour ever since.
Show threadAnil DashFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick it’s also the same guy who pushed the spurious BotSentinel platform which used AI-handwaving to try to make a big detection product. He’s got a cohort of enthusiastic supporters brigading anyone who asks questions but given that the platform itself is just an open source Twitter clone that he bought, I don’t expect he has the full context of how platform moderation works at scale.
Show threadShoq 🌿Feb 23, 2023
@mmasnick Wb. Was wondering where you were. It's a quiet fediverse when you're not filling it up with good thoughts and words :)
Show threadooh shinyFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick the site is garbage. It's slow full of errors that he hasn't fixed. I'm enjoying watching it go up in flames.
Show threaddarren is Not Going BackFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick by the way, wondering if anyone (you?) is maintaining a tracker on Elon's speedrunning progress? I love this article, and maintaining it as a living roadmap of Twitter 2.0 would amuse and educate many.
Show threadMike Masnick ✅Feb 23, 2023
@bikepedantic i'm only one man. don't think i can keep up... but i might need to write an updated version...
Show threaddarren is Not Going BackFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick i can't believe that it only dates back to NOVEMBER!
Show threadShoq 🌿Feb 23, 2023

@mmasnick I'm told that spelling it SpoutAble can get you shadow-banned there :)

#FreeSpeechForThee

Show threadrrgFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick Any pointers where to read about that Spoutable drama?
Show threadMike Masnick ✅Feb 23, 2023
@rrg there's a lot, but this is the first one i found that covers some of the basics. https://critteranne.medium.com/is-spoutible-fighting-with-romance-writers-and-fans-86b6ecdd7a1d
Is Spoutible Fighting With Romance Writers and Fans?

Has the owner of Spoutible become the most hated man in Romancelandia? Or is it all just a big misunderstanding?

Medium
Show threadrrgFeb 23, 2023
@mmasnick Thanks!
Show threadDiligence JonesFeb 23, 2023

@mmasnick @rrg

Ah, me.
I remember those Romancelandia wars on the birdsite well. Most of the most popular romance writers are ex-lawyers (like Milan.) Many folks have learned by now not to come at them with nonsense.

And I think we know why that particular segment of question-askers got hit with such toxicity. #ExismSay

Show threadChris ADFeb 24, 2023
@DeliaChristina @mmasnick @rrg Milan is a bit of a shitstirrer herself, although she manages to stay in most Romance people's good books. She's an enthusiastic web warrior, let's put it that way.
Show threadCookiefiendFeb 24, 2023
@mmasnick @rrg Pity. I wanted to like Spoutible but I haven't signed up--and now I won't.
Show threadmconnorFeb 24, 2023
@mmasnick @rrg they didn’t make it over here, but @questauthority has been digging into the legal bits and… there’s a lot.
Show threadMike DunfordFeb 24, 2023

@mconnor @mmasnick @rrg

I barely scratched the surface. Their TOS are a turducken of dumb. There's the internal contradiction I found yesterday. Then there's the lack of a "ban for any or no reason." Which, given that they're banning people for Community Policy violations, is extra fun because the TOS don't condition, or even require, Community Policy compliance (they just "kindly ask" for compliance). Etc, etc, etc

Show threadmconnorFeb 24, 2023

@questauthority @mmasnick @rrg so it’s the legal equivalent of the $70 PHP script it’s running on. Consistency at least!

Our TOS will be open licensed. Maybe they can steal it…

Show threadBjørn Larssen 🇺🇦 🏳️‍🌈Feb 23, 2023
@mmasnick This is the fourth time I read this article and it remains 1) amazing, 2) enlightening, and 3) painfully correct.
Show threadLee 🌏Feb 23, 2023
@mmasnick
And if Elon was half the genius he thinks he is, he would have researched all this before he bought Twitter.
Show threadMeryem FuatFeb 24, 2023
@mmasnick This is fabulous! I always wondered why people who post awful stuff think that freedom means we are compelled to read it; and if we don't, they complain about being secretly shadow banned. I think that was the basic problem that Elon thought he was solving with his free-for-all approach to freedom of speech.
Show threadMattFeb 24, 2023
@mmasnick I'm rapidly concluding that tech ventures that are more about the heroic founder than the benefits to users is destined to fail. Swapping Musk for Bouzy just recreates the problem. Meanwhile, Mastodon has a founder, but he's not the story.