Dan GillmorMay 3, 2023

NPR is the only major journalism org to have shown a spine in dealing with Musk. So he's threatened to give the NPR username to someone else.

Yet even now -- despite Musk's growing contempt for and acts against journalism -- most media organizations and their employees STILL pour their work and some of their advertising money in to his rancid site.

What will it take for journalists to wake the hell up?

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/02/1173422311/elon-musk-npr-twitter-reassign

Show threadkurt baumgartnerMay 3, 2023
@dangillmor @dangoodin the problem is that this alternative is not terribly mature
Show threadDrFriendless 🇵🇸May 3, 2023
@kurtisj @dangillmor @dangoodin The problem is that nobody wants to be part of an alternative vanity project for brands and celebrities. If maturity makes mastodon as awful as Twitter, why have it?
Show threadDan GoodinMay 3, 2023
@DrFriendless @kurtisj @dangillmor Isn’t the bigger problem that people aren’t willing sacrifice something they like in order to defend fundamental principles?
Show thread1st Unoriginal Thot May 3, 2023
@dangoodin @DrFriendless @kurtisj @dangillmor I mean, make Mastodon fun and I am sure people will flock over.
Show threadDan GoodinMay 3, 2023
@slut @DrFriendless @kurtisj @dangillmor Are you saying that people, in particular journalists whose very avocation is threatened by the Twitter menace, should not follow a moral imperative to leave unless or until there's a place they like as much as Twitter?
Show threadDrFriendless 🇵🇸May 3, 2023

@dangoodin @slut @kurtisj @dangillmor No not at all. I'm saying that journalists aren't leaving because they feel they have an audience on Twitter, be it ever so and increasingly deplorable. And because mastodon can't deliver them an audience which is centralised and captive they don't see the value in it. I feel if you ask a journalist or a politician or an advertiser to choose between morality or an audience, they will always choose the audience.

And the problem is that one of the things I love about mastodon is that I am not a captive audience for all of those egotists. And I don't wish mastodon to ever evolve into that. I would like mastodon to be a place where I follow those that I respect.

Mastodon is a peaceful village square, Twitter is Times Square where you are imprisoned in stocks and buffoons shout at you. When everyone is in the village square, what will the buffoons do?

Show threadDan Goodin
@DrFriendless @slut @kurtisj @dangillmor Sounds like you and I agree that Twitter is a lost cause that’s beyond redemption. My question was directed instead at those who refuse to do the right thing and dump Twitter simply because there is no alternative that has the same bells and whistles.
May 3, 2023 at 5:00amWeb