Prof Christopher Jackson“One of the benefits of Twitter was how it created a sense of community for scientists, particularly for those from under-represented groups.”
“Thousands of scientists are cutting back on Twitter, seeding angst and uncertainty…”
SellaTheChemist@seis_matters One striking thing, for me, is how the idea of "losing followers" seems to be such a strong argument for people. We've become obsessed with this kind of silly numerical indicator. Speaking from my own experience, vanity plays a big part in our inability to let go of a platform. What I find peculiar is that I have spoken to human rights activists and journalists who say that their experience is worse, their feeds near useless, yet they cling on because of "reach"…
@seis_matters The reason for leaving the site formerly known for ornithophilia is that there is a moral question. However useful, can you really sleep at night using a platform that has deliberately taken apart its checks and balances and has defended reinstationg users who post child abuse videos, among other things? To use the argument that "it gives us reach" or "we lose following" (as my employer has) is utterly pusillanimous.
Elisa Fadda-🔺@sellathechemist @seis_matters I completely agree. What is shocking to me is how highly educated *adults* are slaves of the same addiction that we blame teenagers of... "likes"
The cesspool Twitter is now, paying criminals to post content, allowing/encouraging hate speach, delaying connections to legitimate news sources and banning journalists for being 'hostile' to the company, is beyond the pale.
Why people cannot quit and rebuild the community (they claim they'd miss) here is beyond me 😔
@Elisa @seis_matters I think one of the ironies is that a driver is the “impact agenda” (of which I am sometimes an integral part!) driven by the research councils to argue for funding from political masters. It uses such shallow indicators as twitter followers and “organic impressions”with no thought to how these are actually outcomes of opaque proprietary algorithms.The fundamental problem is that the well-intentioned idea of”impact” is not measurable on short timescales.
@sellathechemist @seis_matters 🤯🤯 that is all news to me.. unreal!
@sellathechemist @Elisa I 100% agree with all of this 🙁
WTL@Elisa @sellathechemist @seis_matters A lot of people / orgs with “large" followings on Twitter relied on the algorithm to boost them. What many of them don't understand is that the algorithm is now fascist.
On Mastodon, there isn't any algorithm to game so they have to put in the work.
@WTL @Elisa @seis_matters I also pine for my army of sycophantic bot-followers, just as @SuneAuken does. 😜