Shannon
Lori Emersonfinally, Wendell Berry's standards for technological innovation--truly as relevant now as they were in 1987 #othernetworks
Aaro Koskinen@loriemerson 10. Never post an image/screenshot if you can type the same in plain text.
Red Oak@aakoskin @loriemerson hey, this reply sucks
Ricardo Harvin
Fishercat@ricardoharvin @redoak @[email protected]
Thanks for helping me feed my block list.
James@DrJLecter Thanks for advice, but none of my posts rely on the attached image content, so alt text is irrelevant for me and same for the reader.
Alistair K@aakoskin @DrJLecter Some of us struggle to know that without alt text to convey it, alas.
L'égrégore André ꕭꕬ@aakoskin @DrJLecter If the image is so irrelevant — why attach one?
@Mabande @DrJLecter "If the image is so irrelevant — why attach one?"
That's a very good question.
Possibily the reason is that earlier platforms like Twitter rewarded such posts, and also if you have a picture it gets people's attention in their feeds.
Personally I would like text-only Internet, like it used to be. Maybe I should try posting without any pictures, and see if it makes any difference.
ArmageddJen@aakoskin @loriemerson the text is in the image description you numpty.
Richard Rathe"Never post an image/screenshot if you can type the same in plain text."
For a simple list like the above. I agree.
I suspect that there is a "plain text penalty" for words/ideas without imagery in social media, but I'm not up on the trends, rules, or research in that domain.
lxskllr@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
Might run out of characters. Default mastodon limit is 500. I've done text images to get around the limit.
@lxskllr @nickrauchen @aakoskin I am having trouble wrapping my head why the format of my post is worth anyone commenting on - the text is in the image. it's not elegant but I wanted to give a screenshot of the exact text I was reading from Harper's. surely there are more important things to discuss here, and in general, than policing precisely how people post
@loriemerson @lxskllr @aakoskin
Speaking as a reader of your post, I'd rather have the text than a picture of the text. In this case I think all/most of the content was in the alt text, which is good but may be hidden for some (depends on the UI).
@lxskllr @aakoskin @loriemerson
I think the char limit varies on #Mastodon depending on server, client, etc.
Something textual that is "long form" can be threaded, yes?
@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
It can, but threaded posts are kind of annoying imo. Sometimes it's better to have everything in one view.
I say that someone who does a minimum of one threaded post every day :^D
@lxskllr @aakoskin @loriemerson
Threading in #Mastodon is pretty clunky I agree. I can't remember much about it, but in old-school #twitter there was an obvious "Continue" or "Next" button for threading. The server I'm currently on has a much larger char limit so it has not been an issue. The main reason I thread anything is for topics like travel logs that unfold over time.
Then there's just being kind to your readers... keep things simple, short, and concise. An ideal I am sometimes not able to achieve even with good intentions. 🙂
@nickrauchen @aakoskin @loriemerson
"Then there's just being kind to your readers... keep things simple, short, and concise"
That's what I like about my low character limit. It enforces brevity. It's also what I don't like about it. Double edged sword. Trying to work with limited resources is a good exercise, even if they can't always be adhered to 100%.
a libi rose
M.S. Bellows, Jr.@aakoskin @loriemerson Have you always been a Karen or did you choose it as a career?
tools for commensality 🧿how about never tell a media studies scholar how to represent a text
sport of sacred spherical cowsSitting with the semiotics of fixed typography, as signifier of the book as artifact, that would be elided by a mere copypasta of raw text.
To wit, the OP specifically is presenting this passage as historically situated in a specific media form.
Nate Allen@loriemerson the sad thing is that, today, if someone tried selling something based on these principles they would go out of business because people are only driven by price.
@mossyfoot I don't even know if they could even get such a business started in the first place! we are slowly heading toward an anti-capitalist revolution of some kind...I just hope it doesn't take too many more global catastrophes to happen
@loriemerson agreed.
Hey Gus@loriemerson
This is the hope our planet needs.
Guillotine Jones, Flâneur@loriemerson
Now obsessing about Mr Berry's rule #9 and the current run of tech bros obsessed with "disruption" as some sort of positive thing.
Now obsessing about Mr Berry's rule #9 and the current run of tech bros obsessed with "disruption" as some sort of positive thing.
Pterry@loriemerson funny thing, this resembles in part the requirements for new drugs
Pavel A. Samsonov@loriemerson I love the idea of the body's energy being solar energy
@PavelASamsonov @loriemerson Right? I adore that too. Wendell Berry is a small farmer who raises some meat animals, which he pastures in the places that would erode if they were plowed. I saw him speak in Portland 30 years ago and he explained that meat farmer this way, unlike factory farms, is not inherently bad because it is another efficient way of extracting solar energy.
I love Wendell Berry.
Earthshine@loriemerson Yes 100% to all of this. Though I'm not entirely sure what they mean by "some form of solar energy" in that context... it sounds like they mean generally renewable or naturally abundant in the local environment?
Geoff Mackenzie@earthshine @loriemerson I think they mean it quite literally. The energy in us comes from our food, which gets it from the sun. Wind energy is also from the sun since it's the heat differences that drive the wind. If you take that idea to extremes fossil fuels are also solar but I don't think that's what they meant :)
Space Hobo@earthshine @loriemerson You can imagine that all of these criteria were derived in reverse from the premise that bicycles are amazing technology that fit our society extremely well.
@earthshine @loriemerson I suspect a lot of this was inspired by Ilich's Tools For Conviviality.
SlightlyCyberpunk@earthshine @loriemerson Yeah, powered by burning wood or vegetation, or a combustion engine running pure ethanol..maybe even incinerating mountains of bioplastics... :)
ZenHeathen 🇨🇦@loriemerson Based on this brilliant wisdom, I should look this person up.
@ZenHeathen @loriemerson You absolutely should. Here are a couple starting points:
Why I Will Not Buy a Computer (essay): berry-computer.pdf https://classes.matthewjbrown.net/teaching-files/philtech/berry-computer.pdf
The Blue Robe (poem): https://www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3Fp=6383.html
Andi H@loriemerson
So EVs are out then? 😉
So EVs are out then? 😉
zombiecide 馬雄@AH_99 e-SUVs are out, e-bikes very much in
Cassandrich@zombiecide @AH_99 We could have EV cars that are smaller and lighter and easier to repair than a 1980s-era hatchback. The reasons we don't are all bad ones.
S.Tori@zombiecide I don't know, the shop I bought my e bike from went bust and the new shop I took it to to get serviced said they only service their own brands, and didn't know of a place I could take it. Just the electric parts which hopefully won't need looking at for a while (the bike parts are standard), but still.
כָּלב 
@loriemerson I'd like to see some examples of good and bad tech based on these principles. I assume a solar-powered calculator is a good tech.
publiusHow far back do you have to go, to find a time when many people would have agreed that slavery fell in the category of "family and community relationships", and was even among the most important? Technological innovation disrupted that, by separating the processing of chemical energy into mechanical work from the human body. I for one have no desire to go back.
@publius Slavery was recognized at the time it was practiced as an abomination by all decent people.
History classes just teach the awful people of their times as though they were the only ones whose opinions counted.
AlexanderMars@dalias that's just a sad little troll, making a pathetic attempt to shit on someone else's post.
Wenzel Massag@loriemerson wonderful! Is there a website with more information and some context? Or a book?
AI6YR Ben@loriemerson This is a great list!!
PhDogWendell Berry rocks.
@loriemerson I'm not keen on rule 2: often the current tool's problems include being too small to operate well.
Isocat@libroraptor @loriemerson Yeah, smaller isn't necessarily better.
urbaer@loriemerson I would add to number 7 "and ownable".
@loriemerson Nothing about durability. Point 6 only gets partway there.
Nick Silkey 📻 N5ILK 🪓🪵 🪣💧@loriemerson amazing - I tracked down the source. Thanks for this! 🙇♀️✌️💙
Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer
Wendell Berry
New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly
Vol. 10, No. 1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 112-113 (2 pages)
Published By: Middlebury College Publications
Scotty Trees@loriemerson yeah that’s a fantasy list that doesn’t exist anymore lol
Per Haps ✅✔✓☑@loriemerson wow, current vibe-coded software tools fail almost every one of these standards.
I like to go to original sources, so here's a link via @Kottke.org...
https://classes.matthewjbrown.net/teaching-files/philtech/berry-computer.pdf
https://kottke.org/25/05/nine-rules-for-evaluating-new-technology
millennial fulcrum@loriemerson the Wendellian laws should be international law