Post thanksgiving reflection … the thing I miss most about my time building startups is the feeling of a tight knit group of people, more or less aligned, working together to move what is seen as a big boulder up an even bigger hill. Finally getting some of that here at the big company, but it’s still not the same. Something I’ll be thinking about more as we close out this year.
@arcktip
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Figuring it out…
AstralfrontierIn response to criticism of the Fediverse I've read today, and to some very uninformed comments I've read on Twitter from Musk supporters about firing most of Twitter's employees, I want to talk about what I know about the technical side of running a social service.
The short answer is: it ain't easy and it ain't cheap.
It's vital that as Mastodon and the Fediverse figure out a moderation strategy that engineers be ready to implement the tools that those moderators (individually or as a collective) ask for. The people who have done this for a long time know what they need. There's no engineering solution to toxic content, but there is engineering work nonetheless.
Mike Chowla ✅RT @emollick
Trying to learn from extraordinarily successful folks is often worse than learning from those who are merely successful:
1) They are more likely to have won huge by risky bets
2) Survivorship bias effects are worse
3) We learn the wrong lessons
More here👇
https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/when-survivorship-bias-meets-superstitious
Trying to learn from extraordinarily successful folks is often worse than learning from those who are merely successful:
1) They are more likely to have won huge by risky bets
2) Survivorship bias effects are worse
3) We learn the wrong lessons
More here👇
https://oneusefulthing.substack.com/p/when-survivorship-bias-meets-superstitious
Josh BraunI've seen plenty of discussions in recent days over the network structure of Mastodon and whether it can remain decentralized as large commercial players begin taking an interest in the fediverse. I am neither an engineer nor an economist, but I do research the way media and information get distributed and I have some thoughts on this. A thread…
If folks want to prevent these outcomes, for example to preserve a system where everyone logs on through small communities where they know the admin and moderators personally, the governing principles need to be put in place now. The technology won't do it by itself, and in fact it may create conditions that favor the opposite outcome. /fin
⛈️ Information ⛈️Oh, you think "ads on my mastodon instance is bad?"
Friends, I work at a megatech corp. I can give you such terribly worse ideas. And I will do so.
I will give you sqrt(x) terribly worse fedi feature ideas for every x favs.
@davewalker finding books in alternate languages is often a challenge for those who may want to learn one (by reading) or who speak/read a language other than the dominant one near them. Example: I don’t have trouble finding books in English or Spanish near me but often find it hard to locate books in French, German or Russian. So, I have to save up to buy those books online or make space in my luggage to buy them the few times I travel to places where those the primary language.
@davewalker if you happen to have any local little free libraries, you might donate the books to them. Alternatively, you could build your own lending library box for your community and seed it with these and a few other books. I’ve Sen these in the US and Europe and they seem to help people find new content and have access to books when they might not otherwise have access. Kids in particular seem to benefit so if you build one think about how tall someone needs to be to access the box.
fiberdrive@arcktip @cephira (2 or 2) I do worry that unlimited free expression can be problematic though. If what you are expressing in public is the direct harm or violence to a group of people, restricting that is reasonable. Now, how that gets enforced? I don't really know. But to keep to your question, exercising firearms or reproductive rights are individual actions; if we think about expression in that framing, I would treat it the same. As long as you can do it, it's fine.