Disabled Bee loving EDS survivor checking out this space. I mostly channel my inner very leftist political Janimal here.
Follow my alter @ohtwist for all things #EhlersDanlos #MedEd #autistic and more. https://ohtwist.com
Jan Droid
- 55 Followers
- 87 Following
- 365 Posts
Fedi.TipsDo you filter your timeline on Mastodon? Do you want a filter to detect variations of a word, for example both "apple" and "apples"?
To do this, UN-tick the box marked "whole word". When the box is un-ticked, the filter will look for all words that contain that word within them.
(If you're wondering what the heck filters are on Mastodon, here is a complete guide: https://fedi.tips/filtering-your-timeline-to-hide-posts-on-mastodon )
Mastodon MigrationIn essence #Bluesky is a trap, a Potemkin village with an appealing facade, but behind the false exterior it's the same old centralized corporate walled garden (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0318034&utm_source=pr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=plos006). Users now have the illusion of reach and freedom, but that can be denied at a moment's notice. Alternatively, it can be suppressed gradually, and they may not even know it.
And all the while users are building their corporate prison, they are not engaged in fortifying a defensible public resource.
Bluesky: Network topology, polarization, and algorithmic curation
Bluesky is a nascent “Twitter-like” and decentralized social media network with novel features and unprecedented data access. This paper provides a characterization of its interaction network, studying the political leaning, polarization, network structure, and algorithmic curation mechanisms of five million users. The dataset spans from the website’s first release in February of 2023 to May of 2024. We investigate the replies, likes, reposts, and follows layers of the Bluesky network. We find that all networks are characterized by heavy-tailed distributions, high clustering, and short connection paths, similar to other larger social networks. BlueSky introduced feeds—algorithmic content recommenders created for and by users. We analyze all feeds and find that while a large number of custom feeds have been created, users’ uptake of them appears to be limited. We analyze the hyperlinks shared by BlueSky’s users and find no evidence of polarization in terms of the political leaning of the news sources they share. They share predominantly left-center news sources and little to no links associated with questionable news sources. In contrast to the homogeneous political ideology, we find significant issues-based divergence by studying opinions related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Two clear homophilic clusters emerge: Pro-Palestinian voices outnumber pro-Israeli users, and the proportion has increased. We conclude by claiming that Bluesky—for all its novel features—is very similar in its network structure to existing and larger social media sites and provides unprecedented research opportunities for social scientists, network scientists, and political scientists alike.
Jurjen Heeck 🍋Why I Won't Write on Substack
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/why-i-wont-write-on-substack/
@Daojoan : "We're in a global backslide because social media companies captured users, harvested our attention, siloed us from each other, elevated outrage and misinformation, and farmed every fucking one of us for profit."
Why I Won't Write on Substack
There is something perverse about every voice of record, every journalist with a profile, every writer with an audience abandoning ship for Substack. It's been a growing trend for the past few years, and it's getting worse. Substack has done an excellent job convincing intelligent people from legacy media backgrounds
Erik MoellerI find Trump as repulsive as most people here, but as a German, one thing I want to push back on is focusing only on one man.
Hitler's rise was possible because he was able to exploit the racial hatred and conspiratorial thinking that already existed.
It's MAGA acolytes that see Trump as an extraordinary figure. He was a reality show grifter with a crumbling business; Hitler was an undisciplined drifter with delusions of grandeur.
It's the soil that matters, not just the rotten harvest.
JA WestenbergDigital marketing isn't just ads—it's weaponized psychology designed to override your autonomy and extract maximum value from your consciousness, while giving nothing back.
And over the past 20 years, it broke our society.
https://www.joanwestenberg.com/how-digital-marketing-broke-society/
How Digital Marketing Broke Society
25.9% of teenagers who spend four or more hours daily on screens experienced depression symptoms in the past two weeks. 27.1% reported anxiety symptoms. Higher durations of Internet use increases depression levels. Adolescents who spend more than three hours online daily are more likely to fall into the
People ask: "Why the preoccupation with #Bluesky? Lots of good folks are going there and love it."
@Daojoan does a great job of providing the long answer in this brilliant piece: https://www.joanwestenberg.com/big-tech-wants-you-trapped-the-open-web-sets-you-free-2/
But the short answer is that, by funneling users onto another unsafe centralized corporate platform, #Bluesky inhibits the construction of truly defensible public social media.
So now, when something happens over on Bluesky, the Fedi will not be ready to absorb a rapid mass migration.
more...
Big Tech Wants You Trapped. The Open Web Sets You Free
Big Tech designed their platforms to keep you trapped. YouTube, X, Instagram, and TikTok aren't neutral spaces. They're businesses built on capturing your attention and data. Their algorithms, notification systems, and content policies all serve one purpose: keeping you engaged on their terms. And their terms alone. There's no freedom
zenkat@heidilifeldman From a former #18f staffer ...
Angry about the mass #DOGE firings from #USDS, #CFPB, #NIH, #18F, and everywhere else across the federal government?
Tech for Public Good (https://www.publicgood.tech/) is holding a fundraiser to waive dues for federal technologists who’ve lost their jobs. They offer job resources & professional community for people who do government tech work.
Your contribution is vital -- any amount helps!
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——— What We Offer ——— Our professional association offers you connections with other technologists in your community and across the nation. We're a network of folks from many disciplines and backgrounds, including but not limited to: human-centered designers, software engineers, data scientists,
