Scrutable

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:05 am

Seen people claim that Musk will kill off Twitter by allowing back banned people who in the name of free speech will go around being abusive.

What the f.ck? Maybe there's some corner of Twitter that's currently free of abusive and anti-social behaviour, but I haven't seen it. As far as I can see its still full of aggressive people flinging sh.t. Allowing Trump back probably won't make much difference to what people experience already.

Yeah, I see a lot of academics going "Right, I'm off to Mastodon" as if they are being personally oppressed by Elon, or unable to tolerate being on a site where people are sometimes nasty to each other; and this is the exact mirror of the RWNJs going off to Parler or Gab or Truth Social because Jack was mean to Trump.

This kind of network is a natural monopoly and I don't have time to follow multiple feeds (and don't get me started about DMs). I think most people will continue to put up with Twitter purely because of the critical mass of people. If Google couldn't get Google+ to work, I'd be amazed if Mastodon can. I know from another part of my online line that doing open-source operations is a lot harder than writing open-source software. I suspect they can only manage content moderation because (a) they are still small and (b) basically none of the people who have joined up so far are racists etc.

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:17 pm

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:05 am

Seen people claim that Musk will kill off Twitter by allowing back banned people who in the name of free speech will go around being abusive.

What the f.ck? Maybe there's some corner of Twitter that's currently free of abusive and anti-social behaviour, but I haven't seen it. As far as I can see its still full of aggressive people flinging sh.t. Allowing Trump back probably won't make much difference to what people experience already.

Yeah, I see a lot of academics going "Right, I'm off to Mastodon" as if they are being personally oppressed by Elon, or unable to tolerate being on a site where people are sometimes nasty to each other; and this is the exact mirror of the RWNJs going off to Parler or Gab or Truth Social because Jack was mean to Trump.

This kind of network is a natural monopoly and I don't have time to follow multiple feeds (and don't get me started about DMs). I think most people will continue to put up with Twitter purely because of the critical mass of people. If Google couldn't get Google+ to work, I'd be amazed if Mastodon can. I know from another part of my online line that doing open-source operations is a lot harder than writing open-source software. I suspect they can only manage content moderation because (a) they are still small and (b) basically none of the people who have joined up so far are racists etc.

Re multiple feeds, perhaps someone will come up with an aggregator app that combines feeds from different sources.

(I know nothing about app creation.)

Brightonian wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 5:45 pm

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:17 pm

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:05 am

Seen people claim that Musk will kill off Twitter by allowing back banned people who in the name of free speech will go around being abusive.

What the f.ck? Maybe there's some corner of Twitter that's currently free of abusive and anti-social behaviour, but I haven't seen it. As far as I can see its still full of aggressive people flinging sh.t. Allowing Trump back probably won't make much difference to what people experience already.

Yeah, I see a lot of academics going "Right, I'm off to Mastodon" as if they are being personally oppressed by Elon, or unable to tolerate being on a site where people are sometimes nasty to each other; and this is the exact mirror of the RWNJs going off to Parler or Gab or Truth Social because Jack was mean to Trump.

This kind of network is a natural monopoly and I don't have time to follow multiple feeds (and don't get me started about DMs). I think most people will continue to put up with Twitter purely because of the critical mass of people. If Google couldn't get Google+ to work, I'd be amazed if Mastodon can. I know from another part of my online line that doing open-source operations is a lot harder than writing open-source software. I suspect they can only manage content moderation because (a) they are still small and (b) basically none of the people who have joined up so far are racists etc.

Re multiple feeds, perhaps someone will come up with an aggregator app that combines feeds from different sources.

(I know nothing about app creation.)

Such things are possible, but they tend to be fragile and a bit thankless to make.

bjn wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 6:36 pm

Brightonian wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 5:45 pm

sTeamTraen wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 4:17 pm

Yeah, I see a lot of academics going "Right, I'm off to Mastodon" as if they are being personally oppressed by Elon, or unable to tolerate being on a site where people are sometimes nasty to each other; and this is the exact mirror of the RWNJs going off to Parler or Gab or Truth Social because Jack was mean to Trump.

This kind of network is a natural monopoly and I don't have time to follow multiple feeds (and don't get me started about DMs). I think most people will continue to put up with Twitter purely because of the critical mass of people. If Google couldn't get Google+ to work, I'd be amazed if Mastodon can. I know from another part of my online line that doing open-source operations is a lot harder than writing open-source software. I suspect they can only manage content moderation because (a) they are still small and (b) basically none of the people who have joined up so far are racists etc.

Re multiple feeds, perhaps someone will come up with an aggregator app that combines feeds from different sources.

(I know nothing about app creation.)

Such things are possible, but they tend to be fragile and a bit thankless to make.

That's already a thing for the fediverse - mastodon, etc.

Yeah I've no love at all for the Twitter interface - it would really benefit from some intuitive way to delineate spaces. You can't even follow a hashtag ffs.

But I'm always the last to adopt a new platform. I've heard there's good stuff on mastodon but cba to set up another app

Musk's first action has been to announce an increase in the price of a blue tick from $4.99 to $20.

I'm wondering whether he's planning on moving the whole platform to a subscription model. Something like $20 per month for a premium blue tick account, $5 per month for a regular user account with posting and dm functions, and a free account that lets people browse without being able to post or send dms.

That would reduce the number of users, especially among those who can't afford it.

Before people assume that it would kill off the site, people made all sorts of predictions that paywalls would kill off newspapers that introduced them. At least some subscription only newspapers or magazines appear to still be around.

Yeees, but newspapers do actually offer something of value. Less so the telegraph, obvs.

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:48 am

Musk's first action has been to announce an increase in the price of a blue tick from $4.99 to $20.

I'm wondering whether he's planning on moving the whole platform to a subscription model. Something like $20 per month for a premium blue tick account, $5 per month for a regular user account with posting and dm functions, and a free account that lets people browse without being able to post or send dms.

That would reduce the number of users, especially among those who can't afford it.

Before people assume that it would kill off the site, people made all sorts of predictions that paywalls would kill off newspapers that introduced them. At least some subscription only newspapers or magazines appear to still be around.

The verified blue tick was free. It was Twitter Blue™ - some kind of premium offering - that was $4.99.

The verified tick was supposed to stop disinformation and spoofing, but Musk wants to turn it into a paid for status symbol available to anyone who pays.

Newspaper paywalls are causing serious news access issues - in particular, far right sites like Fox News have not put up paywalls, while mainstream news sites have.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:59 am

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:48 am

Musk's first action has been to announce an increase in the price of a blue tick from $4.99 to $20.

I'm wondering whether he's planning on moving the whole platform to a subscription model. Something like $20 per month for a premium blue tick account, $5 per month for a regular user account with posting and dm functions, and a free account that lets people browse without being able to post or send dms.

That would reduce the number of users, especially among those who can't afford it.

Before people assume that it would kill off the site, people made all sorts of predictions that paywalls would kill off newspapers that introduced them. At least some subscription only newspapers or magazines appear to still be around.

The verified blue tick was free. It was Twitter Blue™ - some kind of premium offering - that was $4.99.

The verified tick was supposed to stop disinformation and spoofing, but Musk wants to turn it into a paid for status symbol available to anyone who pays.

Ah Ok, thanks for that.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:59 am

Newspaper paywalls are causing serious news access issues - in particular, far right sites like Fox News have not put up paywalls, while mainstream news sites have.

I agree.

The gall of trying to charge people to create content for you.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:33 pm

The gall of trying to charge people to create content for you.

That’s how the ruined internet works now. All four websites do this.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:33 pm

The gall of trying to charge people to create content for you.

People who create content would be paying for the audience, which they can then exploit for more money. Its co-dependency.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:59 am

Newspaper paywalls are causing serious news access issues - in particular, far right sites like Fox News have not put up paywalls, while mainstream news sites have.

Apart from the Guardian?

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:36 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 1:33 pm

The gall of trying to charge people to create content for you.

People who create content would be paying for the audience, which they can then exploit for more money. Its co-dependency.

Yeah, I guess it's just paid-for promotion of your account at the end of the day.

I see plenty of scientists and NGOs who've got blue ticks, but I don't reckon they'd consider $8 a month worth it. I can also imagine everyone thinking the remaining blue-tickers are self-promoting tosspots.

Odd to see a billionaire having a public tantrum using his own product.

Woodchopper wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 02, 2022 10:26 pm

Odd to see a billionaire having a public tantrum using his own product.

You must have missed half of Truth Social.

(I hope you did)

Interesting thread from @garius. No idea if it's valid and/or relevant.

That guy is FULL of sh.t and writes LIKE a tw.t in a stupid twitter style that seems to IMPRESS MORONS. In this thread he takes a basic business concept and dresses it UP in invented jargon and dud comparisons like the thermocline.

lpm wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 6:00 pm

That guy is FULL of sh.t and writes LIKE a tw.t in a stupid twitter style that seems to IMPRESS MORONS. In this thread he takes a basic business concept and dresses it UP in invented jargon and dud comparisons like the thermocline.

The basic idea that the selling point for a social media site is the userbase and there are positive feedback loops that mean that there are tipping points and once a site falls to a certain level, the only way is down. And recovery is very difficult, because people will remember why they stopped using the site.

No no no, that's not how to write, extend it into a load of tweets with RANDOM capital words and irrelevant asides, that way people won't notice how basic the analysis is.

lpm wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 6:00 pm

That guy is FULL of sh.t and writes LIKE a tw.t in a stupid twitter style that seems to IMPRESS MORONS. In this thread he takes a basic business concept and dresses it UP in invented jargon and dud comparisons like the thermocline.

a better thread (and paper in the second tweet) https://twitter.com/jbakcoleman/status/ ... 753910785/

Stephanie wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 8:21 pm

a better thread (and paper in the second tweet) https://twitter.com/jbakcoleman/status/ ... 753910785/

Yes, that seems convincing.

I think if the Bull guy wants a physical metaphor for the business of social networks it needs to have some sort of hysteresis. I’m REALLY, REALLY fed up with Facebook which has got worse and worse in the number of ads and suggested or promoted posts I have to scroll through to see even ONE thing that I actually wanted to, but I still feel tied to it because of about seven or eight people that I’d otherwise feel I had ‘LOST TOUCH’ with. If something else came along that I finally accepted was an alternative, then Facebook wouldn’t have to just go back to being slightly less bad than it was when I decided to move, it’d have to become MUCH MUCH better than what I feel I’ve been putting up with for ages, and ALSO better than what I’d switched to.

Stephanie wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 8:21 pm

lpm wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 03, 2022 6:00 pm

That guy is FULL of sh.t and writes LIKE a tw.t in a stupid twitter style that seems to IMPRESS MORONS. In this thread he takes a basic business concept and dresses it UP in invented jargon and dud comparisons like the thermocline.

a better thread (and paper in the second tweet) https://twitter.com/jbakcoleman/status/ ... 753910785/

An interesting thread. Collective action has been studied across the social sciences. Everything from why some protest movements are successful to how illicit networks function.

Millennie Al wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 11:16 pm

dyqik wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 01, 2022 9:59 am

Newspaper paywalls are causing serious news access issues - in particular, far right sites like Fox News have not put up paywalls, while mainstream news sites have.

Apart from the Guardian?

The Indy too but sadly they went for the clickbait site trick of filling every available pixel with intrusive ads and obnoxious pop-ups so you get a migraine even trying to access the content.

A "brave" decision given they stopped the dead-tree version.

Little waster wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 04, 2022 9:34 am

The Indy too but sadly they went for the clickbait site trick of filling every available pixel with intrusive ads and obnoxious pop-ups so you get a migraine even trying to access the content.

A "brave" decision given they stopped the dead-tree version.

I actually paid for access to the Indy (the first 3 months for £3 thing) - I cancelled it within a month - most of the time it didn't seem to recognise that I'd signed in with an account, despite it saying my name at the top of the screen! When it did recognise I had an account it made the whole thing worse as it kept refreshing the page (moving the bit I was trying to read) presumeably because it was hiding the ads...