 Social media disappointments: 1) Journalists are still actively participating at exTwitter, thereby actively supporting Musk, who is helping extremists bring down democracy and, by extension, a free press. 2) Reddit got away with stomping its volunteer moderators and users, and its execs are cashing in on an IPO that in a more just world would have flopped. 3) Writers I respect decided to stick with Substack despite arrogant, extremist-friendly investors and leadership. 58 comments
@KevinMarks It could work fine here, but they can't be bothered to take even modest steps to be independent of those centralized services. Journalism is always, always looking for a daddy. @dangillmor Old rich white men still safe. @KevinMarks @dangillmor Kevin, that has been tried by Huffington Post and MSNBC (Newsvine) until it got slammed with agenda shitposters. A concerted, targeted effort by NRA shitposters caused Michael Moore to take his discussion board off the web. Be careful what you wish for. #BeenThereDoneThat
 @dangillmor That's the only reason I'm still keeping my Xhitter account. Most of my followers are journalists or media outlets. That's it. @IveyJanette @dangillmor I joined Twitter in its first year, back when you could tweet by sending a text message from your flip phone. But last year I decided I could no longer support what it had become and I deleted my account. It does make it harder to find and follow journalists. But I could not have my name on that site any longer. @billd @dangillmor Most of the followers I have there are either journalists and/or people from Los Angeles. I haven't found many LA folks here. @IveyJanette @dangillmor That is the biggest drawback. It can be hard to find the same network elsewhere. You need to weigh that against the fact that, by being there, you’re earning them revenue. And revenue validates the business model. I want journalists to get out of there. @billd @IveyJanette @dangillmor Just a note: Hide your account instead of deleting it, if you have the option still. Don’t let someone else park in your lot. @ckent @IveyJanette @dangillmor I did consider that, but in the end I decided to sever all ties. I don’t want them to make a penny off me. @billd @IveyJanette @dangillmor Did some experiments recently. Deletion is an illusion. After Musk took over, if you make a new account with an email you previously used, the last deleted one will be woken up. Post-Elon ones will fully recover, pre-Elon ones (like one I had before I cleaned myself from my brainwashed upbringing) will recover in read-only state. Deleting stuff on Twitter/X is a complete scam. Noticed this when working on burning some stuff from my messy past I wanted off the net @billd @dangillmor because the difficulty of moving is very hard. Hence the need for. Platform that can never go the way of twitter, Reddit and substack. @gentrifiedrose most people have theoretical beliefs and values they don’t actually put into practise. But saying they believe it makes them ‘feel’ like they care, without having to actually do all that bothersome caring.   On the positive side: journalists helping fund Twitter by continuing to bring their followers there, qualify for an honorary brownshirt, as a supporter of a Twitter that gives a platform to the fascist "Daily Stormer", and Nick Fuentes, who denies the holocaust took place, and promotes the genocide of Jews (Wikipedia). Normalizing anti-semites is a recipe for disaster.  @dangillmor EXACTLY ALL OF THESE, AND THEN SOME! - People still use #GAFAM software & services despite them being not only #PRISM collaborators to this day, but not even trying to challenge #Cyberfacism like #CloudAct at all!  @dangillmor People do not, in general, leave platforms because the policies and/or leadership are bad. Lots of people are still on Facebook, and you don't get a more open-and-shut case than that. You can't moralise your way out of this problem - only regulate. @tomw @dangillmor Yah, but Facebook can wither quite effectively with it dying. Things don’t tend to explode in the same way they give birth. Fizzling out is the norm, actually. @dangillmor - Social media tend to be rather a disappointment. From the beginning it was built as surveillance machines, not communication tools.  @dangillmor For too many people, their ideals only go as far as their convenience. Hashtags are cheap. It’s kinda sad.  @dangillmor @dangillmor You can add to that CNN / Jake Tapper / Dana Bash lending their credibility and audiences to Donald John Trump in "debates" despite no evidence that Trump can be moderated in such a format. Those debates should never have been scheduled; the Biden team was foolish for allowing Trump yet another megaphone. @dangillmor CNN should know better. My guess is Biden's team warned him against it and he over-ruled them. @AlgoCompSynth @dangillmor The microphone cutoff mandate is new, and I’m willing to give this a chance to prove itself against Trump. With two ideal candidates, it would also be fantastic. @AlgoCompSynth @dangillmor Also: no studio audience. Good riddance Commission on Presidential Debates. @ckent @dangillmor Big deal - Trump and his henchfolk will find a way to make a spectacle from this at Biden's and CNN's / the moderarors' expense. The debates are a bad idea. @AlgoCompSynth @dangillmor I know — but the ceilings and floors in support are very weird in 2024. A lot of strong factors are dialled in this time with two “incumbents”, that very little moves the needle this time. I’m not saying your point is not a worry — just not necessarily. For example one of the weirder *actual* concerns is that Trump is grasping the anti-vaxxers from drifting to RFK. That’s one of the remaining few variables that work. @ckent @dangillmor I didn't see the microphone cutoff in the press coverage. I'd be surprised if CNN agreed to that. This is about an audience for them. @dangillmor  @dangillmor @dangillmor Just today I was considering starting a substack. What’s the best alternative? Ghost seems to be a good one. If the hosted version collapses either from economic or fascist reasons, you can self host.  @dangillmor extremists are showing up here now too. I had to block one yesterday. He was enraged that they put a Black character in a certain video game. What a douche.  @dangillmor @dangillmor @mastodonmigration Let’s just use and support more good tools. The web, Wikipedia and even the original Wikipedia all took a decade to gain momentum. 15 years, arguably. @dangillmor @dangillmor At the end of the day they're all going to blame it on Endless Shrimp @dangillmor All the people who support the traditional social media always trot out the same old excuse: "But we have to!" No you don't. It's just easier to write newspaper stories that consist of nothing but Twitter quotes than to write actual stories.  @dangillmor I'm old enough to remember when Internet users made dire predictions if we allowed profit-seeking corporations on the Internet at all. Many argued we shouldn't. It is starting to look like they were right. @tofugolem @dangillmor I think we need free and open search (publicly funded). I'm not smart enough to know how to do it, but I believe there are people who can. @numbercrow @dangillmor @tofugolem @numbercrow @dangillmor On nationalisation, I kind of agree, the denationalisation of things has generally been shitty, but what about internationalisation? I think maybe we need a model for that, and that would be better suited to the internet.  @dangillmor Number One kills me; what kind of person could watch all that and still participate in such a misbegotten platform?  @dangillmor that's why open markets don't work without some regulation. People just don't care enough to commit |
Gregory's Server
@dangillmor the question is how we provide them with a place to gossip about their stories that can be influenced usefully by non-journalists too