@ericjmorey To un-tag a few people, scrapers are generally...

@ericjmorey To un-tag a few people, scrapers are generally frowned upon because they're tools of _3rd party_ aggregation. It's like how you know the people in your own neighborhood, but you wouldn't expect someone from across the country to take an interest in everyone.

There's simple aggregation and then there's analysis and curation, which I think is more the implication of an online aggregator these days and maybe a limitation of my language. Data vs. information.

Like 24 Dec 2022 at 16:08 | Wall-to-wall | Open on tech.lgbt

2 comments

ericjmorey

@bluestarultor
That doesn't address the question at all. Mastodon doesn't seem to do much at all to prevent data aggregation. It seems to facilitate it.

24 Dec 2022 at 16:11 | Open on fosstodon.org

bluestarultor

@ericjmorey It aggregates like a phone book, but not like a census. You can find someone in a phone book easy. Connecting them to their family and neighbors is possible, but much, much harder. A census does that connecting.

I can follow anyone on Fedi, but tracking that down for dozens to form a social web would make the average person question why I put forth the effort. I don't like that being given at the push of a button.

24 Dec 2022 at 17:42 | Open on tech.lgbt