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jwz

All you people getting excited that Jack Dorsey's new social media site no longer requires invite codes are like those people tearing off their masks and throwing them in the air as soon as they weren't legally required.

You have learned nothing.

And you are making the world worse.

138 comments
Steve Foerster 🌐

@jwz Someone please wake me when it interoperates with the Fediverse.

Alan Langford

@stevefoerster @jwz And then later, me when it gets defederated for failing to moderate its users.

argv minus one

@alan

This must be the real reason why they aren't bothering to support ActivityPub. It'll be months of work for about 12 seconds of federation.

@stevefoerster @jwz

Frank T

@jwz I am still hoping for a bluesky scraper that creates bot accounts that can be followed from Mastodon like the system that used to be called birdsite if I remember the name right. That would be what Doctorow calls adversarial interoperability.

Frank T

@williamgunn That might be the reverse but maybe could be adapted. I would like to have #bluesky users feeds appear as if they are Mastodon users that I can follow as usual in Mastodon. I do not care as much if I can reply to them though.

BoneHouseWasps πŸ”Ά

@jwz What am I going to do with these bastard things?

INPC

@jwz I do nt think he gives a shit about it anymore. He seems to be all in on Nostr.

Agreed BlueSky doesn’t sound like it’s got tha funk tho.

jwz

@mxtthxw He still sits on the board of directors, along with having started the project, and funded it.

I won't touch anything Jack Dorsey has touched. Absolutely not giving him or his fascist pals a second chance.

⁂ Justin (StayGrounded.online)

@jwz @mxtthxw There's plenty to be wary about without Dorsey anyway. The CEO comes from cryptocurrency, and the whole AT Protocol is extremely Web3.

Jeff Atwood

@jwz hard agree, but I have learned that scolding people just doesn't work

Derek Powazek 🐐

@codinghorror @jwz But scolding people is a core use case for mastodon

Luis Villa

@fraying @codinghorror scolding people is, let’s be honest, a core use case for the entire @jwz web experience

I know I shouldn’t but I still get an occasional chuckle out of β€œchoke on a bucket of cocks” jwz.org/blog/2003/05/no-good-d

Jeff Atwood

@luis_in_brief @fraying @jwz look, I also enjoy a lot of self destructive behaviors myself, now and then, but I also want the world to actually change in some reasonable timeframe

Internet Rando

@codinghorror @jwz

This is great news, so do you happen to know the answer to what *does work*? because I think we collectively need to know, and so far all I hear is what doesn't work.

Scolding doesn't work for me either.. Living by example works great for me, but doesn't enable discouraging my mom/dad/kids/pastor/neighbors/workplaceproximityacquiantence/friends/family from making the stupid choices for the big billionairistas...

So what works?

Jeff Atwood

@mousey @jwz building alternatives and making them extremely popular with users. Basically the TikTok strategery.

Internet Rando

@codinghorror @jwz

sounds great, except the #fediverse is a wide, sparse, network of community instances.. Hardly the marketing behemoth of a Centralized Corporationβ„’, so "popular with users" is now exceedingly difficult, largely impeded by (basically) our individual Dunbar numbers..

TikTok was already a gargantuan corporation with a limitless marketing campaign when it started.. So... What... We Open Source ad buys for the superbowl pimping ActivityPub?

How do community gardens get famous?

Jeff Atwood

@mousey @jwz I never promised either of you a rose garden

Internet Rando

@codinghorror @jwz

That's cool man. I appreciate the discourse. My point is just yeah.. I'm gonna keep scolding people til they're shamed into submission, and ditch their corporate overlords for the sweet sweet life of doing all the hard work of being responsible for their own data..

easy peasy! :D

volkris

@mousey are you asking what works for social media or for health policy?

They are very different problems.

@codinghorror @jwz

Internet Rando

@volkris @codinghorror @jwz

Oh, i was just wondering what works to spread the use of Technologies-That-Don't-Exploit-Users..

I mean, even health policy.. If it ends in "policy", it doesn't have a marketing department.

Marketing works, but I don't see a lot of Kickstarters/GoFundMes for Advertising/Marketing of Open Source alternatives to corporately marketed data plantations (where you're the cotton).

I've been told scolding doesn't work either. True, but it's cathartic.

So, what works?

volkris

@mousey The reason I ask is because the two contexts have very different elements around them, very different incentives.

Most importantly, a social media platform requires critical mass. If you are the only person on a social media platform then it’s worthless.

But medical decisions are very different. Individuals can benefit from making different choices, so very different approaches to selling it to them.

Yes, you might reply, vaccinations and such do have communal impacts and I recognize that πŸ™‚ but still, it’s easier to sell a person on getting a vaccination when they themselves will derive a benefit directly from having it regardless of the communal dimension of it.

There are other differences as well, but this is just one to illustrate the difference between the two contexts.

@codinghorror @jwz

@mousey The reason I ask is because the two contexts have very different elements around them, very different incentives.

Most importantly, a social media platform requires critical mass. If you are the only person on a social media platform then it’s worthless.

But medical decisions are very different. Individuals can benefit from making different choices, so very different approaches to selling it to them.

Internet Rando

@volkris @codinghorror @jwz

Makes sense. The OP was asking about a social media site, so that's what I was addressing.

I imagine policy outreach *is* different? It might even work to make "democratizing social media" a political platform? That feeds into my "Software is not economic, software is political" philosophy.

As it stands however, people only think "software" and see "billionaires"... Software is stuck in the "market" and not in "community", so value is orthogonal to function.

volkris

@mousey so yeah, when it comes to social media my emphatic take is that it is entirely irrational, entirely chaotic, and all anybody can do is at most nudge it one direction or another, and most of the time that won’t be successful.

It really comes down to chance. Any platform can roll the dice to see if they manage to get the sustainable ignition, the critical mass at just the right time to keep users engaging with each other and coming back.

You can load the dice, but there’s no way to channel the users the way they need to be channeled into a platform.

My favorite example of this is how Facebook really sucks. It is never been anything approaching cutting edge or even interesting, and everything I’ve ever heard about Facebook management presenting at conferences echoes that they really don’t have anything new to offer.

They were just in the right place at the right time to succeed over other projects that were just as good or better.

So that’s my take on social media development. It’s almost entirely chance. It is chaos by the academic definition of chaos.

@codinghorror @jwz

@mousey so yeah, when it comes to social media my emphatic take is that it is entirely irrational, entirely chaotic, and all anybody can do is at most nudge it one direction or another, and most of the time that won’t be successful.

It really comes down to chance. Any platform can roll the dice to see if they manage to get the sustainable ignition, the critical mass at just the right time to keep users engaging with each other and coming back.

Internet Rando

@volkris

Hm, assuming you're saying you think there's too much data to be useful, in that chaos, the companies which own these platforms, and the data people feed them, actually DO shape opinion and culture on a mass scale, been automated a while.
npr.org/2024/01/17/1224955473/

OTOH,
If you're saying it's chaos and any individual platform has to sail crazy headwinds, to find unlikely success, fine sure. But you're saying it on a big network of instances with millions of users.

@codinghorror @jwz

@volkris

Hm, assuming you're saying you think there's too much data to be useful, in that chaos, the companies which own these platforms, and the data people feed them, actually DO shape opinion and culture on a mass scale, been automated a while.
npr.org/2024/01/17/1224955473/

Western Infidels

@codinghorror @jwz Oh I don't know. Maybe some people are susceptible to scolding, but are really quiet about it.

awe ⚧

@jwz I'm on bsky but yeah lol seems like a weird site.

Thomas πŸ”­πŸ•ΉοΈ

@jwz so are all the Linux proselytizers on this here website Β―\_(ツ)_/Β―

SGNL

What a weird comment, at least to me... how is that comparable? Or are you just annoyed with outspoken Linux users and felt your need to express it extraneously from the topic?

DELETED

@jwz no regrets deleting my account last week.

Internet Rando

@jwz fucking, this...

thank you for saying it. I say it too, but i'm just a rando. More less-random people should say it..

So, thank you!

Joe Ortiz

@jwz And it now requires a phone number to boot...

hackyspice

@jwz Look man, I know me and my pops had some fizzy lifting drinks, but I think your overreaction shows need of some therapy big time.

I'm keeping this spiky gobstopper.

kinyutaka

@jwz

And here I am going, "what's wrong with this one?"

tnypxl

@jwz What's with the tribalism? Who cares if people want to use BlueSky?

Internet Rando

@tnypxl @jwz I care? (whoever I am).

One cannot watch people make the same mistake again and again without getting at least a *little* sad?

You *are* right.. but, you know.. being some rando.. It doesn't make much difference that I wish people would choose platforms to network socially, instead of platforms that exploit and manipulate every user on behalf of financial networks.. 🀷

MenhirMike

@jwz Bonus demerits to the people that claim that Dorsey - who holds a board seat - is not involved with Bluesky and deleted his account there. I have so many bridges to sell to them.

Silvester zum Knast

@jwz
i don't – please do not talk about people you don't know, thank you

Jordan β€œYordan” Wight

@jwz And that was the fastest block I’ve ever done. Learn to not be a fucking prick.

la .samflir. :ms_robot:

@jwz ah, more tech tribalism. lovely πŸ₯±

Kristoffer Lawson

@jwz tbh, #Mastodon had a massive opportunity and momentum, but it kind of blew it by not being able to react to that huge spike of interest. Not enough speed, not enough activity to maintain the interest. It may get a second chance (perhaps through federation with #Threads), but I don’t think it’s fair to blame the people for looking to #BlueSky. At the end of the day, all of this is mostly just for fun anyway.

jwz

@Setok Please note that I did not say "use Mastodon". I said that supporting billionaire fascists makes the world worse. That's true even if you think it's "just for fun".

Kristoffer Lawson

@jwz fair enough. I don’t personally have an issue with someone being a billionaire if they play their cards right. I just hope everyone gets to play cards.

jwz

@Setok You are *so close* to getting it

Kristoffer Lawson

@jwz oh on a side note I just noticed you’re at DNA Lounge. I visited there every time I was in SF! But been ages since I’ve been able to pop over from Finland. Not since Covid started.

Hypx

@jwz It's worth a look, but it's mostly just a Twitter ripoff.

Braw β˜•πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ

@jwz and you are the reason people avoid fediverse like a plague

monkyhead

@jwz I only visit Mastodon when I stop being tired of finding out how this frustrating Python problem only makes it more terrific

Deus
@jwz

>

getting excited that Jack Dorsey's new social media site no longer requires invite codes

They were never really bothered about what 'we' (who've stuck here) bothered/care about. They need that 'engagement', simple as that. One person that I really liked (and made me laugh) even went back Xwitter. Sad, but oh well, let them be. Let's refrain from calling them out. It can be frustrating.

4TH3I57 EV L0V3R/ / /FL/US

@jwz

I MEAAAAN...
youtube.com/watch?v=VDDQ4WvZh- < - same shit..

SAME SHIT: youtube.com/watch?v=WYYXTGyvDm

all manure piles form El Salvador more like Vatican anti women ' slavador

Inkican

@jwz I'm fediverse all the way but I don't understand the deeper nuance here - could somebody explain?

Filomel

@jwz You know what I love? That I read your post and went "who's Jack Dorsey?" I googled, so now I know. But I still don't care! <3

velixious

@jwz 100% my feels! i really liked the quasi curated vibe - guess now its betting time =(

Agas Ramirez πŸͺ„

@jwz didn't sign up because I don't have it in me for another social media site. πŸ˜‚

Wayne Smith

@jwz

I didn't throw my mask in the air. I refused to wear one.

If you think Mastodon is a social/liberal bastion, the people on BlueSky make Mastodon look like hard core conservative media.

I was on the BlueSky invite list for a year or more. Got accepted about a year ago.

Why would I, a conservative, have a presence on Mastodon, Blue Sky and Twitter? I enjoy discussions with almost everyone as long as they are kept civil and don't get nasty.

❀️

@jwz Why? What is wrong with the Open-Source, decentralised and federated AT Protocol (atproto.com) that BlueSky operates on?

It's functionally the same as Mastodon but with superior (and optional) content discovery and feed algorithms!

LostSole ℒ️

@jwz requires mobile number verification? No thanks.

Extinction Studies

@jwz He's just building his next payday sale to an oligarch.

Felix B. Ohmann

@jwz bluesky is already crap anyway. i do not care. no longer going there. i will log in once in a while to check the toxicity levels, and then quickly log out again. :)

Ursan Marius Bogdan :mastodon:

@jwz well... Its a matter of choice really, personality i have chosen Mastodon, a radical change from x/twitter, some did the same others will go for that because human curiosity πŸ€”

𝕃𝕦𝕔𝕒𝕀 𝔸π•₯π•œπ•šπ•Ÿπ•€

@jwz @nixCraft Pretty sure JD is barely, if at all, a part of Bluesky anymore. I think Jack is now full-time Nostr.

kaffando

@jwz
Applaude! Applaude!!!! πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘

xs4me2

@jwz

Exactly. Social media belong in the hands of the community, not in those of cooperate tycoons. Open source, standardized and regulated.

Aphrodite β˜‘οΈ :boost_ok:

@jwz

We are creatures of habit and we’re often addicted to certain forms of social media interactions.

Some want controverse and conflict. Others like presumably you and me prefer community and conversation.

patter

@jwz and all the devs excited about open access APIs, 3rd party clients etc & I'm just "give it a few years, you saw with Twitter did to those"

patter

@jwz and the as yet unanswered question "who's paying for this? you're harvesting our data again, I guess"

whereas Fedi: it's a few $ a month on paypal, direct to my instance admin

Rogers Cadenhead

@jwz I'm sure he learned his lesson by being lavishly rewarded for all the bad decisions he made at Twitter. Nobody recognizes their mistakes and correct behavior like a dot-com billionaire. Just look at Elon.

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