re: LB, I'll add: Avoid the temptation to post X/Twitter screenshots, too. We don't need 99% of what they're shoveling there, and the 1% that we do need, you can just post as text.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
"Just give Operator all the information you need, ensure you're logged into Priceline (or wherever), and Operator will get it done for you. In fact, let's make sure that you're logged into all your web accounts so that Operator has access to them.
See where this is going?"
https://fromjason.xyz/p/notebook/openai-s-operator-is-facebook-s-like-button/
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Candide is hopepunk.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
FWIW, it sounds like the Bluesky Relay is relatively untethered. It's currently US-based, but on hosted space, rather than operating out of data centers they own. So, hypothetically, it would be a comparatively smaller lift to relocate it to some other region, should the legal environment in the US turn hostile in the near future. But my guess is that they don't want to operate under EU law, particularly if they might subject to the rules for Very Large Online Platforms.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Where is bsky.network hosted? What legal regime is it governed by?
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
The subs know what's up. https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/22/24349467/reddit-subreddit-x-twitter-link-bans-elon-musk-nazi-salute
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Social science researchers: "Given the new-found access of misinformation to [Facebook] Pages, will the new system slow the spread of fake cancer cures or misinformation about where to vote? We are skeptical, and we will likely never know the answer to those questions because Meta has not invited any more independent research to evaluate the effects of their actions." https://www.techpolicy.press/mark-zuckerbergs-immoderate-proposal/
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Breakfast is whatever meal breaks the fast. QED, no one ever skips breakfast and lives.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Can't wait for Zoomers to start forming really strong opinions about Taiwanese independence. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/13/into-brain-and-the-heart-how-china-is-using-apps-to-woo-taiwans-teenagers
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Just sitting waiting for the other shoe to drop on all of the RedNote cultural exchange stories.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Travel time from New Orleans to Atlanta is approximately 10 hours right now because it's snowing along the entire route.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
That's why decentralization (that is, node-to-node, rather than mediated, decentralization) and grassroots funding are genuinely disruptive models for social media. They open up a space where the structure of the network doesn't logically entail data extraction as a means of paying for the costs of the network—to say nothing of providing profits to motivate the construction of that network. We need good policy to ensure that those features remain viable.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Structural explanations do more to help us understand the enshittification of global, single-operator social media platforms, IMO. They're massively expensive to run, but the initial value proposition was too untested for anything but a free-to-use model, which all but guaranteed an extractive business model. And the resource that was most available to them was user data, which ensured that design decisions centered on exclusivity and surfacing more data.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
My biggest quibble is with Doctorow's thesis that "the profit motive itself is not sufficient to cause enshittification." The other necessary component, in his telling, is policy that creates opportunities for creeps to take over.
Yes, bad policy can amplify enshittification, but the profit motive leads to abusive behavior with or without external policy. Good policy is a negative pressure on the profit motive. It's there to check the internal logic of profit as a categorical imperative.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Doctorow's not alone here, though. The perception that those companies would be fine if they were run by better people seems pretty pervasive. It's why a lot of people see Musk's purchase of Twitter as THE turning point in that platform, rather than the culmination of a enshittifying trend that had been in progress for a very long time. The implicit lament is: "If only someone better had bought the company…" But better ethics wouldn't make a different business model sustainable.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I agree with Doctorow that good regulation is necessary to curb the abuses of the corporate social media platforms, but the implication of his argument appears to be that the major platforms have gone especially bad mostly because they're run by creeps, and I think the truth is that they're run by creeps mostly because there's really only one model that could make those businesses profitable, and you have to be a bit of a creep to embrace it.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
"Critics of zuckermuskian media claim those services are so terrible because they're for-profit entities, capitalist enterprises hitched to the logic of extraction and profit above all else. The problem with this claim is that it doesn't explain the changes to these services." A big part of the explanation is VC capital, which lets startups work on building scale first, but inevitably requires a shift toward maximally extractive behaviors. I talk about that a bit here: https://destructured.net/bluesky-enshittification
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I don't think it's helpful boiling the choice to stay on a toxic platform down to one cause. Some people are there because they can't build the same support networks elsewhere, and some people are there just because they enjoy the daily dopamine hit of seeing what the brands will do next. If we try to argue that it's one or the other exclusively, then we'll miss opportunities to help people shift to networks that are better for them.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
I have a few quibbles with this: https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/capitalist-unrealism/ One being that I think most everyone who has been here for a decent amount of time has had the experience of trying out Mastodon and realizing just how bad their relationship to some other social media platform had gotten.
Yes, there are absolutely people who are locked into other platforms by real, material things, but platform stickiness is a real thing, and it's really, really hard to acurately assess from the inside.
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
Sometimes, when something outrageous happens, we post about it, and maybe all we're really looking for is assurance that others also recognize what's going on—a bit of anti-gaslighting. But that assurance turns into a thousand posts that flood everyone's timelines, which makes it harder to avoid doomscrolling. So what if we marked the initial post with something like #YSITR ("you see it, too, right?") to signal that all we need in response is a fav to show that we're not alone? Would that help?
=> More informations about this toot | View the thread
=> This profile with reblog | Go to lrhodes@merveilles.town account This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).Proxy Information
text/gemini