Anathema Device 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (607)

• On the post: Cops Raid Swedish VPN Provider Only To Find Out There’s No ‘There’ There

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 01 May, 2023 @ 02:23pm

  My advice to you is, take your medication first, then comment.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2023 @ 05:04pm

  Yes, he's had a lot of shit from that contingent, but he uses that to deflect criticism from non-racist people who are concerned about his behaviour or decisions. There was this mess earlier this year: https://medium.com/@kayveebee/spoutible-the-safe-space-thats-anything-but-792299e92ae0 https://medium.com/@kayveebee/spoutible-the-safe-space-thats-anything-but-9784543bf7ac Bouzy's biggest is fault is that he is even thinner-skinned than Musk, which is saying something. Also, claiming he's a victim of racism from an Asian woman is really off (not a fan of Courtney Milan at all but she isn't the one at fault here.) So he's 'off' in a way that means anyone using his platform is one post away from being banned if he perceives you as a threat in any way. (Disclosure: he blocked me on twitter because I mildly objected to him making a female journalist a target of his fans because he thought said journalist had not given him sufficient credit over a story. That is not someone with a robust interest in freedom of speech.) I am sick of my social media experiences being in the hands of manbabies, and would never sign up with him. The accusations of grifting come in from a lot of different directions, and it's hard to know what's true or not, but from observing him on Twitter (even after he blocked me on one account), I judge him not to be stable or particularly reasonable. FWIW, YMMV, etc. I love Harry and Meghan BTW :)

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2023 @ 02:54pm

  The main thing wrong with Spoutible is that the founder is a crazy grifter :(

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2023 @ 06:06pm

  oh ho ho ho ;)

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2023 @ 06:06pm

  "an instance that literally got harassed out of existence" And that was horrible - still not common though. The problem with Mastodon and a lot of servers is lack of staff. Single admin instances are vulnerable to this kind of attack and to admin tantrums. So the answer to that is making sure you join a server with more than one admin and a robust set of guidelines for dealing with trolls and other bad faith actors. I note Bluesky was immediately hit by brute force trolling attacks, and it responded by 'shadowbanning' a bunch of trans users. https://circumstances.run/@davidgerard/110278636371497317 It's also making personal block lists publicly available which is just disastrous https://godforsaken.website/@Shrigglepuss/110281886296935966

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2023 @ 05:52pm

  "Nostr, which stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays, aims to create a censorship-resistant global social network where users are identified by a public key rather than a name or user handle like on most social platforms" https://blockworks.co/news/jack-dorsey-app-to-disrupt-twitter It also sounds like 'Nostradamus' and is similar to the old French for 'our' ('nostre'), so I guess pointing (inaccurately) to the future/being 'our' home/platform. Jack was being a clever dick.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2023 @ 05:48pm

  You keep pretending Twitter is viable, a stance for which there is significantly less justification.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2023 @ 05:47pm

  "what “algorithm” means in this particular context?" It means the set of rules used by a particular platform or instance to produce search results, recommendations, and trends. The rules Google uses takes into account when producing search results are not just whether the sites listed have the most relevant or best match for the search term. They also consider the popularity of the site, the user's former searches, recency of updates on the site, and payment by advertisers. The word 'algorithm' is being used exactly in the same way as it is in software, and is used by software. The 'rules' are set by people, just as they are in software. When talking about Mastodon versus Twitter, the algorithms are far less/not influenced by who has paid, advertising, former search patterns, and Elon Musk's daily shitfits and ego boos. Is this what you are looking for?

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 08:19pm

  "It’s a basic part of the moderation toolkit that… didn’t exist until many years after most social media sites launched." Mike, that's like saying seatbelts weren't a basic part of the safety kit of cars until many years after they were invented, so there's no need to install them in our demo models. Dorsey and the CEO of Bluesky both know what happened on Twitter and moderation. They should be grabbing the best tools available now in advance of launching even a limited access product, because they will need more and better when they go full release.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 08:13pm

  Yes, but the important thing is that no one is manipulating the results or the order in which they turn up. If you want to be pedantic, all the code behind Mastodon contains algorithms, but you know full well it was being used in a particular sense here - the way it's used on Twitter and Facebook and Google, to put popular sites and posts with high engagement (or chosen by the owners or paid ranking) first.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 06:57pm

  "Mastodon gatekeepers"

  1. Mastodon was designed to serve the under-served minority.
  2. There isn't (yet) a single 'Mastodon. Mastodon is a protocol. If you don't like the server you're on, there are plenty of others, and you can set up your own and still interact with the fediverse

  You can always shout back or mute or block people who are being annoying. You can mute individual conversations too. You have many more options than Twitter currently offers. "Mastodon is just full of NIMBYs." Do you even know what that term means? See point 1 and 2 above. Make your own space if none on offer suits you. It's what you make of it. A lot of the people complaining about the Mastodon experience aren't bothering to create one that doesn't suck. I give Mike credit for putting the work in. Not sure why he care if people yell at him though, because the tools are there to mute the most annoying, and it's not like you have to fight an algorithm to be seen, regardless of approval. It's kind of like his own site here, in fact.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 06:49pm

  From Wikipedia

  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey first announced the Bluesky initiative in 2019 on Twitter. The company's Chief Technology Officer (and later CEO) Parag Agrawal was its manager,[3] inviting initial working group members in early 2020. The group expanded with representatives from existing decentralized networks Mastodon and ActivityPub. The group coordinated through Element chat software. Twitter commissioned Jay Graber of the Happening decentralized social network to compose a technical review of the decentralized social network landscape.[2] She was hired to lead Bluesky in August 2021.[10][11] Bluesky formally incorporated in late 2021 as a public benefit LLC[3] separate from Twitter with Graber as its chief executive officer and Dorsey on its board of directors.[12]

  Dorsey funded it, and his company made it, and he's still on the board.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 03:50pm

  "Some way of displaying that which isn’t purely chronological" There are other ways - 'Trending', and 'local'. There is also the tried and true 'Don Melton's feed' method :) Following hashtags also helps. Being able to make lists of people you don't follow (because they just post too damn much) would be great.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 03:48pm

  I would really like to be able to search my own posts, and possibly the posts of people who permit it. I would also like to be able to add hastags, alt-text and content warnings to posts I want to boost because I won't share posts that lack them when they need them. I've tried politely asking users to add these so that boosting them is easier, and got accused of being ableist (it's apparentlyn ableist to ask for alt-text to help people using screen readers on a post advertising art, because the poster might have arthritis - as do I :( ). I'm also very worried about an apparent move to centralise new users onto a single server, which will then make that server a target for capitalist takeover. Mastodon is a beautiful but fragile platform, and it could disappear as a decentralised entity if enough money is thrown at the right people. Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk are the kind of people I don't want anywhere near it.

• On the post: Six Months In: Thoughts On The Current Post-Twitter Diaspora Options

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2023 @ 03:41pm

  "Bluesky is not run by Dorsey" He's on the board, according to the Wikipedia article on it. There's nothing in that article about the current funding, except to say Musk's takeover affected it. So is Dorsey funding it at all, or what? I'm with those who say if Dorsey's involved in any way, they want nothing to do with it. It may be wonderful, but Dorsey shit the bed over Musk and Twitter. Nostr just sounds like a confusing and stupid idea from the start. It might suit some tech heads but the people who find Mastodon difficult will never, ever use it.

• On the post: Wizards Of The Coast Sends Pinkerton Agency To Person That Bought Unreleased ‘Magic’ Cards In Error

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2023 @ 08:55pm

  If you're going to throw out these kind of accusations, the least you could provide would be some proof.

• On the post: Just After Fox News Settled With Dominion, Lachlan Murdoch Dropped His Censorial SLAPP Suit Against Crikey

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2023 @ 03:20pm

  Bringing the suit in the firsd place, doesn't say much about Lachlan's vaunted business acumen, does it? I'm really happy for Crikey over this, but god our defamation laws need to be fixed. Too many thugs and bullies like our politicians use them against people who have legitimate reason to comment and criticise, and it's so wrong.

• On the post: Elon Seems To Think The Cruelest Thing He Can Do To People… Is To Pretend They Want To Associate With Him

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2023 @ 06:20pm

  I wish someone would pull the batteries out of this particular energiser bunny of wank :(

• On the post: Elon Seems To Think The Cruelest Thing He Can Do To People… Is To Pretend They Want To Associate With Him

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2023 @ 08:01pm

  He's got to keep pretending that the check mark is worth money It really, really isn't.

• On the post: Elon Seems To Think The Cruelest Thing He Can Do To People… Is To Pretend They Want To Associate With Him

  

  Anathema Device ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2023 @ 05:38pm

  "How do you not understand what I have been saying?" I know what you're saying. I'm saying what you're saying is stupid.

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