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Too many people have peed in the pool

stephenfry.com

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Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#271

Post by HCIdivision17 »

spatulan wrote: post #151
Paul-ish wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been waiting a long time for someone to use lessons learned from recommender systems to build a social media site like reddit, but rather than having users group themselves up, they would be shown posts algorithmically, based on how they have voted in the past. For example, if I vote for a lot of pro EFF posts, maybe I will see more posts about free software or something like that. This also allows the site to…

That sounds horrible. I don't want the internet to become a giant echo chamber. I want to hear differing views from time to time, because I might be wrong.

I would imagine you could also similarly find the things you either stay away from or actively dislike. Sort of a topical noise cancellation. Train it to know your preferences, but to occasionally give material outside the comfort zone. I think you'd really need a substantial map of topics to have a good understanding of where contrasts lie, but we're likely on track with the datasets currently being built in public sites like Reddit.

Really, I'm surprised this feature isn't implemented anywhere, since one of the joys of the Internet is being delighted by a new idea you haven't seen before. I certainly would appreciate filtering of the obvious rubbish like Fry is exasperated with, but having quality dissenting opinions available is precious.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#272

Post by Touche »

lmm wrote: post #98
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Twitter is making things worse than they used to be. Society has the problem. Twitter just makes it public. Remember, the US used to have anti-communist witch hunts in which people were forced to give up their careers, it had actual physical lynchings, and it still has a culture where the police can do more or less whatever they want with limited accountability. People being disrespectful or even stalke…

I think Twitter by its very nature promotes that kind of thing. The 140-character limit inherently pushes towards zingers and outrage. Nuance is stripped away by the medium.

This should be upvoted more.

Also I'd say the stream is part of the problem. Your tweet disappears from the stream quickly. The more noticeable it is, the more likely it is to have a life > 5 min.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#273

Post by humanrebar »

Perceval wrote: post #229
carsongross wrote: post #15

I'm a bit monomaniacal about this, but the current online culture wars (and the previous offline culture wars) make me wish that secession didn't have such a bad name. It is obvious that large groups of people have irreconcilable differences of opinion on matters of free speech, sexuality, gun ownership and so on. It is a shame that rather than a firm handshake and friendly wave goodbye, we will end up with a totalit…

Federalism was supposed to enable pluralism within a single political entity. Each state could live the way they wanted to and have different rules/laws than their neighbors. The urge to use the federal level of government to impose uniform social rules on all the sub-units undermines the possibility of stable political pluralism. Once rules at the state level are no longer safe, the stakes for controlling the single…

I was about to make the same comment, so I'm glad you did.

I'll add that until we can discuss what a fair process is (as opposed to anecdotes of unfairness), the problem won't get better. Everything, including cash transfers, will be human rights and therefore national issues with no room for diversity of solutions between regions.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#274

Post by jes »

jonstokes wrote: post #53
seren wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it will prevail in the end, but I think that Reddit approach by splitting the community in small subgroups/communities has a better chance to last in the long run. Of course, you'll create feuds between communities but at least it is somewhat confined and not always spilling in the common public space. Unfortunately it also greatly increases the echo chamber / filter bubble but it seems you can not ha…

"A long time ago, I used to believe that Internet would usher a new age of Enlightenment since every one would have access to many different opinions and unbiased sources." Heh, same here. I think that so many of us simply underestimated the immense power of capitalism to co-opt and commodify everything it touches.

I would welcome some additional clarity on your use of the term capitalism, as there are many different things called capitalism today.

My definition is a system of free, un-coerced trade among individuals, to mutual advantage.

It's very simple, and I see it as beneficial.

Interested in your thoughts, if you wish to share them.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#275

Post by markatkinson »

MicroBerto wrote: post #245
seren wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it will prevail in the end, but I think that Reddit approach by splitting the community in small subgroups/communities has a better chance to last in the long run. Of course, you'll create feuds between communities but at least it is somewhat confined and not always spilling in the common public space. Unfortunately it also greatly increases the echo chamber / filter bubble but it seems you can not ha…

For those of you old enough to have seen the net hey started, but young enough to have been impressionable by its start: Remember when we wanted EVERYONE to get online? Remember when we thought how great the world would be if everyone was connected and could read all this great information and research? HA! One thing we did not understand: the tragedy of the commons. It is now nothing but a tragedy. Best thing to do…

Yea man, I used to just screw around on Yahoo for hours on end exploring the internet in its weird pixelated glory.

I like that term "general purpose networks", although "purposelessness" might be better suited.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#276

Post by rdancer »

chatmasta wrote: post #251

My Facebook newsfeed feels like a cocktail party where the host has surreptitiously arranged for the silent majority to observe a performance wherein the most "unsophisticated" guests squabble with each other over politics. The opinions on the feed, regularly produced by the same small group of people, are rife with dramatization and lacking any substantive argument. Yet hardly any of them come from friends who I kno…

I have found that unfriending/muting people whose contributions to my feed I don't value makes all the difference. Facebook is what you make of it.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#277

Post by chippy »

DenisM wrote: post #261

And so, the Eternal September strikes again [1]. There's a ton of gold in figuring out how some communities succumb to it, and others don't. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

I believe it is to do with group psychology, the network effect and the drive of VC funded companies for "growth". I'm not sure about the growth thing yet though, but it kind of implies the more people the better.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#278

Post by Touche »

danieka wrote: post #11

I think this is a natural consequence of the twitter format. The short message motivates (some) users to win cheap points, offend or simply scream loudly in order to get attention. In my Luddite mind the political conversation is becoming Twitter-fied and now focuses more on short sound bites rather than a sound discourse.

Not just the short format but also the stream makes tweets disappear quickly. Most tweets are never seen by anyone else. If you say something provocative it stands out and lives a little longer than the typical tweet. This gains you followers so your tweets will live a little longer. You say something else provocative and you wind up with a positive feedback loop.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#279

Post by rblstr »

monksy wrote: post #180
rblstr wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without clarifying it it looks like he stood on stage in front of a bunch of rich celebrities and slagged off the winner of an award for not wearing conventional dress to an award show. I'm all for offensive comedy, but this wasn't a joke, he was basically slagging her off in public, live on television to a room full of people. Without context of their relationship it really looks like bullying. That's completely dif…

Take a look at what was actually said: "Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to the awards dressed like a bag lady." If people weren't so quick to jump on the "blame the white guy" wagon... you'd see that it was actually a pretty clever statement.

I mean, I watched the show, I heard what he said, it's whole tone was off compared to the rest of the night. It really stood out and sounded awfully harsh.

Now I'm not going to go to twitter about it, it didn't offend me but it did come across rather mean and crass.

Re: Too many people have peed in the pool

#280

Post by hnlogics »

fche wrote: post #113
hnlogics wrote: post #90

It is never acceptable to attack and use violence against other individuals. The fact that you perceive them as making money from their marginalization does not make it acceptable for you and others to attack them to send death threats, and to engage in other horrific and violent behavior. It is reprehensible and disgusting that you think your hatred and bigotry is acceptable... because somebody might've made money.…

"It is never acceptable to attack and use violence against other individuals." We're talking about electronic communications here, not meatspace.

What a shock, another guy who thinks it's fine to threaten to kill and rape women.
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