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DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

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Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#71

Post by jonbarker »

gooseus wrote: post #41
oldsklgdfth wrote: post #10

I'm reposting this comment because I would like to open the discussion up beyond facebook and social media and into the reality that technology has provided marketing with some pretty ridiculous tools. : I feel like you used to be able to avoid getting swindled by ignoring the swindler, ex. close the door to the saleman, or ignore the gypsy pear salesmen at the market. Today, marketing is engineered at such a level t…

> People with power and wealth could still be toppled when you exposed them to the truth. How in the fuck does that even come close to happening today? I have doubts that this happened regularly in the past, usually wealthy/powerful were allowed to be toppled by their enemies. I don't know the details of how Weinstein got toppled after so many years of being protected, but my gut says that the people who were protect…

I feel that Jared Diamond's book Collapse belongs on your list of references https://archive.org/stream/CollapseHowSocietiesChooseToFailO...

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#72

Post by deft »

snvzz wrote: post #66

Something I can't figure out from Mastodon's website is where and how it uses cryptography. I fear it might all be plaintext, despite the insanity of doing that in the present post-Snowden world, rather than the appropriate end-to-end combined with point-per-point encryption.

It's not encrypted afaik at all, besides https but that would be up to the host of the instance. Where do you want the encryption to happen and how? Anyone can federate with you.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#73

Post by egypturnash »

godelski wrote: post #30

So I question the sustainability of these platforms? How are they supported when they have sufficient mass? If they aren't gathering data on users and selling ads then how are they generating revenue?

User payments. Mostly via Patreon.

Some are also small servers run purely for the hell of it; if you keep the user count low it really doesn’t cost much to keep one running. These instances are of course more vulnerable to their owner being hit by a bus or whatever and not having shared their keys with anyone. Less so once account migration lands, and everyone’s gotten off their butts and upgraded their instances to that version.

(My instance, by example, currently has about 150 accounts, closed registration, and costs about twenty bucks a month to run. It’s also a few versions behind because I’ve been busy with other things.)

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#74

Post by egypturnash »

badminton1 wrote: post #38

Sounds good in principle but how would mastodon scale to billions of accounts and maintain data centers around the world?

This would involve a buttload of people independently deciding they want to run a Mastodon instance and setting one up in a location convenient to themselves and the community they want to serve.

It’s like mesh networking.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#75

Post by nopreserveroot »

kerng wrote: post #57
nopreserveroot wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not understand how anyone in 2018 finds the internet remotely usable without some form of ad blocker. This is how you ignore the modern salesman.

Given the sophistication that we just now start to fully realize, adblockers probably dont help that much - i mean they get the obvious stuff out of the way, which is great. But there other forms of tracking (like super cookies), and others we might not even be aware of. The entire combination of what information some companies gather and exchange behind the scene is not that well understood at scale.

They can collect all they like, but if you never see any advertisements, it has little influence over you. I was not commenting on the violation of privacy these bad actors commit through the collection.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#76

Post by mfoy_ »

fluxsauce wrote: post #55

I'm using an unfederated node of Madtodon running on a Raspberry pi with Let's Encrypt certs as a private family social network. Works well and family response has been massively positive. You can disconnect while staying connected on your own terms.

For me and mine, a big selling point of FB is the event management piece.

Does Mastodon have anything similar?

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#78

Post by fluxsauce »

mfoy_ wrote: post #76
fluxsauce wrote: post #55

I'm using an unfederated node of Madtodon running on a Raspberry pi with Let's Encrypt certs as a private family social network. Works well and family response has been massively positive. You can disconnect while staying connected on your own terms.

For me and mine, a big selling point of FB is the event management piece. Does Mastodon have anything similar?

Nope. It's more similar to Twitter (chronological timeline), but without promoted messages / "you may have missed" types of features.

Event Invitations is one of the few uses of FB that I still have. I'm open to alternatives that simplify facilitate threaded discussions between those who were invited, but as with any system convenience is a factor.

Google Calendar does work, yet somehow (and ironically) seems more intrusive than Facebook in that you're communicating directly with emails; the younger the participant, the greater the lack of enthusiasm for emails.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#79

Post by atomi »

dictum wrote: post #26
w0utert wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I think the idea that Facebook is putting democracy in peril is a bit farfetched. Why? History has proven at least a few times that he who controls information can control people, and it never ends well. Even if Facebook is not deliberately trying to implant any ideas or spread misinformation and fake news, its platform can be (and has been, demonstrably) used for this purpose.

There's some irony in the fact that the ongoing scandal is about Facebook partially relinquishing control of information to a third-party (in fact, all third parties), and that the implied remedy was for Facebook to keep total control of information to itself.

A friend and I in highschool discussed the possibility of governments archiving and recording telephone calls and then using that data to figure out what people's political leanings were to tailor a manchurian candidate. This was years before social media.

Now people gladly give up their data for fame/notoriety.

Re: DeleteFacebook: Perspective from Mastodon

#80

Post by elago »

Slansitartop wrote: post #67
kolbe wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Tiring and meaningless" eh? As opposed to your meaningful and engaging strawman reply? Even if it were true that an essay or article couldn't be disseminated effectively without Facebook getting involved at some point, it doesn't mean that readers must be burdened with a popup that asks them to log in to Facebook before viewing.

It seems nearly every single post where someone suggests people delete their Facebook accounts always has some comment pointing out that the NYT, or Medium, or whatever the article was published has a Facebook share widget or something like that. IMHO, those comments might as well be "First Post!" for all they add. > it doesn't mean that readers must be burdened with a popup that asks them to log in to Facebook befor…

This comment thread is taking place on site with no (obvious or well known) google or facebook integrations.

Honest question, do you think the same content with same title with a different domain rather than 'medium.com' could not reach similar popularity on HN?

Any comment pointing out hypocrisy is valuable and interesting in my opinion. I prefer to disregard the opinions of hypocrites.

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