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Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

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121–130 of 140 posts

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#121
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, man! Nothing will ever come close to modded phpBB forums with the light on dark themes. A well-moderated forum encouraged so much discussion and productivity. And I have to say, the modern versions of forums -- like Facebook Groups -- just don't replicate that same feeling to me.

I am a member of a facebook group for my city's ward. We had an election on Tuesday regarding some rather complicated funding mechanism for managing stormwater. Something which would have greatly benefited from some rational discussion. Instead people just spammed the group with conspiracy theories about how the city wants to steal our money and build arenas and other eccentricities. It was worse than useless. I foun…

How much of that is due to the newer systems bring more accessible to the 'unwashed' masses?

I recall forums back in the day requiring a certain technical aptitude to find and post on them. That created a filter, keeping out those who weren't as deeply interested or as technically educated.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#122
post #30
post #7

Social media ruined the internet forever, even less than a decade ago there were websites, forums of all sorts and for all kinds of interests, now the internet for most people is just these social websites/apps which intentionally lock users inside their services as long as possible to make more money from advertising and promoted posts. Unfortunately unless something big happens to fix this issue, the internet is lo…

The internet of the past was not useful for family/friend communications. I don't want the world to see pictures of my kids (even though nobody cares it still isn't a good idea), but I do want my parents to see them. Social media solves this problem. The interesting things you list were too public and so didn't. Don't get me wrong, I do miss the forums of the past, but there is also some good in what we have today.

> but I do want my parents to see them. Social media solves this problem.

Ever hear of text and email?

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#123
post #2

He’s right. The problem is the incentive for “popularity” running amok. If Linus’s angry emails are on a distribution list, the exposure is minimal and the damage is contained. His same excess in social media is reproduced and exploited for various reasons, positive and negative and overflows into unrelated circles where unrelated people have input into something containment would prevent them from being exposed. Thi…

From Metal Gear Solid 2:

>Colonel: You exercise your right to "freedom" and this is the result. All rhetoric to avoid conflict and protect each other from hurt. The untested truths spun by different interests continue to churn and accumulate in the sandbox of political correctness and value systems.

>Rose: Everyone withdraws into their own small gated community, afraid of a larger forum. They stay inside their little ponds, leaking whatever "truth" suits them into the growing cesspool of society at large.

>Colonel: The different cardinal truths neither clash nor mesh. No one is invalidated, but nobody is right.

>Rose: Not even natural selection can take place here. The world is being engulfed in "truth."

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#124
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit uses machine learning models to maximize engagement. This ruins any of the forum-like qualities reddit had. It’s gross. Every subreddit is constantly in the process of eternal September, which kills the dynamics of getting to know one another that were common on forums. Social media that is good cannot have advertising and cannot be an algorithmic Skinner box that maximizes engagement. I am starting to think o…

> Reddit uses machine learning models to maximize engagement. Can't you just sort by new...?

You need to get everyone to sort by new.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#125
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the exact opposite of correct. Old school forums were pseudonymous, but managed to do OK on the moderation front because they were often controlled by the community. Tying real world identity to sign-ins just paints a big fat target on those that have the most to lose already, such as minorities. As an example, check out the myriad articles about Google users being outed as trans when Google started integrati…

Pseudonymous identity was identiy enough

Everyone here is mixing up identification with reputation. Identification isn't necessary; in fact it's a bad thing. But reputation within a community is good and necessary.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really miss forums. Google did a really good job of indexing forums, they where a great place to find honest reviews, share information etc. Now they are dying with users spread across various services which are not publicly indexed making it hard to find interesting information, that and forum posts look to be now down ranked in Google in favor retail sites. A few of the communities I am interested in such as outd…

wait, adv is gone? it’s always been a bit weird but it was thriving the last time i looked in on it.

Advrider forums seem to currently have ~3800 users actively looking at the page. Still seems alive to me.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#127
post #100
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit admins shut down communities without warning due to their own political whims, have edited the content of a users post with no indication of doing so, and, as said already, inject ads. Reddit's model is paternalistic at best.

I would say that political whims have nothing to do with shutting down subs like fatpeoplehate, jailbait and incels. Places that routinely advocate, or have been directly tied to violence tend to get shut down. See the pizzagate debacle. Same with all the qanon stuff.

Interesting, /r/the_donald, which has, and continues to this day, explicitly called for perpetrating violence on minorities, people with opposing political views, democratic politicians, etc. etc ad nauseum, remains up and running to this day.

It is far and away worse than fph and incels in terms of content, but for some mystical reason that's totally not /u/spez vetoing any attempt to reign it in due to his conservative ideology, it has missed the banhammer.

Complete political whims.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#128
Luckily the solution is simple: stop using Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. RSS still works great. I got notified of this article that way. No ads, no algorithms, and no censorship. I listen to people who respect me, the reader.

It’s pleasant here in the blogosphere. Come on back, door is always open.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really miss forums. Google did a really good job of indexing forums, they where a great place to find honest reviews, share information etc. Now they are dying with users spread across various services which are not publicly indexed making it hard to find interesting information, that and forum posts look to be now down ranked in Google in favor retail sites. A few of the communities I am interested in such as outd…

I am also into adventure motorcycle riding. All I have come across is a reddit group r/Dualsport for a forum. There is also thumpertalk. Though I feel that is more geared towards MX riding and not adventure riding. Have you been able to find any other groups that are worth anything? Maybe the adv crowd isn't as big into forums, they might be too busy out riding!

Try ADVrider forums. They are solid.

Re: Linus Torvalds Says Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram Are 'A Disease'

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a member of a facebook group for my city's ward. We had an election on Tuesday regarding some rather complicated funding mechanism for managing stormwater. Something which would have greatly benefited from some rational discussion. Instead people just spammed the group with conspiracy theories about how the city wants to steal our money and build arenas and other eccentricities. It was worse than useless. I foun…

How much of that is due to the newer systems bring more accessible to the 'unwashed' masses? I recall forums back in the day requiring a certain technical aptitude to find and post on them. That created a filter, keeping out those who weren't as deeply interested or as technically educated.

There were always plenty of forums full of people with only a passing or casual interest. Even outright enormous lunatics - it's just that it always seemed a bit more reasonable overall: Everyone cooperated to not let the place go to shit immediately and the need for huge and unilateral moderator intervention was limited.

I think the large social networks have mostly poisoned a lot of people with harmful memes (the need to shout, weird conspiracy theories, etc) and now that the damage is done it's too late even for the old format. As a society we've moved past being adults online and degenerated straight into childlike behaviour.

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