Gab will become a Mastodon fork • Hacker News Board

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#71

Post by davexunit » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

asdf21 wrote: post #56

davexunit wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>alternative source of information nice rebrand of "hate speech"

Hate speech isn't even a valid legal distinction in the US, first of all.* Even philosophically, it's extremely hairy to define. Would you consider harshly criticizing Scientology and its adherents to be hate speech? How about harshly criticizing Islam? It's pathetic to me how nowadays any criticism of a group, no matter how valid, has been rebranded into "hate speech" by so many. Just because you criticize something…

"I hate soup" - OK

"I hate muslims" - not OK

glad I could help clear up these muddy waters we're in.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#72

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

dcolkitt wrote: post #58

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #13

I had heard about Gab but never visited the site before. I just spent 30 seconds perusing the trending feed. I saw the following: 1. a video of a man being shot and killed during an armed robbery 2. 3 anti islam posts 3. the usual pro trump propaganda 4. a meme warning about the evils of feminism urging women to get back to their "place" in the family. Gab is a festering pile of trash. Anyone responsible for making a…

I mean Tor is used for some pretty bad stuff. Much of the dark net, if not most of the dark net is pretty heinous. Definitely worse than Gab. Do you feel similarly about Tor developers? The way I see it building platforms for detested people is a pretty good canary in the coalmine. If Internet technologies aren't resilient enough to keep the most hated people in the world online, then that's a pretty bad sign that th…

[deleted]

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#73

Post by Keverw » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:33 PM UTC

samfriedman wrote: post #55

Keverw wrote: post #17

I first heard of Gab when big social media sites were accused of censoring conservatives during the 2016 election. One of the idea of Gab is if you don't like what people say you can block them and don't visit their profile... So for example many social networks banned Alex Jones... With Gab if you don't like what he says, you don't have to follow him... So instead of the site itself trying to censor people, the user…

Sure you can block specific users, but if I don't want to see (for example) anti-semitism how can I block that topic completely? It's not as if users tag their posts with each brand of hate speech.

I'm not sure if you block someone if it also hides their topics created by them but I would assume so. I know they have a way to block words too. I guess they call it mute users and words instead of block.

I know some people were calling this the alt tech space.

I haven't really been following it other than I remember the developer was interviewed talking about it. Another idea instead of verification badge being reserved for large celebrities, supposed to be more to show it's truly them.

I do think we're going down a slippery slope with all this censorship though and a few large players in Silicon valley controlling everything. I know there was a lot of accusations going on, that some search engines and sites were rigged to rank Hillary higher than Trump... Even the people in the media were saying Trump had no chance and Hillary was going to win. It's like they tried to rig the whole thing. But even then the mainstream media is all controlled by a few hands anyways too.

Then there are only really two main operating systems... On Mobile iOS and Android. Desktop Mac and Windows... So seems like more choices and freedom is a great thing, so power is spread out more instead of a few having large amounts of influence. However I also feel like people will pick things based on ease of use and features over being open. I like the ideas of Linux but I find myself using MacOs when it comes to desktop operating systems.

I know people are building alternatives to Facebook and YouTube on the blockchain (such as Steemit). Then there are even projects aiming to build alternatives to Wikipedia as some people don't even trust them either, forget what it's called though off the top of my head though. I know some of these companies have a lot of control and power, and can't even provide decent technical support.

I know Elizabeth Warren recent thing is talking about breaking up big tech, Google and Facebook... I like a lot of what Google does though, as a geek they are doing awesome things technically. I'm not sure if breaking them up is a good idea or not, but I think more competition and choices would be great as lack of tech support is a concern(and many recent HN posts on that topic already) and ideally I wish they'd be neutral in ranking things but I know people debate about that anyway as a whole other topic.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#74

Post by PhasmaFelis » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

api wrote: post #23

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #13

I had heard about Gab but never visited the site before. I just spent 30 seconds perusing the trending feed. I saw the following: 1. a video of a man being shot and killed during an armed robbery 2. 3 anti islam posts 3. the usual pro trump propaganda 4. a meme warning about the evils of feminism urging women to get back to their "place" in the family. Gab is a festering pile of trash. Anyone responsible for making a…

The flow of excrement on the Internet goes 4chan/8chan -> Reddit/Twitter -> Voat/Gab. It's analogous to anus -> toilet -> septic tank.

I'm...not sure what your analogy is trying to say. Only the chans create bad stuff, everyone else just reposts it?

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#75

Post by scohesc » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

phoe-krk wrote: post #32

javagram wrote: post #4

> “Moving to the ActivityPub protocol as our base allows us to get into mobile App Stores without even having to submit and get approval of our own apps, whether Apple and Google like it or not.“ The perils (or benefits?) of open protocols. Existing mastodon/pleroma clients will be able to connect to Gab by adding a server setting. Now I wonder if mastodon client app developers will start filtering the allowed server…

> Now I wonder if mastodon client app developers will start filtering the allowed servers users can put in... This is not the duty of client applications. Banning instances is the duty of the operators of individual instances, and the instance(s) on which you have your account(s) are the instance(s) whose blocking policy affects you. This is a feature. Most sane instances on the Fediverse already ban extremist and al…

I wouldn't say they're abusing the right to free speech, they're taking full advantage of it.

If you don't like what they're saying, you have every right to not listen to it, promote it yourself, and you also have the right to start a movement to let people know this is going on and to bring awareness to the festering shitpiles those websites are.

It's not an abuse of the right to free speech.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#76

Post by ryanmarsh » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

gargron wrote: post #8

Gab solicited $5M [1] in investments just to use open source software that anyone can use for free. Wonder how those investors feel about it. [1]: https://thinkprogress.org/social-network-that-caters-to-whit...

In spite of the fact that Gab is a known cess pool (cis pool?), I funded it because we need more alternatives to the big social networks. I would have funded Tor and 4chan had I the opportunity many years ago.

Not too long ago this was a classical liberal position. Today free speech is passé. Guess I'm just old fashioned.

I'm happy to see that Gab is switching to Mastodon. I think it will increase the survivability of the platform. They've struggled under the engineering challenges of scaling a social network. Mastodon fans should be happy that this may mean an influx of hosts and developers.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#77

Post by cannonedhamster » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

kristianc wrote: post #24

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #18

Oh, the Mastodon community is going to be ticked about this... Purism said Librem One's server wasn't going to police speech, and they were upset about it. Gab is a whole different level. I think ActivityPub has huge potential to be a way for communities of disparate views and perspectives to exist out there, and two distinct and very opposing groups have grasped onto it: People who want space spaces who don't think…

> People who want space spaces who don't think mainstream platforms moderate enough, and the alt-right and free speech crowd. I've never really understood the 'safe spaces' line of argument. I'm a 30 year old white male, and whenever I log onto YouTube I see nothing but recommendations trying to force me down the alt-right rabbit hole. Sure, Twitter has booted off a few high profile people on the alt right but I don'…

The persecution complex among predominantly white males right now is high because there's a significant social change occurring that is causing those who've been disadvantaged the same privileges that white males have enjoyed alone for much of recent human history. It's a natural human reaction to care more about loss than to see the potential upside. We've also seen this numerous times before. The rise of Nazism was the natural response to the harsh restrictions of WW1 which is why the Marshall plans included Germany in the rebuilding opportunities.

Many of those on the right address looking for power and utilize this gut reactionary response by those who feel disenfranchised for their own purposes. It's why fighting against a populist like President Trump with facts doesn't work. If reality don't fit the narrative, make a different reality. It's a very effective propaganda technique that usually requires an outside force to break. The US did something similar with the fight against communism and really had a hard time redefining Americanism once the Soviet Union collapsed. That's why the so called war on terror will never end. In order for America to be the good guys there needs to be bad people too. So in order for the alt-right to be the victim they either find villains on the left or they make them up. AOC is a perfect example of a toothless villain. She's a junior congresswomen with no real power, but she's constantly villainized far beyond the risk she poses to anyone on the right. Physically though she embodies the fears of white guys being replaced from their positions of power.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#78

Post by rhcom2 » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #28

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #13

I had heard about Gab but never visited the site before. I just spent 30 seconds perusing the trending feed. I saw the following: 1. a video of a man being shot and killed during an armed robbery 2. 3 anti islam posts 3. the usual pro trump propaganda 4. a meme warning about the evils of feminism urging women to get back to their "place" in the family. Gab is a festering pile of trash. Anyone responsible for making a…

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

It's not nearly cut and dry as this quote as defining what "right to say it" means in the age of the internet is a massive open question.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#79

Post by zzzcpan » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:35 PM UTC

travisoneill1 wrote: post #52

Most HN posts: HN users hate internet controlled and censored by governments or corporations This post: HN users hate it when things they don't like manage to get around corporate and government censorship

Different HN users in both cases. When comment section becomes unwelcome to the first group, they don't comment.

I always support Gab, nazis, child porn, piracy over censorship.

Re: Gab will become a Mastodon fork

#80

Post by PhasmaFelis » Thu, May 30, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #13

I had heard about Gab but never visited the site before. I just spent 30 seconds perusing the trending feed. I saw the following: 1. a video of a man being shot and killed during an armed robbery 2. 3 anti islam posts 3. the usual pro trump propaganda 4. a meme warning about the evils of feminism urging women to get back to their "place" in the family. Gab is a festering pile of trash. Anyone responsible for making a…

Every time someone sets out to create a completely unmoderated free speech platform, it immediately becomes an object lesson in why people moderate platforms.