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Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

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Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#301

Post by mmcwilliams »

ditonal wrote: post #260
hnbad wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose "cheese pizza" refers to CSAM? FWIW I think it's a sign of intellectual dishonesty to complain vaguely about censorship of "widely held beliefs" without stating what those beliefs are. All social networks have "ground rules", they're just not always the same. For any social network that somehow can be pinned to someone's physical identity, those rules will at least include the laws of that person's jurisdic…

I can provide two specific examples of "widely held beliefs" that have been mass-banned on Reddit. I also want to note I don't endorse or subscribe to either of these beliefs but I felt neither were deserving of a ban and I was open-minded to hear arguments in their direction. 1) Reddit banned /r/NoNewNormal and "Covid misinformation" after activist moderators started shutting off subreddits. I personally got a Covid…

In the case of both of the topics you listed, there are still plenty of places online you can go to entertain your curiosity about those views. What I don't understand is the assumption that a corporate product should be compelled to host discussions it deems inappropriate in either topic, tone or corresponding action by users.

Through what mechanism do you believe website owners should be forced to allow users to operate by their own terms? Should anyone who hosts a comment section on a personal website be forced to keep all posted comments in perpetuity?

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#302

Post by namaria »

chao- wrote: post #278
namaria wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Civilization is fast becoming a casino. Housing is increasingly expensive, most offers are some money-for-dopamine deal. Social media is a never ending row of slot machines. We keep betting small chunks of attention that we will have a mythical pay-off (fame, love, glory), and most just waste away pressing the buttons and looking at the colors change for ever.

In what way does something becoming expensive (in this case housing) make it like a casino? And what would be a flip-side for that metaphor ("housing prices are remaining where they are, which is like {{thing}}")? Not disagreeing you, just unable to follow the connection you are making.

Housing used to be about acquiring acceptable shelter. Now it's more like paying high fees for temporary arrangements... Civilization should be about diverse spaces people can build together but lately it's more like living in a planet size casino with a dumpster fire out back...

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#303

Post by mym1990 »

totemandtoken wrote: post #299
mym1990 wrote: post #83

What if, and hear me out: we ditch the idea of a better replacement social network and just ditch the concept in general? Let’s go back to not being bombarded by ads every 3rd post, to not getting lost in massive echo chambers, to not doom scrolling for 20-40% of our waking hours, being locked into mega platforms, etc... Is the proposition of “being more connected” really worth the downsides?

I hear arguments like this all the time, and it bothers me that such arguments miss that there is something that people like about social media - connecting with people. It clearly is worth it and that's been around since the beginning of the internet in some shape or form be it IRC, forums, usenet, whatever. There's innovations that constitute as modern "social media," like the feed or social search, but the core no…

There is something people like about cocaine as well, but it doesn't mean it should be prevalent in society. You know what a good way to connect with people is? To go out and talk to them. Join a club, chat with a coworker about something more than the morning standup, text or call a friend you haven't talked to in a while. I would be incredibly surprised if the majority of users see dramatic upticks in connectedness while engaging with FB/IG/Twitter.

I love the concept of forums and little communities here and there, hell even the little post count and quirky username colors based on seniority meant something to me in those days. But as soon as those things are turned into mega money making machines, the incentives are no longer with the users.

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#304

Post by Awelton »

I don't care what facebook is selling, I am not buying. Like every other big tech company they have been "building" all kinds of things, but haven't actually BUILT anything for years. The only two things they seem to be able to do at this point are stagnate or buy something someone else built.

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#305

Post by mym1990 »

JohnFen wrote: post #202
mym1990 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the difference is that 1) you pay for hotels and you know exactly what the cost is 2) hotels provide a tangible benefit, mostly being the bed to sleep in. Social media often has this idea that it is “free” and so people don’t think about the massive amounts of time and privacy that is given up as the hours whizz by.

Hotels where you don't pay rent, in exchange for the hotel recording everything you do in the room, in the lobby, and if you aren't careful, putting a GPS tracker on your person.

Add to this: every 5 feet you walk you have to watch a 5 second ad.

I would actually not be surprised if that is a model in the future for hotels...

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#306

Post by JustSomeNobody »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #130
mym1990 wrote: post #83

What if, and hear me out: we ditch the idea of a better replacement social network and just ditch the concept in general? Let’s go back to not being bombarded by ads every 3rd post, to not getting lost in massive echo chambers, to not doom scrolling for 20-40% of our waking hours, being locked into mega platforms, etc... Is the proposition of “being more connected” really worth the downsides?

You do realize that social networks are optional ? No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use them.

When even local governments use social networks to dispense information, no, no they're not.

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#307

Post by bhupy »

Zetice wrote: post #295
bhupy wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, and with blocklists / opt-in moderation, whatever system that is would do a similarly great job. With email, you can manually block wherever anything falls through the cracks, and that's effectively what your parent commenter is proposing. I don't think anyone thinks that having to manually block every single person from scratch is a sustainable equilibrium.

Oh I read it as "I only want to block people manually". For sure if there are existing "moderation" tools in place to clear spam and wildly offensive material then yeah manually blocking the rest seems... mostly fine? I guess the problem arises when we talk about what "wildly offensive" means. Deadnaming people and trying to claim there is no racial inequality in the American criminal justice system are two "wildly o…

I like your examples a lot, because they illustrate the challenges well.

“there is no racial inequality in the American criminal justice system” is not particularly offensive to me; even if I may disagree, I’m still interested in commentary. Ditto deadnaming, it isn’t a dealbreaker for me, especially if it’s done within a post that is making some greater point that I find to be insightful.

In an ideal setup, there would be an off the shelf moderation blacklist that caters to your needs, and another off the shelf moderation blacklist that caters to mine (both updated on an ongoing basis), and neither of us have to do anything manually to get the experience we both separately desire. Pluggable spam filter algorithms, if you will.

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#308

Post by figlett4 »

ROTMetro wrote: post #211
nonethewiser wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will get banned on Reddit if you say trans women aren’t real women. They call it promoting hate towards a marginalized group. You may be sympathetic towards that so think twice before moving the goalpost.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#309

Post by mym1990 »

karaterobot wrote: post #189
mym1990 wrote: post #83

What if, and hear me out: we ditch the idea of a better replacement social network and just ditch the concept in general? Let’s go back to not being bombarded by ads every 3rd post, to not getting lost in massive echo chambers, to not doom scrolling for 20-40% of our waking hours, being locked into mega platforms, etc... Is the proposition of “being more connected” really worth the downsides?

> Is the proposition of “being more connected” really worth the downsides? And 'proposition' is the right word to use, since its really just the promise of social networks that people like. In practice it has not worked as a means of connecting people to each other. Certainly not better than the alternatives it replaced. We should call the experiment a failure. I'm all for getting rid of social networks, especially g…

The crazy thing is that I can find people right now on the other side of the world and probably make some great connections and share stories, learn about cultures, etc...

It just doesn't happen.

Re: Meta is building a decentralized, text-based social network

#310

Post by figlett4 »

turnsout wrote: post #159
nonethewiser wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will get banned on Reddit if you say trans women aren’t real women. They call it promoting hate towards a marginalized group. You may be sympathetic towards that so think twice before moving the goalpost.

The goalpost is always moving—it's called the Overton window. And whether you like it or not, the window is not moving in your direction on this issue.

[flagged]
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