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The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

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Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#91

Post by Cloudef »

mrtksn wrote: post #46

Previously I objected to Musk's "Town Square" idea: >The whole feed based "internet town square" concept is flawed, if anyone have seen an actual European town square you would have noticed that it's nothing like Twitter or similar. In a good town square, you have people minding their own business and the public activities are actually curated(a few agendas that fit in the physical location) and people visit those if…

The actual authentic content is going outside and use internet only for work / entertainment.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#92

Post by AraceliHarker »

PaulHoule wrote: post #57

Something on my mind is how to build a non-toxic engagement model and I am finally getting a clear picture of how to do it. You can make a pretty good engagement model for Hacker News based on headlines by filtering for posts with > 10 votes and predicting the ratio of comments to votes. The trouble is that "high engagement" posts are frequently clickbait. I suspect that the trending toots on mastodon.social right no…

It is no secret that Japan already has a website called GIGAZINE that brazenly translates and monetizes stories from Hacker News, often without regard for copyright law. The site is a veritable smorgasbord of clickbait and ads, and it is a prime example of how the internet can be used to exploit intellectual property for profit.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#93

Post by Nuthen »

pif wrote: post #81
Enginerrrd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ugly truth of it is, just like there's a noticeable difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart (because of the annual fee at costco), there's just some people that are going to have an undesirable influence on your community. The temptation to try and rope in those extra users is often irresistible but to get them you have to tank your content to appeal to the lowest common denominator.…

> difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart Could someone please explain to me what is implied here? I've been to the USA only once, and I didn't visit neither a Costco nor a Walmart. The only difference I could point to between them, is that no "Costco people" phenomenon exists on YouTube. Sincere thanks in advance!

Costco requires a yearly membership, so I think they are implying that the incentive is different. Costco has a strong incentive for you to leave with a decent time there, and feeling like you got a good deal (mostly through buying items in bulk) so you'll continue to renew your membership year after year.

At Walmart they might organize the store to get you to buy candy at the checkout line, or have a lot of less-than-healty options to tempt you near the essentials, to maximize the profit in that way. Because you're not shopping at Walmart because you want to be.

Disclaimer: I haven't been to Costco at a long time. And they still try to get you in their own way with free samples you can find all over the store.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#94

Post by jtr1 »

pif wrote: post #81
Enginerrrd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ugly truth of it is, just like there's a noticeable difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart (because of the annual fee at costco), there's just some people that are going to have an undesirable influence on your community. The temptation to try and rope in those extra users is often irresistible but to get them you have to tank your content to appeal to the lowest common denominator.…

> difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart Could someone please explain to me what is implied here? I've been to the USA only once, and I didn't visit neither a Costco nor a Walmart. The only difference I could point to between them, is that no "Costco people" phenomenon exists on YouTube. Sincere thanks in advance!

They are implying that Costco's yearly membership fee filters out poor people, who shop at Walmart instead. They consider these people to be undesirable customers because people with money do not like to associate with them.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#95

Post by jjoonathan »

pif wrote: post #81
Enginerrrd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ugly truth of it is, just like there's a noticeable difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart (because of the annual fee at costco), there's just some people that are going to have an undesirable influence on your community. The temptation to try and rope in those extra users is often irresistible but to get them you have to tank your content to appeal to the lowest common denominator.…

> difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart Could someone please explain to me what is implied here? I've been to the USA only once, and I didn't visit neither a Costco nor a Walmart. The only difference I could point to between them, is that no "Costco people" phenomenon exists on YouTube. Sincere thanks in advance!

Costco rich, Walmart poor.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#96

Post by didgetmaster »

You don't have to wait long until the next story comes out about some famous person who commits suicide or hits rock bottom in some other way. The average person thinks 'why would they do that when they have so many friends?'.

The reality is that even though they might have thousands (or millions) who know their name or will act really excited to see them at their next cocktail party; they have no one to turn to in their real moment of need. They simply don't have deep, long lasting relationships with people who genuinely care about them. They are surrounded by 'suck-ups' who will tell them what they want to hear instead of having a real conversation with meaningful content. When they are in real trouble, all those 'friends' will abandon them at the drop of a hat.

The online world mimics that situation very well.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#97

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

bnralt wrote: post #68

One thing I’ve noticed is that the culture on Twitter now is quite different than it was a decade ago, and the platform has calcified. A decade ago the common adivce for how to connect with people - Tweet often, comment often, follow accounts - connected you with a lot of people, and you would often end up following each other. I started a new account recently (hadn’t used my old one in years), and doing so now got m…

> I started a new account recently (hadn’t used my old one in years), and doing so now got me just about zero attention. I got zero followers from comments, posts I made, following others, etc. It was like shouting in an empty room.

Same. I've run my own experiment by paying for a couple months, then letting the subscription lapse, and repeating. I've been through 3 cycles. My conclusion is that if you don't pay, you don't exist. I'm currently not paying, and I don't see doing so any more. Even if I do pay, I have no desire -- and nothing particular to leverage -- to build a serious "presence," so I will always be just another nobody spitting in the wind.

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#98

Post by TehShrike »

pif wrote: post #81
Enginerrrd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the ugly truth of it is, just like there's a noticeable difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart (because of the annual fee at costco), there's just some people that are going to have an undesirable influence on your community. The temptation to try and rope in those extra users is often irresistible but to get them you have to tank your content to appeal to the lowest common denominator.…

> difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart Could someone please explain to me what is implied here? I've been to the USA only once, and I didn't visit neither a Costco nor a Walmart. The only difference I could point to between them, is that no "Costco people" phenomenon exists on YouTube. Sincere thanks in advance!

If there's a stereotype of costco customers, it's probably "middle-aged dads stoked about the fact that they can get a deal on good bulk food and quality products like socks".

(https://www.costco.com/kirkland-signature-men's-merino-wool-... btw)

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#99

Post by mrtksn »

Cloudef wrote: post #91
mrtksn wrote: post #46

Previously I objected to Musk's "Town Square" idea: >The whole feed based "internet town square" concept is flawed, if anyone have seen an actual European town square you would have noticed that it's nothing like Twitter or similar. In a good town square, you have people minding their own business and the public activities are actually curated(a few agendas that fit in the physical location) and people visit those if…

The actual authentic content is going outside and use internet only for work / entertainment.

Is that true?

Re: The slow death of authenticity in an attention economy

#100

Post by jjoonathan »

jtr1 wrote: post #94
pif wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> difference between shopping at costco and shopping at walmart Could someone please explain to me what is implied here? I've been to the USA only once, and I didn't visit neither a Costco nor a Walmart. The only difference I could point to between them, is that no "Costco people" phenomenon exists on YouTube. Sincere thanks in advance!

They are implying that Costco's yearly membership fee filters out poor people, who shop at Walmart instead. They consider these people to be undesirable customers because people with money do not like to associate with them.

It's not the fee so much as the focus on bulk that selects for big fridges/pantries/houses/cars/families.
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