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Subreply – An open source text-only social network

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Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#21

Post by latexr »

nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

> I am, in fact, pro free speech.

You can be pro free speech and still not condone hate speech, or libel, or doxxing, or a myriad of other problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

Free speech doesn’t mean you can say literally anything in literally any context. Not, not even in the “land of the free”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_Unite...

Additionally, XKCD reminds:

https://xkcd.com/1357/

> A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

I don’t think those people particularly care about free speech, they just want to be able to say whatever they want with no repercussions. The more of a “free speech absolutist” they claim to be, usually the worse they are. It’s a common pattern to see those same individuals clamour for free speech in one post and then in another call for banning books or try to silence someone else.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#22

Post by latexr »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #18
PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Gotta say that (1) images greatly improve engagement on things like Mastodon and Bluesky and (2) I have the most fun on those platforms sharing photos that I took.

I've never used Mastodon of Bluesky and I hate Twitter. I do feel pretty engaged with HN, and it is text-only. I'm not sure what makes "social media" different from a discussion board though, so I don't know whether HN counts. I do remember that github used to call itself social coding, which was one factor making me want to stay away from it.

HN has (or is missing, depending on your point of view) a number of features integral to (other?) social networks. Being text-only is one, but not having notifications for replies is a big one. Also no “boosts”, “reshares”, “follows”, “blocks”, …

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#23

Post by [deleted] »

nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

[deleted]

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#24

Post by latexr »

PaulHoule wrote: post #17
chistev wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are no images here

... and what I post to Mastodon/Bluesky is different from what I post to HN https://mastodon.social/@UP8 For instance, I post links to phys.org a lot more and I'm less likely to post a link to the paper because (1) Mastodon can't extract images out of the latter and (2) I get more replies like "this is over my head" from Mastodonsters whereas I think most of you might think you'd look stupid if you said something lik…

> I get more replies like "this is over my head" from Mastodonsters whereas I think most of you might think you'd look stupid if you said something like that.

Not sure that’s the reason. Or at least all of it. HN tends to value substantive posts and someone just saying “I don’t understand this” doesn’t add to the discussion and would likely be downvoted. On the other hand, I have seen people here say they don’t understand specific bits of a post. Those are actionable and advance the discussion, and tend to be upvoted and get replies.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#25

Post by givemeethekeys »

shayway wrote: post #20
nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

It's worth pointing out that the post in question was made in the past half hour amidst the wave of activity from HN. Not to say your point isn't valid, but I think this is more an example of trolls who will say anything and everything to cause anger and insult; it's not representative of those who believe in free speech, or the site itself for that matter.

Maybe it is a bot by other competing social networks.

Such trolling hurts new businesses a lot more than old ones.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#26

Post by averageRoyalty »

shayway wrote: post #20
nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

It's worth pointing out that the post in question was made in the past half hour amidst the wave of activity from HN. Not to say your point isn't valid, but I think this is more an example of trolls who will say anything and everything to cause anger and insult; it's not representative of those who believe in free speech, or the site itself for that matter.

But that example has played out on every social media website, forum, etc once hitting critical mass. It's a bigger problem in society yes, but it's not just trolls. Trolls are the least harmful of the groups of people who will scream racial epithets online.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#27

Post by mbirth »

PokemonNoGo wrote: post #8
mbirth wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, this reminds me of old Reddit where people resorted to imgur and other image hosts before they introduced their own photo upload feature.

Is that bad? Resorting to a dedicated party for rich content? I enjoyed reddit more when it was like that honestly. Business wise it is the wrong decision though.

It's bad in that the media is completely disconnected from the posts. If the media provider you chose goes down, nobody will be able to see the stuff you've posted anymore. If that subreply server you're using gets taken down, you'll have lots of orphaned stuff on that media upload website.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#28

Post by nine_k »

latexr wrote: post #21
nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

> I am, in fact, pro free speech. You can be pro free speech and still not condone hate speech, or libel, or doxxing, or a myriad of other problems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech Free speech doesn’t mean you can say literally anything in literally any context. Not, not even in the “land of the free”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_Unite... Additionally, XKCD reminds: https://…

> want to be able to say whatever they want with no repercussions

Rather, they want to be able to say anything to annoy people as much as possible, for the kicks.

Verily, it's important to be able to say annoying things: try speaking about atheism or a different religion in a devout crowd (capitalism among the "left", climate change among the "right", etc). But the intention is important. The intention of trolls is to enjoy other people's discomfort, not to voice an important idea.

Unfortunately, this is very hard to formalize.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#29

Post by throwaway81523 »

latexr wrote: post #22
throwaway81523 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used Mastodon of Bluesky and I hate Twitter. I do feel pretty engaged with HN, and it is text-only. I'm not sure what makes "social media" different from a discussion board though, so I don't know whether HN counts. I do remember that github used to call itself social coding, which was one factor making me want to stay away from it.

HN has (or is missing, depending on your point of view) a number of features integral to (other?) social networks. Being text-only is one, but not having notifications for replies is a big one. Also no “boosts”, “reshares”, “follows”, “blocks”, …

Yeah for Usenet I use gnus, which keeps track of which posts I have already seen. It doesn't have notifications and I don't miss them, as long as I can see right away where the new posts are. I don't know what reshares are. Gnus does have a way to ignore specific posters or topics and I do use that. Every time I mull the idea of writing another forum poster, I come back to the realization that Usenet already does everything needed (at least on the backend), and has done so since the 1980s. A better NNTP to web gateway is all it could really use, for those who want to read with browsers.

Re: Subreply – An open source text-only social network

#30

Post by giancarlostoro »

nathan_compton wrote: post #19

Two clicks into this and I say someone posting "Killing n** (free speech)" from a poster named "N*** killer". I am, in fact, pro free speech. But this is a bad look. I'm not even saying this is a problem with subreply. It is some other kind of problem. A problem with a subset of people who like free speech or something? I don't get it.

For some people if you can say the most extreme things, then you can say anything else, including things that are nowhere near as bad as this but are banned in other platforms.

I have admined what I consider free speech friendly communities in the past (think forums), people always join and ruin it for everyone else.

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